In the fast-changing world of digital marketing, it's difficult to distinguish those who have true expertise in their field and those who know how to sell you on a service. Digital Services are very easy to hide behind metrics that sound impressive but fail to deliver your business value in the form of increased revenue. With this guide, I'm hoping to help separate genuine digital marketing professionals from those who could be wasting your time and money.
The Problem with Digital Marketing Metrics
Digital Marketing has metrics issues, and this is because of a lack of transparency with the client. It's very easy for someone like me to manipulate statistics to create the illusion of progress or success to obscure the fact that you aren't getting any tangible impact on your business.
Let me give you an example: if you're trying to understand why you aren't getting more sales but your ads person is talking about "impressions" rather than click-through rates or conversions, you're likely dealing with a team more focused on vanity metrics. I recently spoke to a lead who left their previous agency not because they weren't getting clicks on their ads, but because the leads they had coming from them were 90% junk leads, a significant portion of them were job seekers and the other prospects didn't even understand the services that were being offered.
Realistic Timelines for Digital Marketing Success
Another truth about digital marketing is that results take time, but how much time depends significantly on the specific services you're investing in:
PPC Advertising: The Quicker Option (1-3 Months)
Pay-per-click advertising offers faster results since you're directly paying for visibility. However, even PPC campaigns typically require 1-3 months to show meaningful improvement. During this period, digital marketers are:
- Optimizing ad creative and copy to increase CTR.
- Refining audience targeting parameters to hopefully weed out poor prospects.
- Adjusting bidding strategies based on performance data.
- Testing different landing pages and conversion paths, optimizing conversion rates.
Be wary of anyone promising overnight PPC success—quality optimization requires data collection and analysis over time. There is a large market of individuals overpromising only to underdeliver having high churn rates of clients.
SEO: The Long-Term Investment (3-6+ Months)
Search Engine Optimization requires significantly more patience. Quick-fix approaches where someone creates hundreds of blog posts or thin "doorway" pages rarely work in today's search engine landscape. I recently consulted with a company that had created nearly 1,000 doorway pages—essentially the same content with only location names changed (e.g., "Legal Firm in Los Angeles," "Legal Firm in San Diego"). These pages had 0 clicks (combined) over the last 3 months. But its easy for me as a marketer to say look, it worked because you 'rank' for x amount of keywords with all these impressions.
Effective SEO requires:
- Creating genuinely valuable, and unique content for each target page.
- Building a proper internal linking architecture to prevent orphaned pages and to guide users through your funnel.
- Earning quality backlinks through relationship-building.
- Technical optimization for site performance, crawlability, and accessibility.
Realistic SEO timelines start at 3-6 months minimum before seeing significant movement in rankings and organic traffic.
Social Media Marketing: Building From Zero (6+ Months)
Building a meaningful social media presence from scratch requires substantial investment in:
- Content creation across multiple formats (images, video (both short and long form), text).
- Consistent posting schedules at optimal hours where your users are most likely to engage.
- Community engagement and management mean responding to questions, comments, and concerns.
- Developing a distinctive brand voice for each platform, are you serious or personable? What is your brand's identity?
How to Spot a Questionable Digital Marketer
Here are some quick warning signs that your digital marketing partner might not be delivering value:
1. They Focus Exclusively on Vanity Metrics
Be careful when marketers harp on metrics like:
- Total impressions without conversions being in the conversation.
- Page likes or follower counts without engagement rates, you could have a lot of bot followers.
- Raw traffic numbers without quality indicators getting viewers is fine, but if you 2x your traffic and sales are flat, they don't matter.
- Email open rates without click-through or conversion data, if people are opening the email and not clicking, you can't get value back.
A legitimate marketer will always tie their reporting back to business outcomes—leads, sales, revenue, or other metrics directly connected to your bottom line, even if their results aren't necessarily in their favor.
2. They Can't Explain Their Strategy in Simple Terms
Quality marketers can explain exactly how their tactics connect to your business goals. If your marketer responds with technical jargon or vague explanations when asked direct questions about their approach, consider it a warning sign.
Ask them: "How exactly will this (activity, service, etc) drive revenue for our business?" Their answer should be clear, logical, and specific to your industry and audience.
3. They Have No Data-Driven Approach to Optimization
Professional digital marketers continuously test and refine their approach. They should be able to show you:
- What variables are they currently using?
- How they measure success for each test and or campaign.
- What they've learned from previous optimizations it's acceptable for campaigns to underperform so long as they know what went wrong.
- How those learnings inform future strategy and decision making.
If they can't demonstrate this process, they may be operating on guesswork rather than data.
4. They Guarantee Specific Rankings or Results
There is no single individual who can guarantee you a specific search ranking, exact conversion rate, or a precise ROI figure before they launch a campaign. In all honesty, this is because there are too many variables outside of our control, including:
- Algorithm changes, particularly in Google search, can drastically shift rankings.
- Competitor activities both in PPC and SEO, your competitors won't stop, so neither can you.
- Market fluctuations sometimes cause a product or service might fall out of favor due to market or economic conditions.
- Consumer behavior shifts.
Promises of "#1 rankings" or "500% ROI guaranteed" are red flags indicating potential dishonesty, particularly if there is no transparency in how this ROI is calculated.
5. They Have No Reporting Transparency
Legitimate marketers provide comprehensive, regular reporting that includes:
- Raw Data should always be accessible, but having both positives and negatives in your reports with clear explanations is more valuable.
- Explanations for both successes and failures, and how improvements will be made.
- Direct access to analytics platforms, when appropriate, this includes things like Google Analytics and Search Console.
- Context that connects metrics to business goals: Having numbers thrown at you doesn't help you understand what you're getting.
If your reports are sparse, irregular, or focused only on positive results, your marketer may be hiding underperformance or misguiding you.
Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Digital Marketer
To identify trustworthy digital marketing professionals from the start, ask these revealing questions:
- "What metrics do you believe are most important for my specific business, and why?" The answer should focus on business outcomes rather than activity metrics.
- "Can you show me examples of how you've improved results for similar businesses?" Look for specific case studies with measurable improvements and clear methodologies.
- "How do you stay current with industry changes and algorithm updates?" They should have a concrete process for ongoing education and adaptation.
- "What happens if we don't see the results we expect, and how do you adjust?" Listen for a structured approach to problem-solving and a willingness to be accountable.
- "How will you communicate progress and challenges throughout our relationship?" Their answer should include regular reporting schedules and open communication channels.
Conclusion
Remember that while Digital Marketing can deliver exceptional returns when managed well, it's important to look out for your business's outcomes rather than flash metrics. Understand that Digital Services do take time, and recognize the red flags and misdirection you're likely to experience. Make sure to ask probing questions and establish your expectations even if those expectations are not actively being met.
Remember that while digital marketing success rarely happens overnight, the right Digital Marketing Agency will show steady, measurable progress toward your most important business goals—with the data to back it up.