Guides · Audit type
Marketing Agency Second Opinion: Verify Before You Trust
The equivalent of a financial audit for the advice you're already paying for.
The problem: you're trusting a report built by the person being evaluated
Your agency's monthly report is, structurally, a document written by the party whose contract renewal depends on the numbers in it. That doesn't mean the numbers are false — most agencies are honest — but it does mean the framing, the metrics highlighted, and the context provided are chosen by someone with a direct financial interest in your continued confidence.
Why it happens
There's rarely a built-in mechanism for a client to independently verify agency performance. Asking your agency 'is this working' and getting an answer from your agency isn't verification — it's a self-report. Most companies don't have anyone on staff qualified to check the work, so the agency's report becomes the only source of truth by default, not by deliberate choice.
How businesses typically try to get a second opinion
The traditional option is hiring a marketing consultant to review the account — expensive, slow, and often the consultant has their own agency ambitions that create a milder version of the same conflict. Some companies solicit a competing agency's opinion, which reliably finds problems (that agency wants the account) but is rarely a neutral assessment.
How AdStake provides a real second opinion
Upload the exports your agency already sends you — or pull them yourself directly from the ad platforms — and AdStake scores the account under a fixed, published standard with no financial stake in whether you keep or fire your agency. The audit doesn't recommend an alternative agency, doesn't pitch services, and doesn't change its findings based on who's paying for the audit.
Frequently asked questions
Will my agency know I ran this?
Only if you tell them. AdStake requires only your exported reports, not agency cooperation or account access.
What if the audit confirms my agency is doing a good job?
That's a legitimate and useful outcome — confirmation from an independent source is valuable too, especially heading into a renewal or a board conversation about marketing spend.
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