7 Traits of a Great Performance Marketing Agency (and How to Spot Them)

Finding the right business partnerships can be a delicate, resource-intensive process, and that’s especially true of the search for a marketing agency. But regardless of your marketing goals or the industry you operate in, there are a few traits that point to a marketing agency being a good partner for your brand. Use this guide on how to choose a performance marketing agency to help you find your ideal partner. 

Why Choosing the Right Performance Marketing Agency Matters

Performance marketing is saturated with agencies that can all start to look and sound similar, but some agencies are essentially just media buyers, and that’s not what growth-stage and enterprise e-commerce brands need. They need actual strategic partners who can drive performance through agility, accountability, and integration across channels. It’s worth taking the time to find the right performance marketing agency.

7 Traits to Look for in a High-Performing Agency

To find your ideal performance marketing agency, focus on these seven non-negotiable qualities that separate average media partners from high-performing growth engines. 

1. Strategic Planning That Goes Beyond Platform Playbooks

A one-size-fits-all digital marketing strategy will drive basic results at best. If you’re partnering with a performance marketing agency, you want one that offers innovative, comprehensive strategic planning tailored to your business. 

Look for an agency that creates integrated cross-channel strategies and uses forecasting to project results. The agency you choose should also be able to provide a customized roadmap for growing your business through digital marketing. Ask about growth modeling and weed out agencies that don’t emphasize strategic planning¹. 

2. Transparent Reporting & Clear Attribution

Real, transparent results are what you’re looking for from any marketing agency. It’s not enough for agencies to broadly claim that they will help grow your business—dig deeper into the real business outcomes they’ll affect and how². The best performance marketing agencies offer measurable and attributable results beyond ROAS, such as improved customer acquisition costs, conversions, and revenue. 

3. Strong Cross-Channel Execution

A comprehensive digital marketing strategy doesn’t just include paid search, SEO, or paid social—it combines them all. And part of what makes a good media agency is having all these areas either under one roof or tightly integrated². For example, you want to know that the agency’s SEO team works closely with the paid search team to ensure your integrated campaigns run smoothly across channels and truly support one another. 

4. Creative That Drives Performance

Creative is the backbone of any marketing campaign. The marketing agency you choose should have a methodology for testing these assets to find the highest performing options for the audiences you want to target on each platform³. Whether you’re producing creative in-house or relying on an agency, it’s important to have an effective playbook in place.

Check that the agency’s approach to creative iterations is tailored to each platform rather than based on creating batches of generic assets. What works on Instagram may not work on Facebook or Pinterest, for example, and the agency’s creative output should reflect that. 

5. Proven Ability to Scale Efficiently

If you plan to spend $100K or more on digital ads each month, you need a performance marketing partner with experience and expertise to keep up with that kind of ad spend. Look for an agency that has demonstrated its ability⁴ to manage large monthly budgets while sustaining a high return on ad spend or a low customer acquisition cost. 

The best way to figure out if agencies can handle your level of ad spend is to look at the work they’ve done in the past. Ask for case studies that showcase examples of successfully scaled ad spend. 

6. Account Team Access & Senior Involvement

Early in the search for a performance marketing agency, you’ll have very encouraging meetings with senior executives. Now, let’s you’re so encouraged by one of these meetings that you sign with an agency based on the senior executive’s expertise and proposed direction for your account—but once you start working together, the agency hands you off to juniors instead.

The best paid media agencies don’t treat their clients this way. In your discussions, ask agencies exactly who will be working on your account and whether senior executives will be actively involved. Also, confirm the account team’s availability for scheduled calls and questions or conversations in between⁵. If you ever have a question or idea about your marketing efforts, you want to make sure your marketing partners will be responsive via email or messaging platform. 

7. Aligned Incentives & Transparent Pricing

The last thing you want after hiring a performance marketing agency is to get hit with hidden fees or unfair, questionable pricing. Choose an agency with a completely transparent pricing structure and no conflicts of interest. You want the agreement structured to align incentives so that when you do better, the agency does better, too². 

Red Flags to Avoid When Hiring an Agency

Beyond the positive traits you should look for when selecting an agency, there are also some red flags to avoid. Steer clear of agencies with these qualities:

• Channel silos: Integrated marketing campaigns offer some of the best results for businesses, but they’re only possible if an agency’s different departments are also well-integrated¹. Avoid agencies that don’t have strong collaboration and communication between teams working on different marketing channels. 
• Vague results: Every agency will claim to provide excellent results, but what do they mean in concrete terms? If an agency can’t describe the key metrics their campaigns will improve for you and how, stay away². 
• All talk, no proof: A trustworthy agency that can drive meaningful results for your business will show their work¹. Look for case studies and testimonials highlighting results for other clients as proof the agency can back up its claims. 

How Socium Media Measures Up

At Socium, our approach is designed to check all the boxes for growth-stage and enterprise e-commerce brands looking for a performance marketing partner. With strong senior oversight, fast onboarding, and performance frameworks, we’re here to help you enhance your digital footprint as effectively as possible. 

And that’s not just talk. Our results, like a 590% YoY increase in orders for Amanda Uprichard and 74% lower customer acquisition cost for Modern Age, speak for themselves. 

Looking for a performance partner, not just an agency Let’s Talk.

Sources:

1. Sylvestre, R. (12 June 2024). How to Evaluate a Digital Marketing Agency in 2025. NoGood. Retrieved May 23, 2025, from https://nogood.io/2024/06/12/how-to-evaluate-a-digital-marketing-agency/ 
2. Cornell, R. (20 February 2024). 5 Things To Consider Before Hiring A Digital Marketing Agency. Forbes. Retrieved May 23, 2025, from https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesagencycouncil/2024/02/20/5-things-to-consider-before-hiring-a-digital-marketing-agency/ 
3. Statti, A. How to Choose the Right Performance Marketing Agency. RevPartners. Retrieved May 23, 2025, from https://blog.revpartners.io/en/revops-articles/performance-marketing-agency 
4. Mironov, D. (24 April 2025). Analytics Marketing Agency: How to Choose 2025. Improvado. Retrieved May 23, 2025, from https://improvado.io/blog/how-to-choose-digital-marketing-agency 
5. Hoffman, Z. The Most Important Things You Should Consider When Hiring a Digital Agency. Exults. Retrieved May 23, 2025, from https://www.exults.com/blog/10-things-to-consider-when-hiring-a-digital-marketing-agency/