Why an hour of questions before the contract is worth it
When you look for a marketing agency in Bucharest, you find dozens of websites saying almost the same thing: strategy, growth, results. The real differences don't show on the homepage. They show in how the agency answers a few simple questions about money, accounts and numbers. And you can ask those questions without knowing anything technical about ads.
We are a digital marketing agency based in Bucharest ourselves, so this article is not neutral. We still wrote it as the list we would want every business owner to have before talking to anyone, us included. Some of the questions come from Google's public rules for agencies that manage ads. Others come from conversations with owners who switched agencies and only then found out what had never been written down.
The basic idea is simple. You pay for two different things: the money that goes to Google or Meta for ads, and the agency's work. Both need to be visible, measurable and under your control. Everything below starts from there.
Which numbers you should see in the monthly report
First question: what does a monthly report look like? Ask for a real example with the client's name hidden. A good report tells you how much was spent, how many impressions and clicks came in and, above all, how many calls, forms or orders followed. A weak report has lots of colourful charts and no link between money and customers.
You don't have to rely on the agency's goodwill here. Google's third-party policy, which covers agencies managing Google Ads accounts for others, requires monthly reports, where they exist, to include cost, clicks and impressions at account level. It also says the reported amount must be exactly what Google charged, without the agency's fee mixed in. If you get a single "budget spent" figure where you can't tell ads from labour, you have a reason to ask.
Google's guide for advertisers working with an agency says the same thing from your side: you have the right to know at least the number of clicks, the number of impressions and the cost of your ads. The same guide recommends taking time every month to compare what you invested with what you got. That doesn't mean learning to run campaigns. It means spending ten minutes on three numbers and asking a question when one of them makes no sense.
30 minutes, free. We'll tell you honestly if it makes sense.
Whose name the Ads, Analytics and social media accounts are under
This is the question that matters most in the long run, and the one very few people ask. The Google Ads account, the Google Analytics property, the Meta ad account, the Facebook page, the website's domain and hosting: whose name are they created under? Who has admin access? What happens to them if you part ways a year from now?
The right answer is short. The accounts are yours, created under your company, and the agency gets access. In Google Ads, access comes in different levels: email only, billing, read only, standard and admin. Only an admin can grant access to others and change access levels. Google Analytics works the same way: an administrator can add and remove users, while an editor can change settings but not who has access. As the owner, you should hold the admin role in both. The agency needs less than it sometimes thinks.
Google adds a practical tip: if an account has a single admin, you can lose access to some settings when that person is no longer available. That's why it's worth having at least two admins, one of them someone from your own company. One more useful detail. The third-party policy requires the agency to give you, on request, the customer ID of your Google Ads account, so you can talk to Google directly if needed. If an agency hesitates to give it to you, you've learned something about it.
The history of an ad account has value. It holds the keywords that brought customers, the ones that burned money for nothing and months of measured conversions. If you leave an agency and the account stays with them, you start from zero. With all our clients we work inside the client's own account, precisely so the history stays theirs whether or not we keep working together.
Monthly or 12-month contract, and how the agency's work is paid
The second money question: what exactly are you paying the agency for, and how long does the contract tie you in? Many agencies ask for a 6- or 12-month commitment. Sometimes that makes sense, for example with SEO, where results come slowly and one month tells you little. With paid ads, where you see numbers within a few weeks, a long contract with no real way out shifts all the risk onto you.
What's worth asking for in writing: how much the agency's work costs separately from the ad budget, what's included and what costs extra, what notice you need to give if you want to stop and what you get at the end. Google's policy states clearly that an agency charging a management fee on top of ad costs must tell new clients so in writing before the first sale and show it on invoices. The advertiser guide adds simple advice: keep an official written copy of the agreement.
There is no single right model for everyone. A fixed fee is easy to track. A percentage of the budget can push the agency to recommend bigger budgets. A results-based price sounds good, but ask who defines the result and who counts it. What matters is understanding the model before you sign, not from the first invoice.
Who makes the creative, the copy and the pages people land on
A campaign has three parts: the account settings, the ads people see and the page they land on after the click. Many agencies only handle the first. That isn't necessarily bad, but you should know upfront. Ask who writes the ad copy, who makes the images and videos for social media, who approves them and how many new variations you get each month.
Then ask what happens with the landing page. If the ads send people to the homepage of a slow site where the service they searched for is buried under three menus, the campaign loses money however well it's set up. A serious agency tells you this in the first conversation and shows you concretely what should change on the site, even if it won't be the one doing it.
There's also an ownership question: whose are the texts, photos and source files once you've paid for them? If the agency uses photos bought from stock sites, ask whose name the licence is in. Ask for the contract to state what you receive at the end and in what format.
How a customer brought in by a campaign gets measured
The last question, and the most practical: what does the agency count as a result? A click is not a customer. A website visit is not a customer. For a local service business, the result is usually a call, a WhatsApp message or a submitted form. Ask to see how each of them is recorded and how it ends up in the report.
Google Ads can measure calls as campaign results. A call only counts as a conversion if it lasts longer than a minimum you set, so short calls, which rarely lead to a sale, aren't counted. For businesses that track sales in another system, there is also the option of importing into Google Ads the calls that turned into orders. You don't need to know how it's configured. You just need to ask whether it is, and see the number in the report.
A real example from our own projects. For GoaMasaj, a home massage service in Bucharest run by a single therapist, we built a site with one page per service and a call-only Google Ads campaign. Every click on the phone number and on the WhatsApp button was recorded separately and linked to the Google Ads conversion. Ads ran only during the hours the therapist could answer and only in the districts the therapist actually travelled to. The campaign ran for 5–8 weeks, with more than 730 clicks and a CTR of 11.67%, and the client confirmed 4–6 bookings a week coming directly from the campaign. The client paused it in July 2026 to focus on a massage academy, and the site was still on Google's first page for "masaj la domiciliu Bucuresti" (home massage Bucharest) in September.
- 01Which call or message counts as a result, and after what minimum duration.
- 02Where you see calls, messages and forms separately.
- 03How many of them became customers, according to your own records, not just the account.
- 04What one such result cost, on average, last month.
The list of questions, with the good answer and the red flag
If you only have time for one conversation, ask the questions below and write down the answers. Don't look for the agency with the most services. Look for the one that answers clearly, shows you real examples and doesn't shy away from numbers.
One more thing helps a lot: start with a single channel and a short test period with a written goal. If the numbers look good after the first months, you expand. If not, you leave with your accounts, your history and your report, without starting from zero.
| The question | Good answer | A red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Which numbers do I get each month? | Cost, impressions, clicks and concrete results, per account | Only charts, no link between money and customers |
| Whose name are the accounts under? | Your company's, with you as admin | The account belongs to the agency and "stays with us" |
| What does your work cost? | A written fee, separate from the ad budget | One single amount where you can't see what is advertising |
| How long does the contract tie me in? | Written length and notice period, a clear exit | 12 months with no exit, for paid ads |
| Who makes the creative? | Stated upfront, with a number of variations per month | "We'll see as we go" |
| What do you count as a result? | Calls, messages, forms, measured separately | Clicks and "reach" |
Sources and further reading.
30 minutes, free. We'll tell you honestly if it makes sense.
Frequently asked questions
How do you choose a digital marketing agency?
Ask a few questions and get the answers in writing: which numbers you get each month, whose name the Google Ads and Analytics accounts are under, what the agency's work costs separately from the ad budget, how long the contract ties you in and what counts as a result. Then start with a single channel and a short test.
Who owns the Google Ads account if I work with an agency?
It should be yours, created under your company, with you as admin. The agency gets access. Google's policy requires agencies to give you, on request, the account's customer ID, so you can talk to Google directly.
What should a marketing agency's monthly report include?
At least cost, impressions and clicks at account level, plus concrete results: calls, messages, forms or orders. The reported cost must be the amount Google charged, separate from the agency's fee.
Is a 12-month contract with a marketing agency normal?
For SEO it can make sense, because results come slowly. For paid ads, where you see numbers within a few weeks, ask for a shorter term or a clear written notice period for leaving.
What should you ask a marketing agency at the first meeting?
Ask for a real sample report, whose name the accounts will be under, how their work is paid, who makes the copy and images, and how a customer brought in by a campaign gets measured.
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