How to compare marketing agencies by their proposals

Send every agency the same brief first

If one agency hears about your slow winter months and another only sees your website, their proposals answer different questions and you end up comparing guesses. A one-page brief, sent to every agency with the same deadline, fixes that.

It also shows who read it: a proposal that ignores your service area or busy season has told you something already.

A freelancer, a specialist agency and a full-service agency can all quote on the same job, but each model has its own gaps. Mixing them on one shortlist is fine if you check each against its weak spot, using the table below.

Put these points in the brief:

• What you sell and where: your main services, the suburbs or region you serve, and any jobs you don't want more of.
• What a good enquiry looks like for you, such as a booked quote inside your service area, and how enquiries reach you now: calls, web forms, Business Profile messages or email.
• What's already in place: your website platform, who built it, which Google accounts exist and who holds the logins.
• The budget you're prepared to commit, and whether any ad spend sits inside it or on top.
• Your timing for deciding and for starting, plus any fixed dates such as a new site launch or a seasonal peak.
• Who in your business will sign off work, and how many hours a week they can give it.
• The response format you want from everyone: deliverables with dates, the named team, the contract terms and a sample report.

Line up the proposals in the same six rows

Proposals are written to win the job, so no two use the same units: one quotes hours, another sells a named tier. Translate each into the same terms before comparing.

Open a spreadsheet with one column per agency and six rows: deliverables, people, evidence, success measures, commercial terms and ownership. Copy each proposal's own words into the cells. Where you had to guess what a line means, highlight it. Every highlighted cell becomes a written question to that agency, and every agency gets its questions with the same deadline.

The table shows what a clear answer looks like in each row and what should prompt a follow-up. The same rows work for a local SEO retainer, a Google Ads management quote or a website build.

For red flags to watch for and questions to ask at a first meeting, see how to choose an SEO company.

Deliverables and the people who will do the work

A deliverable is something you can point to when it's done: a rewritten service page, a working conversion tracking setup, a Business Profile with corrected categories, a report sent on a set date. Words like optimise and manage describe effort, and effort is hard to check.

Look hardest at the first 90 days. A clear proposal says what onboarding involves, such as account access, an audit, tracking checks and the first agreed changes, and what you'll have at the end of each month. If a proposal can't say what it will do in the first three months, ask why before you sign. Note what each one needs from you as well: logins, photos, job details, approval time.

If a proposal opens with an audit, what an SEO audit should deliver shows what that first document should contain. For the full scope of local work, see what local SEO includes.

Ask how any links will be earned. Google's spam policies describe link spam as creating links mainly to manipulate search rankings, and name buying or selling links for ranking purposes as an example. A proposal that promises a set number of links each month deserves a close question about where they come from.

Then ask who does the work, since the pitch team doesn't always run the account. Ask for the names and roles of everyone who will touch your work, who your day-to-day contact is, and whether any part, such as content writing, link outreach or ad management, goes to a subcontractor or a white-label provider. Outsourcing can be fine. Not being told about it is the problem, because you can't judge the work of someone you don't know exists.

Compare the working rhythm too: a retainer with one email a month and one with a fortnightly call are different products. For each line in the scope, and for the account as a whole, get written answers to these questions:

1. What exactly is produced, how many, and by when?
2. Who writes or builds it, and who signs it off in your business?
3. What happens if it's late or doesn't get done, and how will you be told?
4. Who is your main contact, and who covers when they're away?
5. How quickly will they reply to an email or call on a working day?
6. How often will you meet, and what does each meeting cover?
7. How is a change of plan proposed and agreed: in writing, before the work starts?

Evidence and how each proposal will measure success

Every proposal makes claims about past results and likely outcomes. The ACCC's guidance on false or misleading claims says a business must be able to prove any claim it advertises, and that a claim about the future, including a prediction or projection, needs reasonable grounds at the time it's made. That's a fair standard to hold a sales document to.

A newer agency may have little to show yet. That's fine if it says so plainly. Missing evidence becomes a problem when vague claims are used to cover the gap.

Look past the agency's own material. Its case studies and testimonials are ones it chose, so read its Google reviews and ask to speak with a current client in a business like yours. The ACCC says it's against the law for a business to create fake or misleading reviews or to arrange for others to do so, and that reviews written by staff, family or people paid by the business must disclose that connection.

Read badges narrowly. Google says its Partner status is assessed on performance, spend and certification requirements tied to the agency's Google Ads manager account, so the badge speaks to Google Ads work.

Then check how each proposal defines success. Rankings, traffic and impressions show activity, and they can rise while the phone stays quiet. For a service business, the measures that matter are enquiries you can count: calls, form submissions, booked quotes. A clear proposal names the enquiry measures it will report on, says how they'll be tracked, and agrees a starting baseline before work begins. If call tracking is part of the plan, call tracking and conversion reconciliation shows how those counts should line up with your own job records.

Google's guide to hiring an SEO suggests asking what results the company expects, in what timeframe, and how it measures success. Put that to every agency in writing, then check these five things:

• Case studies. Is the business named and the time period stated, so you could check it? Ask what the agency did and what else changed at the time, such as a new website or a bigger ad budget.
• Forecasts. Ask for the inputs and assumptions in writing. A lead or traffic forecast with no stated workings can't be tested later.
• Relevant work. Ask for an example close to your trade and market, and what was different about it.
• Reporting. Ask for a sample report with the client details removed, so you see what will land in your inbox each month. Hold it up against how to review a monthly SEO report to see whether it tracks enquiries or only activity.
• Method. Google's guide to hiring an SEO suggests asking whether the agency follows Google Search Essentials, and warns against companies that are secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do.

Commercial terms, pricing models and result promises

The front of a proposal shows the offer. The terms at the back decide what happens when things change, so read them before you compare fees.

If the proposal covers Google Ads, Google's transparency requirements for third parties apply. An agency that charges a management fee separate from the cost of Google Ads must tell you in writing before the first purchase and show the fee on every invoice. Its reports must include costs, clicks and impressions at the account level, and state the exact amount Google charged without its own fees mixed in. Google's Business Profile third-party policies ask for a similar written fee disclosure from agencies that manage your profile.

Small businesses that meet the ACCC's size test, based on employee numbers or annual turnover, are also protected from unfair terms in standard form contracts, the pre-written, take-it-or-leave-it kind. The ACCC gives examples of terms that may be unfair, including terms that let only one side end the contract, let only one side change its terms, or penalise one side but not the other for ending it. Since 9 November 2023, proposing, using or relying on unfair terms in these contracts can attract penalties. A court decides whether a term is unfair, so if a clause worries you, get legal advice before you sign.

Pricing models make fees hard to line up. Convert every proposal into one figure: the total you'd pay over its minimum term, counting any setup fee, the fee itself, anything billed on top and the cost of leaving at the end. Leave out ad spend paid straight to Google, so you compare each agency's charges and not your media budget. If an agency won't give you the inputs for that sum, note it in the commercial terms row.

Read result promises on their own. Google's hiring guide says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google, and its Ads and Business Profile third-party policies say agencies must not guarantee top placement. Some proposals offer something narrower, such as a target number of enquiries or fees waived if a milestone is missed. Read those offers as contract terms: what exactly is counted, against what baseline, over what period, who controls inputs like your ad budget and response times, and what you get back if the target is missed.

The ACCC gives the example of an ad that calls a product free while mentioning an extra payment in the fine print, and says that's likely to be misleading. It also says fine print must not conflict with the overall message. Hold a results-or-we-work-free line to that test: if the conditions carve out most of the ways a result could be missed, the offer is weaker than its headline.

For each agency, line up these points:

• The minimum term, and what happens when it ends: does it roll over automatically or go month to month?
• The notice period, and how notice must be given.
• Exit costs, and what you receive on exit: files, logins, data exports and the last report.
• Who can change the fee or the scope, and how much notice they must give.
• How ad spend is paid: straight from your card to the ad platform, or through the agency's invoice.
• What's billed on top: content, design, software, call tracking or extra hours.

Ownership: your business should hold the keys

Marketing work lives inside accounts. If an agency sets them up in its own name, leaving can mean losing access to your own data or rebuilding from scratch. Compare proposals on who will own each asset in the table, and write the answers into the contract.

Agencies need access to do the work; your business lends that access and keeps the ownership. Before you sign, ask each shortlisted agency to describe in writing how it would hand back every account below if you ended the contract next month. To check who controls your profile today, work through the Google Business Profile audit checklist. For the handover itself, when you change agencies or rebuild the site, see website migration and SEO handover.

Worked example: three proposals for a Caloundra plumber

Say a plumbing business in Caloundra wants more blocked-drain and hot water enquiries from nearby suburbs. The owner sends one brief to three providers and gets three proposals back. Everything here is illustrative and describes no real business.

Proposal A, from a full-service agency, promises ongoing optimisation and a monthly report. It names an account manager but no one else, and its case studies leave out business names. Proposal B, from a local SEO specialist, lists rewritten service pages with due dates, a Business Profile clean-up in the first month, and call tracking set up before any reporting starts. Proposal C, from a freelancer, offers a fixed-price website rebuild plus a small monthly retainer, and looks cheapest on its face. Its terms say the domain and hosting stay in the freelancer's account.

The owner fills in the six rows, highlights the unclear cells and sends out the questions with one deadline. Agency A replies that it subcontracts content writing and can't name the writer. The freelancer agrees to move the domain into the business's name but wants an exit fee to hand over the hosting account. Agency B confirms the named team and sends a sample report, with client details removed, that counts calls and form enquiries.

The matrix below shows the result. Proposal B goes straight to the fee comparison, with every row clear. Proposal C goes through only once the hosting account moves into the business's name, and its hosting exit fee is added to its minimum-term total before any fees are compared. Proposal A gets one more written question asking for named outputs with dates. If its second reply still lists none, it drops out, because no one can be held to ongoing optimisation. Fees are then compared only between B and, if it qualifies, C.

The same order works for any set of proposals:

1. Drop any proposal that promises a ranking or placement, for the reasons set out under commercial terms above.
2. Drop any proposal that won't put your domain, Business Profile, analytics and ad accounts in your business's name.
3. Send each remaining agency its highlighted cells as written questions, with the same deadline for everyone.
4. Mark each row clear or unclear. Weight deliverables and ownership most: a vague scope is hard to hold anyone to, and you can lose your own accounts when you leave.
5. Work out each survivor's minimum-term total, then compare fees.
6. Ask for the agreed answers to go into the contract or a signed scope schedule.
7. Before work starts, agree how progress will be measured. Choosing SEO goals for a service business helps you set targets both sides can check.