Here’s what nobody tells you: most companies pick a PR agency the wrong way. They get excited by big names, polished slide decks, and headlines they’ve seen in the press. Then six months later, they’ve spent a lot of money and don’t have much to show for it. I wrote this guide so you don’t have to learn that lesson the hard way.
Step 1
Get clear on what you actually want.
Before you talk to any agency, you need to know what success looks like for you. Digital PR covers a lot of ground. Some agencies focus on getting you backlinks that help your SEO. Others work on building your reputation with journalists. Some do both. If you don’t know what you need, you’ll end up with whatever they want to sell you.
Write these things down before your first call:
- The publications your customers actually read, not the ones you think sound impressive
- Whether you want better search rankings, more brand awareness, or your name in expert roundups
- What a win looks like 12 months from now, and be as specific as you can
- What you can offer them: your time, your team’s expertise, your budget
Step 2
Know the difference between real coverage and fake coverage.
Not all PR is the same, and this is where a lot of people get burned. Real coverage means a journalist chose to write about you because your story was worth telling. It’s harder to get, but it builds trust and drives real results. Fake coverage means paid placements that look like editorial, or links dropped into low-quality sites. It can make your monthly report look great while doing almost nothing for your business.
- Ask them to show you three recent placements and explain why each journalist said yes
- Look at the actual quality of the sites they typically land coverage in
- Ask if they know the difference between nofollow and dofollow links, and why it matters for your SEO
Step 3
Look for the right connections, not just the right industry.
You might think you need an agency that only works in your industry. You don’t. What you actually need is an agency with real access to the journalists and publications your audience reads. That’s a different thing. An agency that has worked in ten different industries but has strong relationships with the right reporters will serve you far better than a specialist who doesn’t.
- Ask them to name three journalists who cover your space and share a recent story each one wrote
- Check if they’ve worked with companies at a similar size and stage to yours
- Ask about a campaign that didn’t go well and what they did differently after that
Step 4
Meet the people who will actually work on your account
This is the one thing I’d tell every business owner before they sign anything. The senior team pitches you. The junior team handles your account. That’s just how agencies work. It’s not dishonest, but it can be a shock if you’re not ready for it. Ask to meet the people who will be in your inbox every week before you commit to anything.
- Ask who handles your account day to day and meet them before you sign
- Find out how many other clients each team member is managing right now
- Ask what happens to your account if your main contact leaves the agency
- Check how long mid-level staff tend to stay. High turnover is a warning sign.
Step 5
Ask how they measure success, and push back on the answer.
How an agency tracks its own performance tells you a lot about what it really cares about. Watch out for a metric called AVE, which stands for Advertising Value Equivalency. It puts a dollar figure on your press coverage by estimating what the equivalent ad space would cost. It sounds impressive. It’s not. Every serious communications body has moved away from it because it doesn’t reflect real business results.
Instead, ask how they track things you can actually see in your own data:
- How your domain authority changes over six months
- Whether people coming from earned coverage are actually converting
- How often your brand appears in target publications compared to your competitors
- How often your executives are quoted as experts in your space
Step 6
Test them before you commit to a long contract.
You wouldn’t hire a full-time employee without an interview process. Think of a paid discovery sprint the same way. Before you sign a six-month retainer, pay them to do a small-scope project first. Give them two to four weeks to put together a real campaign idea with target publications and actual outreach angles. You’ll learn more from that than from any pitch deck.
- Pay a fair rate for their time. Good agencies won’t work for free.
- Judge the quality of their thinking, not just how confident they sound
- Watch how they respond when you push back or ask hard questions
- Pay attention to how fast they get back to you and how clear their communication is
Step 7
Build the contract around results, not just activity
Most PR contracts are built around what the agency does, not what you get. They promise a certain number of pitches, a certain number of placements, and a monthly report. That measures how busy they are. It doesn’t measure whether your business is growing. Push for clauses tied to actual outcomes, and make sure you can leave if things aren’t working.
- Add a 90-day review with clear benchmarks both sides agree on upfront
- Put in writing which publications count as a meaningful win
- Agree on who owns the media relationships built during your time together
- Be clear about who owns any content they create on your behalf
Walk away if you hear any of these
Guaranteed placement numbers before they know your story
Talk about “media contacts” with no names or details
A 12-month lock-in with no check-ins or performance reviews
Reports built around AVE or total impressions
Can’t name a journalist they’ve actually pitched recently
Selling you on reactive PR instead of a real strategy
No clear answer on who runs your account day to day
Pressure to sign before you’ve had time to think it through
You’re probably in good hands if they do this
They push back on your brief and ask you hard questions first
They introduce your day-to-day team before you sign anything
They’re upfront about what they can’t do or where they don’t have reach
They talk about search and content as part of the same picture
Their past clients give you specific feedback, not just praise
They suggest a 90-day plan before asking you to commit to a year
The best agency relationships I’ve seen work because both sides are honest from the start. A good agency will tell you when the story isn’t strong enough yet, or when a publication is out of reach. That kind of honesty is rare, and it’s worth more than a long list of promised placements. Find someone who’ll tell you the truth, and you’ll be in a much better place than most.