Choosing a marketing agency comes down to one thing: can they explain how your money turns into results, in plain words, before you pay? Ask the nine questions below in the first meeting. A good agency answers every one without a slide deck.
1. What will you need to understand before you make anything?
Good work starts with the business, not the logo. An agency should ask about your customers, your margins, your competitors and what "growth" means to you, whether that's more bookings, higher order values or a new market, before it proposes a single post. If the first meeting is about their portfolio instead of your business, that tells you how the work will go.
2. Who actually does the work?
Ask for names and roles: who writes the strategy, who designs, who films, who manages the ads, and who you talk to every week. Many agencies sell with senior people and deliver with juniors. That can work, but you should know it before you sign.
3. What will you measure, and how often will I see it?
Agree on the numbers that matter to your business before the work starts: leads, cost per lead, bookings, sales, return on ad spend. Likes and reach come second. Ask to see a sample monthly report. If it's full of charts but never says what changed and what happens next, keep looking.
4. What happens in the first two weeks?
A clear agency can tell you what the first fourteen days look like: a meeting to understand the business, a written proposal, one review meeting, then the first work going live. Vague timelines usually mean vague work.
5. Who owns the accounts, the files and the data?
Your ad accounts, pages, website, domain and design files should be in your name. You give the agency access; you don't rent your own assets from them. Ask how the handover works if you part ways.
6. How do you handle approvals and feedback?
Ask who reviews the work before it reaches you and how many revision rounds are included. An agency with a real review process catches mistakes before you see them. Without one, you become their quality control.
7. Can you show results from a business like mine?
Look for work in your sector or market, with real numbers the client agreed to share: cost per lead, bookings, sales. Case studies with only pretty pictures and no numbers show taste, not results.
8. What will you not do?
A confident agency tells you where it isn't the right fit, and what it won't promise. Be careful with anyone who guarantees followers, virality or a fixed number of sales. Honest agencies promise a process and a way of measuring it, not a miracle.
9. What happens if results stall?
Ask what they'll change in month two if month one underperforms: the offer, the audience, the creative, the budget split. The answer shows whether they manage results or just deliverables.
The short version
Choose the agency that understands your business before it designs anything, names the people doing the work, agrees on the business numbers up front, and leaves your accounts in your name. That's how MAJ works: we think before we make, and the numbers have to back it up.
Questions
How much should I budget for a marketing agency in Egypt?
It depends on scope: strategy, content production and ad spend are priced separately. Ask for a written proposal that separates the agency's fee from the media budget you pay to the platforms, so you can see where every pound goes.
How long before I see results?
Paid campaigns can show leads within the first weeks; brand and content work builds over months. Agree on what "results" means for each channel before you start.
Should I sign a long contract?
Start with a clear first phase and measurable goals. A good agency earns the next phase with results, not with a lock-in.