The retainer document decides more than the monthly fee. It decides what work is included, who owns the accounts, how performance is judged, how hard it is to leave, and whether the first 90 days are a correction plan or a getting-started ritual.
Use this checklist before signing, renewing, firing, or increasing spend under an agency relationship.
The seven checks
- 1. Account ownershipYou own Google Ads, Meta, GA4, Tag Manager, call tracking, CRM, landing pages, audiences, and creative assets. The agency has access. You have admin.
- 2. First 90-day correctionThe proposal names what will change in the first 90 days. If the first 90 days are only onboarding, reporting, and strategy, the fee is buying time before truth.
- 3. Tracking sanityThe conversion event being optimized is the action the business actually wants. Form fills, calls, purchases, booked appointments, and qualified opportunities are not interchangeable.
- 4. Search terms and wasteFor Google Ads, search terms, negative keywords, brand vs non-brand, PMax structure, and landing match are reviewed before more spend is approved.
- 5. Landing page fitThe page answers the promise in the ad. The offer, proof, CTA, and mobile path are visible before the buyer has to hunt.
- 6. Reporting cadenceThe report tells what changed, what was learned, what decision is next, and how spend connects to revenue. Activity reporting is not decision reporting.
- 7. Exit and renewal termsNotice period, asset handoff, user removal, final invoice, and renewal trigger are written clearly before the relationship starts.
When the checklist says audit first
Buy the diagnostic first if the vendor cannot name the first 90-day correction, if tracking is unclear, if the existing reports do not connect to revenue, if the account is owned by someone else, or if the retainer is being used to discover the problem.
The point is not to avoid agencies. The point is to enter the relationship with the system already read.