Holding an agency to its promises: a 90-day checklist
Most tradespeople judge an agency by feel: the phone seems busier, or it does not. Ninety days is long enough to know whether an agency is doing what it said, provided you wrote down what it said. This checklist sets out what to record before you start and what should have happened at each of three checkpoints.
Before day one: write down the promise
An agency's promise is scattered across its homepage, its proposal, a phone call and a few emails. Before any money changes hands, gather it onto one page. Not what you hope will happen; what the agency said would.
Record the deliverables with dates, the metric the agency says it will be judged on, the price including any ad spend, and what you keep if you leave. If the agency has a guarantee, copy the exact wording and note what triggers it. ServiceLeads, for example, guarantees an agreed number of qualified homeowner enquiries within 30 days or no management fee; the number should be on your page, not in the agency's head.
Then record your own baseline. How many enquiries a week do you get now, from where? Where does your business appear in the Google map pack for your main service and town? How many Google reviews do you have? Without this, you will be comparing day 90 to a memory.
- Deliverables and the date each is due
- The one metric the agency says it should be judged on
- Total monthly cost: fee plus ad spend plus any tools
- Guarantee wording, if any, and what triggers it
- What you own on exit: site, domain, Google Business Profile, ad account, CRM data
- Your baseline: enquiries per week, map pack position, review count, website traffic if you have it
Day 30: does the thing exist?
The first month is about delivery, not results. If the agency sold a website, is it live, on your domain, with your services and areas on separate pages? If it sold Google Business Profile work, has your listing been claimed, filled in and had posts or photos added? If it sold ads, are they running, and can you see them?
Timelines vary by agency and should match what you wrote down. Lead Wave says campaigns are typically live within an hour. Grow My Trade aims to be live within 21 days. Agass Marketing Solutions produces a website draft within 48 hours. A local SEO agency may reasonably say that month one is foundations and nothing visible has moved yet. All of these are fine, so long as they match what you were told.
Check ownership now, not later. Log in to the domain registrar, the Google Business Profile and the ad account. If you cannot, ask why. Fixing this in month one is a conversation; fixing it in month twelve is a dispute.
| If the agency sold | By day 30 you should see |
|---|---|
| A website | Live on your domain, service and area pages, phone number tappable on mobile, you have admin access |
| Google Business Profile work | Listing claimed under your account, categories and services complete, review link in use |
| Paid ads | Campaigns live, you can view the account, first leads recorded with source |
| Local SEO | Technical fixes listed, citations started, a written plan for months two and three |
| Review automation | Requests going to recent customers, at least a few new reviews |
| Missed-call text-back | Tested by you from another phone, text arrives within a minute |
Day 60: is anything moving?
Month two is where channels diverge. Paid advertising should be producing leads by now, and the agency should be able to show you cost per lead and, with your input, how many turned into quotes. If an ads agency has nothing to show at day 60, the guarantee period has passed and you should be asking hard questions.
SEO is slower, and honest SEO agencies say so. Trustmark Trades explicitly avoids guaranteeing rankings or call volume. Leads 4 Local aims for top-three Google Maps positions within months, plural. At day 60 you should see movement rather than arrival: more pages indexed, map pack position improved for at least some searches, reviews climbing. If the agency reports only on 'work done' with no measurable change, note it.
This is also the month to check the metric. If the agency said it would report on booked jobs, as Roofing SEO Services and Local Leads Accelerator do, has it asked you which leads became jobs? If it has not, its booked-job figure is a guess, and so is its promise.
Day 90: did it do what it said?
Three months in, compare the page you wrote before day one with what exists. Every deliverable should be done or have a stated reason and a new date. The metric should be reported in the agency's own numbers and checked against yours. The cost should match.
Then do the arithmetic that only you can do. Take the total you have paid, including ad spend, and divide by the jobs you booked from the agency's work. In a worked example, £450 a month in fees and £600 in ads over three months is £3,150. If that produced nine booked jobs, the cost per job is £350. Whether that is good depends on your average job value and margin, and only you know those. A roofer averaging £4,000 a job will be delighted. A handyman averaging £150 will not.
Be fair about timing. Local SEO at 90 days is rarely at full effect, and an agency that has done the foundations well deserves another quarter. Paid ads at 90 days have had every chance.
The conversation at 90 days
Send the agency your one-page comparison before the call, so nobody is surprised. Ask three questions: what did you promise that has not happened, and why; what does the next 90 days look like with dates; and what do you need from me that you have not had.
The third question matters because some of the shortfall may be yours. Leads not called back, photos not sent, review requests not approved. An honest agency will tell you; a defensive one will blame you for everything. The truth is usually in between, and our piece on why tradespeople switch agencies sets out how often the client's half is the problem.
Signs to act on, and signs to ignore
Act on: deliverables missing with no new date, no access to your own assets, a metric that changed from the one you were sold, invoices that do not match the quote, and reports that describe activity but never a number you can check.
Ignore: a slow month in the middle of the quarter, rankings that wobble week to week, and a cost per lead that is higher than a case study promised. Case studies describe the best clients, as we set out in how to read an agency case study. Your business is the average client until proven otherwise.
If you decide to leave, you have already done the hard part by checking ownership at day 30. If you decide to stay, write the next 90-day page the same evening, while the call is fresh.
The checklist in one place
- Day 0: one page recording promises, metric, price, exit terms and your baseline
- Day 30: every deliverable exists or has a reason; you hold the logins; automation tested
- Day 60: ads producing measurable leads; SEO showing movement; booked-job data being collected
- Day 90: side-by-side comparison; cost per booked job calculated; three questions asked
- Decision: stay with a new dated page, or leave with your assets
Frequently asked questions
Is 90 days long enough to judge a marketing agency?
For paid advertising, yes. For local SEO, 90 days shows whether the foundations are in place and whether anything is moving, but full results usually take longer. Judge SEO on progress at 90 days and results at six months.
What should I do if the agency has not delivered by day 30?
Ask for a reason and a new date in writing. One slip is normal; a pattern is not. Use the delay to confirm you have access to your domain, Google Business Profile and any ad account.
How do I calculate cost per booked job?
Add everything you paid over the period, including agency fees and ad spend, and divide by the number of jobs you can trace to the agency's work. Compare the result to your average job value and margin.
What if the agency changes the metric it reports on?
Treat it as a warning. If you were sold booked jobs and are now shown impressions, ask directly why the original measure is missing from the report.