Contact us
Last month I got on a call with a restoration company owner who had just fired his third agency in two years. He was frustrated. Exhausted. And about $87,000 lighter in the wallet with almost nothing to show for it.
"They kept showing me keyword rankings," he told me. "But Sean, I don't even know what questions people are asking AI about water damage restoration. And apparently, neither did they."
That conversation stuck with me because it perfectly captures what's broken about the agency hiring process right now. Most business owners are still evaluating agencies based on 2019 criteria while the entire landscape of how people find businesses has fundamentally shifted underneath them.
Here's what nobody is telling you: the skills that made an agency great five years ago might make them dangerously outdated today. SEO is no longer the whole game. Paid search has gotten brutally expensive in ways most agencies won't admit. And there's an entirely new discipline called AEO, or Answer Engine Optimization, that most agencies have never even heard of.
If you're thinking about hiring a digital marketing agency in 2026, you need to understand what's actually happening out there before you sign another contract that leaves you frustrated and broke.
The Landscape Has Fundamentally Changed
Let me paint you a picture of how your potential customers are actually finding service businesses right now.
Three years ago, someone with a flooded basement would grab their phone, open Google, and type "water damage restoration near me." They'd scan the top three or four results, maybe check some reviews, and make a call. Simple. Predictable. The agencies knew exactly how to play that game.
Today? That same person might ask ChatGPT, "What should I do if my basement floods and how do I find a good restoration company?" Or they might ask Perplexity AI, "What's the average cost of water damage restoration and what questions should I ask contractors?" Or they might still use Google, but now they're seeing AI overviews that summarize information from multiple sources before they ever see your listing.
The point is this: there are now multiple pathways to discovery, and traditional SEO only addresses one of them. An agency that's still operating like it's 2021 is going to miss the majority of opportunities to put you in front of potential customers.
I talked to a roofing company owner last quarter who noticed something strange in his analytics. His organic traffic was down 23% year over year, but his phone was ringing more than ever. When we dug into it, we found that his content was being cited in AI answer engines at a rate he never tracked because no one showed him how to track it. His agency was panicking about the traffic drop while completely missing the actual growth happening in a channel they didn't understand.
This is the reality you're walking into. Make sure whoever you hire actually gets it.
Thing One: Ask How They're Thinking About AEO
Here's a simple test. Ask any agency you're considering: "How do you approach Answer Engine Optimization, and what's your strategy for getting our business recommended by AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overview?"
If they look confused, thank them for their time and walk away.
If they give you a vague answer about "quality content," that's not good enough either. Press harder.
AEO is not some futuristic concept. It's happening right now. When someone asks Claude or ChatGPT to recommend a roofing contractor in Dallas, those systems are pulling from structured data, authoritative content, reviews, and patterns they've learned about which businesses consistently deliver value.
A competent agency in 2026 should be able to explain how they structure content to be cited by AI systems, how they build authority signals that LLMs recognize, how they monitor your presence in AI generated answers, and how they optimize for featured snippets and knowledge panels that feed into AI overviews.
I worked with a plumbing company last year where we restructured their entire content strategy around questions people actually ask, not just keywords they search. We built comprehensive FAQ content with clear, authoritative answers. Within six months, they were being recommended in AI answers for complex questions like "how do I know if my sewer line needs replacement" at a rate that drove real calls. Real revenue.
The agency that doesn't understand this is selling you yesterday's playbook at today's prices.
Thing Two: Demand Transparency on Paid Search Economics
Let me tell you something most agencies won't admit: paid search in 2026 is a completely different animal than it was even two years ago.
Cost per click in service industries has increased anywhere from 40% to 200% depending on the market. The competition has intensified. The AI bidding systems have gotten more sophisticated. And the margins you used to enjoy on paid traffic have been compressed to the point where many campaigns that used to be profitable are now break-even at best.
I recently audited a campaign for a restoration company that was spending $12,000 per month on Google Ads. Their agency was showing them clicks and impressions and all the vanity metrics. What they weren't showing was that the actual cost per qualified lead had crept up to $847. For a job with an average ticket of $3,200, that math just barely works after you factor in closing rates and actual costs.
When you're evaluating an agency, ask them these specific questions. What's the current cost per click in my market for my key services? What's the realistic cost per lead I should expect? How has that changed over the past 24 months in my industry? What's your strategy for reducing cost per acquisition over time?
If they don't have specific numbers or they give you ranges so wide they're meaningless, that's a red flag.
A good agency will tell you the truth: paid search is expensive and getting more expensive. It can still work, but only if you have realistic expectations and a strategy that goes beyond just throwing budget at Google and hoping.
The agencies that are still selling paid search as a magic money machine are either lying to you or they haven't updated their pitch since 2020.
Thing Three: Understand What They Actually Mean by "SEO"
SEO used to be a relatively contained discipline. You did keyword research, optimized your pages, built some backlinks, and watched your rankings improve over time. That version of SEO still exists, but it's now just one piece of a much larger puzzle.
When an agency tells you they do SEO, you need to understand exactly what that means in practice.
Traditional SEO focuses on Google search rankings, meta tags, site speed, mobile optimization, and backlink acquisition. That's still valuable. But in 2026, that's table stakes. It's the minimum.
Modern visibility strategy has to include local SEO and Google Business Profile optimization, which affects how you show up in map packs and local searches. It has to include content strategy that addresses the full buyer journey, not just bottom of funnel keywords. It has to include technical optimization for Core Web Vitals and other user experience signals. It has to include review management and reputation signals that affect both search rankings and AI recommendations. And it has to include structured data implementation that helps AI systems understand and cite your content.
I talked to a business owner last month who was paying an agency $3,500 per month for "SEO services." When I asked what those services included, he had no idea. Turns out the agency was doing basic on-page optimization and building a handful of mediocre backlinks. No content strategy. No local optimization. No AI visibility work. Just the bare minimum wrapped in a professional-sounding report.
That's not partnership. That's extraction.
When you're evaluating agencies, ask them to break down exactly what activities they'll perform each month. Ask them what KPIs they'll track and how those connect to actual business outcomes. Ask them what they're doing beyond traditional SEO to build your overall digital visibility.
The right agency will have clear answers. The wrong agency will give you jargon and generalities.
Thing Four: Look for Evidence of Adaptability
The digital marketing landscape is changing so fast that what works in January might be outdated by June. An agency that's still using the exact same playbook they used three years ago is probably not keeping up.
When you're evaluating potential partners, look for evidence that they're actively learning and adapting.
Ask them what changes they've made to their approach in the past 12 months and why. Ask them how they're preparing for the continued integration of AI into search experiences. Ask them what new tools or strategies they've tested recently and what they learned. Ask them how they stay current with changes in Google's algorithm, AI developments, and platform policy updates.
A good agency should be excited to talk about this stuff. They should have specific examples of how they've evolved their approach based on what's actually working in the market.
I know an agency owner who told me his team spends at least 10 hours per month just testing and learning. Running experiments. Trying new approaches. That's the kind of partner you want because the landscape is changing too fast for anyone to coast on what they knew last year.
The agencies that aren't actively learning are the ones that will waste your money on tactics that stopped working six months ago.
Thing Five: Get Clear on What Success Actually Looks Like
This might be the most important point, and it's the one most business owners skip entirely.
Before you hire anyone, you need to have a clear, specific definition of what success looks like for your business. Not vague goals like "more leads" or "better rankings." Actual numbers tied to actual business outcomes.
How many qualified leads per month do you need to hit your revenue targets? What's your acceptable cost per lead? What close rate can you realistically achieve? What's the lifetime value of a customer, and how does that affect what you can afford to spend on acquisition?
I worked with a roofing company owner who came to me frustrated with his agency. When I asked him what success looked like, he said "more business." When I pressed for specifics, he didn't have any. Neither did his agency. So they were both operating without a clear target, which meant neither of them could tell whether anything was actually working.
We sat down and built out actual projections. He needed 40 qualified leads per month to hit his revenue goal. His close rate was around 28%. His average job was $14,000. We reverse-engineered what that meant for traffic, for conversion rates, for cost per lead. Suddenly everyone had a clear target to aim at.
When you're hiring an agency, bring them your numbers. If they don't ask about your business model, your margins, and your goals before proposing a strategy, that's a problem. Generic packages sold without understanding your specific situation are almost always a waste of money.
The right partner will help you build a realistic plan based on where you are today and where you need to go. They'll be honest about what's achievable and what's not. They'll set expectations you can actually hold them accountable to.
The Bottom Line
The marketing landscape in 2026 requires a fundamentally different approach than what worked even three years ago. AI is changing how people discover businesses. Paid search economics have shifted dramatically. Traditional SEO is necessary but no longer sufficient.
Before you sign another agency contract, make sure your potential partner actually understands these realities. Ask hard questions. Demand specific answers. Look for evidence of adaptability and genuine expertise in the new landscape.
The right agency will welcome these questions because they'll have good answers. The wrong agency will get defensive or give you vague platitudes about "quality" and "results."
Your marketing budget is too valuable to waste on partners who are still fighting yesterday's battle. Find someone who understands the game as it's actually being played today.
If you want to talk through what this looks like for your specific situation, I'm happy to have that conversation. Sometimes the best investment is getting clarity on what you actually need before you spend another dollar on the wrong approach.
