When an agency says they guarantee their results, what does that mean?

You may think it means if they don’t deliver enough sales to pay for all their fees and media costs, you get your money back. And that makes total sense. However…

The agency may think it means they guarantee they will do a good job based on their own evaluation. Or they may mean they guarantee your ad will be seen by a million people. Or a whole lot of other things. One thing that will not mean is that you get your money back if they don’t deliver on the sales you expect. 

guaranteed results are not this easy
guaranteed results are not this easy

Here are some tips to decipher what some agencies mean when they say they guarantee their results.

  • They guarantee the number of impressions your ad will show. You know those ads that you see when you are scrolling through the news, sports scores, and cute cat memes? Each time one is shown on the web page you’re on, even if it’s well below the part you scrolled on and therefore never even saw it, that counts as an impression. You’ve probably been shown several hundred today. It’s extremely easy to guarantee impressions– all you have to do is buy them. While these impressions can help with brand awareness, they don’t at all guarantee leads or sales.
  • They guarantee you will be ranked #1 in Google in organic search. For what? Your company name? There’s a big difference between getting at the top for your law firm, Dewy, Cheetum, & Howe, and getting at the top for Best Divorce Lawyer in New York.
  • They guarantee you will be ranked #1 in Google in paid search. Once again, for what and for how long?  Anyone can be ranked #1 in Google paid search if you pay them enough money (it’s their whole business model). The problem is paying enough to get to the top may end up costing you $100 a click. And you may need hundreds of clicks to end up getting an actual sale/client. If you have to pay $5,000 for someone to buy $4,000 worth of merchandise, does that make sense? Hint– you are not going to make it up in volume.

Got more questions about guarantees? Contact us. We guarantee we will respond.