Check retainer risk
Use the seven checks before signing, renewing, firing, or increasing the monthly fee.
Run checklistStan Consulting · do it yourself guides
Most clients with an underperforming agency know something is off months before they can name it. The numbers look professional, the calls are cordial, the numbers look fine at a glance, and still revenue is not moving.
These guides exist to help operators name what they are seeing, ask the right questions, and decide what to do before the next contract term starts.
Quick answer
This pillar covers how to evaluate a marketing agency on your own: what the monthly summary should contain, what account access you should have, who is actually running the work day to day, and how to have the performance conversation without destroying the relationship. It is written for business owners who have an agency and are not sure if renewing is the right call. If you need the framework applied to your specific situation, the Conversion Audit reviews the account directly in 72 hours.
Check next
Why this guide matters: Agency, vendor, retainer, or outsourced marketing spend is not producing a clear return. The business may renew, fire, or switch vendors before the actual real problem is known. Use the guide to check the pattern before renewing, replacing, or renegotiating the vendor.
Scanning order
The goal is not to catch someone out. The goal is to know whether the account has a strategy problem, a tracking problem, an execution problem, or a relationship problem.
Use the seven checks before signing, renewing, firing, or increasing the monthly fee.
Run checklistUse specific signs instead of vague frustration before starting the performance conversation.
Identify the signsLook past activity metrics and ask whether the summary connects spend, work, learning, and revenue.
Open the summaryIf the agency cannot answer the core questions, write an RFP that reveals judgment instead of polish.
Write the RFPUse renewal leverage to fix scope, tracking, ownership, staffing, price, and termination terms.
Renegotiate contractIf you cannot access ad accounts, data, tags, landing pages, or source-of-truth revenue data, the first problem is ownership and governance, not performance.
The collection
Checklist
Retainer risk checklist
Seven things to check before signing, renewing, firing, or increasing a marketing retainer.
Run checklist →Guide
How to tell if your marketing agency is underperforming
The specific signs of underperformance, what to ask, what to measure, and the eight questions to run before signing another contract.
Open guide →Guide
How to write a marketing agency RFP
Most agency RFPs produce identical pitch decks. The structure of an RFP that surfaces real practitioner judgment, with the specific questions that cannot be faked.
Open guide →Guide
How to assess a monthly marketing summary
Monthly agency numbers are designed to look impressive. The four-step framework for scanning past the styling and finding the real numbers.
Open guide →Guide
How to renegotiate a marketing agency contract
Annual renewals are the buyer's leverage moment. The six items to renegotiate (scope, pricing, termination, ownership, tracking, staffing) and how to do it without breaking the relationship.
Open guide →When a guide is not enough
A guide describes the pattern. Your situation has a specific shape. An agency that numbers clicks without revenue, bills against a retainer whose scope has drifted four times since signing, keeps the Google Ads account under its own MCC, and runs the work through a junior account manager you were never introduced to is not an abstract case. It is a particular combination of structural problems that has to be addressed in a particular order, usually in a particular window of time before the renewal clause triggers.
If you need someone to assess the account and the relationship directly and tell you what to ask, what to fix, and whether to renew, the Conversion Audit delivers a written marketing review in 72 hours. The review includes account access audit, tracking gap analysis, structural findings on the paid advertising work, and a prioritized list of the conversations to have before the next term starts. Starts at $999. Marketing Audit first. For the prior decision of whether to hire help at all, see the do it yourself marketing versus hiring someone comparison.
Related pillars
The engagement format
$999 starting point. written delivery. Written findings. Marketing Audit first.
Get the Marketing AuditMarketing path
Marketing issue. The useful question is where this topic touches spend, visibility, conversion, trust, or buyer action.
Buyer friction. Most weak marketing paths fail because the buyer lacks proof, context, urgency, or a clear next step.
Next move. Match the issue to the service lane before adding traffic, tools, or another campaign.
When to use SC. Use SC when the marketing system has traffic, calls, carts, or leads, but the buyer path still leaks.
| Signal | What it usually means | Next path |
|---|---|---|
| Channel issue | Ads, SEO, AI visibility, email, or local search may need a tighter service path. | Match service |
| Page issue | The page may need clearer proof, offer context, and a stronger action path. | Fix pages |
| Budget issue | The next step should be context before more spend. | Send context |