What Should a Marketing Agency Prove in the First 90 Days?

"Marketing takes time" is true for SEO. It's not true for Google Ads.

If your agency is running ads and can't show you a single number moving by day 60, that's not patience. That's a warning.

This article covers what any agency should be able to prove at day 14, day 30, day 60, and day 90, and the red flags to watch for the whole way through.

Can a marketing agency guarantee results in 90 days?

No, and you shouldn't trust one that says it can. Markets change, seasons change, and some of what happens after the lead comes in is on your side, not the agency's. If your team doesn't answer the phone or never asks for the job, no agency can fix that from the outside. That's the whole subject of is it your marketing agency or your sales process.

But "we can't promise revenue" is not the same as "we can't show you anything." Those are two very different sentences. A lot of owners got burned because they couldn't tell them apart.

Here's what should exist at each checkpoint.

Day 14: Does the agency have your baseline?

Before an agency changes a single thing, it should measure where you are right now.

That means call tracking on every phone number and tracking on every form on your website. Then the agency should hand you your starting numbers:

1. How many calls you're getting
2. How many get answered by a person
3. How many are real job opportunities
4. How many book
5. What each booked job is costing you

Those are the five numbers. Together they're your baseline. Without a baseline, nothing the agency shows you later means anything, because there's nothing to compare it to.

If an agency skips this and goes straight to launching campaigns, that's your first red flag. Launching isn't bad. The problem is that the agency just made it impossible to prove it helped.

Day 30: Does the first report talk about leads and booked jobs?

At 30 days you should get a report about leads and booked jobs. Not impressions, not clicks, not "your reach is up 40%."

Clicks and impressions aren't useless. But they're the agency's inputs, not your results. The report you want answers two questions:

• How many of the calls you sent me were real job opportunities?
• What did each booked job cost?

That's lead rate and cost per booked job, broken down by source: Google Ads, your Google Business Profile, Facebook, or whatever the agency is running. If one source is sending junk, you should be able to see it by day 30.

If you want the full case for judging marketing by cost per booked job instead of cost per lead, read cost per lead vs. cost per acquisition.

Day 60: Are your numbers moving in the right direction?

By day 60 you're not looking for a home run. You're looking for direction. Is the lead rate moving up compared to the baseline? Is the cost per booked job moving down, or at least holding steady while the agency tests?

This is where it matters what the agency is running.

How long should Google Ads take to work compared to SEO?

Google Ads is fast. The phone should start ringing in the first week or two. Sixty days of ad data is plenty to show whether things are moving. If the answer at day 60 is still "it takes time," ask what exactly is taking time. The clicks have been costing you money since week one.

SEO really is slower, but it isn't invisible. By day 60 your pages should be showing up in Google Search Console, collecting impressions, and starting to rank for the phrases they target.

Here's an example from my own site. Within a few weeks of publishing, one of my own articles was ranking on the first page of Google for the phrase it targeted, and the number of times Google showed it kept climbing. It had almost no clicks yet. That's what early SEO progress actually looks like. It's small, but it's measurable, and an agency doing SEO should be able to show you that much.

Day 90: What should the verdict look like?

At 90 days you should be able to answer one question: compared to where I started, are my numbers better, the same, or worse?

Better: keep going.

The same: find out why. Maybe the leads are good and your booking rate is the problem. That's not the agency's fault, and your baseline will show it. Start with why you're getting leads but not booking jobs.

Worse, or nobody can tell you: that's your answer. You found out in three months instead of twelve.

What are the red flags in the first 90 days?

Watch for these three the whole way through.

1. "Trust the process," with no baseline. A process you can't measure isn't a process. It's a hope.
2. Reports that only show activity. Posts published, ads launched, keywords added. That's what the agency did, not what it produced.
3. Your accounts are in the agency's name. Your Google Ads account, your call tracking, and your Google Business Profile should belong to you, with the agency given access. If you leave and lose your data, you can't prove what happened, and you start over from zero.

The 90-day checklist

For more on checking results yourself, read how to prove your marketing is working. If a competitor seems to get more from the same kind of ads, read why marketing works for your competitors but not for you before you blame the agency.

Know your baseline before you hire anyone

If you don't know your starting numbers, start there before you sign with any agency. If you're still deciding what kind of help you need, read whether to hire a marketing agency, a marketer, or do it yourself.

The Revenue Leak Calculator gives you a starting picture of where your money is leaking and roughly what it's costing you.

And if I'm the agency you're about to hire, hold me to the same list.

FAQ

What should a marketing agency prove in the first 90 days?

A baseline of your calls, answer rate, real leads, bookings, and cost per booked job by day 14. A report on leads and booked jobs by source by day 30. Numbers moving against the baseline by day 60. A verdict you can check yourself by day 90.

How long does it take for Google Ads to start working?

Google Ads should produce calls within the first week or two. By day 60 there is enough data to see whether lead rate and cost per booked job are improving against your baseline.

How long does SEO take to show results?

SEO takes months to produce steady leads, but early progress is measurable within weeks. By day 60 you should see impressions and early rankings for your target phrases in Google Search Console.

What should a marketing agency report include?

Lead rate and cost per booked job, broken down by source such as Google Ads, Google Business Profile, and Facebook. Clicks and impressions can be included, but a report that shows only activity or reach doesn't show results.

Who should own my Google Ads and call tracking accounts?

You should. Your Google Ads account, call tracking, and Google Business Profile should be in your business's name, with the agency given access. If the accounts are in the agency's name, you can lose your data when you leave.