As a fractional CMO I often sit on the client side of agency pitches, in India and for US companies hiring Indian teams. Most pitches look alike: a case study deck, a dashboard screenshot with impressive ROAS, and a proposed retainer. The differences that decide whether the engagement works sit underneath, in who owns the accounts, what gets reported, and who actually does the work. I have written separately about B2B SaaS specifically; this is my general selection process for growth-stage companies, D2C and B2B alike.
Before the pitch: decide what you are hiring for
Most bad agency choices start before the first meeting, with a vague brief. If you ask for help growing leads, every agency will promise more leads, and some will deliver cheap ones that never convert. Write a one-page brief first. Include the business outcome you need, such as qualified pipeline at a target cost per opportunity for B2B, or new customers at a target contribution margin after returns and RTO for D2C. Include the channels you think are in scope, your monthly media budget range, what tracking you have today, who on your side will own the relationship, and what you will not hand over, such as positioning or pricing. Then decide the shape of agency you want. A specialist in one or two channels, such as Google Ads or Meta, usually goes deeper than a full-service shop, but needs someone on your side to join channels together. A full-service agency covers more ground but often spreads senior attention thinly at growth-stage budgets. Neither is right in general. What matters is that the agency's strengths match the channels where your buyers actually are, and that someone, in-house or fractional, owns the strategy above the channels.
Questions to ask in the pitch
1. Whose business portfolio, Google Ads account and analytics property will our campaigns run in? The only acceptable answer is ours, with agency access granted as a partner or user. 2. Who exactly will run our account day to day, how many other accounts do they manage, and can we meet them before signing? 3. What will you report on monthly? Look for pipeline, cost per qualified opportunity, CAC or contribution margin, not just leads, clicks and platform ROAS. 4. How do you set up and verify conversion tracking, and will you connect CRM outcomes back to the ad platforms through offline conversions or the Conversions API? 5. How do you test creative, and how many new creatives per month are included? 6. How do you handle a month when results drop? Ask for a real example. 7. Is media spend billed to our own payment method, or routed through you? If through you, what markup or fee applies? 8. What are the notice period, exit terms and handover obligations, including documentation of tracking and campaign structure? 9. Can we speak to two current clients at a similar budget and stage? Use the agency pitch detector linked below to pressure-test the claims you hear.
Red flags I watch for
Guaranteed results. No honest agency can guarantee a ROAS, a CPL or a lead count before it has seen your tracking, funnel and margins. Accounts created in the agency's own business portfolio or billed on the agency's card with no clear plan to move them to you. On Meta, an ad account created inside another business's portfolio cannot be transferred to yours later, so this matters from day one. Reporting built only on platform-reported conversions and ROAS, with no link to CRM revenue or orders net of returns. Platforms tend to credit themselves generously, and for COD-heavy D2C in India, unadjusted ROAS can look far better than the margin actually earned. A senior team in the pitch and an unnamed junior executor after signing. Long lock-in periods with no performance review point. Fees calculated purely as a percentage of ad spend, which rewards spending more regardless of results; percentage fees are not wrong in themselves, but pair them with outcome-based review. And reluctance to give you read access to everything, or vague answers about who has admin rights. Any one of these is worth a direct question. Several together usually means the agency is optimising for its retainer, not your growth.
India-specific checks
A few things matter more for companies hiring in India. First, tracking for local conversion paths. Many Indian funnels run through WhatsApp, phone calls, IndiaMART or COD checkouts like Shiprocket and GoKwik, and an agency that only knows web form tracking will undercount and misoptimise. Ask specifically how they would track your path, and compare their answer with my guides on WhatsApp lead tracking and COD order tracking. Second, consent and data handling. Ask how they approach Consent Mode and the obligations under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act for any customer data they upload to ad platforms. Third, invoicing. Ask for GST-compliant invoices and clarity on whether media spend and agency fee are invoiced separately. Fourth, language and regional creative. If you sell beyond the metros, ask how they produce and test regional-language creative and whether they have done it at your scale. Fifth, for US companies hiring an Indian agency: confirm time-zone overlap for live campaign issues, and make sure all accounts are created under your US entity, not the agency's. Ownership rules on Meta and Google are the same wherever the agency sits.
Structure the first 90 days to judge them fairly
Even a good agency needs time, so set up the engagement to tell you something useful early. In the first month, the deliverables are access, a tracking audit and a written plan: what is broken, what they will test first, and what success looks like at 30, 60 and 90 days. Do not expect results in month one; do expect clarity. In months two and three, judge leading indicators against the plan: cost per qualified opportunity or contribution margin trending in the right direction, creative testing running at the agreed pace, and reporting that reconciles with your CRM or order system. Hold a formal review at day 90 with an explicit decision: continue, change scope or exit. Put that review point in the contract. Throughout, keep ownership and visibility on your side: read access to every account for at least two people at your company, a monthly export of results, and your own definitions of what counts as a qualified lead. That way, if the engagement does not work, switching is an inconvenience rather than a crisis. My switching checklist covers the handover if you get there.
Sources
Meta Business Help Center, About Account Sharing Limitation (ad accounts created in a business portfolio cannot be transferred to another business): https://www.facebook.com/business/help/563249781254715 Meta Business Help Center, Give a partner access to business assets in your business portfolio: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1717412048538897 Google Ads Help, About user access levels for your manager account: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9977851
FAQ
No. Campaigns should run in ad accounts owned by your business, with the agency given partner or user access. On Meta, an ad account created in an agency's business portfolio cannot later be transferred to yours.
Not by itself, but it rewards higher spend regardless of results. Pair it with a defined performance review point and reporting on pipeline or contribution margin, not just spend and platform ROAS.
Expect access, a tracking audit and a written plan in month one, leading indicators moving by months two and three, and a formal continue, change or exit review at day 90.