The real signs your agency is underperforming are not falling results. Auctions get more expensive, seasons change, competitors arrive. These are the signals that are actually diagnostic.
1. The reports have no decisions in them
If what arrives is numbers with no explanation of what was changed and why, nobody is making decisions worth reporting. A dashboard is not a report. The phrase to watch for is "we are continuing to monitor".
2. Nothing has changed in the account in six weeks
You can check this yourself. Google Ads has a change history; Meta has an activity log. Open it. If the last meaningful change was two months ago, the account is on autopilot.
Some stability is correct — constant edits stop bidding from settling. But six weeks with nothing except budget adjustments is not stability, it is absence.
3. The same creative has been running for months
On paid social this is the clearest signal of all, because creative is the main lever and it fatigues on a predictable schedule. Three ads running since July is not a strategy.
4. You only hear from an account manager
If you cannot get a conversation with the person actually in the account, there may not be a consistent person in the account. Ask who they are by name and how many other accounts they carry.
Ask your agency what they changed last week and why. The quality of the answer is the whole diagnostic.
5. Bad news only arrives when you ask
Every account has bad weeks. A report where everything always went to plan is a report nobody is reading carefully. If you consistently discover problems yourself and raise them, the relationship has already inverted.
6. The metric keeps moving
You agreed to judge on cost per customer. Now the report leads with reach, or impressions, or a ROAS figure that does not reconcile with your bank. When the headline number changes without a written reason, it usually changed because the agreed one stopped looking good.
7. Nobody has mentioned anything outside the ad account
A good agency tells you when the landing page is the problem, when follow-up speed is costing you more than bidding ever could, when your offer is the constraint. None of that is work they get paid for, which is exactly why mentioning it is a signal of someone actually paying attention.
What are not signs your agency is underperforming
Worth saying, because people leave good agencies for bad reasons.
A bad month is not a sign. Costs rising across the category is not a sign. Being told something you did not want to hear is not a sign — it is usually the opposite. An agency that pushes back on your offer, your landing page or your follow-up is doing the job, even when it is irritating.
And a quiet account is not automatically a neglected one. Constant edits stop bidding from settling, so a stable account with a clear reason for stability is good management. The distinction is whether they can explain the reason.
Before you act
Raise it directly and specifically. "What changed in the account in the last month, and what are you testing next?" A good team answers in a paragraph. A struggling one sends a deck.
If you want an independent read first, the audit is free and plenty of people use it as a second opinion while staying where they are. If your current agency is doing good work, it will say so.
And if you do decide to move, leave properly — the handover is where most of the damage happens.
If you are at the point of replacing them, the fifteen questions to ask the next agency are mostly about avoiding a repeat of whatever went wrong here.
Questions people ask
Is a drop in results a sign my agency is bad?
On its own, no. Costs rise, competitors enter, seasons turn. What is diagnostic is whether anyone noticed before you did, and whether the explanation came with a plan attached.
How often should changes be made to my account?
There is no fixed cadence, but an account with nothing changed in six weeks is being watched rather than run. Equally, an account changed every other day never finishes learning. Look for deliberate changes with stated reasons.
What should a monthly report contain?
Decisions. What was changed, why, what it did, and what happens next. A report that is a screenshot of the platform dashboard tells you what you could already see for yourself.
Should I give notice or raise it first?
Raise it first, specifically, in writing, with a date for a response. A good agency fixes it; a disengaged one confirms your read. Either way you will know more than you did, and you keep the option open.