Anybody can promise to run your ads. Fewer people can tell you, plainly, what happens after somebody clicks one. That gap is the reason this list exists: ten questions worth asking before you spend a dollar with anyone, us included. Ask them out loud, in the first conversation, before there's a contract to feel awkward about walking away from.
The same ten work for anyone you hire to do marketing, not only ads: search, social, a new website. Swap "ad" for whatever they're selling and ask the same questions. The argument behind this whole run is that an ad, or a post, or a redesigned site, only buys attention. Everything that decides whether that attention turns into work happens after it.
Why does this list matter more than which platform they use?
Because the platform is the smallest decision in the whole arrangement. It hardly matters whether somebody buys clicks on one service or another if nobody has thought about where those clicks land, who answers them, or how the numbers get counted afterward. Ask about the platform last, not first.
What is the difference between a media buyer, an ad agency and a marketing operations team?
The difference is what each one owns after the ad runs, not which platform they use. A media buyer buys and manages ad placements and reports on cost. An ad agency usually does that plus the ads themselves, sometimes the page too. A marketing operations team owns what happens around and after the ad: where the inquiry lands, who answers it, the follow-up, the count, the repeat customer. All three are legitimate hires, and none is required to cover the other two unless you've agreed to it up front. Trouble starts when nobody knows which one they actually hired.
1. Who builds the page the click lands on, and the page after the form?
A good answer names a person for both pages, the one an ad sends someone to and the one that appears right after the form is submitted, and confirms both have been checked on a desktop and a phone. A bad answer only accounts for the first page, or lets the click land on the home page and calls it done. Where the click lands decides as much as the ad's headline, and the page after the form deserves the same attention.
2. Who answers a new inquiry, how fast, and who has it when that person is out?
A good answer gives a name, a backup name for when that person is out sick or on vacation, and a number they can tell you today, in minutes, not days. A bad answer is "whoever's free," because that's the same as nobody, and it shows the day the one person who usually answers doesn't. The first five minutes after an inquiry lands decide more than anything the ad said.
3. Where does every inquiry land, and does anything tell someone when it arrives?
A good answer is one place, no matter which source the inquiry came from, and something that notifies a real person the moment it arrives. A bad answer lists three or four separate inboxes, or describes a system that collects inquiries and tells nobody. Ask to see the one place. If it takes more than a minute to pull up, or nothing pinged when you tested it, it isn't one place yet.
4. How is a lead counted, and could the same one be counted twice?
A good answer names the exact moment a lead counts, a form confirmed received, not a page that happened to load, and uses a plain definition: a lead is somebody you got information from, who showed real interest. A bad answer is a number in a report nobody can walk you through. Counting it right is worth asking about before you trust a single figure they show you.
5. What happens to someone who asks for a quote and then goes quiet?
A good answer describes a second and third contact, on a schedule, not left to memory. A bad answer treats a quiet inquiry as a lost one and moves on to the next click. The ones who almost booked cost the same to get as the ones who did.
6. What do you do when we tell you the leads are bad?
A good answer is a question back: bad how, and can you show me one. A bad answer is a shrug toward more budget, because that complaint usually means something specific went unheard, not that the whole idea failed.
7. Whose accounts does all of this run in, and what happens to it if we part ways?
A good answer is yours: the domain, the analytics, the ad account, the customer list, all under your own login today, and nothing stops running if you part ways later. A bad answer is theirs, where you can see reports but can't log in yourself, and everything stops the day the contract does. Whose name is on it is worth checking before you sign anything, not after.
8. Is this a package, or is it built around my business?
There's no one-size-fits-all system to buy and switch on. A good answer starts with questions about the tools and people you already have, builds around them, and describes the plan as build and iterate, starting narrow and adjusting as it goes. A bad answer is the same package every client gets, on the same schedule, regardless of what you sell. The general path can look the same for everyone; the build underneath it should not.
9. Who decides to spend more, and what number says it is safe?
A good answer names an actual number they check first, the share of inquiries that turn into paid work, and the cost of each one, checked before a budget change and again after. A bad answer treats "spend more" as the fix whatever the gaps behind it, sending more people into the same gaps: the call nobody answered, the quote nobody chased. More spend doesn't fix that; it just buys more of it, at a bigger price.
10. Will you tell me when the ads are not the problem?
A good answer is yes, plainly, even when the honest answer is "the page needs work" or "nobody's answering the phone" rather than "spend more with us." A bad answer never says that, because raising the budget is the only move some hires know how to make. Ask whether they've ever told a client to slow down. That's rarer than it should be.
Every one of these ten comes down to the same thing: what we call marketing operations, the work of having systems in place so a lead gets followed up, counted honestly, and brought back later, sitting in the overlap between marketing, sales, operations, and the owner. A person hired only to buy ads was never hired to answer these, and it isn't fair to expect it. Somebody still has to. That somebody can be on staff, several people, or us. What matters is that each question above has a name next to it, not a shrug.
How do you score the answers once you have them?
Every good answer above is a name, a place, or a number, something you could go check yourself if you wanted to. A confident answer with no specifics, "we handle all that," is the real warning sign, more than any answer that admits to a gap. An honest "that part isn't us, here's who should own it" is a good answer too. It names a boundary instead of hiding one.
Ask us these same ten questions. We'd rather answer them before you spend a dollar with us than after. If you want a plain look at where your own inquiries go once an ad sends someone your way, that conversation costs nothing to have.
Questions owners ask
Should I ask these questions if I already have an agency running my ads?
Yes, especially then. An agency that has been running your ads for a year should be able to answer all ten without pausing, since the answers describe work they're already doing. If any answer is vague or new to them, that's worth knowing now rather than at renewal time.
What's the difference between a media buyer, an ad agency and a marketing operations team?
A media buyer buys and manages ad placements and reports on what they cost. An ad agency usually does that plus the ads themselves, sometimes the landing page too. A marketing operations team owns what happens around and after the ad: where the inquiry lands, who answers it, the follow-up, the count, and the repeat customer. All three are legitimate hires; the mistake is assuming one covers ground it was never asked to.
What's the single biggest warning sign in an answer?
A confident answer with no specifics. "We handle all that" without naming who, where, or how usually means the question has never come up before. The good answers in this piece all point to a person, a place, or a number. The weak ones point to a feeling.
Can I run some of these checks myself before I ever ask the question?
Yes. Call the number on your own ad, fill in your own form and see who replies and how fast, and reload your own thank-you page to see if the lead count moves when nothing new has happened. Those three checks alone will tell you more than most conversations will.
From the field
None of these ten needs a stranger to answer them. They need someone whose name is already on the account.