As the founder of a DTC-focused performance marketing and CRO agency, Y'all, I’ve participated in my fair share of pitches. Most follow the same structure: introductions for the new folks in the room, a walkthrough of a deck the agency has put together covering capabilities, methodology, and hand-picked case studies, then finally a Q&A at the end. The thing is… any agency worth their weight in salt can nail that pitch. So how do you evaluate whether they are actually going to help your business?
For pitches, we come prepared to answer standard questions, from “What platforms do you recommend?” to “How fast will we see results“ and of course, “What are your fees?” These are all important questions, but I guarantee that the agency had those answers prepped and ready to go, refined over the years to sound as confident and reassuring as possible.
I’ve put together a list of seven questions that you should ask the agencies pitching you. They’ll give you valuable information about how the accounts will be run and could catch the agency off-guard– that’s where the real answers happen.
Don’t take job titles as an answer, get names. Engagements always go better if the people doing the work have a relationship with the client. That isn’t to say account executives are always bad, but relying on communicating through what often ends up being a junior employee is not going to get you good results. And the more they know you, the harder they will work for you to succeed.
Who will be doing the media buying? How do they interact with the creative strategist? Does the CRO interface with buying and strategy? Understanding these dynamics will tell you a lot about how an agency works.
If you do work with them, will you be their smallest client or their largest? This information isn’t inherently good or bad; but it is a critical data point.
If you’d be their smallest client, ensure you get a sense that they will put the time in you deserve. I’ve seen many agencies blow off their smaller clients in favor of the cash cows.
On the other hand, if you’d be their biggest client to date, ensure they can handle the work that will come with your account. Ask them to explain why they feel confident they can execute on the scope.
I was asked this recently during a pitch my agency was doing for a DTC brand. It caught me off guard—we don’t use much AI in our work (there are few things worse than the current state of AI-generated ad copy), but it makes sense that it is on people’s minds.
I’ve found that AI-generated copy, images, and campaigns leave a lot to be desired. They miss out on a lot of the nuance required to turn good into great. Mediocre in digital marketing means losing money.
Does that mean there is no place for using AI? Not at all. For things that don’t require a human touch such as analyzing data, organizing information, and creative exploration it can be amazing. People buy from brands that they connect with on a personal level. If you’re not very careful, AI can easily strip the humanity from your messaging.
Find out how the agency is using AI now (and press them on it if they try to get out of answering) and how they anticipate using it in the future as it evolves.
My background in CRO certainly reinforces my enthusiasm about this question– I’ve seen first hand how critical conversion rate optimization is to pretty much every aspect of DTC businesses.
The agency doesn’t need to specialize in CRO, but an understanding of how performance and retention marketing are impacted by conversion rate is an absolute must.
Pay close attention to what they consider CRO. If they only mention landing pages, take note. Conversion rate optimization is a complex field with many different components– including yes, landing pages, but also message testing, offer testing, and more.
An agency that says they can do everything is lying.
Unless they’re one of the industry giants, most shops only choose to specialize in a few areas – which is a good thing!
You should seek out expertise when hiring an agency. Note the number of services offered, as it relates to the number of team members they have.
Do they claim they can do web development, performance marketing, retention marketing, and conveniently, everything else you listed as part of the scope? With their four team members? Unlikely.
This is an easy one. If their answer is anything other than an acknowledgment that objective-setting conversations with your brand need to happen first, that’s a red flag. Success metrics should be specific to where a DTC brand is in its growth.
Every brand is different and rarely, if ever, can KPIs be determined without collaboration between agency and brand. A thoughtful agency will know that ROAS isn’t always the best north star. It can be! But for example, when launching a new brand or product, there is a chance that new customer acquisition cost is going to be more immediately relevant than a simple metric like ROAS.
I don’t care how incredible an agency is, there is no such thing as flawless digital marketing. Things will go wrong, theories will be disproven, tests will flop, and goals will be missed.
What makes a great agency is the ability to learn from each and every mistake. Insights garnered can be passed on to other departments so that mistakes are never repeated twice. A failed ad may reveal nuggets of information that retention can utilize in emails, or UGC can integrate into their next creator brief.
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See how asking these questions goes the next time you interview an agency. If you’ve already got an agency that you like and are working with, ask them too! These are not meant to, and shouldn’t, come off as anything other than outlets to learn more about the people you’re working with and how they approach the practice of performance marketing.
If you have questions that you make sure to ask agencies during the interview process, shoot them over to me at travis@yall.co. I’m always interested in what brands are looking for when hiring for performance marketing. Those insights are what allows my team, and every other agency out there, to improve and deliver a better service to our clients.
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