Notes for owners · Business growth
What a buyer should ask an agency about its case studies
Six questions that show whether an agency's case study describes its own work, what else changed that year, and whether the client will confirm it, with a scorecard to use on the call.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
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Ask the agency whose work it was, what else changed in the same period, what the starting figure was, and whether the client will take your call. If the agency answers all four with names, records and a phone number, the case study is evidence. If it answers with adjectives, it is a brochure. Below are six questions in the order to ask them, and a way to score the answers on the call itself.
Why a case study needs questioning at all
An agency chooses which story to tell. It has many accounts and publishes the few that went well. That is fair, and every business does the same. But a published story hides three things a buyer needs: who did the work, what else was happening, and what happened after the project stopped.
Imagine you run a pump manufacturing unit in Coimbatore and an agency shows you a case study with "enquiries doubled for an industrial client". Doubled from what, counted by whom, and did the client also appoint two new dealers that spring? You cannot tell from the page. You can tell from the answers.
The six questions, in order
- "Which of your people did this work, and are they still here?" Agencies lose staff. A case study built by a strategist who has left tells you about a person you will never meet. Ask for the names, then ask who would sit on your account.
- "What was the client's starting position?" You want the figure before the work began, in the client's own record: enquiries by source, orders, reply time. If the agency did not record a baseline, it cannot show a change.
- "What else changed that year?" A new product, a price cut, a festival season, a competitor closing. Some agencies list these without being pushed. Others say "nothing significant", which tells you to ask again.
- "What did the client do, and what did you do?" Good results usually need both. Ask too who paid for the advertising, because a client who doubled its media budget that year explains a lot. If the case study credits the agency for the result but the client also rebuilt its sales team, the agency's share is smaller than the headline.
- "Can I speak to the client, and may I ask them anything?" The second half matters. A reference call where the agency sits in, or where the questions are pre-agreed, is a performance.
- "What happened after the engagement ended?" If results held without the agency, the work built something. If they fell the week the retainer stopped, you were renting attention.
A scorecard to use on the call
Print this or keep it open. Score each row 0, 1 or 2 as the agency answers.
| Question | 0 points | 1 point | 2 points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who did the work | "Our team" | A name, since left | Named people, still on the account |
| Starting position | None given | A figure, no source | Figure with source and period |
| What else changed | "Nothing" | Mentioned when asked | Offered unprompted |
| Client's own part | Not stated | Stated vaguely | Clearly divided |
| Client contact | Refused | Offered with conditions | Open call, your questions |
| After the engagement | Unknown | Anecdote | A figure from later |
If you would rather ask before the call, send this in writing: "Please send the starting figure for the case study, where it was counted, the period it covers, the names of the people who worked on it, and one line on what else changed that year." An agency that replies in full has already scored well on four rows. One that offers a call instead of a reply is telling you something too. Below six, treat the case study as a story, not proof, and ask for a smaller first project. Between six and ten, proceed, but put the baseline in writing. A zero on the client contact row is worth more attention than a good total elsewhere.
What a worked example looks like
Take the Coimbatore pump maker again, in an invented continuation. The agency's case study says an industrial supplier's enquiries "doubled in a year". The buyer asks question two and learns the baseline was twelve enquiries a quarter, counted from the agency's own tracking number, not the client's order book. The evidence has a flaw: a small base, counted by the seller.
The buyer does not walk away. The buyer asks for the client's order register for the same two quarters and a call with the client's sales head. The client confirms the enquiries but says orders rose only after a dealer was added in Madurai. So the agency's share is real but smaller than the headline. The buyer hires on that honest reading, with a baseline from her own records written into the scope.
When these questions are the wrong test
They suit agencies that run campaigns and report numbers. They do not fit a brand identity or a photography job, where the proof is the work itself and you can judge it by looking. They also do not fit a young agency with two clients. There, ask to see how it would report on your work, and keep the first project small.
Do not use the questions to catch the agency out. You are looking for agencies that do not mind being asked. An agency that welcomes question three has probably thought about it before.
Taking the questions into your next meeting
Pick the two agencies you are weighing and ask both the same six questions in the same order, in writing if you can, so the answers compare. Ask for the baseline record, not a summary of it. Your own records are the best test, and a marketing audit is the nearest service for reading them. The same questions apply to our case studies. When you know what you want fixed, tell us what you need.
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