Decide, and what to do next either way

Put four things side by side. The report ratio from day one. The written answers from day two, with their count of dates, names and numbers. The test from day three, which is probably still running, and the fact that you set it up yourself. And the exit date from day four. That is everything you need to decide, and it took less than an hour of your time across a month.

If the answers were specific, the changes were dated, and the search-install chart moved after them, stay, and change how you buy: ask for a fixed-scope quarter with dated deliverables instead of an open retainer, and ask for the named practitioner on every call. Good agencies will do this for a client who asks in those words.

If the answers were process and the chart is flat, give notice on the decision date and do not renew. Then do three things in order. Read your test result when the tool says it is ready, and ship the winner. Write the next hypothesis, using what the reviews say people expected and did not get. And get one proper teardown of the listing, from someone whose engagement ends in a handover, so that your team owns the system from here.

The thing to take from this course is not that agencies are bad. Some are good, and the reviews on this site say which and for whom. It is that the discipline is smaller than the invoice, the tools are yours, and one considered change followed by patience beats twelve months of reports. You have now done all three.

Today’s task

• Lay out the four artefacts and decide.
• If staying: request a fixed-scope quarter with a named practitioner.
• If leaving: give notice on the decision date, ship the test winner, book a teardown.

Related: Get the free teardown · The agency scoreboard · Why I am not an ASO agency