# Which criteria do I use to compare agencies?

**Short answer.** Five axes are enough: the work, the team you actually get, the fit with your sector and your way of working, the price per unit of work, and the stability of the business. Weight them before you see the first presentation.

Five axes are enough. More criteria do not make a grid more accurate, they only dilute the weight of what genuinely matters.

## The five

**1. The work.** Not whether it is beautiful, but whether it solves a problem that resembles yours. Ask about the assignment behind the work: what was the question, what was the budget, what happened.

**2. The team you actually get.** Names, not job titles. Who is on your account day to day, how many other clients that person carries, and were they in the pitch room. This is the axis that most often decides between a good and a bad relationship.

**3. The fit.** Sector experience where the rules drive the work, and ways of working everywhere. An agency used to weekly check-ins does not suit a client who decides quarterly, and the other way round.

**4. The price per unit of work.** Not the rate, but how much work you get for your budget and which profile does it. See [what a normal hourly rate is](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/normaal-uurtarief-bureau).

**5. The stability of the business.** Four of the five numbers you need for that are free in the filed annual accounts. See [how to know whether an agency is financially healthy](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/is-een-bureau-financieel-gezond).

## Weight them before you meet anyone

Put the weight per axis on paper before the first presentation starts, and have everyone who decides score separately before anyone talks. Do it afterwards and the weight always shifts towards the axis where your favourite happened to be strongest.

## What does **not** belong on the list

- **Size on its own.** It does not predict quality; the rank correlation between headcount and growth is 0.003.
- **The number of awards**, unless creative reputation is a goal in itself for your brand.
- **Presentation skill.** It gets measured anyway, and it already weighs far more heavily than anyone admits.

Drawing up the grid and guarding it is the part where an outsider makes the most difference, because they have no favourite. See [Agency selection & pitches](https://www.ikag.be/en/agency-selection).

See also: [how to judge pitch presentations fairly](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/pitchpresentaties-beoordelen) and [how to compare two agencies](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/twee-bureaus-vergelijken).

## Related questions

- [How do I judge pitch presentations fairly?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/pitchpresentaties-beoordelen): Fix the grid and the weights before the first presentation, have everyone score alone before the discussion, and only then talk. Otherwise you are measuring persuasiveness in the room, not the proposal.
- [How do I know whether an agency is any good?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/hoe-weet-ik-of-een-bureau-goed-is): Call two clients the agency did not put forward itself, and ask about the time it went wrong. A portfolio shows someone at their best; a reference shows how they work when things go badly.
- [What do I ask in a first meeting with an agency?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/eerste-gesprek-met-een-bureau): Three questions surface the most: who works on my account day to day, what share of your revenue is your largest client, and which brief did you turn down this year. The third answer tells you the most.

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IKAg is the business consultant for marketing and agencies in Belgium and the Netherlands. Market figures come from the Agency Barometer, calculated on the annual accounts agencies filed with the National Bank themselves. Figures on pitches and satisfaction come from IKAg-guided processes, and are always presented as such.

- All questions: https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq
- Last updated: 2026-08-19