In the fifth installment of the ‘questions to ask an agency’ series of the podcast, we discuss setting clear expectations. Some agencies set very clear parameters at the beginning of your relationship and some don’t. Depending on their answer may be a red flag. We discuss some questions you can ask in your interview process to get a clear understanding of what you can expect when working with a certain agency.

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Here are the kinds of questions you could ask a potential agency:

1. What can I expect when we start working together?
   a. You want to get details on the meeting rhythms, any scorecards that may be available, how you can communicate with them, what sort of process is there for approving work, and so on.
   b. You want to know how much time it will take for you to go through the onboarding process as well as any communication needed from the agency ongoing.
2. What does your onboarding process look like for me specifically?
   a. Onboarding can vary depending on the project – so understanding how this may fluctuate depending on what you’re hiring the agency for is important.
   b. At the bare minimum, there should be a basic onboarding process and ideally, you should get some sort of documentation that shows the process so you can refer back to it if needed.
   c. An additional follow-up question is how long the onboarding process should take. If you’re doing ads and media buying, how long should you expect things to start up?
3. Make sure to get alignment on the billing as well and what exactly you are being charged for – is it hourly, guarantee-based, so clarifying that can help ensure everyone is on the same page with reaching targets.

Did you catch our other parts of this series, if not, check them out below:

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

We have a comprehensive guide of questions to ask when looking to hire an agency – get access to it here

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