Most founders who come to us have hired an agency before. And most have a regret story.
The patterns repeat. Wrong commercial structure. Junior team on the account while the senior team pitched. Ad accounts owned by the agency. A six-month minimum on a model that was never going to work.
Almost every one of those failures was preventable at the contract stage.
Twelve questions, in four groups. Answer all twelve clearly and in writing, and they're worth a real conversation.
Hedge, or push you to "just sign and we'll figure it out"? Walk away.
If you're already past this stage and locked into a contract that's not working, see also our breakdowns on performance vs retainer models and commission structures to figure out what to renegotiate at renewal.
The cost of the wrong agency engagement isn't just the fee. It's six months of missed growth while you waited for the model to start working.
Commercials — the four money questions
1. What's the exact commercial structure for this engagement?
Flat retainer? Percentage of spend? Revenue share? Pay per result? Hybrid?
Get the model named, the rates in writing, and the maths worked through on a sample month so you can see what you'd pay under different outcomes.
"We'll work something out that's fair" means either they haven't standardised their pricing, or they charge different clients differently.
2. What attribution methodology are you using?
The one founders skip and agencies love leaving vague.
Last-click on Meta? Last-non-direct in GA4? First-touch in your CRM? The same campaign shows three completely different revenue numbers depending on which you use.
Pick one. Write it into the contract. Reconcile every invoice against it.
3. What's the minimum monthly ad spend you require?
Real performance agencies need a floor — usually Rs. 30,000-75,000/month — for the algorithms to have enough data to optimise. Below that, the unit economics don't work for either side. An agency that says "we can work with any budget" is either subsidising small accounts (unsustainable) or running them poorly (predictable).
4. How are invoices calculated and reconciled monthly?
On a commission or per-lead model, the invoice should arrive with raw data. Every lead, timestamped, with its qualification status.
Not a summary. Not a PDF. Rows you can audit against your own CRM.
An invoice that just says "Rs. 1,42,000 — services rendered" is hoping you don't check.
Execution — the four delivery questions
5. Who specifically will work on my account day-to-day?
The pitch team and the delivery team are usually different people.
Get the senior person named. Ask how many other accounts they run — 4–6 is healthy, 10+ means you get very little. And confirm you can reach them directly, not only through an account manager.
6. How is creative production handled?
For paid acquisition above Rs. 1 lakh/month, you need 4-12 fresh creative variants every month. Is the agency producing them in-house? Outsourcing to a freelance team? Expecting you to provide them? Each model has trade-offs but you need to know which one you're signing up for, and what's included versus billed separately.
7. What's the reporting cadence and format?
Weekly metric snapshot (CPL, CPA, ROAS, spend pacing) is reasonable — and should arrive automated. Monthly results review on a 45-60 minute call is non-negotiable. Avoid agencies that send a beautifully designed PDF report and skip the call. The conversation, not the document, is where you find out what's actually happening on your account.
8. What does the first 30 days look like?
The honest answer is "we won't drive your best results in month 1 — we're learning your account and the algorithm is learning the conversion event." Agencies that promise immediate big wins are either oversimplifying or planning to optimise for short-term vanity metrics. Look for an answer that names the audit, the setup work, and the optimisation milestones realistically.
An agency that won't tell you who's actually doing the work has already told you who's doing the work.
Risk protection — the three safety questions
9. Who owns the ad accounts and conversion data?
You. Always you.
Meta Business Manager, Google Ads, your analytics — all owned by you, with the agency added as a user.
An agency that insists on owning them is building a switching cost. When you leave, your campaign history, audience data and conversion learning leave with them. This one is non-negotiable.
10. What's the exact qualification definition for leads/installs/purchases?
On a pay-per-result deal, this is the single most important clause.
"Qualified lead" has to be checkable by a human — not just "someone who submitted the form." Loose definitions send the algorithm hunting for the cheapest form fills, which are almost never your customers.
Get the disqualification process in writing too: how you flag bad leads, the dispute window, and who resolves it.
11. Can I see two-three case studies with raw numbers and a reference call?
The good answer is "yes, here are screenshots from two account dashboards with the metrics, the date range, the spend, and the revenue or lead figures with attribution — and here's the contact info for those clients to confirm." The bad answer is a slide deck with logos and percentage uplifts but no source data.
Exit — the question nobody asks before they need to
12. What's the initial term, notice period, and transition support?
90 days initial term is fair. Monthly rolling after that, with 30 days notice.
Transition support — handing over creatives, audiences and conversion setups — belongs in the contract, not on a final invoice.
A 6–12 month minimum on a performance model means they're hedging against their own results. Walk.
Red flags — when the answers don't match
- "We'll send the contract once we've agreed in principle."The contract IS the agreement in principle. If they want a verbal yes before showing you terms, the terms are worse than what they said on the call.
- Case studies with logos but no numbers.Logos are easy to put on a slide. Real revenue and lead figures are not. Loud logos plus missing numbers usually means the work either didn't happen or didn't land.
- They want a 6-12 month minimum on a performance model.If they were confident in the performance model, a 90-day initial term would be enough. Long minimums are the agency hedging against their own performance.
- They're cagey about who will do the daily work.The senior team did the pitch. The junior team will do the execution. Knowing this in advance lets you negotiate; not knowing it means you'll find out month two.
- They oversimplify attribution."We use Meta's data" is not an attribution methodology — it's deferring the question. Real performance agencies have a defined attribution methodology and can explain it in plain language without hand-waving.
The 12-question checklist — print and ask
| # | Question | Group |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What's the exact commercial structure? | Commercials |
| 2 | What attribution methodology will you use? | Commercials |
| 3 | What's the minimum monthly ad spend? | Commercials |
| 4 | How are invoices calculated and reconciled? | Commercials |
| 5 | Who specifically will work on my account? | Execution |
| 6 | How is creative production handled? | Execution |
| 7 | What's the reporting cadence and format? | Execution |
| 8 | What does the first 30 days look like? | Execution |
| 9 | Who owns the ad accounts and data? | Risk |
| 10 | What's the exact lead/install qualification definition? | Risk |
| 11 | Can I see raw-number case studies and a reference call? | Risk |
| 12 | What's the initial term, notice, and transition support? | Exit |
Frequently asked questions
In closing
The contracting stage is the cheapest and easiest place to protect yourself. Once you've signed, every weakness in the agreement gets harder to renegotiate — the agency knows you've already committed and the cost of switching feels higher every month. Front-loading these 12 questions costs you one extra meeting and saves you, in our experience, three to nine months of frustration with the wrong engagement.
If you're about to hire an agency, take this checklist into the next pitch call. If you're already engaged with one, run the questions retroactively — the gaps tell you what to renegotiate at renewal. And if you'd rather skip ahead and just look at what an honest performance engagement looks like, that's what our private audit covers.
At GUROB we run paid acquisition for app companies, B2C lead gen, D2C and ecommerce, and info product launches on hybrid commercial models. The audit (free) walks through what those models look like for your specific account.