Dubai has more marketing agencies per square kilometre than almost anywhere on earth. Most of the bad experiences we hear about didn't come from bad agencies - they came from a mismatch nobody checked for at the start.
First, work out what you're actually buying
"We need marketing" isn't a brief, and any agency that accepts it without pushing back is about to sell you their default package. Before you talk to anyone, get specific about which of these you need:
- Attention - nobody knows you exist. You need content and reach.
- Conversion - people find you and don't buy. You need a better site, better offer, or better follow-up.
- Capacity - it's working but you can't keep up with the production. You need hands.
- Credibility - you look smaller than you are. You need brand work.
These need different agencies. A studio brilliant at reels won't fix a leaking sales process, and a performance shop won't make you look premium.
The five questions
1. "What would you do in month one, and why?"
You're not asking for free strategy. You're testing whether they diagnose before prescribing. A good answer starts with questions about your business, your margins and where enquiries currently die. A bad answer starts with a content calendar.
2. "Who owns the accounts, the footage and the ad account?"
This is the question that saves the most pain. If the agency owns your Meta Business Manager, your ad account or your raw footage, leaving becomes expensive. Everything should be created under your ownership with the agency given access. Ask this in writing.
3. "What exactly will the monthly report contain?"
Ask to see a real one from another client, redacted. If it's a wall of impressions, reach and "engagement rate", you'll never be able to judge whether the money worked. You want enquiries, cost per enquiry, and a plain-language note on what changed and why. We wrote about how to judge value by cost per enquiry if you want the arithmetic.
4. "How many revisions are included, and what happens after that?"
"Unlimited" is a red flag, not a perk - it either means nobody plans to revise anything, or the price already carries the cost of chaos. A specific number is a sign of a team that has thought about its own process. Ours is two rounds included, anything beyond that billable, and we say so before you sign.
5. "What's the notice period, and what happens on the last day?"
Long lock-ins protect the agency, not you. Reasonable notice - a month, sometimes two for production-heavy scopes - is fair. What matters more is the handover: do you leave with your files, your logins and your content library, or with nothing?
What a good proposal looks like
It should be boring in the right places. Specific deliverables with numbers. A named person responsible. Clear timelines. A price with nothing blended into it - especially ad spend, which should always sit as its own line so you can see what the agency is paid versus what goes to Meta or Google.
If the proposal is mostly mood boards and adjectives, you're being sold a feeling. Feelings are hard to hold anyone to in month four.
Red flags
- Guaranteed followers, guaranteed leads, guaranteed rankings. None of these can be promised honestly.
- Pressure to sign this week for a "limited" rate.
- Case studies with no numbers, or numbers with no context.
- No named contact - you'll be passed to whoever is free.
- They never once say "that won't work" or "that's not worth your money".
Green flags
- They ask about your margins, not just your goals.
- They tell you something you don't want to hear in the first meeting.
- They're comfortable putting scope and revisions in writing.
- They can explain what they'd stop doing if results didn't come.
- Their own content is decent. It's not proof, but it's a signal.
A last honest note
The best agency for you might not be the best agency. Fit, responsiveness and shared expectations beat reputation almost every time for a business under about AED 20,000 a month in spend. Pick the team that talks to you like an adult about money.
If you want to see how we answer these five questions ourselves, they're covered plainly on our FAQ and our process page. And if you'd rather just have someone look at what you're doing now and tell you honestly whether it's working, that's what the free 15-minute audit is for - useful even if we never work together.