How to Choose a Contractor Marketing Agency (7 Questions They Don't Want You to Ask)

You've been burned before. Maybe it was the agency that charged $2,000/month for 6 months and produced a PDF full of "impressions" but zero jobs. Maybe it was the web designer who built you a pretty site that generates exactly zero leads. Maybe it was the SEO company that promised page 1 rankings and delivered page 1 for a keyword nobody searches.

The contractor marketing space is full of people who are great at selling marketing and terrible at doing marketing. And the problem isn't that you chose wrong — it's that you didn't know what questions to ask.

Here are 7 questions that separate agencies that produce jobs from agencies that produce excuses. Most of them don't want you to ask these. Ask them anyway.

Question 1: Do You Track Revenue, Not Just Leads?

This is the single most important question. And most agencies will fail it.

Any agency can tell you how many leads they generated. "We sent you 47 leads last month." Great. How many turned into estimates? How many became signed contracts? What was the total revenue from those contracts?

If the agency can't answer that, they're tracking the wrong thing. Leads are meaningless without revenue. A lead is someone who called. A job is someone who paid. The gap between those two things is enormous, and most agencies don't bridge it because they don't want to be held accountable for what actually matters.

What a good agency says: "Last month we generated 32 leads for [client]. 18 were qualified. 7 became signed contracts totaling $94,000 in revenue. Your cost per closed job was $571."

What a bad agency says: "We generated 47 leads and increased your website traffic by 23%."

If they're tracking impressions and clicks instead of dollars and jobs, walk away.

Question 2: Who Owns the Website?

This question exposes one of the most predatory practices in contractor marketing. Some agencies build your website on their hosting, their domain registration, or their proprietary platform. When you leave, they keep the website. Or they charge you thousands to "export" it. Or the site simply can't be moved because it was built on a closed system.

You paid for it. You should own it. Period.

What you want to hear: "You own the website. It's built on your domain, hosted on an account in your name, and we'll hand over full access whenever you want."

What should make you nervous: "We host it on our servers for your convenience" or "the site is built on our proprietary platform."

Convenience for them. Hostage situation for you. If you can't take your website with you when you leave, you don't own it. You're renting it. And every dollar they invested in that site is an asset they keep, not you.

Question 3: Can You Show Me Real Job Revenue Numbers?

Not leads. Not traffic graphs. Not "case studies" with vague percentages. Actual dollar amounts from actual clients.

"We helped a roofing company increase their leads by 300%." 300% of what? From 2 leads to 6? That's $3,000/month for 4 extra leads. Not impressive.

"We generated $112K in closed roofing jobs in 90 days." Now we're talking. That's a number you can check. That's a number that means something.

An agency that tracks revenue can show you revenue. An agency that tracks clicks can only show you clicks. Ask for the revenue numbers. If they can't produce them, it's because they don't have them.

Question 4: What Happens If I Leave?

Ask this on the first call, before you sign anything. The answer reveals everything about the agency's business model.

A good agency builds assets that you keep:

Website on your domain that you own
Google Ads account in your name with all the historical data
SEO work baked into your site's pages (you don't lose rankings overnight)
Google Business Profile that remains yours
Call tracking numbers that can port to your next provider

A bad agency builds dependency:

Website on their server that disappears when you cancel
Google Ads running through their MCC (manager account) with no access for you
SEO "work" that exists only in their reporting portal
Proprietary tools that lock you in
Long-term contracts with hefty cancellation fees

The test is simple: if you left tomorrow, what would you walk away with? If the answer is "nothing," you're not a client. You're a captive.

Question 5: What Does Your Negative Keyword List Look Like?

This is the nerd question that immediately tells you whether the agency knows what they're doing with Google Ads. Most agency salespeople won't even understand why you're asking.

A negative keyword list prevents your ads from showing up for irrelevant searches. Without one, a roofing company bidding on "roofing" will pay $25-$45 per click for searches like "roofing jobs hiring," "DIY roofing," "roofing materials wholesale," and "roofing license requirements." None of those people are going to hire a roofer. All of them cost money.

A proper contractor Google Ads account has 200-400+ negative keywords. An agency that manages contractor campaigns daily should have extensive lists for every trade. If they can't show you a negative keyword list or they stammer through the answer, they're not managing your ads closely enough.

What you want to hear: "We start with a 200+ negative keyword list built from years of managing contractor campaigns, and we add to it weekly based on search term reviews."

What should concern you: A blank stare, "we handle that," or a list with fewer than 50 terms.

Question 6: Do You Build on MY Domain?

This is related to the ownership question but different enough to warrant its own section. Some agencies build landing pages on their own domain (youragencyname.com/your-business). Some use third-party platforms where your content lives on someone else's URL. Some build microsites on separate domains you don't control.

All of this is a problem. Here's why:

SEO value. Every link, every page, every piece of content should build authority on YOUR domain. If the agency is building pages on their domain, they're building their asset, not yours.
Brand trust. A homeowner who clicks an ad and lands on "youragency.com/your-business" instead of "yourbusiness.com" is less likely to trust it.
Portability. If it's not on your domain, you can't take it with you. And the SEO equity built on that content? It stays with whoever owns the domain.

The rule is simple: everything should be built on a domain you own and control. Your website, your landing pages, your blog content, your service pages, your location pages. All of it. No exceptions.

Question 7: Can I Call 3 Current Clients?

This is the question that makes mediocre agencies sweat. Testimonials on a website can be fabricated. Case studies can be cherry-picked. But a live phone call with a current client? That's impossible to fake.

You're not asking for a curated reference list. You're asking to talk to 3 people who are currently paying this agency money. Current clients — not past clients from 3 years ago who may have had a completely different experience.

Ask those clients:

How many jobs has the agency produced for you in the last 90 days?
Do they track revenue or just leads?
How responsive are they when you have questions?
What do you wish they did differently?
Would you sign up again knowing what you know now?

An agency that's actually producing results will happily connect you with clients. They know those clients will sing their praises because the numbers speak for themselves. An agency that dodges this request or offers "testimonials instead" — that tells you everything.

Bonus Red Flags

While you're evaluating, watch for these:

"We guarantee page 1 rankings." Nobody can guarantee rankings. Google's algorithm is theirs, not the agency's. An agency that guarantees rankings is either lying or targeting keywords so obscure that ranking means nothing.
Long-term contracts with no performance clauses. A 12-month contract with no exit for nonperformance means they get paid whether they produce results or not. Look for month-to-month or performance-based exit clauses.
"We work with every industry." An agency that works with contractors, restaurants, law firms, e-commerce stores, and SaaS companies is a generalist. They don't understand contractor economics, seasonal patterns, or the specific keywords your customers search.
They won't share their process. If they can't explain exactly what they'll do in months 1, 2, and 3, they don't have a process. They're winging it with your money.
Monthly reports full of vanity metrics. Impressions, reach, engagement, followers. None of these book jobs. If the report doesn't show leads and revenue, it's a smokescreen.

For a deeper look at what goes wrong when contractors choose the cheapest option, read the cheap marketing agency trap. And if you're comparing agencies against buying leads from platforms, see our full pay-per-lead vs agency breakdown.

The Right Agency Wants You to Ask These Questions

Here's the thing: an agency that's actually good will welcome these questions. They'll have answers ready because they've built their entire model around accountability and transparency. The revenue tracking, the asset ownership, the negative keyword lists — these aren't gotcha questions for a real agency. They're just how business should work.

The agencies that squirm are the ones that profit from your ignorance. They rely on contractors not knowing what to ask. Now you know.

Ask Us Every One of These Questions

We track revenue, not just leads. You own everything we build. We have 200+ negative keyword lists for every trade we work with. Everything is built on your domain. And we'll happily put you on the phone with current clients.

Fill out the 2-minute application and ask us whatever you want. If we're the right fit, you'll see it in the numbers. If we're not, we'll tell you before you spend a dollar.