Q.01
What should you ask before hiring any marketing company?
Ask exactly what's included in the price, who owns the website, domain and Google Business Profile once the work is done, and what happens to all of it if you cancel. Ask for examples of other trade businesses they've worked with and what actually changed for those businesses, in plain terms you can verify.
A company confident in its work answers these questions directly and quickly. Vague, evasive answers to basic ownership and pricing questions are worth paying attention to before you sign anything.
It's a reasonable request to put the answers in writing before you sign, even in a short email, so there's a clear record of what was agreed to if a disagreement comes up later.
Q.02
What contract terms are worth watching for?
Long lock-in periods with steep cancellation penalties are a red flag, especially paired with vague deliverables. Ask specifically what you're paying for each month, not just a bundled number, and whether that scope can change without your agreement. Month-to-month or short-term options are worth asking about even if you expect to stay long-term.
Also check whether the agency owns your website template or code such that leaving means starting from scratch elsewhere. That's a meaningful hidden cost of switching later.
- Ask what happens to your site, domain and profile if you cancel
- Ask for the exact monthly scope, not a vague bundle
- Ask about lock-in length and cancellation terms
- Ask who you'll actually talk to when something breaks
Q.03
What reporting should you expect to see?
You should be able to see, in plain language, what changed month to month: calls received, leads captured, review count, ranking position for key searches. Reports full of jargon or vanity metrics with no connection to actual calls or jobs booked are a sign the work isn't being measured against what matters to you.
Ask to see a sample report before you sign, not just after. If they can't produce one, that's telling.
A report that only shows rankings or impressions, with nothing tying back to calls or leads, is easy to make look good regardless of whether the work is actually paying off.
Q.04
When does doing it yourself make more sense than hiring out?
If your call volume is low, your budget is tight, and you have the time to learn the basics, handling your own Google Business Profile and simple website updates yourself is a reasonable starting point. The fundamentals, accurate information, real photos, asking for reviews, don't require an agency to execute well.
The case for hiring out usually strengthens once you're too busy running jobs to also maintain your online presence consistently, or once the technical pieces, site performance, tracking, integrations, go beyond what you want to learn.
There's no shame in doing it yourself for a while and hiring out later once the business has grown into needing it. Plenty of established contractors ran their own profile and site for years before handing it off.
Q.05
What should a good working relationship look like?
You should own every account involved, understand what you're paying for in plain terms, and be able to reach a real person when something's wrong. A good marketing partner explains what they're doing and why, rather than asking you to trust a black box, and treats your cancellation as a normal business decision, not a fight.
That's the standard to hold any marketing partner to, including us: clear pricing, full ownership on your side, and honest reporting instead of vanity numbers.
If you're currently unsure whether your existing setup meets that bar, it's worth a direct conversation with whoever manages it, before assuming everything is fine.
Next step
Want us to look at your setup?
The free audit checks your calls, website and Google profile together and ranks the biggest gaps.
