How do you know if a marketing agency is actually working?
Social media agencies often lean on excuses and demand patience when results stall, leaving small business owners unable to verify if their payment is delivering real value. This ambiguity makes it hard to distinguish legitimate experts from those who simply collect fees before moving on to the next client.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Running ads independently to test how difficult it is
- 2Hiring a content creator for tangible deliverables like photos and videos instead of hiring an agency
- 3Asking for case studies or references
- 4Running small pilot projects with agencies
- 5Demanding specific performance metrics before entering discussions
- 6Handling ad spend and product feeds independently through self-service platform tools
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“why are agencies often hesitant to share even general numbers around conversion rates, costs, or typical results?”source ↗
“What numbers do you usually ask an agency for before deciding to work with them?”source ↗
“Our agency manages our google and meta spend, helps us administer our product feeds, etc.”source ↗
“But my sense is that the ad platforms are increasingly self-service or, depending on your perspective, ai-driven black boxes.”source ↗
“We like our agency but the fees feel increasingly unjustifiable.”source ↗
“I'm not really sure how to take some if these social media marketers seriously.”source ↗
“My real honest question, what does real experts provide.”source ↗
“If you don't see results, they can make excuses, ask for patience and whatever, until you finally fire them and they move on to someone else.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Are social media marketing tools actually good enough for professional use?
- 4Why does scaling ad spend stop working and burn money?
- 2Why does posting daily on social media not bring in customers?
- 2Can AI actually replace human market research agencies?
- 4Is my financial advisor's pitch a scam?
- 2Does running a sale actually improve your marketplace search rank?