The Moroccan market has hundreds of agencies and freelancers with wildly uneven competence. Here is how to tell them apart before you commit, rather than after six wasted months.
Red flags
- They guarantee position one on Google: nobody can guarantee that, and Google explicitly forbids the claim.
- They refuse to create ad accounts in your name: a clear sign they want you locked in.
- Their reports show impressions, reach and likes but never cost per enquiry or per sale.
- They ask nothing about your margin, average order value or capacity to handle enquiries.
- The quote is one lump sum with no detail of what is actually delivered each month.
Questions to ask in the meeting
- 1Can I speak to two current clients in a sector close to mine?
- 2Who will actually do the work, and what is their experience?
- 3How do you measure success, and on which metric will you be judged in six months?
- 4What happens if results are not there after three months?
- 5Do the accounts and source files belong to me if we stop?
Verifying competence concretely
Look at the agency's own website: is it fast on mobile? Does it rank for its own keywords? An SEO agency invisible on Google is an obvious warning.
Ask for a mini-audit before signing. A competent agency will identify several specific problems on your account or site within thirty minutes. If the first meeting contains only generalities, that tells you something.
Agency, freelancer or in-house hire?
- Freelancer: cheapest, ideal for one well-defined need. Risk on availability and breadth of coverage.
- Agency: several skills under one roof and service continuity. Higher cost, with a risk of being a small client in a large portfolio.
- In-house hire: makes sense above roughly 50,000 MAD monthly media spend. Below that, the fully loaded cost of an employee exceeds an agency for a narrower skill set.