Agency Vetting

How to Read an Agency Proposal (And What It's Hiding)

Market Correct April 9, 2026 12 min read

Most agency proposals are sales documents wearing a strategy costume. They're designed to look thorough while telling you almost nothing about what you actually need to know. Here's how to read one like someone who's been through a few hundred of them.

What a Proposal Actually Is

The first thing to understand about any agency proposal is who wrote it and why. A proposal isn't a plan for your account. It's a pitch document built by a business development team to get you to sign a contract. The people who put it together are usually not the people who'll manage your campaigns. And the incentive behind every word choice is getting you to say yes, not giving you an honest picture of what you're buying.

That's not cynicism. It's just how agency economics work. The sales team has a quota. They've got a standard deck that closes at a predictable rate. Your situation gets bolted onto that deck with a few name swaps and a budget projection that always trends upward. We've seen the exact same "custom strategy" sent to a SaaS company and a local retailer in the same week, with identical language and slightly different numbers.

None of that means the agency is bad. It means you need a different frame for reading the proposal. Stop reading it as a plan for what'll happen. Start reading it as a set of commitments you can hold them to, and a list of things they conspicuously didn't commit to.

Before you read a single word of a proposal, ask yourself one question. Does this document tell you who will actually manage your account, or does it just describe a team? If it's the latter, you already have your most important follow-up question written.

What the Standard Proposal Buries

Most proposals maximize surface area and minimize specificity on the things that actually matter. Here's what gets hidden and where it usually lives.

Fee structure and what triggers increases

The most consequential line in any proposal is how fees are calculated. Most agencies charge a percentage of your ad spend, typically somewhere between 10% and 20%. That number usually sits in the middle of the document, surrounded by enough language about "ongoing optimization" and "performance management" that it barely registers as the structural conflict it actually is.

The problem isn't the percentage itself. It's what it creates. If an agency earns more when you spend more, they have a financial reason to push for higher budgets regardless of whether those budgets are actually working for you. We've written about this dynamic in detail in our post on what Google Ads management actually costs and why the pricing model matters more than the rate.

Look specifically for language like "minimum fee" buried in the fine print. Plenty of proposals show a percentage rate but include a floor, meaning you're paying whichever is higher regardless of how the account performs. Watch for any mention that fees "adjust" or "scale" with budget too. Model that out at your actual spend level, not at whatever number they used in the proposal.

10–20% Typical percentage-of-spend agency fee range

At $50,000/month in ad spend, that's $5,000 to $10,000 in management fees with no performance requirement attached. The agency gets paid at the same rate whether your ROAS is 8x or 1.5x.

Who specifically manages your account

Every proposal has some version of "our team of experts" or "your dedicated account team." What almost none of them tell you is who that person actually is, what their experience level looks like, and how many accounts they're currently running alongside yours.

This is the thing we hear about most from clients switching to us from larger shops. They had a strong sales call with a senior strategist who clearly knew their stuff. Then onboarding happened and that person disappeared. The day-to-day work shifted to an associate with 18 months of experience managing 20 accounts simultaneously. Nothing in the proposal mentioned that this was the model.

According to IAB research on digital agency staffing, account-to-manager ratios at mid-to-large agencies often exceed 15 to 1. That's not a niche problem. It's a structural one, and it almost never appears in a proposal unprompted.

Account ownership and data access

This is genuinely buried. Most proposals don't mention it at all. Who owns the ad accounts? Who controls the Google Ads MCC, the Meta Business Manager, the pixels and audiences you've been building?

If the agency created those accounts under their own umbrella and added you as a user, you don't own them. When you leave, you might get a data export, but you'll lose the account history, the audiences, the conversion tracking setup, and potentially years of learning that makes the campaigns function. This isn't theoretical. It happens constantly, and it's one of the primary reasons clients stay with agencies they'd otherwise have moved on from months earlier.

The fix is simple. Insist the accounts are created in your name before any campaign goes live. You add the agency as an admin, not the other way around. But you have to ask for it, because no one volunteers it in the proposal.

The One Question to Ask Before You Sign

Ask this verbatim. "Who will own the Google Ads account, and what access do I retain if I end the relationship?" If the answer is anything other than "you own it and we're added as an admin," push back or walk away.

Reporting and what it actually shows

Proposals almost always promise "transparent reporting" and "regular performance reviews." What they rarely specify is what the reports actually contain, at what level of detail, and whether there's enough data for you to independently evaluate what the agency is doing.

A report that shows impressions, clicks, and a ROAS number isn't transparency. Transparency means campaign-level spend breakdowns, search term reports, auction insights, quality score trends, and the ability to access the account yourself at any time. Per Google's own account access guidelines, advertisers have a right to full visibility into their account data. But plenty of agencies hand you a branded PDF with a chart showing "performance improved" while keeping you out of the actual interface.

Ask to see a sample report from an existing client before you sign. Redacted is fine. You're looking for depth, not specifics. If they can't or won't show you one, that's your answer.

Red Flags in the Proposal Itself

Some things in proposals should stop you cold. These aren't nuances worth negotiating. They're structural problems that don't tend to improve after you sign.

That last one deserves extra attention. We've seen proposals show 400% ROAS improvement without disclosing that the account had broken conversion tracking when the agency took it over. Fixing attribution looks like a performance gain. It isn't. That kind of selective framing is worth probing directly.

What to Ask For That They Won't Volunteer

The proposal tells you what the agency wants you to know. The follow-up conversation is where you find out what you actually need to know. Here's what to ask for directly.

The name of the person managing your account

Ask for a name. Not a team or a function. A name, their current account load, and their experience level. If the person who'll run your account has fewer than three years of relevant experience and is currently managing more than 15 accounts, you know what you're buying.

A real accounting of total fees at your budget

Take your actual monthly ad spend and run the math at their stated rate. Then ask explicitly whether there's a minimum fee, whether rates change at certain spend thresholds, and whether there are additional fees for creative, landing pages, reporting tools, or platform access. That last question often has a yes buried in it, and it rarely appears in the proposal.

Fee Model How It's Calculated Conflict of Interest What to Watch For
Percentage of Spend 10–20% of monthly ad budget High Minimums, tiered rates, spend recommendations not tied to performance
Flat Monthly Fee Fixed regardless of spend volume None Scope creep, channel limits, contract exit terms
Performance-Based Fee tied to a specific outcome (leads, revenue) Low How the metric is defined, attribution model used, baseline period
Hybrid (% + Flat) Minimum flat fee plus a percentage above a threshold Medium-High Whether the minimum is effectively your rate at your budget level

Account ownership in writing

Ask to see the contract language around account ownership before agreeing to anything. You want confirmation that ad accounts are created in your name, the agency is added as an admin-level manager, and you retain full access and ownership if the relationship ends. If they push back, treat that as data.

A sample report from an existing client

Redacted is fine. You're looking for the depth of the data, not client specifics. Can you see campaign-level spend? Keyword-level performance? Spend broken down by channel and match type? If the sample report is a one-page PDF with a branded chart and a ROAS number, that's what your Monday morning emails will look like too.

The exact contract exit terms

How much notice is required? Is there an auto-renewal clause? Are there penalties or fees for early exit? What happens to the accounts, assets, and campaign history when you leave? Any agency worth working with answers these without hesitation. Read more about specific clauses to watch for in our post on marketing agency contract red flags.

Vetting agencies right now? We'll walk you through how our proposal compares, line by line, and answer every question on this list without hesitation.

Talk to Us

What a Good Proposal Actually Looks Like

Not every proposal is a trap. The ones worth taking seriously tend to share the same characteristics.

That last point is actually a green flag. Agencies that promise 300% ROAS improvements before they've seen your account structure, historical data, or competitive landscape are guessing. Agencies that say "we'll audit first and share realistic projections within 30 days" are being honest about how this actually works.

The question that reveals the most

After you've read the proposal and run through the follow-up questions, there's one more worth asking before you decide. Ask them how they'd handle a campaign that isn't performing after 60 days. Listen for whether they have a specific diagnostic process or whether they give you a generic answer about "ongoing optimization." That gap tells you whether they're actually managing your account or just running it.

You can also cross-reference what agencies commit to in proposals against what Google Ads management best practices actually call for. The gap is usually instructive. And if you're still figuring out what patterns to look for before the proposal stage, our post on Google Ads agency red flags covers what we see most often in accounts that come to us after a bad experience.

The Short Version

Proposals are written by salespeople. You need to evaluate them like contracts, because that's exactly what they turn into. The three things most proposals won't tell you are who's actually managing your account, what happens to your data when you leave, and what the fee structure does to the agency's incentives. Ask about all three before you sign anything.

The agencies worth working with will answer without hesitation. The ones that hedge, redirect, or tell you "we'll sort that out during onboarding" are signaling something. Trust that signal.

No Surprises

We'll put it all in writing

Flat fees. Your account in your name from day one. A senior manager on every account. Everything you just read about asking for, we'll hand you before you ask.

See Our Proposal
Questions

Common Questions About Agency Proposals

Look for specificity about who will actually manage your account, how fees are structured relative to your spend, what metrics they'll report on, and what happens to your data and account access when you leave. Generic proposals that describe services rather than your specific situation are a signal the agency is pitching everyone the same deck.

The three things most proposals bury are pricing structure (especially percentage-of-spend fees that create conflicts of interest), account ownership terms (who controls your ad accounts and data), and the actual seniority level of whoever will manage your campaigns day-to-day. Ask directly about all three before signing anything.

Ask who specifically will manage your account and what percentage of their time goes to client work versus new business. Ask how fees are calculated and whether they scale with your spend. Ask who owns the ad accounts. Ask how they'd handle a campaign that isn't performing. The answers reveal more than the proposal ever will.

Percentage-of-spend pricing creates a structural conflict of interest: the agency earns more when you spend more, regardless of whether that additional spend is profitable for you. Most agencies charge 10-20% of monthly ad spend. At $50,000/month that's $5,000 to $10,000 in fees tied directly to budget volume, not performance. Flat-fee models remove that incentive entirely.

Percentage-of-spend agencies typically charge 10-20% of monthly ad budget, which means fees scale automatically as your spend grows. Flat-fee agencies charge a fixed monthly rate regardless of spend volume, usually $1,500-$5,000/month depending on account complexity and channel mix. The right fee structure depends less on the dollar amount and more on whether the incentives are aligned with your goals.

Watch for vague deliverables listed as bullet points with no specifics, fee structures that scale automatically with your budget, no mention of who specifically manages your account, performance claims with no methodology attached, and contract terms that require 60-90 day notice periods or carry auto-renewal clauses. Any proposal that doesn't address account ownership is missing something important.

At most mid-to-large agencies, the senior strategist who pitched you hands the account to a junior associate after onboarding. That associate often manages 15-25 accounts simultaneously. We've seen accounts at major agencies where the primary manager had 18 months of experience and had never spoken directly with the client. Ask specifically who will own your account and how many accounts that person currently manages.

A good proposal names the specific person managing your account and their background, explains the exact fee structure with no ambiguity, describes what you'll see in reporting and at what frequency, states clearly who owns the ad accounts and what happens to data at contract end, and includes specific questions about your business rather than generic service descriptions.

Build a comparison table across four dimensions: fee structure and total monthly cost at your actual budget level, who specifically manages the account, what reporting you receive and how often, and contract exit terms. Most proposals aren't written for easy comparison, which is intentional. Normalize them to the same framework before making any decision.

It depends on who owns the account. If the agency created the account under their own MCC (manager account), you may lose access to years of campaign history, audiences, and conversion data when you leave. You should always insist that ad accounts are created in your name and that the agency is added as an admin, not the other way around. Confirm this before signing, not after.

Account ownership determines who controls the Google Ads, Meta, or other platform accounts where your campaigns live. If an agency owns the accounts, they control your campaign history, audiences, conversion tracking, and data when you leave. If you own them and grant agency access, you keep everything. This is one of the most important things to clarify before signing any agreement.