How to choose a performance marketing agency in India
Twelve questions to ask before you sign, the red flags that should end the conversation, and a scorecard to compare your shortlist.
Most D2C brands in India hire a performance marketing agency at the point where running Meta and Google themselves stops scaling. The wrong choice costs months of spend. These are the questions we would ask if we were on your side of the table.
12 questions to ask
Who will run my account every day?
Ask for the name and role of the person who will change your campaigns, not the person who pitched. Ask how many other brands they run.
Who makes the ads?
On Meta, the creative now does most of the targeting. An agency that has to wait on a freelancer or on you for new videos will test slowly. Ask who writes, shoots and edits, and how many new ads you will get each month.
What will you report, and how often?
Good agencies report daily on the numbers you run the business on: spend, revenue, ROAS, cost per purchase, CTR, CPC and purchases. A monthly PDF is too late to act on.
Whose ad account, pixel and data is it?
The ad account, the pixel, the catalogue and the Shopify store should be in your name, with the agency added as a partner. You keep everything if you part ways.
How do you count revenue?
Ask how they reconcile what Meta and Google report with the orders in Shopify, which attribution window they use, and whether the Conversions API is set up.
How do you test?
Ask how many new creatives and audiences go live each week, how they decide a winner, and how quickly budget moves to it.
Have you grown a brand like mine?
Look for work in your category and at your price point. A premium jewellery brand and a low-ticket impulse product need different funnels.
What happens in the first 30 days?
Expect a tracking and account audit, a creative sprint, and campaigns live inside the first weeks, with a clear list of what will be measured.
How do Google, Meta and the marketplaces fit together?
Ask who owns each channel and how budget moves between them when one gets more expensive.
What are the contract terms?
Check the notice period, what happens to the creatives and data at the end, and whether there is a minimum term.
Can I speak to a current client?
A confident agency will connect you with a brand it works with today.
What will you not do?
The honest answer tells you where you will need another partner, and whether they will tell you when a channel is not worth the money.
Red flags
- A guaranteed ROAS before they have seen your numbers.
- The ad account or pixel set up in the agency's name.
- No plan for who makes new ads, or ads that arrive once a month.
- Reports that only show clicks and impressions, never revenue.
- A different person on every call, and nobody who knows your account.
Scorecard
| Area | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| Account owner | A named, senior person who changes your campaigns daily |
| Creative | New ads every week, made by the team running them |
| Reporting | Daily revenue, ROAS and cost per purchase, not only clicks |
| Ownership | Ad account, pixel and store in your name |
| Measurement | Platform numbers reconciled with Shopify orders |
| Fit | Proof of growth in your category and price band |
Comparing names? See our shortlist of the best D2C performance marketing agencies in India.
How we answer these
At Monastic Media one in-house team in Surat writes, shoots and edits the ads videos and runs the Meta and Google campaigns they go into, and seven KPIs go to the brand's Slack channel every evening at 6:30 PM. See how our performance marketing works.
Questions
How long before a performance marketing agency shows results?+
Tracking and the first creative tests usually take the first few weeks. Judge the trend in revenue and cost per purchase over the first two to three months, not the first week.
Is it better to hire an in-house marketer or an agency?+
An in-house marketer knows the brand deeply but works alone. An agency brings a team across media buying, creative, video and analytics. Many D2C brands use both: an owner inside and an agency for execution.
What should a D2C brand share with a new agency?+
Access to the ad accounts, the Shopify store, past performance, margins by product and the target cost per purchase, so the agency can plan to profit rather than to clicks.
What does Monastic Media report?+
Seven KPIs every evening at 6:30 PM in each brand's Slack channel: spend, revenue, ROAS, cost per purchase, CTR, CPC and purchases.
“MM helped us scale from 0 to ₹2.6 CR/month in just 6 months with clear communication and industry expertise!”Rakesh Naidu · GM @ Naaptol
Ready to grow with one team?
Book a call. If we can help you hit your goals, we will tell you how; if we cannot, we will tell you that too.
