How to choose the right marketing agency for your business: a step-by-step guide

Choosing a marketing agency is one of the decisions that shapes a company's growth the most, yet most business owners make it quickly: they compare two or three proposals on price and pick the one with the nicer deck or the salesperson they liked. Months later they find out the problem was never the price. It was the things they didn't ask about at the start: who would actually work on their account, how results would be measured, and who owns the ad accounts.

This guide walks you through the whole process, from before you look for any agency to the first three months after you sign. We wrote it from the real assessments we do at Nazeeh for business owners in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and from well-known agency selection practices, such as the agency search guidance published by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A's).

1. Before you search: write your goal as a number

The most common mistake we see is starting with "who is the best marketing agency?" instead of "what exactly do I need to achieve?". An excellent agency for an online store can be a poor choice for a real estate company, and an agency that is strong in content can be weak in paid ads. So before any call, write clear answers to these questions:

• What is the main goal for the next six months? Online store sales, leads for your sales team, bookings, or awareness for a new brand.
• What number do you want to reach? For example: 300 leads a month, a cost per lead under SAR 120, or ad-driven sales worth three times the spend.
• What is the budget? Keep the ad budget itself (what you pay Google, Meta and others) separate from the agency's fees. Mixing the two numbers makes comparing proposals impossible.
• Who will follow up on your side? One person with the time and the authority to decide, not "everyone".

This table helps you link your goal to the number you should hold the agency accountable for:

2. Write a clear brief

A brief is a one- or two-page document you send to every agency you contact. The ANA and 4A's guidance makes a simple point: the quality of the choice depends on the quality of the brief. Send incomplete information and you'll get generic proposals that say nothing, with no way to compare them.

A good brief covers:

1. About your company: what you sell, to whom, and in which cities or countries.
2. Where you are now: Are you working with an agency today? Which channels do you use? What worked and what didn't?
3. The goal and the number: exactly what you wrote in step one.
4. The budget: the ad budget on its own, and the expected range for fees.
5. What you need from the agency: Paid ads? Content and social media? Search visibility? All of it?
6. What you want to see in the proposal: team names, a 90-day plan, how results will be measured, a sample report, itemized pricing.
7. The deadline for proposals and the decision date.

Send the same brief, in the same format, to every agency. That alone makes the comparison in the next steps fair.

3. Where to look, and how many agencies to talk to

You don't need to talk to twenty agencies. In our experience, three to five are enough for a real comparison. More than that wastes your time and you end up choosing out of fatigue rather than on criteria.

Good sources for your first list:

• Recommendations from business owners in your field, as long as you ask about results in numbers, not impressions.
• Agencies that worked on brands you know and whose work you can see for yourself.
• Platform partner programs: Google and Meta both list certified partner agencies. Certification doesn't guarantee quality, but it does mean a minimum level of platform experience.

Drop early any agency that can't show you a current client in a field close to yours, or refuses to connect you with a client you can ask about them.

4. Questions to ask in the first meeting

The first meeting isn't only for hearing a pitch. It's for learning how the agency thinks. These questions reveal a lot:

1. Who will work on our account day to day? Ask for names and experience. Many agencies bring a senior manager to the meeting, and then a new hire runs your account.
2. How many clients does the account manager handle at once? If it's ten or more, you'll get only a few hours of their time each month.
3. How will you know the work is succeeding? Listen: do they name a number tied to your goal, or only talk about views and engagement?
4. What will you do in the first 30 days? A good answer starts with reviewing the accounts and tracking before spending any budget.
5. Is our tracking set up correctly, and how will you check? An agency that doesn't ask about tracking before it starts will base its decisions on numbers that may be wrong.
6. Who owns the ad accounts and analytics properties? The only acceptable answer: your company.
7. What does the monthly report look like? Ask for a real example, with the client's name removed.
8. What happens if we don't reach the agreed number? A serious agency has a clear answer: a review, a revised plan, or exit terms.
9. Do you currently have a client in our field? Sometimes that's an advantage (market experience), and sometimes it's a conflict of interest if they're a direct competitor. Ask, then decide.
10. What don't you do? An agency that says "we do everything" usually doesn't master anything specific.

The agency that asks you more questions than you ask it in the first meeting will usually understand your problem better.

5. Compare proposals on one table

When the proposals arrive, don't read them one by one and go with your impression. Put them all in one table with the same criteria, and give each criterion a weight based on how much it matters to you. Here is a model close to the one we use in our assessments:

Score each agency from 1 to 5 on every criterion and multiply by the weight. You'll often notice the cheapest agency isn't the highest scorer, and the one with the most beautiful proposal may fall short on team or measurement.

6. Red flags in a proposal

These are signs we often see in proposals that end in bad experiences. One sign alone doesn't mean you should reject the agency, but three or more are worth stopping for:

• Guaranteed numbers promised before the agency has reviewed your accounts and tracking. No one can guarantee a result without seeing the data.
• Opening new ad accounts in the agency's name instead of using yours or creating them in your name.
• A monthly report built only on views and likes, with no link to sales or leads.
• Vague deliverables: "full social media management" instead of "12 posts and 4 short videos a month".
• A long contract without clear exit terms, or a heavy penalty for early termination.
• Extra fees not mentioned up front: design, photography, tools, "setup fees".
• Pressure to decide fast: "this offer is valid until the end of the week".
• No answer to the question: who will work on my account?

7. How to check an agency's past work

Every marketing agency will show you success stories: a campaign that multiplied sales, or an account that grew fast. The problem is that these stories are rarely checked. Here are simple ways to verify them yourself, without being an expert:

Ask for the number and its source

If an agency says "we achieved five times return on ad spend for a client", ask: five times according to what? The Meta Ads dashboard, or actual sales in the store's system? The two numbers can differ a lot, because platform dashboards sometimes count sales that would have happened without the ad. A serious agency knows the difference and explains it to you.

Ask how long the results lasted

One month of results can be luck or seasonality. Ask for at least six months of results for the same client, and whether that client still works with them. A client who stayed two years with an agency matters more than ten success stories about clients who left after two months.

Talk to a client yourself

Ask for the phone number or email of a current client in a field close to yours, and ask them three questions only: Does the report arrive on time? Do you know who works on your account? Are the ad accounts in your name? Ten minutes with them tells you more than any presentation.

Look at their published work

The ads and content an agency publishes for its clients are right in front of you. The Meta Ad Library is free and shows the active ads of any page. Open it, look up the client pages the agency mentioned, and judge the quality, language and variety of the ads yourself.

8. Agency, in-house team or freelancers?

Before choosing a marketing agency, ask yourself whether an agency is the right option for your company's stage at all. There are three common models, and each has its place:

Many companies succeed with a mix: an in-house person who understands the business and follows up, and an agency that runs the channels that need specialist skills. Whatever the model, what matters is having someone on your side who owns the decision and understands the numbers.

9. Common mistakes we see in our assessments

From assessing many proposals and contracts, these are the mistakes business owners make most often. All of them can be avoided:

1. Choosing the salesperson, not the team. The salesperson in the meeting is not who will work on your account. Ask to meet the actual account manager before signing.
2. Merging the ad budget and the fees into one number. With a single number, you can't tell how much really goes to ads and how much goes to the agency.
3. Changing the goal every month. One month it's sales, the next it's followers, then a new product. No agency can deliver results against a moving target.
4. Not setting up tracking before starting. If your site doesn't record sales or leads correctly, every report after that is built on guesswork.
5. Judging results after two weeks. Most campaigns need 4 to 8 weeks for the platforms to learn and results to settle. Going six months without a review is a mistake too.
6. Leaving everything to the agency. The agency doesn't know a product is out of stock, or that your sales team isn't answering leads. Marketing works when your company is ready to handle its results.
7. Not reading the monthly report. A report nobody reads slowly turns into pretty numbers with no meaning. Set aside half an hour each month to read and discuss it.

10. Pricing models, and which one fits you

Marketing agencies price in different ways, and each model has its benefits and risks. Understanding the difference helps you compare proposals written in different formats:

No model is always right. What matters is understanding what pushes the agency to work harder under each one, and having everything in writing.

11. The contract: clauses that must be there

The contract is where promises become commitments. Before signing, make sure it includes:

• A detailed scope of work: what the agency will deliver, how much of it, and how often.
• Success metrics: the number or numbers the agency is accountable for, how they're measured, and from which source.
• Reports and meetings: when the monthly report arrives, what it contains, and how many meetings there are.
• Ownership of accounts and data: all ad accounts, analytics, pages and content belong to your company.
• Ownership of content and designs: the editable source files for designs and videos are handed to you.
• Contract length and termination: a reasonable notice period (for example 30 days) without excessive penalties.
• Full handover on exit: a list of everything to be handed over and every access to be removed, with a date.
• Confidentiality and data protection: especially if the agency will see your customers' data.

For a fuller list, we wrote a complete article on the contract clauses that protect you.

12. Your accounts in your name from day one

This point deserves its own section, because we see its consequences often in our account and file handover service: a company ends its contract with an agency and discovers that the ad account, with all its data and history, is registered to the old agency, and that it has no access at all to its own analytics.

The simple rule: your company owns, the agency gets access. And the platforms themselves are built for this:

• Google Ads: you create the account in your company's name, then the agency links it to its manager account (MCC) without becoming the owner. Google explains access levels and linking accounts to a manager account.
• Meta (Facebook and Instagram): you create the business portfolio in your company's name, then add the agency as a "partner" with access to specific assets. Meta explains how to give partners access step by step.
• Google Analytics, Tag Manager and Search Console: the same principle: you're the owner and they get the access they need.
• Domain, hosting and website: in your company's name, with your details.

13. What's different in Saudi Arabia and Egypt

Both markets are large and highly digital. DataReportal's early-2025 reports put internet use at about 99% of the population in Saudi Arabia and about 82% in Egypt. Your audience is online, but that also means more competition for the same audience. So keep these points in mind when you choose:

Real Arabic content

Ask for samples of Arabic content the agency wrote, not translations. Content that works for an audience in Riyadh can differ from what works in Cairo, and a good agency knows the difference.

Influencers in Saudi Arabia

If the plan relies on influencers in Saudi Arabia, make sure the agency knows the requirements of the "Mawthooq" license issued by the General Authority for Media Regulation for paid advertising on social media. Working with influencers without meeting these requirements can cause problems for your campaign. Check the current requirements on the authority's website before signing, because they change.

Data protection

Saudi Arabia has the Personal Data Protection Law, overseen by the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA), and Egypt has Personal Data Protection Law No. 151 of 2020. If the agency will see your customers' data (for example phone or email lists for custom audiences), the contract should state how that data is used, stored and deleted.

Currency and taxes

Ask for clear pricing: does it include VAT? Is the ad budget paid in dollars on your card or through the agency? Exchange rates and bank fees can change the real cost.

14. The first 90 days after signing

The choice doesn't end at signing. The first three months show whether it was the right one. Here is what you should see:

If 60 to 90 days have passed and you're still not sure the marketing is really working, that's the right time for an independent assessment. We wrote about this in detail in what to expect from your marketing agency in the first 90 days.

15. A checklist you can run yourself

Before you sign, go through this list. If the answer to any item is "no", stop and go back to the agency:

• I wrote one goal with a clear number, and a budget kept separate from the fees.
• I sent the same brief to every agency and compared the proposals on one table.
• I know by name who will work on my account, and how many clients they handle.
• I spoke to at least one current client of every agency on the final shortlist.
• The contract lists deliverables as quantities, the number the agency is accountable for, and the report date.
• All ad and analytics accounts are in my company's name, and the agency only has access.
• The termination terms are clear, the notice period is reasonable, and the exit handover is in writing.
• All fees are listed, with no "setup fees" or tools added later.

16. Frequently asked questions

The bottom line

Choosing a marketing agency is not a beauty contest between proposals. Start with a written goal and a number, send one brief to a small number of agencies, compare the proposals on one table, ask about the team and measurement, and require your accounts to be in your name from day one. These steps alone help you avoid most of the problems we see in our assessments.

And if you've received proposals and can't decide between them, you can request an independent assessment: a Nazeeh expert reads the proposals, compares them on evidence, and gives you a clear recommendation before you pay.

Sources: agency selection guidance from the ANA and 4A's, the official Google Ads and Meta help pages, DataReportal's 2025 digital reports on Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law, and Egypt's Personal Data Protection Law No. 151 of 2020.