The right agency should know what your crew installs, explain the work you are paying for, and show which inquiries turn into estimates and jobs. A ranking promise or an impressive traffic chart is not enough.
Ask how the agency will help customers find the services you actually offer, see your past work, and request an estimate your crew can take on.
Start with your project mix
Before interviewing agencies, write down the installations you want more of. Shower replacements, floor installations, backsplashes, and small repairs have different qualification questions. Decide where your crew travels, what it does not accept, and how much estimating capacity you have.
Ask the agency to explain the difference between marketing tile installation and selling tile materials. An approach built for a showroom may attract people looking for product prices rather than someone to install a shower.
The agency does not need to pretend it is your estimator. It does need to recognize that a bathroom inquiry is not automatically a complete remodel, and that more calls are not necessarily better calls.
Ask what work you are actually buying
Request a written scope covering your business profile, website pages, project content, reviews, listings, tracking, and reporting. Ask who supplies photographs, approves technical statements, and responds to customer questions.
Separate ongoing services from setup work and advertising spend. If paid campaigns are proposed, confirm management responsibilities, the media budget, account ownership, and approval limits. Do not infer that every channel mentioned in a sales conversation is included in the fee.
Useful questions include:
- Which existing pages will you improve, and why?
- What do you need from my crew to describe installations accurately?
- Who approves content before it is published?
- How do we handle a service or location we no longer cover?
- What happens when access, photos, or another dependency delays the work?
Keep ownership and access clear
Know who controls your domain, website, Google Business Profile, analytics, advertising accounts, and business data. Management access should not require you to surrender ownership.
Ask what you receive when the relationship ends. That includes access, content, exports where available, tracking arrangements, and any licensed assets that cannot transfer. Put those details in the agreement rather than relying on a verbal assurance.
Do not share a personal password when an appropriate role based invitation is available. Discuss the least access needed and how access will be removed later.
Inspect the evidence behind results
A case study should identify the period, starting point, work performed, and source of the results. A screenshot without dates or context may be accurate but still tell you very little.
Ask whether calls mean button clicks, conversations, unique callers, or qualified inquiries. Ask whether revenue is booked, collected, or estimated. Separate paid and organic sources and acknowledge unknown attribution.
Relationships matter too. Our Sons Marble & Tile profile discloses that the company belongs to Leo Johns's father. It does not present unverified campaign growth as independent customer evidence.
Ask specific questions about AI search
An agency should explain how it improves useful answers, accessible pages, consistent business facts, and actual project evidence. It should not claim that a special schema, training permission, or paid submission guarantees a ChatGPT recommendation.
Google states that its AI search features have no additional technical requirements beyond the relevant search foundations. OpenAI documents search crawling separately from model training. Ask how the provider uses those distinctions in its work.
A repeatable sample of AI questions can be informative, but it is not a universal rank. Ask how observed citations and referral traffic will be kept separate from inquiries and booked jobs.
Compare the commitment, not just the fee
Read the initial term, cancellation process, renewal arrangement, exclusivity boundary, and what changes require written approval. Compare proposals on the same basis: work, ownership, responsibilities, reporting, and total costs.
Our current package is described here:
Our marketing cost guide explains how to assess the expense against gross profit rather than the full invoice value of a job.
Questions owners ask
Is a first place guarantee a good sign?
No. The agency does not control Google's results or an AI platform's source selection. Ask for a clear scope and accountable reporting instead.
Should I choose an agency that serves my competitor?
Understand the policy before signing. More Tile Jobs works with one active tile contractor per agreed metro. Check territory availability and confirm the boundary; a city page alone is not a reservation.
What should the first conversation accomplish?
Establish whether the provider understands your services, service coverage, capacity, current presence, and expectations. It should reveal what needs investigation, not produce a ranking promise before reviewing the business.
Take a practical next step
Prepare your priority services, current website and profile links, real project photos, and any inquiry records you can share appropriately. Then request an audit and compare the recommendations against the questions above.
Get your free marketing audit or read what the first six months should cover.
Sources
- Google: improving local ranking
- Google: AI features and your website
- OpenAI: crawler purposes and controls
Sources reviewed October 20, 2026. This guide explains how to evaluate a provider, not legal advice about a particular contract.