You can tell in three checks: do the reported results reconcile with the raw platform numbers, is there recent human activity in the account's change history, and can the agency state your cost per enquiry in rupees. If any of the three fails, the report is telling you a story, not the truth.
Most owners who search this are not angry. Nothing is wrong exactly, but nothing is happening either. The report says everything is up. The phone says otherwise. This page gives you a way to check properly, tonight, without asking anyone.
Here is how the page works. First, why a report can look healthy while the business feels flat. Then a 15-point self-check you can score in an evening, ending in one of three leanings: Keep, Fix or Replace. After that, the specific questions owners ask most, from what an SEO retainer should produce every month to what agencies typically cost in India, each answered in plain language.
Why can a marketing report look good while the business feels flat?
Because most agency reports measure activity, not outcomes. Reach, impressions and clicks can all rise while enquiries fall, and conversion counts can be inflated by double counting or by counting the wrong action. The only defence is reconciling the report against the raw platform data and your own enquiry records.
Activity numbers rise almost by default. Spend money on ads and reach goes up. Keep spending and impressions go up. None of that says whether a single new customer walked in. A results number, by contrast, has to survive contact with your own records: your phone, your enquiry forms, your WhatsApp, your billing. That is why the two kinds of report feel so different to read.
| Activity report | Results report | |
|---|---|---|
| Leads with | Reach, impressions, clicks, engagement | Enquiries, customers, cost per enquiry in rupees |
| When the numbers rise, it means | More people saw something | More people contacted you |
| Can you verify it against your own records? | Not really | Yes: calls, forms, walk-ins, invoices |
| What it proves about the retainer | That something happened | Whether the spend paid |
There is also a subtler failure that looks honest from the outside: the double-counted conversion. If a purchase and a begin-checkout are both set as conversion goals, one real sale is reported as two conversions. The lead count doubles, nobody lied in any single cell of the spreadsheet, and the report still does not describe reality. It is checkable in minutes on the conversion settings screen, and it is one of the most common inflators in Indian accounts.
These reports are built to be hard to question. That is not your failing. A full walkthrough of which numbers matter and which are decoration is in our guide on how to read an agency report.
The 15-point self-check (score it Keep, Fix or Replace)
The Keep-Fix-Replace test is a three-verdict method for judging a marketing agency: Keep if reported results reconcile with raw platform data and the work is real, Fix if the work is real but misdirected, Replace if reporting and reality do not match.
Score each item 2 for yes with evidence, 1 for not sure, 0 for no. Thirty points available. This gives you a leaning, not a verdict; a verdict needs someone inside the account.
Part 1. Is anyone actually working in the account?
- The Google Ads change history shows meaningful human entries in the last 30 days, not only budget or bid nudges. Change history is the platform's own log of every edit made in the account, and it cannot be rewritten. The 2-minute check: open Change history in Google Ads, set the range to 30 days, and see what a month of retainer actually produced.
- The search terms report has been reviewed and negative keywords added within the last 90 days. The search terms report lists the real queries your ads showed for; leaving it unread means paying for irrelevant clicks. The 2-minute check: in Change history, filter for keyword changes and look for negative keywords added within the quarter.
- At least one new ad, creative or audience test ran in the last quarter. Accounts that never test never improve; they only spend. The 2-minute check: sort ads by creation date in Google Ads or Meta Ads Manager and see when something new last went live.
The full click-by-click walkthrough of these screens, with no expertise needed, is the 30-Minute Owner's Check.
Part 2. Do you own your own accounts?
- You know your Google Ads account ID and hold admin access under your own email. If your only view of your ads is the agency's reporting portal, you do not control the account. The 2-minute check: sign in at ads.google.com with your own email; the ten-digit account ID sits at the top of the screen.
- Your Meta Page, pixel and ad account sit in a Business Manager your business controls. The pixel holds your remarketing audiences; whoever holds the Business Manager holds them. The 2-minute check: sign in at business.facebook.com and open Business settings; the portfolio should be your business's, with your email as admin.
- GA4 and Google Tag Manager admin, plus the domain and hosting, are in your name. Losing analytics or the domain in an exit hurts more than losing any campaign. The 2-minute check: in GA4, Admin, Account access management should list you as Administrator, and your domain registrar login should be yours.
The full rule and the per-platform checks are on the Three Access Rule page.
Part 3. Are the reports honest?
- Last month's report numbers match the raw platform numbers when you open the platform yourself. Small attribution gaps are normal; large unexplained ones are not. The 2-minute check: pick one number from the report, set the same date range in the platform, and compare.
- Conversions are counted once, with no duplicate conversion goals. The same sale counted as both a purchase and a begin-checkout doubles the reported results. The 2-minute check: open the conversion settings screen and read exactly which actions are being counted.
- The report states cost per enquiry in rupees, not only reach and impressions. A cost per enquiry is the one number that connects the retainer to the business. The 2-minute check: scan last month's report for a rupee figure per lead, and note how the request lands if you have to ask for it.
- The report has ever included a failure, a miss, or a "this did not work". Real marketing includes experiments that fail; a report that has never admitted one is curated, not complete. The 2-minute check: flip through the last three reports looking for a single admitted miss.
Part 4. Does the money add up?
- You can state, without looking it up, how your monthly payment splits between agency fee and ad spend. If you cannot, the invoice is doing the remembering for you, and possibly the hiding too. The 2-minute check: say the split out loud, then verify it against last month's invoice.
- You understand the fee model (flat retainer, percentage of spend, or hybrid) and the invoice shows it clearly. Each model rewards different behaviour, and you should know which one you are paying for. The 2-minute check: read the invoice; the fee line and the ad spend line should be separate and labelled.
Part 5. Are the results real?
- Leads answer the phone, come from cities you serve, and some become customers. A lead that never picks up is a row in a spreadsheet, not a result. The 2-minute check: call five leads from last month's list and keep notes on what you find.
- Your own enquiry book (calls, walk-ins, WhatsApp) moves in the same direction as the report. Reports and reality can drift apart for months before anyone notices. The 2-minute check: put three months of your own enquiry counts next to three months of reported leads; the directions should match.
- When you ask a question, you get an answer in plain language, not a presentation. You should never need a translator for your own money. The 2-minute check: recall the last time you pushed back on a number, and whether what came back was an answer or a slide deck.
How to score it
| Score | Leaning | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 24-30, no zero in Parts 2 or 3 | Keep leaning | The work is probably real. Keep the relationship and run this check quarterly. |
| 15-23 | Fix leaning | Something real is happening but parts are misdirected or opaque. Worth a structured conversation, or an independent review before renewal. |
| Below 15, or any zero on items 4-8 | Replace risk | Ownership or reporting-honesty failures outrank everything else. Verify the facts independently before you renew or exit. |
A self-score is directional. Several items (2, 7, 8) need someone reading the account itself.
If your score lands in Fix or Replace territory, an independent marketing agency audit verifies the evidence and puts the verdict in writing.
How do I check if my agency is actually working in my Google Ads account?
Open Google Ads, go to Change history, and set the date range to the last three months. Real management leaves a trail: search term reviews, negative keywords, ad tests, bid strategy adjustments. Months of near-empty history on a monthly retainer is the clearest sign an account is on autopilot.
You do not need any technical background to read that screen, and you do not need to tell anyone you are reading it. The full 30-minute procedure, including the search terms report and the conversions column, is the 30-Minute Owner's Check.
What is my SEO agency actually doing every month?
A real SEO retainer produces visible artefacts every month: pages published or changed, technical fixes you can list, links earned, and movement in Google Search Console you can log in and see yourself. SEO takes time is true of results, but never of activity. Activity is checkable from month one.
Ask for the evidence in four lines each month, and expect it without friction:
- Pages: the URLs published or materially changed this month, listed, so you can open each one.
- Fixes: the technical items closed, in plain words, such as speed, broken links, or indexing problems.
- Links: where the site was mentioned or linked this month, named, so you can verify each placement.
- Search Console: the movement in clicks and impressions, shown from your own Search Console access, not a screenshot.
A quick outside view of your own site takes two minutes with our free SEO checker. And if months of retainer have produced no artefacts at all, here is what to do when the agency is not delivering.
How much should a digital marketing agency cost per month in India?
Published Indian pricing guides put typical SME retainers between Rs 20,000 and Rs 75,000 per month, with Google Ads management commonly at 10 to 20 percent of ad spend, billed separately from the spend itself. Treat these as indicative ranges; the real question is whether the fee reconciles against enquiries produced.
Ranges like these are useful for one thing only: telling you whether your retainer is wildly outside the market. They cannot tell you whether it is worth paying, because a Rs 25,000 retainer that produces forty real enquiries is a better deal than a Rs 15,000 one that produces four. The arithmetic that settles it is always the same: three months of fees plus spend, divided by the enquiries you can verify in the raw data and your own records, stated in rupees.
The full benchmark page, covering fee models, what each band should buy, and what the invoice should show, is here: agency fees in India: indicative ranges.
Can your CA, a business friend, or another agency tell you if your marketing agency is good?
Only partly. A CA can confirm the amount is large but cannot read a Google Ads account. A business friend can only compare his own agency. A WhatsApp group has no confidentiality. And a rival agency offering a free audit decided its verdict before opening your account: fire them, hire us. None of them can give an opinion from someone barred from profiting by the answer.
Your CA is the natural first stop, and he is genuinely useful for half the question: he can confirm the money left the bank and the invoice is in order. But the books cannot show whether anyone worked inside the ad account or whether the reported leads exist. Reading that is a different profession.
The business friend means well, and his recommendation is a sample size of one. His agency may be excellent for his business and wrong for yours, and he has no way to compare his agency against yours except by anecdote.
The trade WhatsApp group is where many owners quietly test the question, and it is the worst room for it. Your doubt about your own agency travels, and the answers you get back are the same recommendations and anecdotes, minus the discretion.
The rival agency's free audit is the most polished option and the least reliable one. It will often surface real findings, and you should keep them. But its conclusion existed before your account was opened, because the audit is a sales document for the retainer that follows it.
Your CA audits the books. Nobody audits the marketing.
When should you get an independent second opinion?
Get one when a self-check lands in Fix or Replace territory, when a renewal or lock-in expiry is approaching, or when you have stopped feeling confident and cannot say why. An independent audit reconciles the agency's reports against raw platform data and ends in one written verdict: keep, fix or replace.
If that is where you are, you can get a written Keep, Fix or Replace verdict: the Full Second Opinion is a founder-signed verdict letter with an evidence annex and a 90-day re-check, run against a checklist published in advance. If you want a smaller first step, the Pulse Check is a senior read of one channel, and its fee credits fully toward any higher audit tier within 30 days.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if my marketing agency is doing a good job?
Run three checks: the results in the agency's report should reconcile with the raw platform numbers, the Google Ads change history should show recent human activity, and the agency should be able to state your cost per enquiry in rupees. If any of the three fails, the account deserves a closer, evidence-based look.
How long should I give a marketing agency before judging results?
Judge activity from the first month and results by channel. Paid search should show a directional signal within four to eight weeks. SEO results take months to compound, but SEO activity, meaning pages, fixes and links, is checkable from month one. An agency asking for patience on results must still show evidence of work today.
What should a monthly agency report include?
At minimum: what was spent, how many enquiries it produced, and the cost per enquiry in rupees, followed by what changed in the account, what was tested, what failed, and what is planned next. A report that leads with reach and impressions but never states cost per enquiry is measuring activity, not outcomes.
What is an independent marketing audit?
An independent marketing audit is a paid, fixed-fee review of your existing agency's work by a firm that is contractually barred from taking over the accounts it audits. It reconciles the agency's reports against raw platform data and ends in a written verdict: Keep, Fix or Replace. Apex Influence publishes its version, the Second Opinion, with fixed fees.
How much does a marketing agency audit cost in India?
Apex Influence publishes fixed fees: Rs 74,900 for the all-channel Full Second Opinion with a written verdict, Rs 1,49,000 for the annual Governance Audit, Rs 24,900 for a deep single-channel Channel Audit, and Rs 9,900 for a Pulse Check. Fees are fixed and published, never a percentage of your ad spend.
Will my agency know I am getting a second opinion?
Not unless you tell them. An independent review runs on read-only access and does not require the agency's participation, and nothing is shared with your agency without your instruction. Well-run companies review every major recurring spend on a cycle; a second opinion is governance, not an accusation.
What if the audit says my agency is fine?
Then the verdict is Keep, delivered in writing, usually with a short improvement list. A credible audit commits to Keep whenever the evidence supports it. That outcome still has value: the doubt ends, the relationship strengthens, and your agency gains an independent document showing its work stands up to scrutiny.