Is Your Marketing Company Full of Shit?

A pretty report is not a receipt

Your marketing company says things are going great. Your calendar disagrees.

That doesn’t automatically mean they’re screwing you. Marketing can underperform honestly. But if they can’t explain where your money went, what they did, and how they counted results, you’ve got a problem bigger than a bad month.

You’re not asking to become a marketing expert. You’re asking a vendor to account for your money.

Start here: “Show me last month’s invoice beside the actual advertising-platform charges.”

An illustrative example: your plumbing company pays $6,000 a month. The sales pitch called it a “marketing investment.” The breakdown shows $3,600 in ads, $1,800 in management, and $600 in software.

That’s $2,400 outside media spending—40% of the total bill. Not automatically unreasonable. But it needs to be disclosed and justified.

If they report cost per lead using only ad spending, that’s a media-only number. Ask them to label it clearly and show the full spending total separately. Fog is not a service.

Ask who owns the keys

“If we cancel tomorrow, what stays with us?”

Ask this before you’re furious enough to cancel tomorrow.

Your domain is your website’s address. Your advertising account holds campaign history. Your business profile holds the public information customers use to find you. These are operating assets, not party favors from the agency.

Request an access-and-ownership list covering:

• Domain registration, website hosting, and website content.
• Advertising accounts and their billing arrangements.
• Analytics, tracking tools, and Google Business Profile.
• Landing pages, creative files, and call-tracking numbers.
• Data exports, cancellation terms, and transfer procedures.

Your business should control its core accounts, with the agency granted access. Don’t accept shared passwords as a substitute for proper user permissions.

Some websites, software, and creative assets are licensed rather than owned. Fine—if the contract says so plainly. Read it now. Discovering that your phone number disappears when you leave is an expensive way to learn about licensing.

Make them show what actually ran

“Show me the traffic we bought—not just the traffic total.”

For paid search, request the search-terms report. That shows the actual searches that triggered ads, where the platform makes them available. Keywords are what the agency targets. Search terms are what people typed. Those aren’t always the same thing.

Suppose your electrical company spent $4,000 on search ads. The available report shows $650 on searches about electrician salaries, free wiring diagrams, and services you don’t offer.

That’s 16.25% of spending attached to obviously unsuitable searches. One imperfect match isn’t fraud. The same waste left untouched for months is negligence wearing a headset.

Ask for:

• Campaign spending, separated by channel and service.
• Search terms and negative keywords—the exclusions used to block unsuitable searches.
• Geographic targeting settings and available location reports.
• Placement reports, where available, showing where display or video ads appeared.
• Account change history showing what was adjusted and when.

An established local-service business shouldn’t need a detective to learn it’s advertising outside its service area. There’s no universal “correct” adjustment count. The standard is whether someone spots problems and takes defensible action.

Challenge the credit they’re taking

“What exactly counts as a conversion, and why?”

A conversion is an action the tracking system counts as a result. It might be a booked appointment. It might also be someone clicking your phone number without making a call.

Those are not equivalent accomplishments.

Imagine a report claiming 90 conversions:

• 35 clicks on a phone button.
• 25 submitted forms.
• 20 views of a contact page.
• 10 imported appointment records.

That does not prove 90 inquiries, let alone 90 new customers. Some actions may belong to the same person. Some forms may be spam. Some appointments may also appear in another category.

Request a conversion-definition report: every counted action, its tracking source, and whether duplicate actions are removed. Ask for a sample reconciliation against actual inquiry or appointment records, using appropriate privacy controls.

Then ask: “Separate people searching our business name from people searching for a service.”

Brand searches can be useful to advertise against. But catching someone already looking for your shop isn’t the same achievement as introducing your shop to a stranger.

Attribution means assigning credit. Multiple platforms can claim the same sale under different rules. Ask about those rules before anyone adds the totals together.

Demand a work log, not a victory speech

“What did you change, what happened, and what will you do next?”

For SEO—the work intended to improve unpaid search visibility—ask for completed work with dates and links. Which service pages changed? Which technical problems were fixed? What happened to relevant search traffic and inquiries afterward?

“Worked on SEO” is not a deliverable. Neither is emailing you a chart with an upward arrow.

A useful monthly explanation covers:

• Work completed against the agreed scope.
• Results, with comparisons that acknowledge seasonality.
• What failed or remains uncertain.
• The next action, its owner, and its deadline.

Your side belongs in that explanation too. Pricing, weak reviews, unanswered calls, or a broken booking form can hurt results. A good agency raises those issues with evidence. A bad one discovers them only when you question the invoice.

Don’t demand guaranteed rankings or pretend every test must win. Demand honest accounting and visible work. Marketing spends cash flow today for an uncertain return. Uncertainty is normal. Secrecy is bullshit.

What to fix Monday morning

Send one email requesting the spending reconciliation, ownership list, campaign reports, conversion definitions, and work log. Propose five business days, or agree on a realistic delivery date.

Then hold a review inside the actual accounts—not just their presentation.

Fix access and spending visibility first. Without those, you can’t reliably judge anything else.

If the evidence shows mistakes, agree on specific corrections and dates. If they refuse access, hide charges, or can’t substantiate their claims, review your contract and prepare a controlled exit. Secure the assets before pulling the plug.