Free Resource
10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Restoration Marketing Agency
Agencies can over-promise and under-deliver. This checklist gives you questions that show the difference before you sign.
Use it on us, too.
Why the urgency
AOB rules are changing state by state. Florida, for example, made post-loss assignments of residential property benefits void for policies issued on or after January 1, 2023 (Fla. Stat. § 627.7152(13)). If your insurance referral pipeline changes, you want a marketing partner you vetted in advance.
The Checklist
Ask every agency you talk to these 10 questions. Pay attention to the answers — and pay more attention to the ones they dodge.
Do you specialize in restoration, or do you serve every industry?
Why it matters: Restoration has unique dynamics — emergency intent, insurance relationships, seasonal patterns, franchise competition. A generic agency may miss this. A "marketing is marketing" agency will optimize your water damage page the same way they optimize a dentist's website.
Red flag: "We serve all industries" or "Marketing is marketing"
Green flag: They can explain the difference between water damage restoration and water mitigation without Googling it
Can I see your llms.txt file?
Why it matters: If an agency sells AI readiness or AEO, they should have it on their own site. llms.txt is a proposal for making a site easier for AI tools to read (llmstxt.org), not an established standard. An agency that sells AI services should be able to explain it and show whether its own site uses it.
Red flag: "What's llms.txt?" or their site returns a 404
Green flag: They can show you a live llms.txt and explain what it does
Show me 3 restoration clients with before/after SEO metrics.
Why it matters: Claims are free. Data isn't. Ask for specific organic traffic increases, keyword ranking changes, and lead volume — with timelines. "We helped a restoration company grow" means nothing without numbers.
Red flag: "We can't share client data" or vague testimonials without numbers
Green flag: Specific before-and-after numbers with dates and the source of each number
What's your pricing?
Why it matters: Pricing you can see up front lets you compare agencies before a sales call. How an agency handles that question tells you how it will handle the rest of the relationship.
Red flag: "We need to do a discovery call first" or "It depends"
Green flag: Clear tiers with specific deliverables at each level
Do you require long-term contracts?
Why it matters: If the work is good, you'll stay. A mandatory 12-month contract protects the agency's revenue more than it protects you.
Red flag: "We require a 12-month minimum" (especially for new clients)
Green flag: Month-to-month or short initial commitment with clear exit terms
How do you handle the franchise competition problem?
Why it matters: National franchises have large marketing budgets. If the agency has no specific strategy for that, it may spend your budget competing head-on against them.
Red flag: "We'll outrank them with backlinks" — you won't outlink a national franchise brand
Green flag: Long-tail keyword strategy, local pack optimization, AI readiness as a leapfrog
What happens with my data if we part ways?
Why it matters: Some agencies build everything on their own accounts. When you leave, you lose your Google Ads history, Google Business Profile access, analytics data, or even your website.
Red flag: "Everything is managed in our systems"
Green flag: "You own everything — GBP, analytics, domain, content. Always."
How many clients do you manage per account manager?
Why it matters: The more accounts one person handles, the less attention yours gets. Ask for the number and how they arrived at it.
Red flag: Vague answer or "We have a team approach"
Green flag: A specific number they can explain and defend
What's your reporting cadence and what metrics do you track?
Why it matters: Vanity metrics — impressions, "reach," page views — mean nothing for a restoration company. You need phone calls, form submissions, and revenue attribution. If they can't connect their work to your phone ringing, they're guessing.
Red flag: Monthly PDF with traffic graphs and no lead data
Green flag: Call tracking, form attribution, revenue correlation, weekly check-ins
What do you do about AI and voice search?
Why it matters: Homeowners can ask ChatGPT or Google's AI features "who should I call for water damage in Dallas" and get an answer without clicking a link. If your agency has no AEO strategy, ask why.
Red flag: "We're keeping an eye on it" or "That's not really relevant yet"
Green flag: They can show you schema markup, llms.txt, and structured data on their own site
How Bodyne Scores on This Checklist
We wrote this list knowing we'd have to answer it ourselves. Here's where we stand.
- ✓ 1. Restoration specialized
- ✓ 2. llms.txt live — bodyne.com/llms.txt
- ↻ 3. Case studies — Building — we're new to restoration
- ✓ 4. Pricing published — /restoration/pricing
- ✓ 5. No long-term contracts
- ✓ 6. Franchise strategy — AEO leapfrog, local pack, long-tail
- ✓ 7. You own everything
- ✓ 8. Limited client load
- ✓ 9. Call tracking + attribution
- ✓ 10. AEO deployed on our own site
We pass 9 of 10. The one we're still building? Client results. We're new to the restoration vertical, and we won't pretend otherwise. That is why we are showing you our answers rather than asking you to trust them.
A note about the agency you just left
If you've been burned before, it may have been an agency that promised leads and delivered reports. A contract you couldn't get out of. A website you don't even own.
That experience is why this checklist exists. In our view, agencies that don't understand the restoration business are a real risk for owners. We built this page so fewer owners end up in that position.
Ready to see where your restoration company stands?
Our free restoration scorecard measures the signals that actually matter for emergency service companies — not vanity metrics. Takes 2 minutes, no sales pitch attached.
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