The questions to ask any marketing partner before you sign

Updated 2026-08-23 · Atiba de Souza

Twelve questions that separate a partner who will move your practice from one who will bill you for activity — including the four about ownership that decide what you keep when it ends.

Most agency evaluations go wrong the same way: the physician asks what the agency does, the agency answers fluently, and nothing has been learned, because every agency answers that question fluently.

These questions are chosen because a good partner answers them easily and a weak one cannot. Ask them in a first conversation, before any proposal exists.

What should you ask about who you are for?

Ask them to tell you who your practice is for — and see whether they ask you first or tell you.

• "Before we talk about what you'd do, who do you think my patients are?" A partner who answers confidently without asking you anything has a template. A good one will say they do not know yet and ask how you would describe the person you help most.
• "Which patients should I not be trying to reach?" The single most revealing question on this list. Anyone who cannot name who to exclude has not understood the work, because everything in it depends on that decision.
• "What would you need from me that you cannot get anywhere else?" The right answer involves your judgement, your cases, your way of explaining things. An answer that requires nothing from you is describing content that will sound like everyone else's.

What should you ask about how success is measured?

Ask what number they will be judged on, and then ask what that number does when the work is going badly.

• "What will you show me in ninety days, and what would tell us this isn't working?" A partner willing to describe failure in advance is unusual and worth a great deal. One who describes only success has not planned for the ordinary case.
• "Which of your numbers can go up while my practice gets no better?" Traffic, impressions, reach and followers all can. A good partner will say so without defensiveness — it is simply true, and they should already know it.
• "How will we tell a patient who found us from one who was coming anyway?" Attribution is genuinely hard and honest partners say so. Beware anyone who claims it is fully solved.

What should you ask about ownership?

These four decide what you are left holding when the relationship ends, and they are the ones physicians most often forget.

• "Whose name is on the domain?" It must be yours. This is not negotiable and there is no good reason for any other answer.
• "If we part ways, what do I keep?" The site, the content, the analytics history, the ad account, the listings. Get the answer in writing before you sign, not when you are leaving.
• "Who owns the ad account and the data in it?" An account owned by the agency takes years of learning with it when it goes.
• "What happens to the material you write for me?" You should own it outright. Licensed-back-to-you arrangements exist and they are worse for you than they sound.

What should you ask about the people doing the work?

Ask who is actually doing it, because it is frequently not the person selling it.

• "Who will write the material, and have they written for physicians before?" Medical audiences punish generic copy harder than most, and a writer who has never had to be careful about claims will produce things you have to unpick.
• "What is your review process before something is published in my name?" Anything published under a physician's name carries their professional exposure. A partner without a clear answer here is handing you a risk they have not thought about.
• "How much of this is produced by AI, and who checks it?" Not a gotcha — AI is a legitimate tool and used well it is genuinely useful. The revealing part is whether they answer straight. Evasion here predicts evasion elsewhere, and unreviewed generated material about medical topics is a real hazard. See AI for a medical practice, explained for a clinician.

What should you ask about the contract itself?

Ask about the exit before you are anywhere near it.

• "What is the shortest commitment you offer, and what changes if I take it?" Long minimums are sometimes reasonable — real work has a lead time. What matters is whether the length is justified by the work or by the churn.
• "What does month thirteen look like?" If the answer is identical to month three at the same price, you are being sold maintenance at build rates. See what this costs and what drives the number.

What is the single best question if you only ask one?

"What would you tell me not to spend money on?"

A partner who wants a long relationship will answer this honestly, because their interest is in you still being here in three years. A partner optimising for the size of this month's invoice will struggle to name anything, and the struggle is visible.

The same test applies to us, which is why who this is not for exists as a page rather than a paragraph. And if you are still working out whether to hire anyone at all, doing it yourself versus having it done is the more useful place to start than a shortlist.

Back to the top: how a physician builds authority outside the exam room.