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Guide · Buying marketing
The questions to ask, the red flags to spot and a fair way to score the shortlist. Who this is for: Owners about to hire a marketing agency in India.
Start with your business goal, not the agency's service list. Shortlist three or four agencies with experience of a similar buying cycle, ask each to diagnose your situation, meet the people who will actually do the work, insist that you own every ad account and all your data, and score every proposal against the same criteria.
PromotEdge answers these questions in the first meeting, with numbers, so you can score it against any other agency on the same sheet.
Whether you are choosing an advertising agency or a marketing company, the method is the same. Agency websites in India look remarkably alike. Almost everyone offers strategy, creative, digital and results. The real differences show up in three places: the questions an agency asks before it proposes anything, the people who run your account after the pitch, and the contract.
This guide sets out a framework you can use whichever agency you choose, including if it is not us. It works for a single channel, such as SEO or performance marketing, and for a full integrated retainer.
The number marketing has to move this year, such as qualified enquiries, dealer orders, bookings or online revenue, and where it stands today.
Strategy only, one channel done properly, or several channels under one plan. This decides which kind of agency you need.
Agency fees and media spend are different budgets. Know roughly what you can spend on each, and remember that GST applies to fees.
Who on your side will brief, approve and review. Agencies do their best work with a decision-maker who has time for them.
Sales by region or product, past campaign results, CRM access. The more an agency sees, the better its diagnosis.
When you need to decide and when work must start, counted back from a launch, a season or the start of the financial year.
| Type | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Network or multinational agency | National brands with large media budgets and multi-market campaigns | Mid-size accounts can get less senior attention; fees and processes are built for scale |
| Independent integrated agency | Growing companies that need strategy, mainline, digital and on-ground under one plan | Depth varies by service; check each channel you plan to use |
| Specialist agency | One discipline in depth: SEO, performance, social, PR, activation or media buying | Someone still has to integrate it with your other channels |
| Freelancer or consultant | Small, well-defined tasks, or senior advice without a full team | Limited capacity, and continuity depends on one person |
| In-house team plus specialists | Companies with steady, high-volume work and a strong marketing head | Hiring and keeping specialists takes time, and the outside view can be lost |
Our beliefThink creative. Act on numbers.
| Ask | A good answer | A weak answer |
|---|---|---|
| Who will work on our account, and how much of their time do we get? | Named people and roles, with time allocated. You meet them before signing | "Our team", with no names, or only the founders who pitched |
| What have you done for a business with a similar buying cycle? | Specific work, with the starting point, what changed and a client you can call | Percentages with no baseline, or every result marked confidential |
| How will you measure success? | Business numbers such as enquiries, cost per lead and sales, with a tracking plan | Impressions, reach, followers and engagement only |
| Who owns the ad accounts, analytics, website and data? | You do. The agency works through access you grant and can withdraw | The agency's accounts, released when dues are cleared |
| How do you charge, and what is not included? | Fees separate from media, a written scope, extras listed in advance | One bundled figure, or undisclosed markups on media |
| What happens in the first 90 days? | An audit, tracking fixes and a written plan, then launch, with milestones | Launch immediately, with the plan to follow |
| What would you advise us not to do? | A clear view on channels or tactics that will not work for you | Everything you mention sounds like a good idea |
| How do you handle our languages and regions? | In-house writers or named partners for each language, with review by native speakers | "We will get it translated" |
| Can we speak to two current clients? | Yes, with contact details | Only past clients, or none available |
| What happens if we part ways? | A written handover covering accounts, files, creative and data, with a notice period | Unclear, or not in the contract |
Any one of these deserves a direct question. Several together usually mean walking away.
Nobody controls Google's results. Google's own guidance on hiring an SEO (Google Search Central, "Do you need an SEO?") warns that no one can guarantee a top ranking. Fixed promises usually mean shortcuts that can hurt your site later.
If Google Ads, Meta, analytics or your domain sit in the agency's name, you lose your history and data when you leave. Ask for everything to be created in your company's name.
Reports full of impressions, reach, likes and follower growth, with no enquiries, cost per lead or sales. Those numbers are easy to inflate and say little about the business.
Senior people pitch; once you sign, the account goes to someone you never met. Meet the day-to-day team and write key people into the contract.
Bursts of five-star reviews in a short period, generic wording, reviewers with no history. The Bureau of Indian Standards' IS 19000:2022 sets out how genuine online consumer reviews should be collected and published.
No platform or publisher invoices, or a media cost you cannot check. You should be able to see what was spent where.
Long minimum terms with no performance review and no clear notice period. A confident agency agrees to review points and a fair exit.
Another brand's name left in, a generic list of channels, or no reference to your market and competitors. It shows how much thinking you will get later.
"Proprietary" methods the agency will not explain, private link networks or bought followers. If it cannot be explained, it should not be done in your name.
Proposals arrive in different shapes. Put them on the same footing before you judge price.
List the deliverables in each proposal, month by month, and mark what one includes and another leaves out.
Compare agency fees with agency fees. Media, production, tools and taxes go on separate lines.
Did the agency understand your market, competitors and buyers, or could the proposal have gone to anyone?
Ask how each target, such as a cost per lead, was arrived at. A good agency shows its assumptions; an unrealistic one cannot.
Who is assigned, at what seniority and for how much time. A low fee with no senior time is not cheaper.
The monthly report you will actually receive shows what the agency thinks matters.
Ask what happens to cost and timeline if you add a channel, a language or a region mid-year.
A short, paid piece of work, such as an audit, a 90-day channel plan or one campaign, tells you more than another round of pitches. Agree the brief and how you will judge it in advance.
| Factor | Monthly retainer | Fixed-scope project | Performance-linked fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A monthly fee for an agreed scope of ongoing work | A fixed fee for a defined deliverable and timeline | Part of the fee depends on agreed results, usually on top of a base fee |
| Best for | Channels that need continuous work: performance, SEO, social, integrated programmes | Strategy, brand identity, a website, a campaign launch, an audit | Mature accounts with clean tracking and a reliable sales process |
| Advantages | Continuity, a team that learns your business, predictable cost | Clear cost and outcome; easy to compare quotes | Ties the agency's income to your results |
| Risks | Scope creep, or paying for capacity you do not use | Changes cost extra, and the team moves on after delivery | Disputes over attribution, and a temptation to chase easy, low-quality results |
| Make it work | A written monthly scope, quarterly reviews and a notice period | A detailed brief and an agreed number of revision rounds | Agreed definitions, data sources and caps before you start |
| Clause | What it should cover |
|---|---|
| Scope and deliverables | What is delivered, how often, and what counts as extra work |
| Team and key people | The named account lead and specialists, and notice if they change |
| Fees, media and taxes | Agency fees, media, production and GST shown separately; how media is billed and verified |
| Payment terms | Invoicing schedule, advance payment for media and what happens if payments are late |
| Ownership of accounts and data | Your company owns ad accounts, analytics, domains, websites and customer data; the agency works through access you control |
| Intellectual property | Who owns campaign ideas, designs and source files, including unused work, and the usage rights for music, stock images and talent |
| Confidentiality and data protection | How customer and lead data is stored, shared and deleted, in line with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 |
| Reporting and reviews | The numbers reported, how often, and quarterly reviews against agreed targets |
| Compliance | Advertising follows the ASCI Code and platform policies; paid influencer content is clearly disclosed |
| Term, notice and exit | Minimum term, notice period and a handover checklist covering accounts, files and data |
| Disputes | How disagreements are escalated and resolved, and which jurisdiction applies |
This is a planning checklist, not legal advice. Have your lawyer review any agency contract before you sign.
Score each agency from 1 to 5 on each criterion, multiply by the weight and add up. Adjust the weights to your priorities.
| Criterion | Suggested weight | Scores 1 if | Scores 5 if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Understanding of your business | 20 | Generic proposal; few questions asked | Clear diagnosis of your market, buyers and competitors |
| Relevant experience | 15 | No work in a similar category or buying cycle | Comparable work, with references you have spoken to |
| The team who will do the work | 15 | Unnamed or very junior team | Named, experienced people you have met, with committed time |
| Measurement and reporting | 15 | Platform metrics only | A tracking plan, business KPIs and a sample report you would use |
| Quality of plan and ideas | 15 | A list of channels with no priorities | A clear, sequenced plan, with ideas that fit your audience |
| Commercial transparency | 10 | Bundled or unclear pricing | Fees, media and extras itemised, assumptions shown |
| Working relationship | 10 | Slow, vague or hard to reach during the pitch | Responsive and direct, and willing to disagree with you |
The weights add up to 100 and are a suggestion, not a standard. Treat two things as pass or fail before scoring: your company owns every account and all its data, and media billing can be verified. An agency that fails either should not win on points.
PromotEdge is an integrated marketing agency, working across strategy, mainline advertising, digital and BTL.
We would rather be chosen on this framework than on a pitch. Ask us the same questions, score us on the same table, and reach us through the contact page when you are ready. If integration is part of your brief, our guide to integrated marketing communication explains what to expect from it.
More guides from our strategy team, and the services that put them into practice.
“An aligned partner is always a welcoming step. Someone who can think deep through lines, understand the matrix of product management. Fortunate enough, PromotEdge has been a partner in progress for me. …”
Bobby SrinivasChief Manager Marketing & Brand Marketing at Utkarsh India“As a progressive and emerging digital marketing company, PromotEdge is doing something right to enhance the experience of companies associated with them. …”
Anish Basu MallikMarketing Executive at Unimark Group“PRAN & PromotEdge have been working together for last 1.5 years. Throughout, the work experience is good and satisfactory. As a client, we found PromotEdge very professional and dedicated towards any project assigned to them. …”
Sharif Rezwan KabirBrand Manager at PRAN RFL GroupIt depends on the scope, the channels, the seniority of the team and how much of the work is strategy rather than execution. Fees are usually charged separately from media spend, and GST applies to fees. Ask three or four agencies for itemised quotes against the same scope; that tells you more than any published range.
An agency gives you a range of specialists and an outside view quickly, without hiring for each role. An in-house team suits steady, high-volume work and keeps knowledge inside the company. Many growing companies use both: an in-house marketing head who owns the plan, and agencies for specialist channels.
Three or four is usually enough to compare approaches without turning the process into months of pitches. Brief them all with the same document and score them on the same table. Fewer than three gives you little to compare, and more than five costs everyone time without improving your choice.
Paid search and social should produce leads within weeks of launch, once tracking is in place. SEO, content and brand-building take months to show their full effect. Agree in advance what you expect to see at 30, 90 and 180 days.
You should. Ad accounts, analytics, your domain and your website should be registered in your company's name, with the agency given access. If the relationship ends, you keep your history, data and audiences. Ask any agency to confirm this in writing before you sign.
Location matters less than relevant experience and access to the right people. A local agency may know regional media, languages and dealers better; a metro agency may have deeper specialists. Judge both on the same criteria, and check who will travel to you when needed.
Business numbers first: enquiries or sales, cost per lead or acquisition and lead quality, by channel and campaign. Then what was done, what was learned and what will change next month. Platform metrics belong in an appendix, not the headline.
