7 signs your marketing agency
is ripping you off.
The clearest sign a marketing agency is ripping you off: they can't tell you your cost per booked job — only clicks, impressions, or leads. The other red flags are long-term contracts, no contractor-specific experience, template city pages, refusing client references, jargon-filled reports, and you not owning your website, data, or accounts.
They can't tell you your cost per booked job
Not cost per click. Not cost per lead. Cost per job a technician completed and you collected payment on. If they only report clicks, impressions, or form fills, they're tracking the wrong thing — because the real number would expose how little their work produces.
A 12-month (or longer) contract
The single biggest red flag. A long contract means they get paid whether you get results or not — no skin in the game after month one. They'll say 'SEO takes time.' The truth: they want the contract because they know you'd leave by month 3 if you could.
Reports full of vanity metrics and acronyms
'Impressions up 340%.' 'Domain authority +6.' 'CTR above average.' None of it means anything if the phone isn't ringing more. If the report needs a glossary, it's designed to confuse you, not inform you.
No contractor-specific experience
'We serve all industries' means they serve none of them well. A generalist doesn't understand seasonality, emergency search intent, Map Pack ranking, or your trade's economics. They treat HVAC like a restaurant — and your budget pays for the learning curve.
Template / copy-paste city pages
If your site has 20 near-identical city pages that differ only by the town name — or worse, another city's name left in the metadata — that's not SEO. Google calls it scaled content abuse and can bury you overnight.
They won't give you contractor references
Not testimonials on a website. Actual phone numbers of contractors you can call and ask 'did this work?' A good partner gives you three names without blinking. Hesitation means there's a reason.
You don't own your website, data, or accounts
Some agencies build your site on their platform so you can't leave — you're renting your online presence. Ask: 'If I leave, do I keep my website, domain, GBP, ad accounts, and data?' Anything but an immediate 'yes' is a hostage situation.
"What's my cost per booked job?"
Ask it on your next call. If the answer is a number — great, they track what matters. If the answer is clicks, impressions, or a shrug, you have your answer. Booked, paid jobs are the only metric that pays your techs.
We do the opposite of all seven.
Dependify is month-to-month (cancel anytime), built only for home-service businesses, reports in plain English, and hands you a written 15 reviews in 60 days guarantee. You own everything. We put the risk on us.
Bad marketing agencies — FAQ
What's the one question that exposes a bad marketing agency?
'What's my cost per booked job?' Not cost per click, not cost per lead — cost per job a technician actually completed and you got paid for. If they can't answer, they don't track past the click and have no idea whether their work generates revenue. It's the fastest tell there is.
Is a 12-month marketing contract normal?
It's common, but it's the biggest red flag in the industry. A long contract means the agency gets paid whether you get results or not. Real performers work month-to-month because it forces them to earn your business every single month. If they need a contract to keep you, they're not confident in their results.
How do I audit my marketing agency myself?
In about 15 minutes: (1) confirm YOU own your GA4, Search Console, Google Business Profile, domain, and ad accounts; (2) check whether call tracking is installed; (3) ask for your cost per booked job; (4) read the last report and mentally cross out every metric that isn't a booked, paid job. If tracking is missing or the answer is jargon, you're flying blind.
How common is it for contractors to get burned by agencies?
Very. Roughly 72% of contractors have fired a marketing agency, wasting an average of about $4,200 before they did. The pattern is almost always the same: pretty reports full of impressions and clicks, while the phone stays as quiet as before. The home-services marketing space has near-zero accountability, which is why it keeps happening.
What should I look for instead?
Month-to-month terms, cost-per-booked-job reporting, contractor-specific experience, real references you can call, reports you actually understand, and full ownership of your own accounts and data. And a plan for after-hours lead capture — 78% of jobs go to the first responder, so if nobody answers at 9pm, the lead is gone.