Why this matters

The wrong marketing agency relationship can burn 18-36 months of your business’s growth. The right one becomes a multi-year partnership that compounds. The difference is mostly identifiable before you sign — if you know what to ask.

The twelve questions to ask

  1. Who specifically will do the work? Names, locations, roles. If the answer involves "our team" without specifics, dig deeper.
  2. What percentage of your delivery is outsourced or offshore? Honest answers vary, but vagueness is a red flag.
  3. Can I talk to three current clients before signing? Real agencies say yes. Sales-organization agencies make excuses.
  4. What does your average client month-2 retention look like? Bad agencies have a huge drop after the first build is complete.
  5. Do you build sites in-house or partner? Affects quality control significantly.
  6. Show me a recent client’s Google Analytics or Search Console. If they cannot, they do not have access to their own clients’ data.
  7. What happens if I cancel after 30 days? Fair-cancellation policy is a good signal; lock-in is not.
  8. Who owns the website if I leave? Should be you, no exceptions.
  9. How is conversion tracking set up? If they cannot explain GA4 and Google Ads conversion import, they cannot manage your campaigns well.
  10. What is your approach to accessibility / ADA? California and Nevada businesses especially: this matters.
  11. How do you handle ad budget transparency? Ad spend should be billed directly by Google, not pooled through the agency.
  12. What does your monthly invoice look like? Should be clear, not bundled in ways that hide actual costs.

Six red flags that mean walk away

  1. Vague answers about who does the work.
  2. Multi-year contracts with no exit clause.
  3. "We bill you for the ad spend" (instead of Google billing you directly).
  4. "You don’t need to see the analytics dashboard."
  5. "We can’t share other client results due to confidentiality" (when you’re asking for general patterns, not names).
  6. Pressure to sign fast with a "limited-time discount."

The contracts to refuse

Multi-year agreements with auto-renewal and no fair-cancellation. Setup fees that exceed the realistic build cost. Termination fees beyond unused ad spend. Anything that puts ownership of your domain or content in the agency’s name.

The contracts to accept

12-month initial term with month-to-month after. Transparent setup fees. Clear pricing schedule with no surprise add-ons. Ad spend billed directly to your card by Google. Explicit ownership of domain, content, and source code by you.

Apply this to YelloPost AI

If you are evaluating us, run these questions on us. The answers are honest and we encourage you to verify them by calling any of our case study clients directly. Book a 15-min demo if you want to start that conversation.

Ready to apply this?

This is the playbook we run on every YelloPost AI build.

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