How to choose a marketing agency that fits your goal

Choose a marketing agency by starting from one business goal, such as more enquiries, more online sales or more local visits, and then pick the type of agency that runs the channels behind that goal. Ask every candidate for live work, the names of the people on your account and a contract that leaves all accounts in your name.

Which kind of marketing agency matches your goal?

Marketing agencies differ more in shape than in name. A freelancer, a specialist agency, a full-service agency, an agency that also builds software and a large network agency all call themselves a marketing agency, and each one suits a different company. The table below matches each shape to the situation where it earns its fee.

The difference between hiring a person and hiring a team is worked out in freelancer or agency, and the option of a staff member is in hire a marketer. For a small business that wants one partner for every channel, the page on a full service marketing agency describes what that model covers and where it falls short. A plain overview of the daily work sits in what does a marketing agency do.

Which channels sit behind each business goal?

A goal decides the channels, and the channels decide which agency you need. A company that wants more quote requests for a service in two provinces has little use for a brand video, and a shop that sells online needs product feeds and tracking before it needs a newsletter.

Write the goal down before the first meeting, with one number you want to move. A plan built on that number is easier to judge than a plan built on reach or followers. The free marketing plan template helps to frame it, and how to advertise a business lists the channels in more depth.

How should you split the budget between media and fees?

A marketing budget has two parts that an offer should keep apart: the media budget paid to Google, Meta or LinkedIn, and the agency fee for strategy, writing, design and management. An offer that mixes both into one monthly figure hides how much of your money reaches an audience. Ask for two lines, and ask who pays the platforms: you, from your own card in your own ad account, or the agency, which then invoices you.

Platform spend also moves within a month. In Google Ads, a campaign can spend up to twice its average daily budget on a busy day, while the monthly charge stays at most 30.4 times the average daily budget for most campaigns. An agency should explain that before the first invoice, and the Google Ads budget calculator shows the effect for your own figures. A wider split over channels can be worked out with the marketing budget calculator, and the cost factors of agency work are in digital agency cost.

The fee itself depends on a handful of factors more than on the agency's name: the number of channels, the number of languages, how much content is written or filmed each month, and whether the site needs work first. Compare two offers on the same scope, line by line, before you compare the totals. An offer that looks cheaper often leaves out writing, design or the second language.

Can one agency handle SEO, ads and social media for a small business?

One agency can run SEO, ads and social media for a small business when it has a named specialist for each channel and one person who keeps the plan together. The advantage is one report and one budget discussion. The risk is a generalist who does each channel halfway, so ask to meet the people who do the hands-on work, beyond the account manager.

Test the claim on two channels at once. Ask for a live campaign the agency runs and a page it got ranking, both from the same client if possible. An agency that shows both has a working team across channels; an agency that shows only slides has a sales team.

What should an expat founder or a foreign company check in Belgium?

A company new to Belgium meets two language markets in one small country. Flanders reads Dutch, Wallonia reads French with a German-speaking community in the east, and Brussels is officially bilingual, with many English-speaking residents and companies. A plan that reaches only one language misses a large part of the market, so ask how the agency writes and checks French and Dutch, and whether a native speaker handles each.

The working language with the agency can still be English. Many founders and managers of a Belgian branch prefer calls, reports and contracts in English while the ads and pages go out in Dutch and French. Say so in the first call and ask to see a report in English.

Invoicing is simpler than it looks. A Belgian agency invoices a Belgian company with Belgian VAT. A company registered in another EU country that buys marketing services from a Belgian agency generally pays the VAT in its own country through the reverse charge, so the invoice shows no Belgian VAT and carries both VAT numbers. Check a number in the EU VAT number check and work out amounts with the Belgian VAT calculator. For selling across the country, selling online in Belgium covers languages, payment and delivery, and website in French and Dutch covers the site itself.

Which contract terms protect you?

A marketing contract should protect your accounts, your data and your exit. The terms below matter more than the monthly price, because a cheap contract that locks your ad account costs months when you change agency.

What questions should you ask before signing?

1. Which business goal will you work on first, and which number shows progress?
2. Which channels do you propose, and which ones do you advise against for us?
3. Who works on my account each week? Can I meet them?
4. Can you show live work for a company of our size, with results from its own data?
5. In which languages do your writers work natively?
6. Which accounts are created in my name?
7. How much of the monthly amount is media budget, and how much is fee?
8. What does the monthly report contain, and in which language do I get it?
9. What happens to the content, the data and the site when we stop?
10. Which clients do you turn down, and why?

The second question filters well. An agency that advises against a channel it could sell you is thinking about your result. A list of tips to judge any agency on SEO is in how to choose an SEO agency, and the checks for social media are in how to choose a social media marketing agency. For campaigns across Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels, the page on an advertising agency in Belgium goes into platforms and budgets.

Where VBS fits, and where it does not

VBS is a marketing agency in Ghent that builds sites and software and runs marketing on top of them: SEO, Google Ads, Facebook and Instagram ads, social media, LinkedIn, email and video. VBS also uses AMOSI, its own marketing software, for planning and reporting. Across the client sites it built, more than 1,700 URLs are live, in five languages. For Business Centrum, a site in four languages reached 1,593 non-brand search terms on page one within five weeks, starting from 13.

VBS fits a company in Belgium that needs its site and its marketing handled together, often in Dutch, French and English. VBS fits less well when a company only wants national TV or print campaigns, or a single cheap channel without a plan. To see whether the fit is there, book a call.