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Practical decision support

Articles for choosing and managing a digital agency.

Useful guidance for UK professional services firms. Each article helps you test a claim, compare evidence or protect your position before signing.

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  1. 01Agency selectionHow to choose a digital agency for a UK professional services firmA practical framework for defining the job, comparing relevant evidence and protecting ownership before appointing a digital specialist.
  2. 02Agency selectionWhat questions should you ask a digital agency?Five questions a UK firm can check against a public record, with an answer key for grading the replies you get.
  3. 03Agency selectionDigital agency red flags: what to walk away fromA practical way to spot agency red flags before signing, and separate terminal risks from terms you can negotiate.
  4. 04Agency selectionHow do you tell if your marketing agency is any good?Four checks a UK firm can run on public records in an afternoon, without asking the agency for a report.
  5. 05Agency selectionWhat should a digital agency brief include?The four sections that protect the firm, not the agency quoting for the work.
  6. 06Agency selectionIn-house or agency: which suits a 20-person firm?The fully loaded cost of a first marketing hire, the crossover point against a retainer, and the five criteria that actually decide it.
  7. 07Agency selectionShould a UK firm hire a freelancer or a digital agency?How to tell whether the agency quoting is a team or one person, and where a freelancer is genuinely the better answer.
  8. 08Agency selectionWhat should a UK accountancy practice actually pay for SEO?Every price on the first page of this search is quoted by someone selling SEO. Here is the number that actually decides it.
  9. 09Agency selectionWhat does AI automation actually cost a UK firm to run?Day rate against fixed price, and the licence run rate that continues after the build is paid for.
  10. 10Agency selectionWhat should a law firm pay for a new website?What public bodies paid for comparable websites, and the half of the quote that is set by the regulator.
  11. 11Agency selectionHow much should a financial adviser pay for a lead?Cost per lead is the wrong number. Cost per client, at your own conversion rate, is the one that decides it.
  12. 12Agency selectionWhat does a marketing agency retainer include?Seven lines turn a list of services into a scope. Most proposals name one of them.
  13. 13Agency selectionIs a marketing agency worth it for a 20 person firm?Break-even on one additional client, at your own average fee.
  14. 14Agency selectionWhy do agency quotes vary so much for the same job?Two quotes for one brief, divided into days and tested against a published salary floor.
  15. 15Agency selectionShould a UK practice buy AI software or hire an agency?Seats are priced per person and retainers per task, so the cheaper option changes with the size of the firm.
  16. 16Agency selectionWho actually builds AI automation for accountancy firms?Four kinds of company answer this brief, and the public register says which one you are actually calling.
  17. 17Agency selectionWhat can AI actually automate in an accountancy firm?The answer is decided by the rule at the end of each task, not by what the software can be shown doing.
  18. 18Agency selectionHow should you brief a supplier to automate admin work?Measure the task first. A brief that names an outcome gets four quotes priced against four different guesses.
  19. 19Agency selectionWhat should a recruitment agency automate first?Start with the steps that move information. The moment a step forms a view about a candidate, the rules change and so does the price.
  20. 20Agency selectionWhich AI tools should a professional services firm buy?Two of the subscriptions your firm already renews now include an assistant. The paid seat buys one thing on top of that.
  21. 21Agency selectionIs it safe to put client data into ChatGPT?Safety here is not a property of the tool. It is a contract your practice either holds or does not, and that answer survives the vendor changing its terms.
  22. 22Agency selectionIs Clutch worth using to find a UK agency?The Verified badge is a solvency check, not a delivery check, and the default order on a directory page is a paid order. Both facts come from Clutch's own documentation.
  23. 23Agency selectionBark vs Clutch vs Google: which finds a better agency?Three routes to the same shortlist, and not one of them takes responsibility for the match. What each platform documents checking, and the free public records that do carry weight.
  24. 24Agency selectionWhat do agency directories actually verify about a firm?Three directory badges, three different nouns being checked, and not one of them is the work. What Clutch, Bark and G2 each document verifying, and the checks they leave to you.
  25. 25Agency selectionWho owns your website when an agency builds it?The default is the opposite of what most partners assume. Ownership moves on a signature, not on a paid invoice, and the test is a document your firm either holds or does not.
  26. 26Agency selectionHow long should a marketing agency contract be in the UK?Read five sets of published terms for the month payments can stop. The headline term is rarely the answer.
  27. 27Agency selectionHow do you switch marketing agency without losing work?Each platform has its own rule for what happens when the agency leaves. The rules set the order.
  28. 28Agency selectionWill ChatGPT recommend your UK firm to a new client?Any public website can appear in ChatGPT search. Whether yours does turns on your robots file and your delivery network.
  29. 29Agency selectionHow should an accountancy practice measure SEO results?A four-line evidence chain connects search visibility to suitable enquiries and accepted client work.
  30. 30Agency selectionSEO or Google Ads: which suits an accountancy practice?Decide by service line: price the click from your own fee income, and check which services Google restricts in ads.
  31. 31Agency selectionWhat should an accountancy practice website cost in the UK?Price the first year across five lines, and hold every quote to the full-price standard UK government buyers get.
  32. 32Agency selectionWhat should an accountancy practice website include?Separate the lines UK law fixes from the pages the partners choose, and name who keeps the fixed lines current.
  33. 33Agency selectionHow much should an accountancy practice spend on marketing?Work the ceiling out from client margin and the new clients the team can onboard. The percentage is the answer, not the input.
  34. 34Agency selectionHow long should SEO take for an accountancy practice?Google no longer publishes an SEO timeframe. Get dated milestones from the agency and check each one yourself.
  35. 35Agency selectionWhat can you hold an agency to when results do not come?The statute that actually governs a firm's contract for marketing services, what it implies where the contract is silent, and what to write in instead.
  36. 36Agency selectionWhat should be in writing before an agency starts work?The six documents an engagement rests on, only one of which is the contract, and the exposure that sits in each one where it is missing.
  37. 37Agency selectionWho is liable if an agency's advertising breaks the rules?The firm is the advertiser under the UK advertising rules, whoever wrote the copy. What that puts on the practice, and what it can hand over.
  38. 38Agency selectionHow much partner time does an agency engagement need?The fee is half the cost. What an engagement asks of a partner in its first quarter, and the sum that ranks two quotes honestly.
  39. 39Agency selectionWho at the firm should own the agency relationship?The job needs authority, not enthusiasm. Which partner should hold an agency relationship, and the four powers the seat has to carry.
  40. 40Agency selectionWhat does an agency need from you in the first month?The first month is a supply problem. Which six items a firm has to hand over, and which of them run on somebody else's clock.
  41. 41Agency selectionIs a paid pilot project better than starting on a retainer?A pilot is a test, and a test has to be able to produce a result. Which questions a first engagement can settle, and which it cannot.
  42. 42Agency selectionWhat account access should you give a marketing agency?The access question is settled when an account is created, not when a login is shared. Which rights to keep and which to delegate.
  43. 43Agency selectionShould an agency have access to your practice systems?An agency asking for a system login is asking for client work as well as contact data. Where the line sits, and what to send instead.
  44. 44Agency selectionWhat should a marketing agency report every month?A report that cannot be reproduced in the firm's own accounts is commentary. The four jobs a monthly report has, and the clause that gets them.
  45. 45Agency selectionHow do you check an agency's reported numbers are real?Comparing the report with the dashboard is one configuration read twice. The four checks that test the configuration instead.
  46. 46Agency selectionHow long before a marketing agency should show results?Two clocks run, and the second one is the firm's own enquiry count. At eight enquiries a month a quarter cannot show a quarter's improvement.
  47. 47Agency selectionShould an agency run your firm's LinkedIn presence?An agency can run the firm's Page. It cannot properly operate a partner's own account. LinkedIn's rules say where the line sits.
  48. 48Agency selectionIs a marketing agency a data controller or a processor?The ICO decides controller or processor job by job, so one agency can be both inside one engagement. Five common jobs, and where to write it down.
  49. 49Agency selectionHow do you run an agency review they cannot talk through?Six review questions the firm can check from its own accounts, so the meeting cannot be won on presentation. A pre-read and an agenda follow.
  50. 50Agency selectionWhat should you ask for before renewing an agency contract?Six asks a firm can put to its agency before the notice date passes, and a dated clock to place them on. Price is not the first.
  51. 51Agency selectionIs it cheaper to fix the agency you have or replace it?What a switch costs before the new agency delivers anything, worked on an illustrative fee, and the chance a fix must have of working for trying it first to be the cheaper bet.
  52. 52Agency selectionWhat should you reclaim when an agency engagement ends?Every account, file and record a firm may want back, sorted by who can move it, and the one set of settings that stays behind in the agency's manager account.
  53. 53Agency selectionHow do you brief a new agency on what the last one did?Five questions a UK firm can answer from its own records, where each answer is read without the old agency, and how long the platforms keep it.
  54. 54Agency selectionIs a paid audit worth it before you replace an agency?A paid audit is worth buying only when the auditor earns the same fee whatever it finds. A conflict matrix, six checks and a break-even test for a UK firm.
  55. 55Agency selectionWhen should a firm stop outsourcing marketing altogether?Stop outsourcing when the work fills a person's week and someone at the firm can own it. A decision map and a worked employment cost for a UK practice.
  56. 56Agency selectionWhat should a recruitment agency pay for a new website?Price the job board and the applicant flow as separate lines, then compare three years of cost. A scorecard and a made-up quote comparison.
  57. 57Agency selectionWhat should an insurance broker look for in an agency?Settle who approves a line of marketing before an agency drafts one. A five-question approval ladder and a marked-up draft of invented lines.
  58. 58Agency selectionWhat should a tax advisory firm brief an agency on?Brief one service line, and put a written list of claims nobody may make at the centre. A six-part brief canvas and a five-test check before it goes out.
  59. 59Agency selectionDoes a recruitment agency need marketing or better outreach?Candidate supply and client demand are separate problems. A two-sided comparison and a four-question test show which one to fix first.
  60. 60Agency selectionWhat makes an assistant able to cite your firm at all?Citation needs four links in order: permission, index, text and match. A partner can check the first three without a supplier.
  61. 61Agency selectionHow much should a UK firm pay for AI visibility work?AI visibility is five lines under one label. Two can be priced in hours, one in dated logs, and one has no fair price.
  62. 62Agency selectionShould a professional services firm publish its prices?A published price filters enquiries both ways. Publish it where the fee is fixed by scope, publish the method where it is not, and check the regulator first.
  63. 63Agency selectionHow financial advisers get clients without cold callingFive routes to a first enquiry, ordered by the partner time each costs, and the one the FCA's cold-calling rules restrict.
  64. 64Agency selectionCan a financial adviser use client testimonials online?A six-question test for a quote before it goes live, and a plain list of what could not be confirmed about the FCA's position.
  65. 65Agency selectionHow do mortgage brokers get clients, ranked by cost?Six routes to a broker's next client, ranked by cost per completed case with the partner's time priced in, and the count that reorders them.

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