You have three options, not two. Most owners think the choice is tolerate or terminate. The third option is a verdict: establish with evidence whether the work is real, misdirected, or fictional, then keep, fix, or replace based on facts rather than frustration.
The method behind that verdict is the Keep-Fix-Replace test, a three-verdict way of scoring an agency on evidence instead of emotion. This page walks you through the questions that come before any firing decision: how long is a fair trial, when "SEO takes time" is true and when it is a shield, whether the agency is even the problem, and what your realistic alternatives cost. By the end you will know which of the three verdicts your situation is leaning toward, and what to check before you act on it.
How long should you give a marketing agency before judging results?
Judge activity from month one and results by channel. Paid search should show directional signal within 4 to 8 weeks. SEO results take months, but SEO activity, pages, fixes and links, is visible immediately. An agency asking for patience on results must still show evidence of work today.
The table below gives honest timelines channel by channel. Every figure is a typical range, not a promise; a competitive market, a small budget or a weak offer stretches all of them.
| Channel | Activity you should see immediately | Typical time to directional results | When to worry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads (search) | Campaign structure built, search terms reviewed, negative keywords added, entries in the change history | 4 to 8 weeks | A near-empty change history for a month on a live retainer |
| Meta ads | New creatives, audience tests, a structured account rather than one boosted post | 4 to 8 weeks, longer for cold audiences | The same creative running for months with no tests |
| SEO | Pages published or changed, technical fixes you can list, Search Console access shared | 3 to 9 months for meaningful movement | No listable artefacts by the end of month one |
| Content and blog | A published calendar and live articles on your site | 3 to 9 months, compounding after | Drafts promised in meetings, nothing published on the site |
Notice the pattern: results have a waiting period, activity never does. That distinction is the whole game. An agency that is behind on results but ahead on evidence deserves patience. An agency that is behind on both is asking you to pay for a story.
Is "SEO takes time" true or an excuse?
Both, depending on what it is applied to. It is true of rankings and traffic, which compound over months. It is an excuse when applied to activity: a real retainer produces listable artefacts every month. Ask for last month's artefacts, not last month's promises.
Artefacts are things you can point at: the URLs of pages published or rewritten, the technical fixes made and where, the links earned and from which sites, and movement you can see yourself in Google Search Console. None of that requires rankings to have moved yet. A retainer of Rs 25,000 a month should produce a list every month; if the monthly answer is a repeat of "these things take time" with nothing attached, the phrase has stopped describing SEO and started describing the invoice.
Is it the agency, the offer, or the follow-up?
Not always the agency. Poor results have three independent failure points: the campaigns themselves, the offer and landing page the clicks arrive at, and what happens to each enquiry after it comes in. Competent ads pointed at a weak offer or an unanswered phone still produce a bad month.
Before any firing conversation, check the other two failure points honestly. The offer: is what the ad promises actually competitive in your city, at your price, against what a buyer sees in the three ads above yours? A Bengaluru clinic advertising a consultation at twice the going rate will not be saved by better targeting. The landing page: does the form work, does the page load on an ordinary Android phone on mobile data, does the phone number connect?
Then the follow-up, which is where more campaigns die than anywhere else: how fast does someone respond to an enquiry, what happens to leads that arrive after 7 pm or on a Sunday, and does anyone call the second time when the first call goes unanswered? An agency can fill the top of the funnel while the bottom leaks. If that is your situation, replacing the agency changes nothing except the logo on the report. Fix the leak you actually have.
What evidence should you gather before any conversation?
Three items: a 90-day view of your Google Ads change history, the search terms report for the same period, and one reconciled number, where you take last month's reported leads and find the same count in the raw platform data. Together they show whether anyone is working, where money leaks, and whether the report is honest.
All three come from read-only access and none of them needs the agency's help. If you want the full walkthrough, gather this evidence first using the 30-minute self-audit; it takes one evening and no technical background. And before you sit down with the numbers, it helps to know how to read your marketing agency report, so you can separate the numbers that pay salaries from the numbers that decorate slides.
Evidence changes the conversation. "I am not happy" invites a presentation. "The change history shows four entries in ninety days and the report says 62 leads but the platform shows 31" invites an answer. Whichever verdict you land on, you want to land on it holding paper, not feelings.
Should you move marketing in-house, hire another agency, or fix this one?
It depends on what actually failed. In-house suits businesses with enough work to keep a full-time marketer busy and managed. A new agency makes sense when reporting honesty is broken, but it resets history and learning. Fixing the current agency is fastest when the work is real but misdirected.
| Option | What it fixes | What it costs you | The risk nobody mentions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Move marketing in-house | Full control, instant communication, undivided attention on your business | A full-time salary plus software, plus a manager's time to direct and review the work | One hire rarely covers Google Ads, Meta, SEO and analytics at the same depth; a wrong hire costs you six months of results and a notice period |
| Hire another agency | Fresh eyes, fresh energy, a clean psychological slate | Onboarding time, a new learning curve on your account, and account history put at risk if the exit is handled badly | You may be swapping one unverified bet for another; the new agency's free audit of your account was a sales document, not a diagnosis |
| Fix the current agency | Keeps your account history, audiences and everything already learned about your market | A structured conversation, a specific action list and a defined review date | It only works if the underlying work was real; misdirected effort is fixable, fictional reporting is not |
If you do decide to leave, in either direction, do it in the right order. Read how to switch marketing agencies without losing your accounts before you say a word to anyone, because owners who give notice before securing ownership of their ad accounts, pixel and analytics negotiate for their own property from the weaker side.
What does the third option look like in practice?
An evidence-based verdict means someone reads the account itself: the change history, the search terms, the conversion settings, and the last reports reconciled against raw platform data. The outcome is one of three findings, keep, fix or replace, each backed by evidence you can act on the same week.
A keep finding ends the doubt and strengthens a relationship worth keeping. A fix finding turns vague frustration into a prioritised list you hand to your agency with a review date attached. A replace finding tells you the reporting and the reality do not match, and that the next conversation is an exit plan, not a performance review. All three beat the usual alternative, which is stewing for another quarter and then deciding in anger.
Want the verdict settled before you decide? An independent audit runs a published checklist against your account, reconciles the reports against raw data, and gives you a written Keep, Fix or Replace verdict before you decide. Fixed fee, read-only access, and the auditor is barred in writing from taking over any account it audits for 12 months.
See How the Second Opinion WorksFrequently asked questions
Should I fire my agency after one bad month?
Rarely. One bad month can be seasonality, a platform change or a tracking problem. What justifies action is a pattern: two or three flat months combined with an empty change history and reports that do not reconcile with platform data. Judge the trend and the activity trail together, never a single report.
How long should I give a new agency in India?
Judge by channel, not by a single deadline. For paid ads, expect setup in the first two to four weeks and directional signal within 4 to 8 weeks, typically. For SEO, expect visible activity from month one and meaningful movement in three to nine months. At every stage, ask for evidence of work, not patience.
Is no result after 3 months of SEO normal?
Limited ranking movement after three months can be normal for a new site in a competitive Indian market. No activity after three months is not. By month three you should be able to list pages published, technical fixes made and links earned, and see early impressions building in Google Search Console.
What should I do before ending an agency contract?
Secure ownership first. Confirm the ad accounts, analytics, tag manager and domain are in your name and that you hold admin access, export your data and change history, then re-read the contract for notice and ownership clauses. Owners who give notice before securing ownership negotiate for their own property from the weaker side.