6 Questions Before Signing with a Marketing Company in 2026

A cold pitch may claim that a website isn't ranking. Check the claim yourself before you treat it as a real problem.

Six questions can make proposals easier to compare. Xomer has a commercial interest in this comparison: its $499 build includes month one, followed by required $150/month while Xomer operates the site. Evaluate Xomer and every other provider against the same written evidence.

Question 1: Do I own the website if I leave?

Platform and ownership are separate contract questions. A proprietary platform may license, transfer, export, or restrict assets under different terms. Verify ownership, access, portability, and what happens on cancellation for the website, domain, content, data, and profiles.

A lower-risk arrangement often keeps the domain in the customer's name and states ownership, licenses, exports, hosting transition, content, and data rights in writing. If the contract is vague here, get it fixed before you sign.

Ask specifically: "If I cancel tomorrow, who owns the website, who controls the domain, and what happens to my Google Business Profile?"

Question 2: Can you show me ranking results for businesses similar to mine in comparable markets?

Ask for evidence relevant to the proposed outcome. It may include dated visibility, calls, booked work, revenue, implementation, and attribution context. Current independent checks are useful but can differ by location, device, and date.

Ask for two or three relevant examples and the date, market, query, and measurement method behind them. Confidentiality can be legitimate, so accept redacted evidence or references the client has authorized. Treat unverifiable claims or materially inconsistent examples as risk.

A Tampa service business vetting marketing companies should ask for an example that matches its own: the same kind of job, a similar market, a stated time period and where the client started. A redacted report or a reference the client agreed to can still count, as long as those details line up.

Question 3: What metrics will you report monthly, in plain numbers?

Reporting should match the objective and available instruments. It may include sampled visibility, profile interactions, organic sessions, calls, forms, booked jobs, revenue, margin, and attribution limits. Tools, data access, and collection cost vary.

If reporting stops at rankings, authority scores, or traffic, ask how those measures connect to the agreed business objective and what attribution is possible. Ask the provider to identify that missing connection and the available evidence. The marketing review framework explains the follow-up.

Question 4: What is the minimum term and how do I cancel?

Contract length should reflect the work, setup cost, learning window, price, and risk accepted by both parties. Compare term, renewal, notice, exit fees, deliverables, and remedies. No contract length is good or bad on its own.

Ask for the cancellation policy in writing and read it. Consult qualified counsel for legal interpretation. The FTC's business guidance provides general information; this article doesn't claim a particular contract violates legal boundaries.

Portland contractors evaluating marketing vendors should apply the same contract test as any other market: request the exact term, renewal, notice, fee, asset, and data provisions in writing before signing.

Question 5: Who specifically will be working on my account?

Sales, strategy, account management, and delivery may be handled by different people. Ask who owns each responsibility, how many accounts the delivery contact supports, and what response and escalation process applies.

Ask for the role of the person who will handle the account day to day and request a short pre-sale conversation when practical. If that isn't available, ask for a written service model, named post-sale owner, response standard, and escalation path. Use the written response and escalation process to compare operating responsibility.

Question 6: What happens to my Google Business Profile and ad accounts if I leave?

Account structure affects control and continuity. Verify primary ownership, manager access, billing, history, exports, and the offboarding procedure. Leaving a provider doesn't inherently reset ad history or remove work; the actual account and contract determine the outcome.

Google distinguishes Profile owners, managers and primary ownership. Only the primary owner can transfer primary ownership, and newly added owners/managers face a seven-day limit on some actions. Confirm the actual roles and offboarding steps before a handover. Documented reseller or enterprise arrangements require their own access and continuity terms.

If you run a Boston service business reviewing a marketing contract, ask before you sign to see who is listed as owner on the domain, the Google Business Profile and the ad accounts. Write down what access the agency gets, who controls billing and what you keep if the contract ends.

Unclear ownership, access, measurement, staffing, or cancellation terms leave material risk unpriced. Get the answer in writing before deciding.

Complete a written proposal comparison

Use a column for each provider, including Xomer if you're considering us. For each of the six questions, record the exact answer, the document/page it comes from, any conflicting sales wording, the responsible delivery role and whether clarification is complete. Add these cost and acceptance fields:

• Deliverable and acceptance: named work, excluded work and how you will verify its completion. A report date and a visibility outcome are different commitments.
• Total price: setup, recurring fees, media, subscriptions, domain, migration and additional-work approval. Count your internal response or coordination work as well.
• Evidence definition: query/location/date for visibility, source/window for inquiries and collection status for job economics. Mark unavailable measures explicitly.
• Exit record: minimum term, renewal, notice, cancellation fee, refund/remedy conditions, exported files or data, licences and the operator who completes handover.

A fictional ownership row could read: “Sales proposal says website owned; contract licenses platform, assigns custom copy and provides content export; provider asked to identify the files available in the export and off-platform hosting needs; clarification unresolved.” A licensed platform can be a reasonable choice. Decide with the actual rights and transition cost, after the conflicting wording is resolved.

Google's SEO-provider guide recommends relevant examples, references and clear explanations of changes. For an initial SEO audit it recommends read-only Search Console access; implementation permissions come later. It also warns against guaranteed first-place promises.

To compare the website part of a proposal with a defined managed service, review Xomer's managed website and AI visibility pricing, including the build scope, required monthly service, work limits and paid-build ownership. A useful existing site or provider can remain the right choice.

What to do with the answers

Any marketing company that answers all six questions clearly, provides verifiable references, and produces a contract with reasonable terms is worth evaluating on the merit of their proposed work and pricing.

Score each proposal on ownership, evidence, measurement, staffing, term, price, and exit risk. Reject it when the remaining uncertainty or terms exceed your tolerance after clarification.

For a separate provider review, see Hibu reviews from contractors. For the broader evaluation framework, see how to evaluate a contractor marketing agency.