What report should my marketing agency send me each month?

Half a page is enough, as long as it has quantities: what was published and where (with links), what happened to visits, impressions and enquiries compared with the previous month, what's planned next and what they need from you. If the report is pretty charts without a single figure of work done, it's a presentation document, not a progress report.

How do I know SEO is working if I don't understand SEO?

Three free numbers: how many of your pages Google has stored (search site:yourdomain.com), how many impressions and distinct queries Search Console records, and how many calls come from your Google profile. If those three rise month on month, the work is on track even if sales haven't noticed yet.

How long should I wait before worrying?

Three months for the intermediate signals and four to eight for enquiries, in a local business with normal competition. What isn't normal is no signal moving at three months: not indexed pages, not impressions, not average position. At that point it isn't patience, it's something set up wrong.

Is it a bad sign if they only show me social media data?

It's a warning sign. Reach and followers are fine as context, but they don't say whether the business received enquiries. What you need to see is how many people reach the website from each channel, how many messages arrive and how many become customers. If only social metrics appear, that's probably the only thing being worked on.

Can I ask for access to the accounts and tools?

Yes, and you should have it from the start. The domain, hosting, Google profile, Search Console and analytics should be in your company's name, with the agency added as a user. If you're told it's not possible or it's complicated, that answers the question of whether to stay.

What happens if I decide to change agency?

If the accounts are in your name, nothing dramatic: the domain transfers, the mailboxes migrate with their messages and the website moves as it is. In our plans, migrating the site and email is included precisely so that switching costs nothing. What is worth doing is leaving no loose ends: ask in writing what stays in your name before signing anything.

How to tell if your marketing agency is doing its job

The monthly invoice arrives: "digital marketing services" and an amount. You ask what was done and you're told they've been optimising. It sounds fine and means nothing. If that feeling is familiar, this article is for you: how to tell if your marketing agency is genuinely working, without having to learn the trade.

A meeting table with printed reports and charts for reviewing what the marketing agency has done

The problem isn't the price, it's what can't be counted

A monthly fee can be expensive or cheap depending on what it delivers. The problem starts when what it delivers can't be counted. "Optimisation", "improvements", "monitoring" and "strategy" are words that fit any month and any client, and by definition can't be verified.

The opposite exists too and is easy to spot: a service you can list. How many articles were published, how many posts went on the Google profile, how many reviews were answered, which campaigns were touched. Numbers you can count on your fingers.

We publish those quantities on our pricing page for exactly that reason: from €400 a month, with three articles on the site, three on the Google profile, every review answered and AI visibility work. Not out of generosity, but because a service you can't count is a service you can't defend.

What you should receive every month

You don't need a forty-page report. You need half a page with these four things:

What was done, with quantities. "Three articles published" plus the links. "Four posts on the profile". "Eleven of eleven reviews answered".
What happened to the numbers. Visits from search, impressions, calls from the profile, forms received. Compared with the previous month.
What's planned for next month and why. Two or three lines.
What they need from you. Photos, updated prices, an answer. Half the projects that stall, stall here.

If what you get is a pretty chart without a single quantity, that's a presentation document, not a work report.

Want to know what it would cost you?

We reply the same day. No commitment, no sales pitch.

Message us on WhatsApp Contact →

The five numbers you can check yourself

All of this is free to check and doesn't depend on anyone. If your agency hasn't given you access, that's the first sign.

1. Indexed pages

Search Google for site:yourdomain.com. Count how many of your pages it has stored. If articles are being published monthly, that number should rise.

2. Impressions and queries in Search Console

It's Google's free tool for seeing which searches you appear for. Google explains how to start in its Search Console guide. What matters: impressions rising and the list of distinct queries getting longer.

3. Calls and directions from the Google profile

The Business Profile itself tells you how many people called, asked for directions or clicked through to your site from the map, and Google explains how to read that data in its Business Profile help. For local businesses it's usually the first thing to move.

4. Where people arrive from

Analytics separates traffic coming from search, social, advertising and people typing your name directly. Google documents those sources in its Analytics help. Without that split there's no way to know which channel is contributing.

5. Actual enquiries

Forms, WhatsApp messages and calls. Count them by hand if you have to. It's the only number that decides whether the rest is worth anything.

With these five you don't need to be an expert: if none has moved in three months, the conversation isn't "let's wait a bit longer", it's "what exactly is being done".

A business owner looking doubtful while going through a report with charts

Seven signs something's off

The domain or the access isn't in your name. The most serious one and the easiest to check: ask, and ask to be shown.
You don't know what was done last month. Neither you nor anyone on your team.
Everything is social media charts. Reach, impressions and followers, but not a single enquiry.
The website hasn't been touched in months even though the contract includes content.
You only ever speak to a salesperson. Never to whoever does the work.
Nothing is compared with the previous month. Without comparison, any number looks good.
New reviews still have no reply. It takes five minutes and it's visible from outside; if the plan includes Google profile work, that's part of it.

Any one of these might have an explanation. Three or more, no.

What is normal even if it feels slow

It's worth being fair, because expectations are often misplaced too. These things are normal:

No sales in the first two months. That's the tidying-up phase: website, profile, content. We covered it in detail in the article on how long SEO takes.
Rankings bouncing around. Early on, Google is testing where to place you.
An article taking months to bring visits. Content compounds, it doesn't explode.
Advertising stopping dead when it's switched off. That's its nature: you pay to be there.

The difference between "it's slow" and "nothing is happening" lies in the intermediate signals. If they're rising, it's slow but moving. If nothing moves, it isn't.

What isn't the agency's fault

In fairness, some things get blamed on the agency that aren't theirs:

Not answering the messages that arrive. If the form works and nobody replies within two days, the problem is inside the company.
Not supplying material. Without real photos, prices and a clear idea of what you actually sell, the content comes out generic.
Changing direction every month. Starting with renovations, moving to weddings and ending with catering resets the counter three times.
Expecting the website to fix the price or the service. Marketing brings people to the door; what happens inside is yours.

A good provider will tell you this to your face, even when it's awkward. That's another sign you're in decent hands.

Five questions for the next meeting

What was published last month and where is it? With links.
How many enquiries came in, and from which channel?
Whose name are the domain, hosting and Google profile in?
What's planned this month, and why that rather than something else?
If I leave, what do I take with me? The answer to this one says more than the other four.

These are client questions, not expert ones. An agency doing its job answers them without getting nervous, because it has the answers to hand.

How we go about it

Our plans are published with the quantities inside, VAT excluded and with no lock-in: billed monthly, and thirty days' notice is enough to stop. Migrating the site and the email accounts is included, and the domain and access are in your name from day one.

What you pay for the plan is the work. The advertising budget is yours to set separately, so you always know which part of the spend is the ad and which part is the work. And every month you can see what was done without having to trust a sentence.

A hand pointing with a pen at a printed metrics dashboard beside a laptop

If you're with another provider and this has left you with doubts, you don't need to change anything yet: ask the five questions and check the five numbers. That will tell you plenty. And if you'd rather we took a look, message us on WhatsApp with your business name and we'll tell you what we see, no commitment.

Tell us what you need and we'll give you a price