Most brands that come to Fetén arrive after working with two or three agencies that sold forty-page communication plans and delivered PDFs nobody was ever going to read. They charged. The brand, meanwhile, didn’t grow.
It’s not a coincidence: the traditional marketing business is still built on opinion-as-deliverable and billable hours. The question isn’t whether your agency works — it’s whether what they ship moves the business.
Five questions before you sign
- What specific metric will we move? Not “more visibility”. Try qualified leads per month, target ROAS, post-click conversion rate.
- When will I see the first impact? If they say “it depends”, ask for a reasonable window with conditions — no commitment, no honest urgency, no focus.
- Who is fronting this project? If a senior pitches and a junior delivers alone, the output shows it. Ask for names.
- How do you report? A dashboard you have permanent access to, not a polished monthly slideshow.
- What happens if results don’t land? Serious agencies have a Plan B before they start. Snake-oil sellers don’t.
What isn’t a red flag
- A small agency: if they’re well organized, they hit harder than a big player.
- Not being cheap: cheap is expensive when you talk about brand and acquisition.
- Pushing back on your brief: if everything you say sounds great, they’re not adding judgement.
What is
- Promises of “rank #1 on Google in 30 days”.
- “Guaranteed 8× ROAS” before they’ve even seen your product.
- Teams that swap faces every meeting.
- Long meetings with no minutes and no clear decisions.
If you’re choosing an agency and want an honest second read, get in touch. We won’t sell you anything we can’t deliver.