20 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a DTC Ad Agency

The 20 most important questions to ask before hiring a DTC ad agency separate agencies with genuine performance credentials from those with polished sales presentations, covering creative strategy, media buying methodology, team structure, communication processes, and accountability frameworks. Last updated: February 2026

Table of Contents

Why These Questions Matter

Most DTC founders make agency hiring decisions based on case study presentations and agency personality rather than systematic evaluation. This produces poor outcomes: agencies that pitch well but execute mediocrely, or agencies with strong media buying but weak creative, causing underperformance from day one.

The 20 questions below are designed to surface the information that actually predicts agency performance. They cannot be answered with generic marketing language; they require specific, operational answers that reveal how the agency actually works.

MHI Media has been evaluated by prospective clients with questions like these, and we believe in their value: they help brands find genuinely qualified partners faster than any other evaluation method.

Questions About Creative Strategy (1-5)

Question 1: "Show me 3 specific ads you produced in the last 90 days. Tell me the hook rate, CTR, and CPA for each one." What a good answer looks like: Specific numbers, honest context about what worked and why. Red flag: vague or refuses to share data. Question 2: "How many new creative concepts do you test per month for a brand at our spend level?" Good answer: 6-12 for $10K-$30K/month. Red flag: "It depends" without specifics, or numbers that seem too low (1-2/month). Question 3: "What is your process for creative ideation? Where do hook and angle ideas come from?" Good answer: Customer review mining, competitor analysis, performance data review, structured briefing process. Red flag: "Our creatives are very talented and come up with great ideas." Question 4: "How do you decide when a creative is fatigued and needs replacing?" Good answer: Specific frequency and CTR thresholds that trigger replacement. Red flag: "When performance drops." Question 5: "Who writes your creative briefs and how detailed are they?" Good answer: Named person with specific role, shows you an example brief. Red flag: "The whole team collaborates."

Questions About Media Buying (6-10)

Question 6: "What is your standard campaign structure for a DTC brand at our spend level?" Good answer: Specific structure with campaign types, audience strategy, and rationale. Red flag: Generic description that could apply to any account. Question 7: "How do you approach scaling budget while maintaining CPA stability?" Good answer: Incremental scaling methodology, thresholds for when to scale and when to hold. Red flag: "We increase budgets when performance is good." Question 8: "What bid strategies do you use and when?" Good answer: Specific reasoning for lowest cost vs cost cap vs bid cap in different scenarios. Red flag: "We use what Meta recommends." Question 9: "How do you handle the Meta learning phase?" Good answer: Specific policy on avoiding changes during learning, minimum event thresholds, patience with new ad sets. Red flag: Confusion about what the learning phase is. Question 10: "What is your approach to retargeting and how much of our budget should go there?" Good answer: Specific allocation recommendation (e.g., 20-30% for retargeting) with reasoning tied to traffic volume and funnel economics. Red flag: "It depends" with no framework.

Questions About Results and Accountability (11-14)

Question 11: "Show me a brand you worked with that started at our spend level and grew significantly. What specifically did you do?" Good answer: Named brand (or permission to contact), specific growth trajectory, honest about what worked and what did not. Red flag: Vague reference to "a client in your space." Question 12: "What happened to a client where things went wrong? What did you do about it?" Good answer: Honest account of a difficult period, specific diagnosis, what they changed. Red flag: "All our clients see great results" or deflecting to external factors. Question 13: "How do you define success for our engagement, and what happens if targets are missed?" Good answer: Specific KPIs, clear measurement methodology, reasonable remedies for underperformance. Red flag: Ambiguous success definition or resistance to accountability. Question 14: "Can I speak to 3 current clients directly?" Good answer: "Yes, here are their contacts." Red flag: "Let me check with them first" (legitimate) or avoidance (bad sign).

Questions About Team and Process (15-17)

Question 15: "Who specifically will work on our account day-to-day? What is their experience level?" Good answer: Named individuals with traceable experience (LinkedIn-verifiable). Red flag: "Our experienced team" without names. Question 16: "How many clients does your account manager handle simultaneously?" Good answer: 4-8 active accounts is manageable. Red flag: 12+ accounts per person. Question 17: "How often do we communicate and through what channels?" Good answer: Specific cadence (weekly calls, daily Slack, monthly reviews), named communication tools. Red flag: Vague ("we communicate as needed").

Questions About Contracts and Operations (18-20)

Question 18: "Who owns the ad account, creative assets, and audience data?" Good answer: Client owns everything. Agency has access but brand retains ownership. Red flag: Any claim that the agency owns ad account history or audiences. Question 19: "What is your minimum contract length and notice period?" Good answer: 30-day notice, 90-day initial commitment maximum. Red flag: 6-12 month lock-in with no performance out clause. Question 20: "Are you outsourcing any of the creative production or media buying work?" Good answer: Transparent disclosure of any subcontractors with quality control explanation. Red flag: Evasion or discovers later they outsource key functions without telling you.

How to Score the Answers

Create a simple scoring sheet. For each question:

Score thresholds: Use this scoring across multiple agency interviews to create a comparative data set. The highest-scoring agency is not always the right choice (culture fit, price, and category fit matter) but the score identifies substantive capability.

FAQ

Should I share these questions with the agency before the call? You can send a list of topics you will cover so the agency can prepare relevant data. However, sending the exact questions in advance risks getting rehearsed answers that sound good but are not authentic responses. What if an agency refuses to share actual performance numbers? This is a significant red flag. Legitimate confidentiality concerns can be addressed by anonymizing client names while still sharing performance data. Complete refusal to share any numbers in any form indicates either nothing worth sharing or excessive defensiveness. How long should discovery calls be? 60-90 minutes to cover these questions thoroughly. Anything shorter does not provide enough time for meaningful responses. If an agency limits you to 30 minutes, that itself is informative. Can I ask to see their own Meta ads? Yes. Use the Meta Ad Library to see what the agency runs for its own brand. If they do not advertise themselves, or if their own ads are poor quality, it raises questions about their creative and media buying capabilities. Should I evaluate all agencies simultaneously or sequentially? Simultaneously, within the same 1-2 week window. This allows direct comparison and prevents anchor bias from your first interview influencing how you evaluate later ones. What is the biggest mistake founders make when evaluating agencies? Over-weighting charisma and presentation quality. The most persuasive agency in a sales pitch is not necessarily the best agency for your brand. Insist on evidence and references rather than accepting compelling narratives.