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Agency proposals are difficult to compare when one quotes form submissions, another quotes qualified leads and a third quotes sales. Agree on the outcome and scope before comparing a price. For property businesses, include the market, inventory and buyer languages in that brief.
Ask for evidence close to your task
Review cases with a similar sales process and audience. Ask for the period, spend, channels, lead definition and what sales recorded. A large number without those boundaries is hard to apply. Enquiries, qualified buyers, bookings and completed deals must remain separate.
Our Dubai buyer-cost breakdown shows why changing the denominator changes the apparent result. A case can inform a test without guaranteeing the same outcome for your business.
Check ownership and access
Agree who owns advertising accounts, analytics, the domain, landing-page assets and CRM data. Clarify which access the agency needs, who can approve changes and what happens at the end of the engagement. The handover should preserve usable reporting and campaign history.
Ask who works on the account and who makes decisions when results differ from the plan. A named contact alone does not explain who checks creative, landing pages, tracking and sales feedback.
Compare the full scope and cost
Separate platform spend from agency fees, creative production, website work and sales-process support. Ask which tasks are recurring, which require a separate estimate and which depend on your team. Review current terms directly rather than assuming a case’s budget describes today’s proposal.
A useful plan states the initial test, its measurement and the conditions for continuing or changing it. Ask how the agency will handle weak qualification, missing CRM updates and limited inventory.
Inspect the reporting method
Reports should preserve source definitions and avoid adding incompatible metrics. Platform conversions, analytics events and CRM deals can describe different things. Ask to see how the same group of enquiries progresses through contact, qualification and the next commercial step.
Agree who reviews unresolved leads and who records rejection reasons. A report that ends at the form cannot resolve every disagreement about quality.
Use the first meeting to test the process
Bring the offer, current campaign summary and an anonymised CRM sample. Ask the team to identify missing evidence before making a forecast. Compare whether each candidate explains its assumptions and responsibilities clearly.
See our published cases, services and pricing scope. For a sales-side diagnosis, use the sales audit checklist.