Nobody fires an agency after one bad month. The relationship usually ends a year or more after it should have, because each individual signal has a plausible explanation and nobody adds them up. This is the list to add up.
None of these is disqualifying alone. Three or more together is a pattern.
1. The reports show activity, not outcomes
The monthly report lists posts published, keywords tracked, ad impressions, and clicks. It does not list booked jobs, cost per booked job, or revenue. Or it lists them but the numbers come from the ad platform rather than your CRM, so they cannot be checked.
An agency that is producing results wants you to see the results. An agency that is not will show you the work. The distinction between the two kinds of report is the whole subject of marketing metrics that actually matter.
2. You cannot get a straight answer about brand versus non-brand
Ask what share of the paid search results come from people searching your business name. If the answer is a deflection, or the number is not broken out, the account performance you have been shown probably includes a large share of customers who would have found you anyway. The brand campaign question is a simple one, and a good agency has the answer ready.
3. The strategy has not changed in a year
Same channels, same budget split, same campaign structure as the day you signed. Markets change, seasons change, your business changes. An agency that has not proposed a single reallocation, test, or new channel in twelve months has stopped thinking about your account. They may still be doing the work. They are not doing the job.
4. You do not own your accounts
The Google Ads account is inside their manager account and cannot be transferred. The website is on their platform. The domain is registered to them. Any of these means leaving is expensive by design. Check now, before you need to; the ownership checklist takes twenty minutes.
5. The same person is never available
Your account manager changed twice. Questions go to a shared inbox. The person who sold you the engagement has not been on a call since. Agencies restructure, and turnover happens, but an account that is passed around is an account nobody is accountable for.
6. They cannot explain what they did last month in plain language
Ask what specifically changed in your account in the last thirty days and why. A working agency says "we paused the two ad groups with the highest cost per lead, moved the budget to the service page campaign, and rewrote the headlines on the plumbing landing page because it was converting below the others." A struggling one talks about optimization and best practices.
7. The results moved when the market moved, not when they acted
Pull up your lead volume by month for the last two years and lay it over the seasons. If leads rise in your busy season and fall in your slow season by about the same proportion every year, regardless of anything the agency did, the agency's contribution is hard to distinguish from the calendar. This is not proof of nothing; it is a reason to ask for the specific things they did that produced a change the season did not explain.
8. You found the problems yourself
You noticed the ad going to the homepage instead of a landing page. You noticed the review link was broken. You noticed the site was slow on your phone. You noticed the competitor bidding on your name. If you are catching things the agency should have caught, you are doing part of their job, and paying for the whole of it.
Before you leave
Give them the list and a deadline. A serious agency treats a specific, itemized complaint as a gift and fixes it within the month. If the response is defensive or vague, you have your answer.
Secure your accounts before you give notice. Confirm you have owner access to every property. Export the ad account's history, the website, and the CRM. Get the domain in your name.
Then, when you evaluate the next one, audit their own website first and ask how they report. The agency that shows you cost per booked job from your own CRM, breaks out brand from non-brand, and puts a named person on the account is the one that will not end up on this list.
If you want an outside read on your current agency's work, a free marketing audit looks at exactly these eight points, and how we work is written so you can compare.
Frequently asked questions
How long should I give a new agency before judging?
Long enough for a full seasonal cycle on the channels they run, typically several months. But you should see specific actions and a clear plan in the first thirty days, and reporting that improves from month one.
Is a long contract itself a warning sign?
A long initial term is common and not automatically bad. A long term combined with accounts you do not own is.
What if the agency is a friend or a referral?
The signs are the same. Handle the conversation with more care, but do not skip it.
Should I go in-house instead?
Depends on the problem. We compared in-house versus agency honestly, and the answer is often a mix.