Ask ten questions every month: three about money (spend, enquiries, cost per enquiry in rupees), three about work (what changed, what was tested, what failed), two about ownership and access, and two about next month's plan. A good agency answers all ten in plain language on one page.
The point of the list is not to catch anyone. It is to make the monthly conversation the same every month, so that patterns show. One vague answer means nothing. The same vague answer three months in a row is information. Below, each question comes with the answer that should reassure you and the answer that should worry you.
Which money questions should you ask every month?
The three money questions are: how much was spent in total, split between fee and ad spend; how many enquiries that spend produced; and what each enquiry cost in rupees. These three numbers decide whether the month worked. Everything else in a report is context arranged around them.
Q1. What did we spend this month, split between your fee and ad spend?
A good answer looks like: two exact rupee figures, fee and platform spend stated separately, matching the invoice and matching what the ad platform itself shows was spent.
A worrying answer looks like: one combined number, a figure that does not reconcile with the invoice, or "it is all in the report" without the split ever being stated.
Q2. How many enquiries did that spend produce?
A good answer looks like: a count of real enquiries: calls, form fills, WhatsApp messages, walk-ins, with a note on where each type came from, roughly matching your own enquiry book.
A worrying answer looks like: reach, impressions, engagement or clicks offered in place of enquiries, or a lead count far above what your phone and inbox actually saw.
Q3. What did each enquiry cost us, in rupees?
A good answer looks like: one rupee figure, computed as spend divided by enquiries, with last month's figure beside it so you can see the direction.
A worrying answer looks like: "it varies", a switch to ROAS or CPM jargon without the rupee number, or visible surprise that you asked at all.
The money questions get answered in a report, and reports have their own tricks. Once the written answers arrive, here is how to read the answers.
Which work questions show whether anyone is actually working?
The work questions are: what changed in the account this month, what was tested, and what failed. Real management leaves evidence for all three. The change history records the changes, tests have names and outcomes, and honest reporting includes occasional failure. Silence on any of the three is itself an answer.
Q4. Show us the change history for the last 30 days.
A good answer looks like: the screen opened on the call, or a dated export sent without fuss, showing search term reviews, negative keywords, ad or bid work by named humans.
A worrying answer looks like: reluctance, "it is too technical to walk through", or a history that shows only budget nudges, or nothing, on a monthly retainer.
This is the single highest-value question on the list, and you can learn the screen before the call. The full walkthrough is here: show me the change history, and how to read it yourself.
Q5. What did you test this month?
A good answer looks like: a named test: a new ad, a new audience, a landing page change, with what it was compared against and what the result was.
A worrying answer looks like: "we are continuously optimising" with no named test, no comparison and no result, month after month.
Q6. What did not work this month?
A good answer looks like: a straight admission: this ad underperformed, this audience was too broad, here is what we changed because of it.
A worrying answer looks like: nothing has ever failed. Marketing is experimentation; a report with no misses in a year is describing a fictional account.
Which ownership and honesty questions protect you later?
Ask two things: whether the account, admin access and billing profile sit in your business's name on every platform, and whether the report's numbers can be shown to you inside the platform itself. The first protects you on the day you ever leave. The second tells you whether the report reflects reality.
Q7. Are the accounts, admin access and billing still in our name?
A good answer looks like: a platform-by-platform yes, with your account IDs stated and your admin email confirmed, for Google Ads, Meta and GA4 alike.
A worrying answer looks like: "everything is managed under our agency setup, you do not need to worry about it." You do. Start with who owns your Google Ads account, because finding out at exit time is the expensive way.
Q8. Can you show us these report numbers inside the platform?
A good answer looks like: the platform opened next to the report, the same number found in the raw data, and a calm explanation of any small attribution gap.
A worrying answer looks like: screenshots only, a refusal to open the platform live, or a gap between report and platform that never gets a straight explanation.
Which forward questions show there is a plan?
Ask what the plan for next month is and why, and what the agency needs from you to do better work. A real plan names specific actions tied to this month's findings. The second question shows whether the agency thinks about your business, or only about your account.
Q9. What is the plan for next month, and why that plan?
A good answer looks like: two or three specific actions, each connected to something this month's data showed, with what success would look like.
A worrying answer looks like: "continue and optimise", the same sentence as last month, or a plan with no connection to anything that just happened.
Q10. What do you need from us to get better results?
A good answer looks like: real requests: faster lead follow-up, a customer list, review replies, budget shifted to what is working, and evidence for why each would help.
A worrying answer looks like: "nothing, all good", every month. Marketing that never needs anything from the business is marketing that is not connected to the business.
The ten questions at a glance
| Question | Good answer sounds like | Worrying answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Q1. Spend, split fee vs ad spend | Two exact figures, matching the invoice | One blended number, no split |
| Q2. Enquiries produced | A traceable count matching your own book | Reach and impressions instead of enquiries |
| Q3. Cost per enquiry in rupees | One rupee figure, with the trend | "It varies", jargon, no number |
| Q4. Show the change history | Screen opened, human work visible | Reluctance, or an empty history |
| Q5. What was tested | A named test with a result | "Continuously optimising", nothing named |
| Q6. What failed | A straight admission plus the fix | Nothing ever fails |
| Q7. Accounts in our name | Platform-by-platform yes, IDs stated | "It is under our agency setup" |
| Q8. Numbers shown in-platform | Raw data opened beside the report | Screenshots only, unexplained gaps |
| Q9. Next month's plan, and why | Specific actions tied to this month's data | "Continue and optimise", again |
| Q10. What they need from us | Real requests with reasons | "Nothing, all good", every month |
How do you ask without souring the relationship?
Frame it as governance, not suspicion. Send the ten questions in advance as a standing monthly agenda, in writing, with the note that your company runs periodic reviews on all major spends. Good agencies treat a structured client as a better client. Only weak ones hear a routine review as an accusation.
Here is a message you can send as it stands:
"Hi [name], from this month we are moving our review to a standing monthly format, the same way we run the rest of the business. We run periodic reviews on all major spends, and marketing is one of them. I am sending ten standard questions ahead of our monthly call; short written answers against each work perfectly. Nothing has changed on our side. The same set will come every month, so it should get easier each time."
Notice what the script does. It names a policy, not a doubt. It applies to all spends, so the agency is not singled out. And it promises repetition, which is the real discipline: the value of these questions comes from asking them every month, not once.
Want this as a one-page monthly routine? The printable monthly version of these questions covers the same ground in tick-box form. Print it, keep it in the review folder, share it on WhatsApp with whoever sits in the meeting.
What if the answers stay vague two months running?
Give it two consecutive months. One vague month can be workload or a bad week. Two identical dodges on the same questions form a pattern. At that point, stop asking harder and start verifying: gather the evidence from the platforms rather than from the agency, before any renewal decision or difficult conversation.
Verification does not require confrontation. Read-only access to your own accounts, thirty minutes with the change history and the search terms report, and one reconciled number from last month's report will tell you most of what the answers would not.
Or have a senior practitioner put these questions to the account itself. A Pulse Check is a senior read of one channel against a published 12-point scorecard, with a 30-minute call on what it found; the fee credits fully toward any higher audit tier within 30 days.
Frequently asked questions
How often should a marketing agency report?
Monthly at minimum, in writing, with spend, enquiries and cost per enquiry in rupees. Accounts with meaningful ad spend deserve a short mid-month check-in as well. The format matters more than the frequency: the same numbers, in the same structure, every month, so you can compare one month against the next.
Is it rude to ask my agency for change history?
No. The change history is a standard report inside Google Ads, and reviewing it is a normal part of owning the account. Frame it as routine governance rather than suspicion. An agency doing real work usually welcomes the question, because the history is the cleanest evidence that the work happened.
What if my agency answers with jargon?
Ask them to repeat the answer in plain language, as if explaining it to a partner who has never opened an ad account. A person who understands the work can always simplify it. Persistent jargon after a direct request is itself an answer: either they do not know, or they prefer that you did not.
What if my agency dodges the cost-per-lead question?
Ask once more, in writing: total spend divided by enquiries, in rupees. It is simple arithmetic from numbers they already hold. If it is still dodged, compute it yourself from the invoice and your own enquiry records, and treat the dodge as a finding worth verifying independently before any renewal.