Learn · How-To

How to Brief and Evaluate a Performance Marketing Agency

Most agency pitches are compared on the wrong things: the deck, the case studies, the monthly fee. The differences that decide whether a paid media programme works are quieter, and they can all be tested before you sign anything. This checklist is written for the buyer. It assumes you run a B2B business in South Africa, you have a sales process and a CRM of some kind, and you want to know in advance how you will tell whether an agency is doing its job. Use it as the brief you send, and as the list you hold their answers against.

1. 1

   Write the business outcome before you talk to anyone

   State what you want in commercial terms: qualified enquiries per month at a cost you can afford, or a target for pipeline from paid channels. Add what you currently get, even roughly. An agency briefed with "more leads" will optimise whatever is easiest to count. An agency briefed with an outcome can be held to it.

2. 2

   Ask each agency to define a lead in writing

   Put the question directly: what will you count as a lead, and who signs that off? A credible answer involves your sales team, not just a form submission, and acknowledges that the definition may change after the first month. If the answer is "a conversion in Google Ads", you have learned how they will report.

3. 3

   Insist the accounts are in your name

   Your Google Ads account, Analytics property, Tag Manager container and Meta business account should belong to your company, with the agency added as a user. Ask what happens to the accounts, the data and the conversion history if you leave. An agency that holds the accounts in its own name controls your history, and moving it later is slow and sometimes impossible.

4. 4

   Require a tracking audit as phase one

   Before any budget moves, ask for a written review of how conversions are counted: which actions exist, which are primary, whether anything is counted twice, whether consent behaves as documented. Ask what the deliverable looks like. A short note that says what is broken and what cannot be determined is worth more than a confident dashboard built on unchecked numbers.

5. 5

   Ask to see a sample report, and read the first page

   Request a real report, with client details removed. Look at what leads it: cost per qualified lead and pipeline contribution, or impressions, clicks and platform conversions. Ask how the platform's count is reconciled against your CRM and what the agency does when the two disagree. Reporting that never shows a disagreement has either never looked or never told anyone.

6. 6

   Ask what months one to three actually contain

   A sensible answer is audit and baseline in month one, controlled changes and tests in month two, a first honest read in month three, with decisions about budget made on evidence. Be wary of a plan that is full spend from day one. Ask about the contract length and notice period, and what happens if you stop at three months.

7. 7

   Listen for what they refuse to promise

   No credible agency guarantees rankings, lead volumes or a return on ad spend, because nobody controls the auction or the platforms. Ask directly: what can you not tell me? Ads can now appear in AI Overviews, Google's help page says you cannot target that placement on its own or opt out of it specifically, and the reporting does not separate it. (Google's list of countries where this is running does not currently include South Africa; the limits apply wherever it does run.) An agency that says so plainly is one that reads the data.

8. 8

   Check the data, access and consent basics

   Ask who will have access to your CRM data, where it is stored, and how it is sent to ad platforms. In South Africa the Protection of Personal Information Act applies to how customer data is processed; what that means for your tracking is a question for your own legal adviser. Ask the agency how they handle consent, and whether the answer sounds considered or improvised.