What should a law firm look for in a marketing agency proposal? Evaluate five areas before signing: pricing structure transparency (fixed fee vs. percentage of spend), ad spend allocation and direct payment, specific deliverables with quantities, performance benchmarks tied to cost, and ownership clauses for accounts, content, and data. Any proposal missing specifics in these areas is designed to benefit the agency, not the firm.
I’ve reviewed maybe forty agency proposals over the years, both as the person evaluating them and as the agency writing them. The ones that cost firms the most money aren’t the expensive ones; they’re the vague ones.
A proposal that says “$5,000 a month for digital marketing” is not a proposal. It’s a blank check. And I think most law firms sign these things because they don’t know what questions to ask, which honestly isn’t their fault; nobody teaches this in law school.
So here’s the checklist I wish someone had given me before I signed my first agency contract. Print it out, bring it to the next pitch meeting, and don’t sign anything until you can check every box.
Part 1: Pricing Transparency
This is where most firms get burned. The pricing structure determines whether the agency’s incentives are aligned with yours or working against you.
- [ ] Is the pricing model clearly defined? You should be able to answer in one sentence: “We pay a flat $X per month” or “We pay X% of ad spend.” If the answer requires a paragraph of explanation, the model is designed to confuse you.
- [ ] Is the management fee separated from ad spend? A single invoice that says “Marketing Services: $10,000” is a red flag. You should see two line items; one for the agency fee and one for the ad spend. If they can’t separate them, ask why.
- [ ] Does the firm pay Google and Meta directly? Your ad spend should come from your own credit card or business account, not pass through the agency. If the agency insists on handling payment, demand original receipts from the ad platform showing exactly what was spent.
- [ ] Are all setup, onboarding, and termination fees disclosed? Ask specifically about one-time setup costs, early termination penalties, and any “transfer fees” for moving your website or ad accounts if you leave.
Why this matters: Some agencies charge a $5,000 setup fee for work that takes a few hours, or add termination penalties that make it financially painful to leave even when the work isn’t producing results. If the exit costs more than staying, the contract is designed as a trap, not a partnership.
Part 2: What You’re Actually Buying
“SEO Services” is not a deliverable. “Four 1,500-word articles per month targeting case-type keywords with attorney review” is a deliverable. Every line item should be this specific.
- [ ] Does the SEO scope list specific content quantities? Number of articles, word count ranges, topic selection process, and who writes them. If the proposal says “content creation” without quantities, the agency decides how much work to do each month.
- [ ] Does the proposal specify link building methods? “Link building” could mean editorial placements in legal publications or it could mean buying links from spam sites that’ll get your firm penalized by Google. The proposal should name the types of sites and the number of links per month.
- [ ] Is PPC management detailed beyond “campaign management”? Look for specific mentions of negative keyword maintenance, ad copy A/B testing, landing page creation, and conversion tracking setup. These are the activities that separate a working campaign from a money pit.
- [ ] Are dedicated landing pages included? Sending paid traffic to your homepage is the most expensive mistake in PPC. The proposal should include the design and testing of practice-area-specific landing pages.
- [ ] Is Local Service Ad management explicitly included? LSAs require separate management from regular Google Ads, including lead dispute resolution and Google Screened verification. If it’s not mentioned, it’s probably not included.
- [ ] Does the reporting include real-time dashboard access? Static monthly PDFs are easy to cherry-pick. You should have 24/7 access to a live dashboard showing leads, costs, and conversions; not just impressions and clicks.
The “cheap content” test: Ask the agency who writes the content and whether your attorneys will need to review it for accuracy. A $50 blog post written by someone with no legal knowledge becomes a $500 expense when a partner has to spend two hours rewriting it. Factor that into the real cost.
Part 3: Performance Benchmarks
A good proposal doesn’t just tell you what they’ll do; it tells you what results to expect and how they’ll be measured.
- [ ] Does the proposal include estimated cost per lead (CPL)? Even rough ranges show the agency understands your market. If they can’t estimate what a lead should cost, they probably haven’t done the research; or maybe they just don’t want to be held to a number.
- [ ] Is there a clear attribution model? Can the agency tell you which specific keyword, ad, or page generated which specific lead? Attribution is the difference between knowing your marketing works and hoping it does.
- [ ] Does the proposal address the SEO timeline honestly? Any agency promising first-page rankings in 30 days is either lying or using tactics that will eventually get your site penalized. Honest SEO timelines are six to nine months for meaningful movement.
- [ ] Is the SEO-to-PPC budget ratio appropriate? For most established firms, something around 75% SEO and 25% PPC is healthy for long-term growth. If the proposal puts 90% into PPC, the agency may be prioritizing quick wins over building your long-term asset.
Part 4: Ownership and Exit Rights
This is the section that costs firms the most money over time, and it’s the one most attorneys skip because it looks like boilerplate. It’s not.
- [ ] Does the firm retain admin/owner access on all accounts? Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Business Profile, Facebook Business Manager; you should be the owner, and the agency should have manager access that you can revoke.
- [ ] Is there a data portability clause? If you leave, can you export all campaign data, lead history, call recordings, and conversion data? If the agency holds this data hostage, you lose years of institutional knowledge.
- [ ] Does the contract include “work made for hire” language? Every blog post, landing page, ad graphic, and piece of code the agency creates with your money should belong to you upon payment. No exceptions.
- [ ] Is the website built on a portable platform? If the agency builds your site on a proprietary CMS, you can’t take it with you. Insist on WordPress or another open-source platform that any developer can work with.
- [ ] Is the domain registered in your firm’s name? This sounds obvious, but I’ve seen agencies register a firm’s domain in the agency’s name. If they do this, they can literally turn off your website if you dispute a bill.
The exit test: Ask the agency directly: “If we fire you tomorrow, what do we keep and what do we lose?” If the answer to “what do we lose” includes your website, your ad accounts, or your data, that’s not a partnership; it’s a dependency.
Part 5: Ethics and Fit
Legal marketing has rules that don’t apply to other industries, and an agency that doesn’t know them is a liability.
- [ ] Does the proposal avoid guaranteed results? “Guaranteed #1 ranking” violates ABA Rule 7.1 on misleading communications. No one controls Google’s algorithm, and any agency promising specific rankings is either dishonest or planning to use tactics that’ll get you penalized.
- [ ] Does the agency represent competitors in your market? Ask whether they work with other firms in the same practice area within your geographic target. If they’re optimizing your competitor’s campaigns at the same time, you have a conflict of interest problem.
- [ ] Are leads exclusive to your firm? If the agency generates leads for you, confirm those leads aren’t being sold to three other attorneys simultaneously. Shared leads are a race to the phone that nobody consistently wins.
- [ ] Does the contract address bar advertising compliance? The agency should explicitly agree to follow TCPA rules and state bar solicitation regulations. If they don’t know what Rule 7.1 or Rule 7.3 means, they don’t work with enough law firms to understand the risk they’re creating for you.
That’s 25 items, and I don’t think any of them are unreasonable to ask. If an agency pushes back on this checklist, that probably tells you everything you need to know.
If they welcome it, that tells you something too.
Want to see a proposal that checks every box?
Argota Marketing publishes our pricing, separates ad spend from management fees, builds on WordPress, and gives you admin access to everything from day one. Here’s what a transparent proposal actually looks like.
