What questions should I ask a DTC growth agency before hiring them?

How should you use these questions on a sales call?

Use them to force specifics. Send the list before the call, give the agency read access to your ad account and Shopify if they will review it, and judge answers on numbers and names rather than confidence.

Shopify's hiring guide suggests a shorter version of the same idea: ask about experience in your revenue range, who will actually work on the account, before/after performance for comparable clients, how success is measured, and what offboarding looks like (Shopify). The list below goes deeper for Meta-driven supplement and wellness brands.

What should you ask about proof and past results?

Ask for evidence you can check: a named or clearly described client in your category, the starting point, the timeframe and how the result was measured.

Percentages alone can hide losses. MHI Growth Engine's example: moving from 0.5x to 0.9x ROAS is an '80% improvement' that is still unprofitable (MHI Growth Engine). Always ask for the absolute numbers.

What should you ask about the team?

Ask exactly who does the work each week, because the most common complaint about agencies is a senior team on the pitch and a junior team on the account.

• Who writes the ads, who buys the media and who builds the landing pages? Are they on this call?
• How many other accounts does each of them run?
• Who do I message when something breaks on a Saturday, and how fast will they reply?
• If a team member leaves, how is the handover done?

What should you ask about monthly output?

Ask for monthly output in numbers, in writing, because output is the only fair way to compare two quotes.

• How many new ad concepts per month, and how many variations per concept?
• How many landing pages or page tests per month? Who builds them?
• What is your testing method: budget per concept, days before a decision, what counts as a winner?
• Is creative production (UGC, shoots, editing) included, or billed on top?

For scale, one creative agency guide estimates 15 to 25 new concepts a month at $50,000 monthly spend, and recommends that agencies commit to 'a fixed count' of deliverables in writing (Apex Brands). For CRO, ask what traffic they need: a common bar is 10,000+ monthly sessions before A/B tests have enough power (Essential Apps).

What compliance questions should a supplement brand ask?

Ask how the agency keeps claims within FDA and FTC rules and Meta policy before launch, and ask to see an example.

• Do you keep a claims sheet, and who approves new claims?
• How do you handle structure/function vs disease claims? (Supplements cannot claim to treat, cure or prevent disease, per FDA.)
• How do you use testimonials? (The FTC requires generally expected results to be made clear when an endorser reports exceptional results, per its Endorsement Guides FAQ.)
• Do you review the landing page with the same standard as the ad? (The FTC judges the net impression of all ad elements, per its health products guidance.)
• Show me a rejected ad you rewrote and got approved.
• What happens to spend while an ad or account review is pending?

What should you ask about metrics and reporting?

Ask which number the agency will be judged on and how it reconciles to Shopify, because platform-reported ROAS can look good while the business loses money.

1. Which metric do you optimize for: MER, new-customer CAC, contribution margin or platform ROAS?
2. How do you set my allowable CAC? (They should ask for your margins.)
3. Will you use my attribution tool and reconcile to Shopify orders?
4. What does a weekly report contain, and what does a monthly review contain?
5. Will you recommend cutting spend if it stops paying back, even if it lowers your fee?

A good answer to the first question names a blended number reconciled to Shopify, such as MER or new-customer CAC, and uses platform ROAS for creative decisions inside the account. A weak answer leads with platform ROAS and a screenshot. Also ask how they treat a month where platform ROAS rises while Shopify revenue stays flat: the right response is to investigate attribution, not to celebrate.

The last question matters under percentage-of-spend pricing. Foxwell Digital notes that percentage deals only work fairly with 'a strict cap in place and clear targets (CPA, ROAS, MER, CM, etc.)' (Foxwell Digital).

What should you ask about pricing, contract and exit?

Ask how you leave before you agree how you start: ownership, notice period and exit terms reveal how confident the agency is.

• Do we own the ad account, pixel, catalog, pages and creative files from day one? ATTN Agency flags agencies that run ads from their own Business Manager (ATTN Agency).
• What is the minimum term and notice period? Is there an exit for missed targets?
• Is there a setup fee, and exactly what does it cover?
• What is excluded from the fee: UGC, usage rights, tools, landing page builds?
• What does offboarding look like: test logs, creative files, documentation?

For price context, see what a DTC marketing agency costs. Our own answers: pricing by scope, month to month, no setup fee, you own everything, and the first step is a free growth audit.

What we show you when you ask us these questions

Put every question on this page to us on the audit call. Our first call is an audit, not a pitch, so we answer with your ad account and funnel open rather than with slides. Here is what each group of questions gets from us.

1. Proof. Our case studies show the headline results, and we also prove the method on your account: we pull the ad account and Shopify data apart live, and you judge whether the diagnosis is specific.
2. Team. Senior operators only. The people who audit your account on the call are the people who run it afterwards, so you meet the team before you sign.
3. Metrics. Before recommending more spend, we pull CAC, first-order vs repeat revenue and cohort LTV, usually with ShopifyQL. A brand where few customers come back cannot buy its way out with more budget. In reporting, we put sessions, cost per session, conversion rate and revenue per session next to ROAS, because ROAS alone puts ad spend in the denominator of every ratio and can hide which lever moved.
4. Funnel method. US first, then per landing page and device, with cart rate, cart-to-checkout and checkout completion each divided by the step before it. We read checkout completion before page design; in our audits the largest leaks are usually offer-level, not layout.
5. Compliance. Copy stays at structure/function level with no disease claims, the landing page is reviewed as part of the ad, and we run a parallel account structure so one disabled account does not take the brand dark. Our guide on Meta supplement ad rejections shows the policy side.
6. Contract and exit. Pricing by scope, month to month, no setup fee, and you own every account and asset.

For the single best question, our answer names one constraint: creative (fatigue, one angle carrying the account), funnel (conversion rate, checkout), offer (subscription terms, bundles) or measurement (dashboards that hide what moved), with the numbers behind it and a first test. That is the same diagnosis described in why DTC brands plateau. If we cannot name one on your data, treat that as an answer too.

What is the single best question to ask?

Ask: 'After looking at my account, what is the one constraint you would fix first, and what would you test in the first 30 days?' A strong agency names a specific constraint with numbers, such as cost per session rising on fatigued creative or cold traffic landing on a PDP that converts poorly, and a concrete first test. A weak one talks about its process and other clients. See red flags when hiring a DTC agency for the rest.

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