Marketing agency proposal red flags, and what to ask instead

Google’s own guide to hiring an SEO admits that Google gets the spam too. It quotes one: “Dear google.com, I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories…” and tells you to give such emails the skepticism you would give “burn fat at night” diet pills. If whoever sends them will pitch Google on its own search results, they will pitch you.

The cold email is easy to spot. The expensive trouble sits in the proposal and the contract, which most owners skim on the way to the signature line, and which decide who owns your accounts, what you are paying for and how hard it is to leave. Here is what to read for, each red flag paired with what a good proposal says in its place.

This is not legal advice. Have an attorney read any contract before you sign it.

Promises nobody can keep

A ranking or ad position guarantee. No honest agency can make one, and Google says so in one line: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.” On audits it is blunter: “If they guarantee you that their changes will give you first place in search results, find someone else.” Paid search is no different. Google’s advertiser guide says a specific ad position cannot be guaranteed because position “is determined by an auction and changes dynamically with every new search.” And for the Business Profile, Google bans agencies from claiming a profile will appear in Search or Maps “at all times.”

A lead guarantee with no definition of a lead. Twenty leads a month sounds safer than a ranking, until you look for the clause that says what a lead is. Without one, a two-second hang-up and a form filled in by a spam bot count the same as a customer who booked, and the agency decides what goes in the total.

What a good proposal says instead: the results it expects, the timeframe, and how it will measure them. Those are, nearly word for word, the questions Google suggests asking any SEO.

Whose name is on everything

Accounts opened in the agency’s name. Watch for “we will set up your ad account” or “hosted on our platform,” and ask whose legal name each one is opened under:

• Google Ads. Google’s guide says the agency “must set up a separate Ads account for you to represent you fairly.” That stops your ads being mixed with another client’s. It does not make you the owner, which can still sit under the agency’s manager account and billing. Ask for an account opened for your business, on your billing, and linked to the agency’s manager account rather than created inside it.
• The Business Profile. Google’s third-party policies for Business Profile work say business owners “must retain ownership or co-ownership of their Business Profile at all times,” and Google’s best practice is for the agency to be added as a manager.
• The domain. For a .com or another generic domain, ICANN’s transfer policy says the registered name holder “is the only party that has the authority to approve or deny a transfer request.” If that is the agency, your web address is theirs to move. Country-code domains such as .us follow their own registry’s rules.
• Call tracking numbers. Federal porting rules protect the “end-user customer,” which in practice usually means whoever holds the account with the phone provider, and that may be the agency. A number painted on your trucks for three years can belong to someone else.

Ask for this instead: a list of every account, the business it is registered to (yours), and the access level the agency will hold.

Money you cannot see

Ad spend billed through the agency. Some agencies put your budget on their card and send one combined invoice. That can be fine, if you can check it. When an agency shares your Google Ads cost with you, Google requires it to report “the exact amount charged by Google, exclusive of any fees.” A management fee has to be disclosed in writing before your first purchase and shown on every invoice. Those are Google’s rules for Google Ads; Meta and the other ad platforms set their own.

Google’s guide names “Deceptive pricing” as something to report and tells you to get “an official copy of your agreement in writing.” A single invoice line reading “Digital marketing” with one total is where it hides.

The version you want: the ad platforms bill your card directly, or the agency attaches each platform’s own invoice every month, with its fee as a separate line.

Reports, deliverables and other things you cannot check

Clicks and impressions, but no calls or bookings. Google sets the floor here, and it is low: at a minimum, you are entitled to clicks, impressions and total cost. A plumber does not pay the mortgage with impressions. The same Google guide says that unless you are focused on branding, the most important aspect of advertising is “the return on your investment in it (that is, how many new customers it brings in).”

A better contract names what the monthly report will carry: calls, forms and booked jobs by source, and the rule for which calls count.

Deliverables nobody can check. “Ongoing optimization.” “Monthly SEO.” “Content as needed.” None of these can be counted, so none can be missed. Be careful with any company that, in Google’s words, “won’t clearly explain what they intend to do.”

Good proposals list what ships each month in plain nouns: search terms reviewed weekly with the exclusions listed, the Business Profile updated and the changes named, one service page rewritten and linked from the report. Ask whether they will share every change and the reason for it. The right answer is a change log you can read.

Secrecy about methods. “Proprietary system” is fine as a name. It is not fine as the answer to “what will you do to my site?” Google also says “You should never have to link to an SEO,” so a contract requiring a footer link back to the agency deserves a question.

The way out, and what you keep

A long term with automatic renewal and no exit clause. Look for the term, the notice period, the renewal date and any termination fee. For the Business Profile, Google sets the exit itself: an agency managing one must give you “a quick and easy way to discontinue your service,” and has 7 business days from your notice to hand back exclusive control of the profile.

Setup work the agency keeps. The website, the CRM build (a GoHighLevel account, for example), the blog posts, the photos. Each stays wherever the contract leaves it, and a site built on the agency’s own platform may not be movable at all.

Look for this instead: the renewal date written as a date, not a term (“12 months from launch” drifts when launch does), and a handover deadline no longer than the seven business days Google allows for the profile.

The reviews line that lands on you

If a plan includes writing reviews, buying them or paying customers for good ones, stop reading there. The FTC’s rule on fake reviews names “a business” as the party that breaks it, which means you and not only the agency, and the FTC’s maximum civil penalty is currently $53,088 per violation. Google goes further: its Maps policy bars offering any incentive, from a discount to a free service, in exchange for a review, good or bad.

The plan worth signing sends every customer the same request with no reward at all, which is how our reviews work runs.

What to mark up before you sign

Sit down with the contract itself, a pen and this list:

• The term, the notice period and the renewal date, each written as a date or a number of days.
• Any guarantee, and the clause that defines what it counts.
• The billing lines: platform spend, management fee and setup fee, each shown on its own.
• The assignment clause for the website, copy and content you are paying for.
• The account list, with your business named as the owner of each one.
• The handover terms. Then send the whole contract to your attorney.

Our clients own their ad accounts, and the domain, website, Business Profile, CRM and tracking numbers we set up are in the client’s name. If a proposal is on your desk now, start the free plan with it: we will check whose name your current ad accounts, profile, domain and tracking numbers sit under, say which red flags on this list we see in it, and tell you which one to fix first. Your attorney still reads the contract.