The signs your agency is coasting, ranked by cost.

Almost nobody fires an agency because of one dramatic failure. They spend a year with a low-grade feeling that something is off, decide they are probably being unfair, and renew.

The feeling is usually right. What is missing is a way to check it that does not depend on how the last call went. These are the signs, ordered by how much each one actually costs, rather than by how annoying it is.

The expensive ones

These cost you money every single month they persist.

1. Conversion tracking is broken

The most expensive problem in digital marketing and the most common. If conversions are not tracked correctly, the bidding optimises toward the wrong signal, the reporting is fiction, and no judgement about performance means anything. It is also the easiest to check: open Google Ads, go to Tools → Conversions, and read the Status column. Anything saying "Inactive" or "No recent conversions" is your answer. Full walkthrough on the Google Ads audit page.

2. The report never mentions a lead

Impressions, reach, click-through rate, "brand awareness". Everything except how many people called, filled in a form or bought something. Sometimes this is spin. More often the tracking above is broken, so leads genuinely cannot be reported and the agency reports what it has. Either way you have been deciding blind. See what a report should contain.

3. Branded and non-branded are blended

People searching your company name were going to find you anyway. Counting them as marketing performance inflates every number in the report. The split should be there by default; if it is not, ask for it.

4. Nothing has shipped in 90 days

A retainer buys ongoing work. Ask for a list of what was produced in the last quarter, with URLs. If the honest answer is reporting and meetings, you are paying a subscription to a screenshot.

The structural ones

These cost you nothing today and a great deal on the day you try to leave.

5. You do not own your accounts

The Google Ads account, the Analytics property, the domain, the call tracking numbers. If leaving means losing your history, that was a design decision. Sort it out while the relationship is still friendly, because it is close to impossible during an argument.

6. The contract auto-renews with a narrow exit

Twelve month terms are defensible for SEO. A twelve month auto-renew with a cancellation window you have to catch is a different thing. Find the termination clause before you want to use it.

7. Your work is quietly outsourced

Not automatically a problem, and often sensible. It becomes one when it is hidden, when the provider is a content mill, or when nobody at your agency knows your account well enough to answer a direct question. How to tell.

The softer signals

Weak individually, but they predict the hard ones.

• Every question needs a callback. "Let me check with the team" every single time means your contact is a relay, not a practitioner.
• They have never disagreed with you. Total agreement with every suggestion you have made is not good service.
• Nobody has asked about your business. Which jobs are most profitable, which leads your team dreads, what a good customer looks like. Nobody has asked because whoever does the work was never told.
• Guaranteed rankings. No legitimate practitioner guarantees a position. "Page one in 90 days" is either a misunderstanding of how this works or a plan to win easy terms nobody searches.
• Leads went up but revenue did not. Usually cheap unqualified traffic, or "conversions" that are not real ones. Both fixable once visible.
• The reporting template never changes. Same sections, same order, only the numbers move.

Three checks that settle it

Rather than weighing feelings, get three factual answers. None require permission and none take long.

1. Is conversion tracking real? Tools → Conversions in Google Ads. Read the Status column.
2. Has anyone worked in the account? Tools → Change history, last 90 days. A log full of "auto-applied recommendation" is Google working, not your agency.
3. What shipped? Ask for the last quarter's output with URLs. Then open them.

Those three answers decide most cases without any argument about tone or responsiveness.

Being fair about it

Two things worth holding onto.

Switching costs you three to six months. A new agency has to learn your account, and the clock resets on anything in progress. That is worth paying if the current one is coasting and wasteful if the real problem is a budget too small to work with.

Slow is not the same as absent. SEO genuinely takes six to twelve months, and an agency asking for patience may be completely right. The question is never whether it has been long enough, it is whether the work has been done. More on that distinction.

Where to look next

• What SEO should cost, if the question is whether the fee is fair.
• Google Ads audit, if you spend on paid and want a fast factual answer.
• Monthly reporting, if the reports are the thing bothering you.
• White label SEO, if you suspect the work is being subcontracted.
• Local SEO audit, if you are a local business not showing up nearby.

Common questions

What are the biggest red flags?

Broken conversion tracking, reports that never mention leads, nothing shipped in 90 days, and not owning your own accounts. One proves nothing; several together are worth acting on.

Should I fire my agency?

Not on a feeling. Check the tracking, the change history and the last quarter's output first. Those usually decide it.

How do I know if they are doing anything?

Ask for 90 days of output with URLs, and read the Google Ads change history yourself. Both are factual.

Is it normal to not understand what they do?

Common, and not your fault. Competent people can explain their work plainly. Persistent jargon is a signal in itself.