Att: Marketing Managers – Did Your SEO Agency Help You Get Promoted in 2025?
- If the honest answer is no, it might be time to rethink the partnership.
- A mediocre SEO agency doesn’t just underdeliver on metrics - it can quietly stall your career.
- Use these five questions to evaluate whether your current agency relationship is actually setting you up for success. Answer them honestly.
1. Would You Spend Your Own Money?
- Imagine it’s your company. Every dollar you pay the agency comes straight out of your profit. Would you renew?
- This cuts through the noise fast. Executives think like owners - they care about return on investment, not activity.
IF NO
Trust your instincts. If you wouldn’t invest your own money, that’s important data – not something to ignore.
2. Can You Show ROI in 60 Seconds?
Open your last report. Could you tell your CFO:
“We spent $X and generated $Y in revenue from organic search.”
If you’re still explaining why attribution is “complicated” after a year, your agency is likely reporting the wrong metrics. You deserve revenue tracking, not excuses.
IF NO
This is a conversation worth having with your agency – or a sign it’s time to explore alternatives.
3. Did They Help You Get a Raise?
Think about your last performance review. Did their work contribute to your raise, bonus or promotion?
After a full year together, a strong agency should give you clear, tangible wins to talk about with leadership – not just activity to report.
Your promotion narrative should sound like:
“I drove X% revenue growth through strategic SEO initiatives.”
Not:
“We increased traffic.”
IF NO
Ask yourself whether this partnership is positioning you for the next level in your career – or just helping you “keep the lights on.”
4. Do They Have a $500K Plan?
Ask your agency:
“What’s your plan to grow our revenue by $500K in 2026?”
If they can’t answer in five minutes – with specific levers, milestones and timelines – that’s telling.
“We’ll scale what we’re doing” is not a strategic plan. Directors build and execute growth plans. Managers report on tactics. You need an agency that helps you think like the former.
IF NO
Push for a proper strategic planning session or find a partner who can operate at that level.
5. Can You Delegate More Than Last Year?
- Are you still reviewing every piece of content? Joining every call? Acting as the final QA on everything?
- After a year together, you should be able to delegate 60–70% of tactical work. If you’re still deep in the weeds, it may mean trust isn’t there—or capability isn’t.
- Senior leaders assess promotion readiness by asking: Can this person scale beyond their individual capacity?
IF NO
Reflect on both sides. Do you need to let go more, or does your agency actually need to earn that trust?
Reality Check: These Are High Standards
Yes, these are ambitious expectations. Most SEO agencies won’t tick all five boxes.
But you’re not hiring an agency to be average. You’re hiring them to be a strategic lever for both company growth and your career growth.
If an agency can’t:
- Track revenue
- Build forward-looking growth plans
- Operate independently after a year
…then they’re order-takers charging strategic pricing.
The question isn’t whether the bar is high. It’s whether you can afford to accept less when your next promotion depends on demonstrable business impact.
How to Interpret Your Score
Count your YES answers:
- 5 YES: You have an exceptional partnership. Rare and valuable—nurture it.
- 3–4 YES: Solid with room to grow. Have a candid conversation about the gaps before renewal.
- 2 YES: You’re probably settling. It’s worth exploring other options.
- 0–1 YES: This relationship isn’t serving your career goals. Time for a serious evaluation—or a change.
When Hiring: Common Pitfalls to Avoid
- Choosing on price alone. A $10K/month agency delivering $500K in value beats a $3K/month agency delivering little. Focus on ROI, not day rates.
- Being swayed by irrelevant case studies. “We grew a SaaS company 400%” doesn’t matter if your context is different. Look for relevant, comparable experience.
- Skipping executive buy-in. Bring your CMO or CFO into the final decision. Their support is crucial for internal resources and political air cover.
- Valuing jargon over clarity. If they can’t explain their strategy in plain language, they’ll struggle to get the rest of your organisation on board.
What to Look For in a Strong Partnership
- Revenue-first thinking. They ask about your revenue targets before your rankings.
- Transparent attribution. They can show exactly how they’ll track organic revenue in GA4 and your CRM.
- A strategic roadmap. You get a quarter-by-quarter plan focused on business outcomes, not just a list of tactics.
- Executive-ready communication. They can explain your SEO strategy to your CFO in three minutes, without jargon.
- Client career wins. They notice and celebrate when clients get promoted—because they see your success as the real proof of theirs.
The One Question That Reveals Everything
Ask every agency candidate:
“It’s December 2026. What will you have done that contributed to my promotion?”
Strong agencies say something like:
“We’ll have delivered $750K in attributed organic revenue—50% above target. We’ll have documented the strategy and results in QBRs you can present to leadership. And we’ll have helped you sharpen your executive narrative so you’re clearly operating at the next level.”
Weaker agencies say:
“We’ll have significantly improved your rankings.”
That gap tells you whether they see themselves as a partner in your advancement or a vendor executing tactics.
The Bottom Line
Your SEO agency shouldn’t just maintain your metrics. It should accelerate your career.
The marketing leaders who move into director and VP roles aren’t the ones writing every title tag. They’re the ones who orchestrate strategic partnerships that deliver measurable growth.
You deserve an agency that understands your success is their success.