Hand-picked Utah County happenings, straight to your inbox. No fluff, no spam, easy to leave.
It is easy to hire an agency after one good sales call and find out months later that you signed a 12 month contract and the agency controls your Google Ads account. This guide covers what to settle before you sign: the questions to ask, the accounts you should own, the contract clauses to read, and how to check a Utah agency on public records in about an hour.
Choose a marketing agency by deciding the one result you want first, then asking each agency who will run your account, how they track a phone call back to an ad, and what happens to your accounts if you leave. Before you sign, make sure your Google Ads account, Google Business Profile, Meta ad account and domain are in your business's name with the agency added as a user, look the company up in the Utah Division of Corporations business entity search, and call at least one client from their case studies.
Write down one result in plain numbers before you talk to anyone. "More calls from people in Orem and Lehi searching for a roofer" is a result. "Better branding" is not, and an agency will fill a vague goal with whatever it already sells. With a number written down, you can tell within ten minutes whether an agency does that work every day or is stretching to cover it.
Then set a monthly number you can spend for six months without flinching, and split it into two lines: the agency's fee and the ad money that goes to Google or Meta. Our Utah agency pricing guide has the published rate cards if you need a starting point. If you have not picked agencies to call yet, our list of Utah County marketing agencies sorts them by the kind of work they do best.
Talk to at least three agencies so you can see which answers on price, contract length and account ownership are normal.
The sales call is run by the agency's best talker, who is usually not the person who will touch your account. These questions get past that. Write down the answers, and ask for the important ones again in the proposal.
This is where owners get hurt most. If the agency builds your ad account inside its own setup, leaving can mean starting over with no history. Set each account up in your business's name, with you holding the top role, and add the agency as a user. The table shows the role to keep and the role to give.
Google is clear on the ad side. When an agency's manager account owns a client account, Google says "the client account still owns its data and has the ability to remove ownership access by unlinking." That only helps you if you have admin access to the account in the first place, so ask for it on day one.
| Account | You keep | The agency gets | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | Admin access, your business card on billing | Standard access, or a link to its manager account | Only admins can manage users and unlink a manager account. |
| Google Business Profile | Primary owner | Manager | Managers can edit and reply to reviews, but only owners can remove other users. |
| Meta ad account and Facebook Page | The business portfolio and the ad account | Partner access to the ad account, added by its business portfolio ID | You can limit a partner to managing ads and remove it later. |
| Domain name | The registrar login, in your name and email | Nothing, or DNS access when needed | Your registrar must give you the transfer code within 5 calendar days of asking. |
| Website hosting and admin login | The hosting account and an admin login | Its own admin login | If the agency holds the only login, the site leaves when it does. |
Term length. A 3 month trial followed by month to month is easy to live with. A 12 month term with no way out is a bet on an agency you have known for two weeks. If they insist on a long term, ask for an exit clause tied to something you can measure, like a 60 day notice if agreed results are missed for two months in a row.
Automatic renewal. Read the renewal paragraph closely, because Utah law will not catch it for you. Utah's Service Contracts Act limits automatic renewals, but Utah Code 15-10-102 defines a service contract as service, maintenance or repair connected to real property. That covers your lawn service and pest control, not a marketing retainer. A marketing contract renews on whatever terms you sign.
Cancellation notice. Find the number of days' notice and how it must be given. Some contracts require written notice by email to a named address, and a text to your account manager does not count.
Setup fees and ad spend. The contract should list the management fee, any setup fee, and the ad budget as separate lines, and say plainly that ad spend is billed by Google or Meta to your card.
Who owns the work. Ad copy, photos, videos, landing pages and your customer email list should belong to you once paid for. Some agencies license creative to you only while the contract runs. Ask for a sentence that assigns it to you.
Handover. Ask for a clause that says, on cancellation, the agency removes itself as a user and leaves your accounts, campaigns and tracking in place within a set number of days.
Some of these come straight from Google and the FTC, which makes them easy to point to when a salesperson pushes back.
Look it up with the state. Search the company's legal name in the Utah Division of Corporations business entity search. Utah requires every registered business to file a renewal each year to stay active, so a status that is not active, or a name that is not registered at all, is worth asking about. Compare the name on the record to the name on the contract. If the contract names a different LLC than the one that pitched you, ask why.
Check its own Google Business Profile. An agency that sells local SEO should have a complete profile of its own, with an address you can drive to in Provo, Orem, Lehi or wherever it says it is, recent photos, and replies to its reviews. Our Google Business Profile guide shows what complete looks like.
Verify the case studies. Pick one case study and check it yourself. Search the client's name in the Google Ads Transparency Center and the Meta Ad Library to see whether that business really runs ads right now. Search the keyword the case study brags about and see where the client shows up. Then call the client, not the number the agency gives you, but the one on the client's own website, and ask whether they would hire the agency again.
Check the badges. An agency that says it is a Google Partner should appear in Google's Partners directory, which lists the company, its region and the Google Ads areas where it holds certifications. The badge means the team passed Google's exams and manages a minimum amount of ad spend, not that it suits a small local account. If you want an agency that focuses on paid search, see our list of Google Ads agencies in Utah.
The Small Business Development Center at Utah Valley University gives free one-on-one advising, and marketing and sales are on its list of topics. The Orem office is in the UVU Business Resource Center at 815 West 1250 South, open weekdays by appointment, and there is a Lehi office at UVU North Campus on Tuesday afternoons. An advisor there can read an agency proposal with you and has no stake in which agency you pick.
If you would rather write some of your own ads and posts first, our free AI 101 class shows local owners how to do that with AI tools.
You can also test whether local people respond before you sign a retainer. We sell ads in Provo FOMO, so weigh this accordingly: one issue costs $99 and goes to about 3,100 Utah County subscribers, and the full menu is on our advertise page. Run a coupon code, count what comes back, and you will walk into the agency calls knowing what a customer costs you.
