Hiring a digital agency means committing your SME to a partnership for several years, with budgets that vary widely from one provider to another. Yet many business owners in French-speaking Switzerland spend less time comparing agencies than choosing their next company car. The result: websites delivered late, campaigns with no measurable results and, in the worst cases, a company discovering it owns neither its website nor its data. In 2026, with marketing budgets under pressure, there is no room for error. Here are the 12 questions that will spare you unpleasant surprises, grouped into four themes, along with a comparison grid and price pointers.
Deliverables and ownership: what actually belongs to you
1. Who will own the website, the code and the content?
This is the question too few SMEs ask. Some agencies build your site on a proprietary platform: the day you leave, you lose everything. Demand a written answer: the domain name, hosting, source code, visuals and copy must become your exclusive property once paid for. Red flag: an agency that "rents" you the website on a monthly plan with no clear buyout option.
2. What happens, concretely, if we leave?
Ask for the exit scenario before you sign. A serious agency hands over a full backup, admin access and transfer documentation, with no hidden fees. If the answer is vague, or if "reversibility" is billed at CHF 3,000, you know where you stand.
3. Who owns the advertising and analytics accounts?
Google Ads, Meta Business, Google Analytics, Search Console: these accounts must be created in your company's name, with the agency added as a guest user. Imagine an SME losing years of advertising history — and the quality score that came with it — because everything sat in its former agency's account: rebuilding is paid for in lost performance.
Team and method: who does what, and how
4. Who will actually work on our project?
The classic scenario: a seasoned director handles the sales pitch, then your project lands on the desk of a junior or an offshore subcontractor. That is not a problem in itself — outsourcing can be efficient — but you have the right to know. Ask to meet the people who will do the work and confirm who your day-to-day contact will be.
5. Can you show concrete results, not just nice designs?
A portfolio of good-looking websites says nothing about their effectiveness. Ask for two or three verifiable projects: what was delivered, for what kind of business, and how results are tracked (traffic, enquiries, cost per contact). Be as wary of an agency that measures nothing as of spectacular percentages that cannot be checked. An agency that tracks its results can show you how in five minutes.
6. What does your process look like, from signature to launch?
Kickoff, mockups, approvals, development, testing, training: every stage should have an owner and a deadline. Be wary of answers like "we adapt to each client" — it is often a sign that there is no process at all, and that deadlines will slip.
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Reporting and transparency: measuring what matters
7. What does your monthly report look like? Show us an example.
Ask for an anonymised report from an existing client. If it only contains impressions, likes and time spent on the site, walk away: those are vanity metrics. Good reporting ties every action to a business indicator: leads, calls, sales, acquisition cost.
8. How do you measure return on investment?
The agency should set up conversion tracking from day one: forms, calls, purchases. If tracking never comes up in the conversation, they will never be able to prove their value. Test question: "What is the average cost per lead among your clients in our industry?" Silence is already an answer.
9. Who is our point of contact, and how fast do they respond?
A response time of 24 to 48 business hours is a reasonable standard. Have it written into the contract. An agency that is hard to reach during the sales process will be even harder to reach after you sign.
Budget and contract: pointers for 2026
10. What exactly does the price include — and how much do extras cost?
The quote should spell out what is included: number of pages, revision rounds, hosting, licences, maintenance, post-launch tweaks. Nasty surprises almost always come from the extras: if every "out of scope" change is billed by the hour, the bill climbs fast.
11. What budget is realistic for our goals?
The gaps are considerable: depending on the provider, budgets quoted for a showcase website can run to several thousand francs. A low price is not necessarily a bad sign, and a high price is no guarantee. For reference, here are our own prices:
- Website: from CHF 400 for a one-page showcase website, fully designed and put online; the price rises with the number of pages, the content to produce and the features added
- Online shop: noticeably higher, depending on the number of products and the sales rules
- SEO: a fixed monthly fee, set after a free initial audit
- Paid campaign management: fees on quote, with the advertising budget kept separate and paid directly to the platforms
- Social media: from CHF 200 per month, depending on the number of posts, the number of networks and whether we produce the visuals and videos
Be less wary of the amount than of vagueness: a quote, low or high, that does not clearly state what it covers is a risk. Conversely, paying a fortune for a ten-page site with no strategy behind it makes no sense either.
12. What are the commitment and termination terms?
A 12-month commitment with a two-to-three-month notice period is common for recurring mandates. With us, monthly services have no commitment and can be cancelled from one month to the next. Red flag: a fixed 24-month term, tacit renewal for a full year, or exit penalties. An agency confident in its results has no need to lock you in contractually.
The comparison grid: rank your shortlist in 30 minutes
Shortlist three agencies and score each from 1 to 5 on these six criteria:
- Ownership: everything belongs to you, in writing (a deal-breaker if not)
- Proof: verifiable projects in an industry close to yours
- Team: you have met the people who will actually do the work
- Reporting: a concrete example provided, focused on business results
- Pricing transparency: itemised quote, cost of extras stated upfront
- Contract flexibility: reasonable commitment, clean exit
Below 22 points out of 30, keep looking. And if two agencies are neck and neck, pick the one that asked you the most questions about your business: it is the best predictor of the quality of the work to come.
The red flags that should send you running
- A promise of "guaranteed first place on Google" — nobody can guarantee that, not even Google
- A lump-sum quote with no breakdown of services
- No verifiable projects presented, even after an explicit request
- Pressure to sign quickly ("offer valid until Friday")
- Advertising accounts or a CMS you will not own
- A large price gap with other quotes that the agency cannot explain
The bottom line
A good digital agency can be recognised by three things: it leaves you as the owner of everything, it shows verifiable projects, and it explains clearly what you are paying for. The 12 questions in this article fit into a one-hour meeting — an hour that can save you two years of frustration and a poorly invested budget. Take the time to compare, insist on written answers, and trust your scoring grid over the salesperson's charisma. You can also hold these criteria up against the way we work as a digital agency in French-speaking Switzerland: pricing, account ownership and the course of a project are detailed there.