When I started doing digital work for tradies, clients kept handing me quotes and invoices from agencies and asking what they meant. Some of them I had to read twice myself, and I do this for a living.
That happened often enough that I started a business around it. So here's the honest answer to a question I get asked all the time: why do agencies talk like that, and what can you do about it?
Three reasons, and only one of them is a problem
Habit. Every trade has its own shorthand. You say "RCD", "fall" and "second fix" all day without thinking. Agency people say "SEO", "CTR" and "funnel" the same way. Most of the time nobody is trying to confuse you. They've just forgotten you don't work in their office.
It sounds expert. Long words make ordinary work sound bigger. "Omnichannel brand activation" sounds like more than "posting on Facebook and Instagram", even when it's the same job.
It makes the price hard to question. This is the one that costs you money. If you can't tell what a line on a quote is, you can't tell whether the number next to it is fair, and you can't compare it with anyone else's. Most people don't ask. They sign.
The first two are annoying. The third is why we check quotes for free.
The test for good and bad jargon
A technical word is fine if the person using it can do two things when you ask:
- Say what it is in one sentence, using words you'd use on site.
- Say what it will do for your business, in something you can count: calls, enquiries, booked jobs.
If they can, it's just shorthand. If the answer is another paragraph of the same language, or you get told it's "complicated", treat that line of the quote as unexplained. You wouldn't accept that from a supplier. Don't accept it here.
The words you'll see most, in plain English
| What the quote says | What it means | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| SEO | Work that moves you higher up Google's list when someone searches for your trade. | What will you actually do each month? |
| Google Business Profile | Your free listing on Google Maps: phone number, hours, photos and reviews. | Is it in my name, with my login? |
| PPC or Google Ads | Paying Google each time someone clicks your ad, whether they call you or not. | How much goes to Google, and how much to you? |
| Retainer | A fixed fee every month. | Can I see a list of what it covers? |
| Lead | Someone who got in touch. Not the same as a job. | How many turned into paid work? |
| Impressions | How many times your ad or listing appeared on a screen. Nobody had to look at it. | How many of those people rang? |
| Conversion rate | Out of everyone who visited, the share who called or filled in the form. | What is it now, and what was it before? |
| Hosting | Rent for the computer your website lives on. | What happens to my site if I stop paying you? |
| Domain | Your web address. Rented by the year. | Whose name is it registered in? |
| Minimum term | You can't leave for that long, whether it's working or not. | What does it cost to leave early? |
There's a shorter version of this list on our home page.
Five questions to ask before you sign anything
- What will you do in the first month, as a list? A real plan has tasks in it. "Optimisation" is not a task.
- How will I know it's working? The answer should be something you can count yourself, like calls or enquiries.
- What do I keep if I leave? The web address, the website, the Google listing, the ad account. Find out before, not after.
- What are all the ongoing costs? Every one of them, and what each is for.
- Can I cancel, and how? If there's a minimum term, ask why.
A good agency will answer all five without getting defensive. Plenty of agencies are good. How they handle these questions is the quickest way to tell which sort you're dealing with.
What a clear quote looks like
You should be able to hand it to your partner or your bookkeeper and have them understand it. That means:
- Each line says what the thing is and what it's for.
- One-off costs and ongoing costs are shown separately.
- Money that goes to someone else, like Google for ads, is shown separately from the agency's own fee.
- It says who holds the web address and the logins.
- It says how to stop.
That's how we write ours, because it's how we'd want to be quoted.
If you've already got a quote you can't read
Send it to us. We'll go through it with you line by line and tell you what each thing is, what it does, and whether the number looks about right. It's free, and you don't have to use us for anything afterwards.