Ask three marketing companies how they would grow your insurance agency and you may receive three very different proposals. One sells a website. Another runs search ads. A third promises content, social posts and “AI visibility” in a monthly bundle. Their prices won't mean much until you separate the work.
Start with the problem you need solved, then ask each company to show how its proposal addresses it. You're buying a public website and a working marketing process, not a collection of impressive service names.
Decide what you need first
If your current website looks generic, start by reviewing design work. If it looks good but the contact form fails, fix delivery. If the site and office follow-up work but too few prospective customers find you, evaluate acquisition channels.
Those problems can overlap, but they shouldn't disappear inside one vague retainer. Write the first priority in a sentence, such as: “We need a custom public website that presents our team and two offices clearly.” Or: “We want to test Google Search for one approved service and track which inquiries turn into useful opportunities.”
That sentence makes it easier to compare the next proposal with the previous one.
Inspect complete websites, including the bottom
Open a relevant project on your own phone. Look at the hero, a middle section, the footer and the contact path. Does the visual quality hold up throughout the page? Can you read the office details and use the menu without fighting it?
Ask which parts the provider designed and built. A portfolio may contain different scopes of work. A custom admin screen also doesn't tell you whether the public site will look the way you want.
For our work, start with the four insurance agency website examples. Holestin uses blue texture and illustrations; Anne Scharp and Northern Shore use broad landscape imagery. Those are visible design decisions you can compare. We don't attach unmeasured lead or revenue claims to them.
Ask what a marketing month actually contains
“SEO,” “content” and “optimization” need deliverables behind them. Ask the provider to describe an ordinary month and how the work changes when it finds a problem.
| Work being sold | Ask for a concrete answer |
|---|---|
| Google Ads | Which campaigns and locations, who writes ads, how search terms and budgets are reviewed, and how outcomes are tracked |
| Website SEO | Which technical and content issues will be investigated, who fixes them and what the report shows |
| Articles | Topics, review responsibility, publication location, originality and how existing content is maintained |
| Social content | Channels, approximate output, approval process and who publishes |
| Website care | Hosting responsibility, supported updates, monitoring and what counts as extra development |
Article publishing and social posting are different jobs. So are ad management and the media spend paid to Google. A proposal that combines them should still identify the separate commitments.
Compare the complete cost
Use the same scenario for each provider: the same offices, services, proposed media budget and required page work. Ask for setup fees, recurring management, ad spend, software and optional scope as separate lines.
At Webdimonia, websites start at $2,000. Google Ads management starts at $1,499 a month, with ad spend separate and 5% added on the portion of monthly ad spend above $15,000. Organic social content starts at $1,500 a month. Scope can increase a quote; these are starting prices, not a combined package.
The management-fee guide shows the calculation. If your total budget is fixed, subtract management and other costs before deciding what remains for Google.
Also ask about cancellation, account access and the cost of leaving. A lower monthly price can be a poor fit if the agreement leaves you without the assets or access you expected.
Separate design evidence from marketing evidence
A real website demonstrates design and delivery. It doesn't demonstrate profitable advertising. A screenshot of an ad dashboard can show recorded events, but you still need to know what those events mean.
When a company presents a result, ask for the period, spending, conversion definition and relevant limits. Were the “leads” received inquiries or button clicks? Were duplicates removed? Did the client review quality? A case study should make those distinctions understandable.
A provider without measured outcomes can still explain its process and propose a bounded test. Treat that as a test with uncertainty, rather than allowing a confident presentation to stand in for evidence.
Keep the accounts and handoff clear
Before work begins, confirm who controls the domain, advertising account, analytics and website hosting. Record what access your agency receives, who pays the platforms and how another provider could take over.
This doesn't mean you need to operate every tool yourself. It means the arrangement should survive a staff change or the end of an engagement. Use the website ownership checklist to put those questions in writing.
For carrier-affiliated offices, identify your agency's approval responsibilities early. A provider's experience with another office is not an approval for yours.
Agree on the first review before signing
Define what the first phase will produce and what you'll review together. For a website, that might be approved design layouts followed by development and delivery checks. For a campaign, it might be spending, search relevance, captured inquiries and the office's assessment of those inquiries.
Use a short proposal worksheet:
- The problem we're hiring you to solve.
- The work and assets you'll deliver.
- Our responsibilities and approval steps.
- Total initial and ongoing costs.
- The account access and ownership arrangement.
- What we'll review, when, and what would change the plan.
Choose the company whose work you like and whose proposal you can explain back in plain language. If you're considering Webdimonia, compare our projects and current pricing, then tell us what your office needs. The first conversation should make the scope clearer.