Choosing a marketing or software company gets easier when you compare specific answers in place of presentations. Put the same questions to every candidate, write down the answers, and look for three things: who actually does the work, how success is measured, and who owns the accounts and files when the relationship ends. A dispute over any of these is hard to settle after signing.
Below you'll find the questions, with a good and a worrying answer for each, and then a table for comparing offers. They work for any company you meet, ours included.
Questions to ask any partner before signing
| Question | Good answer | Worrying answer |
|---|---|---|
| Can I see work close to my situation? | An example near your size or sector, with what didn't work | Figures from a company with many times your budget |
| Who will actually work on my project? | Names and roles, and a chance to meet them | "Our whole team," with no detail |
| How will you measure success, and when? | A specific number, a date and a data source | "Raising awareness" and "improving presence" |
| What do you need from me? | Timely reviews, data and a named contact on your side | "Leave everything to us" |
| What are you not good at? | A specific area, perhaps with a referral for it | "We do everything" |
| Tell me about a project that went badly. | What happened and what they changed afterwards | "That has never happened" |
| How do we communicate, and when do I hear about a delay? | A regular meeting, a named person, and a warning before the date passes | "Contact us anytime" |
| What happens if we decide to stop? | A clear notice period and a list of what gets handed over | Dodging the question, or penalties nobody can explain |
Questions for a marketing company
Your first question for a marketing company is whose name the accounts are in. Your company should own its pages and ad accounts, and the partner should have access you can withdraw. Meta lets you give partners access to the assets in your business portfolio, and Google Ads sets out different access levels, noting that linking a manager account doesn't automatically make it an administrative owner of yours. Google Analytics lets you add users with roles such as Administrator, Editor and Viewer. These are the platform features as we checked them in November 2026.
- Reports: does the report connect spend to requests and sales? A million impressions means nothing until you know how many customers came from them. Our article on ROAS and profit covers the numbers to ask about, and our guide to conversion tracking shows how to verify them.
- Budget: can I see actual spend inside the platform? If your fee is a percentage of spend, how do you avoid the conflict of interest?
- Guarantees: be wary of a first-place promise. Google's guidance on hiring an SEO says outright, "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google," and advises finding someone else if they guarantee it.
- Access for an SEO audit: if someone offers to audit your site, the same guidance recommends giving read access only in Search Console.
Before comparing offers, decide what you need first. Our guide on where to start with digital marketing helps you do that, so the seller doesn't define your needs for you.
Questions for a software company
The key question for a software company: could you run and develop the system without them? If not, you're tied to them however good their work is. Ask about these points and get the answers into the contract:
- Code ownership: does ownership of the code pass to your company, and when? Is any part built on tools the developer owns?
- Code repository: do I have access from the start, or do I only get files at handover?
- Domain and hosting: are they registered in my company's name? ICANN's registrant terms place responsibility for a domain's registration and use on the registrant, so make sure that's your company.
- Documentation: could a new developer get the system running from the documents alone?
- Changes: what does the price include, and how is a new request priced?
- After launch: how long are bugs fixed at no extra cost, and what does maintenance cost after that?
Before any of this, answer a simpler question: do you need to build at all? Our comparison of off-the-shelf and custom software helps you decide before requesting offers. Ownership clauses are legal matters that vary by the country of the contract, so have a lawyer read yours. This article isn't legal advice.
One partner or two?
One partner suits you when marketing leans heavily on the website or system, as with campaigns that need pages, tracking and a link to your sales team. Two partners suit you when you find a stronger specialist in each area, provided you or someone you appoint handles the coordination.
| Criterion | One partner | Two specialists |
|---|---|---|
| Coordination | Easier, with one party responsible | Falls on you or a manager on your side |
| Depth of specialty | Test each team with its own questions | Easier to choose and compare |
| Risk | More dependence on one party | You can replace one without the other |
| Passing the blame when something breaks | Less likely | Possible, so put responsibilities in writing |
A table for comparing offers
Give each criterion a weight from 1 to 5 based on your priorities, score each candidate from 1 to 5, and multiply weight by score. The weights below are a hypothetical example for a company that cares about ownership and measurement.
| Criterion | Weight (example) | Candidate A | Candidate B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ownership of accounts, files and code | 5 | ||
| Clear measurement of success | 5 | ||
| Past work close to your situation | 4 | ||
| Knowing who will do the work | 4 | ||
| Clarity on what the price includes | 3 | ||
| Ease of ending the contract | 3 | ||
| Speed and clarity of replies during negotiation | 2 |
Bring price into the comparison after these criteria. The lowest offer may hide items it didn't mention, so ask about anything not written down. Be careful as well with a quote that arrives without questions about your business, and with pressure to sign such as "this offer ends tomorrow."
Start with a small trial
A small trial reveals how a company works better than any presentation. Agree on one defined task, such as reviewing your ad account or the analysis phase of a software project, for a clear fee and with an output you can use even if you don't continue with them. Watch three things: whether they tell you about delays before you ask, whether they ask questions about your business, and whether they deliver what you agreed.
Next step
Copy the questions and the comparison table, pick two or three candidates, and send them the same questions before you meet, so you're comparing written answers. If you'd like to add PlanKit to your comparison, ask us the same questions and score our answers as you would anyone else's. What we offer is set out in our digital marketing service and custom software service.