40-Question Social Media Agency Evaluation Checklist
Score agencies on revenue attribution, team structure, content velocity, and cost transparency. Surface contractor-heavy staffing and hidden ad-spend markups before you sign.
Scoring Framework
Rate each answer 1 to 5 based on specificity and depth. Agencies scoring below the midpoint overall, or below 4 on Revenue Attribution, tend to optimize for vanity metrics rather than measurable business impact. Weight heavily toward attribution and team quality.
Evaluation Criteria
Revenue Attribution and Business Impact
30% weightEvaluates the ability to connect social activity to closed deals, lead generation, and measurable business outcomes. Agencies weak here optimize for vanity metrics and won't move the revenue needle.
Sample Questions
- Can they demonstrate UTM tracking setup and Google Analytics 4 ecommerce integration for social attribution?
- Do they provide specific cost-per-acquisition data from a handful of clients in your industry with similar business models?
- Can they show conversion funnel reports tracing social traffic through to closed deals in HubSpot or Salesforce?
- Do they focus on business metrics (leads, revenue, CAC) rather than engagement metrics (likes, followers, reach) in case studies?
- Can they explain how they'll measure and improve social ROI beyond brand awareness and engagement rates?
Team Structure and Operational Capabilities
25% weightAssesses whether work gets done by experienced in-house teams or outsourced to freelancers. Weak team structure produces inconsistent quality and hidden costs whenever custom creative is needed.
Sample Questions
- Can they provide names and roles of specific team members who'll work on your account?
- What percentage of their team are full-time employees versus contractors (a healthy ratio is typically above 80 percent in-house)?
- Do they have written protocols for response times inside two hours during business hours, with named escalation contacts?
- Can they demonstrate scalable content production processes if you need to double volume in month six?
- Do they have crisis management procedures with specific timelines and real examples of managing client reputation issues?
- What project management tools do they use (Monday.com, Asana, Notion), and how do they ensure accountability?
- Can they handle content compliance for regulated industries like healthcare (HIPAA) or financial services (FINRA)?
Platform Expertise and Content Strategy
20% weightEvaluates platform-specific knowledge and the ability to create native content rather than recycle the same post across all channels. Generic approaches perform poorly everywhere.
Sample Questions
- Do they create platform-specific content strategies rather than reformatting identical posts across channels?
- Can they explain specific algorithm changes in the last six months and how they adapted client strategies?
- Do they show client work examples rather than relying on their own social accounts in demos?
- Can they demonstrate A/B testing frameworks and provide examples of optimization based on real performance data?
- Do they understand your industry's platform mix (LinkedIn for B2B, TikTok for younger consumer brands, Pinterest for retail discovery)?
- What content approval process do they use, and how many revision rounds are included in base pricing?
- Can they show examples of content that performed well for clients alongside content that failed and explain why?
Analytics and Performance Monitoring
15% weightAssesses analytics capabilities beyond basic platform metrics. Agencies with weak analytics optimize for vanity metrics and can't prove business impact or surface real improvement opportunities.
Sample Questions
- What analytics tools do they use beyond basic platform insights (Sprout Social Professional, Hootsuite Analytics, Brandwatch)?
- Can they demonstrate social listening capabilities and how they use sentiment analysis for strategy adjustments?
- Do they provide competitor analysis and benchmarking against industry performance norms?
- How do they track and report on customer lifetime value of social-acquired customers versus other channels?
- Can they set up proper attribution tracking that accounts for multi-touch customer journeys across platforms?
- Do they have experience with cohort analysis or incrementality testing for social campaigns at material spend?
Pricing Transparency and Contract Terms
10% weightEvaluates pricing transparency and contract terms. Hidden costs for revisions, platform setup, and premium creative routinely blow budgets by a meaningful share in the first half of an engagement.
Sample Questions
- Do they provide transparent pricing for platform setup fees, rush delivery, and content revisions beyond included rounds?
- What fees do they charge on paid media management (around 10 percent is reasonable, high teens or above is excessive)?
- Do you retain ownership of social accounts, content, and advertising data if you terminate the contract?
- Are analytics tool costs (Sprout Social, Hootsuite licenses) included in monthly fees or charged separately?
- Do they have clear data export and account transfer procedures if you switch agencies?
- What are their content revision limits and the costs for additional rounds beyond what's included?
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