Vetting a marketing agency before you sign: a checklist for Ontario trades

1. Ownership: who holds the keys

The first question is the most important: who will own each account and asset? The answer should be your business, for every item, from day one.

Ask specifically about:

• The domain name. Registered to your business, in an account you can log in to.
• The website. Its content and images, and whether you can move it to another host if you leave.
• The Google Business Profile. Your business as primary owner, the agency as a manager.
• Ad accounts. Google Ads, Local Services Ads and Meta, opened in your business's name, billed to your card.
• Analytics and call tracking. Including what happens to tracking numbers printed on your trucks if you leave.

If an agency is vague on any of these, ask for the answer in writing. If it won't give one, walk away. Our agency switch page shows how hard it can be to recover accounts later.

2. Ad spend: can you see what the platforms were paid?

You should always be able to see exactly what Google, Meta or any other platform was paid, separately from the agency's fee. Ask how ad spend is billed and whether you will have direct access to the ad accounts.

Two arrangements to be cautious about:

• A single bundled price that includes ads and management, with no breakdown. You can't tell how much reached Google.
• Ad spend paid through the agency's own account. You lose the history and data if you leave.

The cleanest arrangement is ad spend charged directly to your card in your own account, and the agency's fee invoiced separately. That is how we work, as the pricing page explains.

3. Leaving: what the contract really says

Read the cancellation clause before anything else in the contract. It tells you how confident the agency is that you will want to stay.

Questions to ask:

1. What is the minimum term, if any?
2. How much notice is needed to cancel, and in what form?
3. Does the contract renew automatically, and when?
4. Are there exit fees, or charges for handing over accounts?
5. What do you keep if you leave: the website, content, data, phone numbers?

Month-to-month terms with a reasonable notice period are the owner-friendly standard. Our plans, for example, run month-to-month with 30 days' notice. We are not lawyers, so if a contract is long or unusual, have it reviewed before you sign.

4. Reporting: what will you actually see each month

Ask to see a sample report before you sign. It tells you what the agency thinks matters.

A useful report for a trades business leads with:

• calls, texts and emails received, by source
• booked jobs, where you share them
• platform spend and cost per booked job
• what was changed this month and why

Be wary of reports that lead with impressions, clicks, reach or "engagement" and never mention calls. Those figures can rise for months while your phone stays quiet. The guide to the first 90 days of an engagement explains what good progress looks like at each stage.

5. Claims: which ones to question

Marketing agencies make a lot of claims, and some don't hold up. Under the Competition Act, false or misleading representations are prohibited, and the Competition Bureau enforces those rules. That applies to agencies' claims about themselves, and to the claims they write for your ads.

Claims to question:

• Promised rankings or lead numbers. Nobody controls Google's results or your customers' decisions.
• Anonymous case studies. Ask for the client's name and website so you can check.
• "Average" results across all clients. Ask how the average was calculated and which clients were included.
• Reviews or ratings the agency offers to create for you. Fake reviews break platform rules and can mislead customers.

Our own results page names every client and links to the live site, and labels the results as coming from our HVAC work.

6. Customer contact rules the agency should know

If an agency will text or email your customers on your behalf, it must understand Canada's consent rules. Ask how it handles them.

Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation, enforced by the CRTC, requires consent for commercial electronic messages such as marketing texts and emails, clear identification of the sender, and a working way to unsubscribe. The sender must be able to prove consent. Privacy matters too: PIPEDA, the federal private-sector privacy law, applies to personal information collected in commercial activity in Ontario.

A good agency will ask how your customer list was collected before it sends a single message. We are not lawyers and this isn't legal advice, so check the official guidance or ask a lawyer if you are unsure.

A worked comparison

Here is how two proposals might compare, with placeholder figures.

Agency A looks cheaper, but you can't tell how much of the $1,500 reaches Google. If only $600 does, you are paying $900 a month for management and are locked in for a year. Agency B costs more on paper but lets you see, own and leave. For most trades owners, B is the safer bet.

Your checklist

Ask every agency these ten questions, and get the answers in writing:

1. Who owns the domain, website, profile and ad accounts?
2. Is ad spend billed separately, to my card, in my account?
3. What is the minimum term and notice period?
4. Does the contract auto-renew?
5. Are there exit or handover fees?
6. Can I see a sample monthly report?
7. Will reports show calls, booked jobs and cost per job?
8. Who will I speak to each month, and can I reach them directly?
9. Can I see named, checkable case studies?
10. How do you handle consent if you text or email my customers?

When you are ready, ask us the same questions. Start with the free consultation or the contact page.