The pitch deck was perfect and the results were invisible
A D2C (direct-to-consumer) beauty brand from Mumbai hired an agency in late 2023. The agency had big names on its client list and a sleek office in BKC. The pitch was immaculate, with market analysis, competitor positioning, channel strategy and an 18-month roadmap. The monthly fees were high.
After three months, the founder called me (off the record).
“The pitch was better than the work. We don’t know what we’re actually paying for. We’re not seeing results. And every time we ask for clarity, they send a deck instead of answering the question.”
She had hired the wrong agency because she had asked the wrong questions during selection.
This article is about the right questions to ask, the ones that show whether an agency will deliver for your business.
What an agency does, and what it doesn’t
Here’s the confusion most businesses have: they think an agency brings ideas.
In fact, an agency executes your strategy, and hopefully executes it well. The strategy itself should come from you.
If you walk into an agency saying “we want to grow but don’t know how,” a good agency will dig. They’ll ask about your business, your customers, your margins, your competitive situation. Then they’ll recommend a strategy.
A bad agency will try to convince you that they know what you need. They’ll talk about “digital transformation” and “integrated omnichannel campaigns” and you’ll get confused and just say yes.
An agency is a tool, and an expensive one. The strategy is yours and they execute it.
Keep this in mind when you compare agencies.
The questions that matter
“What’s your process?” is a useless question, because every agency says its process is “strategic, data-driven and creative.”
Ask these instead:
1. Walk me through a project you did. Specifically.
Don’t let them slide into generalities. Pick one project. Ask: “What was the goal? What did you do in month one? What didn’t work? How did you fix it? What was the actual ROI?”
If they can’t give specific numbers, that’s a red flag.
If the project looks like a deck, with a beautiful pitch, unclear execution and vague results, that’s a red flag.
2. How do you measure success for our specific business?
They shouldn’t have a canned answer. They should ask you first: “What does success look like for you? More leads? More revenue? Better brand awareness? A different mix of customers?”
Then they should tie their work to that. “We’ll track X because that indicates progress toward your Y goal.”
If they jump straight to “we track CTR, ROAS (return on ad spend), brand lift, engagement” without understanding what matters for your business, that process won’t work for you.
3. How will we stay aligned, and how often will we talk?
Once a month? Once a week? Who talks to whom?
Good agencies we know do weekly syncs: 30 minutes, no nonsense, “what happened, what’s broken, what’s next.”
Agencies that talk to clients only once a month may be avoiding scrutiny.
4. What happens if results aren’t meeting goals?
Listen carefully to this answer.
Good agencies will say: “We pivot. We dig into the data. We find what’s broken and fix it. We might need to adjust the strategy, or we might just improve execution.”
Bad agencies will say: “Well, that usually means the market conditions, or the product wasn’t ready, or…” That is a lot of external blame.
If results are bad and the agency immediately blames everything except itself, that is not a partnership.
5. How many other clients are in my industry/size/budget range?
Some diversity is healthy, because they learn across industries. But if they have 50 other e-commerce clients and you’re a B2B manufacturer, they don’t really understand your specific challenges.
If they have no one in your space, they’ll be learning on your dime.
Red flags to watch for
- “We can guarantee 10x ROI in six months.” No agency can promise that responsibly. Walk away.
- “We only charge a percentage of media spend, no fixed fee.” This gives the agency a reason to push you to spend more, whatever the ROI. A mix is better: a fixed base fee plus a performance bonus if results beat targets.
- “We manage everything, don’t worry about it.” You should worry, and you should understand what’s happening. If an agency wants you completely hands-off, it may be hiding poor execution behind jargon.
- “Our case studies are all with MNCs and Fortune 500 companies.” That’s fine, but can they handle your size? An agency built for Rs 2 crore campaigns might be clumsy with Rs 20 lakh campaigns. Ask if they work with companies your size.
- “We specialise in [one thing only]: SEO” (search engine optimisation) or “paid ads” or “social media.” Specialists are great if that is your only need, but most Indian businesses need several channels working together. If your agency can only do one thing, you may end up stitching together three agencies and paying more for poor integration.
- “We’re an award-winning agency.” Awards reward creativity, and results matter more. Ask about their average client ROI instead of their Cannes Lions count.
- They can’t name clients. Every agency wants to protect client confidentiality, but they should have at least 3-4 clients they can name publicly. If they have none, something is off.
Integrated vs. specialist agencies, and why the answer isn’t obvious
Your situation: you need SEO, Google Ads, and brand strategy.
Option 1: hire three specialists, which means an SEO agency, a performance marketing agency and a branding agency.
Option 2: hire one integrated agency that does all three.
Specialists go very deep. An SEO-only agency might be very strong at technical SEO and link building, but it may not know how your Google Ads strategy affects your keyword choices, or how brand positioning influences the keywords worth targeting.
Integrated agencies see the connections. Brand strategy informs SEO keywords and ad copy, and performance marketing data informs content strategy. It works as one system.
The trade-off is that an integrated agency might not go as deep on SEO as a pure SEO specialist. The coordination and efficiency gains usually outweigh that.
For most mid-sized Indian businesses, an integrated agency is the better choice. You’re probably not big enough to manage three agencies, and you need someone who sees how everything connects.
The cost conversation, and why a fixed fee is probably wrong
Agencies charge three ways:
Percentage of media spend: “15% of what you spend on ads.” Incentivises the agency to get you to spend more, which is a poor fit for you.
Fixed monthly fee: “Rs 2 lakhs a month.” Easy to budget. But then what happens if you add a new product line that requires 2x the work? The agency either does it for the same fee (bad for them, they’ll deprioritise you) or asks for more (awkward conversation).
Mixed (fixed base plus performance bonus): “Rs 1.5 lakhs base + 10% of revenue lift above target.” This lines up incentives: the agency makes more if you make more.
Or: retainer + project basis. “Rs 50,000/month for ongoing management, plus Rs 30,000 per special project like website redesign.”
Good agencies often use mixed models. The base lets them invest in you, and the bonus gives them a reason to deliver results.
If an agency quotes you a flat monthly fee without asking about your goals or budget, they are guessing instead of pricing on value. That is risky for both of you.
Onboarding: when you find out what you bought
The first month with an agency shows you what you bought.
Good agencies spend week one understanding your business before doing any work. They will audit your current situation, map how customers find and buy from you, and identify opportunities.
By week two, they’ll present findings. “Here’s what we found. Here’s what we recommend. Here’s the 90-day plan.”
Bad agencies spend week one doing work they planned in the pitch. They haven’t learned anything new about you, but they look productive.
Bad onboarding shows that the agency didn’t understand your business during the pitch. You’re two weeks in and they’re asking questions you answered before you hired them.
If that happens, escalate immediately. Something’s not aligned.
When to fire an agency (and do it fast)
Many agencies ask for a contract of 3-6 months minimum, but you don’t have to stay if things are clearly broken.
Trigger points to exit:
They can’t explain what they’re doing and why. Ever ask “why did you do that?” and get back a non-answer? That’s a problem.
Results are flat after 3 months and they don’t have a clear pivot. Some flatness is normal, but if they’re not investigating and adjusting, they’re just running the original plan and hoping it works. That is not a partnership.
Communication drops off. They go from weekly calls to monthly emails. That usually means they’ve deprioritised you internally.
You realise the strategy doesn’t actually fit your business. They promised “growth” but didn’t define what growth means for you. Now three months in, you’re measuring different metrics than they are.
If any of these happen, address it directly and give them a chance to fix it. If they don’t, move on. Three months of wrong work is worse than no work.
Need a conversation with an agency that explains itself?
We spend the first month understanding your business before we execute anything. You get a plan, not a pitch deck pretending to be strategy.
