TL;DR
- Before any calls, decide the one result you need, such as sign-ups, wallets or a successful TGE.
- Ask every agency the same 12 questions about proof, the team, KOL selection, reporting and who owns your accounts.
- The usual ways it goes wrong: big KPIs that get missed and blamed on the market, constant upselling, and cheap botted KOLs that don’t match your audience.
- A good agency also says no. We turn projects down when we don’t believe in the product.
Before you talk to anyone: define the job
Most bad agency relationships are set up to fail before the first call. The founder asks for “marketing”, the agency sells a package, and three months later nobody can say what worked.
Before you book any calls, write one sentence: what you’re launching, when, who it’s for, and what number has to move. For example: “We’re doing a TGE in eight weeks and need 20K qualified waitlist sign-ups from DeFi users in Asia and the US.” It lets you compare agencies on the same terms, and you’ll quickly see which ones listened.
Also decide what you’ll keep in-house. If nobody on your side owns the narrative, the agency will fill that gap with generic content.
What we see go wrong
We regularly pick up clients who are switching from another agency. The same three problems come up again and again.
- Big promises, missed targets: A large retainer sold on very high KPIs written into the contract. When the numbers don’t come in, the agency blames the client or the market.
- Upselling: The agency puts things into the go-to-market plan, says you need them for the marketing to work, then charges extra to build them. A one-off landing page for a single campaign is a common example.
- The wrong KOLs: Cheap, botted accounts that aren’t matched to your audience. They fill a report and bring nothing.
Most of the 12 questions below are there to catch these before you sign.
The 12 questions: proof
1. Which projects like ours have you worked on, and what moved? Ask about your own sector, whether that’s an L1, DeFi, NFT or gaming. Ask for the one number the client cared about, in context. “300K impressions” means nothing on its own. “Supported a TGE that launched at 1B+ FDV with listings on Coinbase, Upbit and Binance” tells you what the campaign was for.
2. Can we speak to a past client? A good agency will set up a reference call or point you to public testimonials from named founders.
3. How did you set these KPIs, and what happens if they’re missed? Big numbers in a contract are easy to write. Ask how they were worked out and what the plan is if they’re not hit. The answer shouldn’t be blaming the market.
The 12 questions: people and process
4. Who exactly works on our account? Ask for names, and whether the people on the sales call will be in your Telegram group after you sign. At ITK, everyone assigned to a project is in the client’s group.
5. Would you ever turn a project down? A good agency is selective about who it works with. We’ve turned down multiple projects because we didn’t think the product was good enough to market, or the team looked extractive and only after a quick win. An agency that says yes to everyone isn’t choosing its clients on quality.
6. What does a normal week look like? You want regular calls, clear updates and a shared place where you can see the work in progress. Ours is regular syncs with the team, a look at what we’ve done that week, asking for their input, and every working document shared so the client always sees what’s being worked on.
The 12 questions: KOLs and money
7. Which KOLs would you use, and why those? Ask about audience location, past campaigns and how they screen for bots. Follower count isn’t an answer. Cheap, botted KOLs that don’t match the audience are one of the most common reasons founders come to us from another agency.
8. Are KOL fees passed through at cost or marked up? Both models exist. You just need to know which one you’re paying for.
9. What’s included, and what costs extra? Get the scope in writing. Watch for plans that include work you’ll later be charged extra for, like campaign landing pages. Our guide to crypto marketing agency costs covers what drives the price.
The 12 questions: ownership and exit
10. Who owns the Discord, Telegram, X accounts, content and data? It should be you, in writing.
11. How will you report? Ask to see a real report with names removed. For a KOL campaign you should see who posted, impressions, engagement (likes, comments and reposts) and who performed best. For a wider campaign, look for what it brought in, such as sign-ups, sales or affiliate conversions, not just reach.
12. What if we want to stop at month three? A good agency has a clean exit clause, because it expects to earn the renewal.
Red flags that should end the call
- Guaranteed price action, listings or returns. No one can promise these.
- Very high KPIs in the contract with no clear plan for hitting them.
- A plan full of extras you’ll be charged for later.
- Reports built only on impressions, follower counts or Telegram member totals.
- No named team, or a different team after you sign.
- KOL lists sold on follower count, with no screening for bots.
- The agency holds the admin keys to your community.
- A “full launch package” that’s suspiciously cheap. At that price you’re usually buying bot engagement.
How to avoid switching again
Agency-hopping is common in crypto. Teams sign before a launch, the launch happens, and the same retainer buys less and less while the agency’s attention moves to the next client.
Bring in heavy outside support around launch windows, and pick a partner that works inside your team rather than at arm’s length. Vault777’s founder put it this way: the team “genuinely felt like an extension of our own team,” with near round-the-clock timezone coverage.
If you’re not sure whether you need an agency at all, read our breakdown of agency vs in-house vs fractional CMO.
How ITK answers these questions
Here’s how we’d answer them ourselves.
- Proof: Treehouse Finance (KOL campaign around a TGE at 1B+ FDV), Scallop (pre and post-TGE KOL campaign across Asian Web3 markets, 300M+ launch FDV, 700K impressions), Artery Chain (200K+ users onboarded, 4M+ onchain transactions), Sugartown (gaming NFT sell-out, $1.1M raised).
- Team: everyone assigned to your project is in your Telegram group. The team is spread across time zones, so replies are quick.
- KOLs: a network of 1K+ KOLs with 50M+ cumulative reach. We pick them for audience fit, not follower count, and cut the ones that underperform.
- Reporting: who posted, impressions, engagement and top performers for KOL campaigns, and what the campaign brought in, such as sales or conversions, wherever we can measure it.
- Pricing: set by service and built around what you need. It’s negotiable, and we don’t charge more because you’ve raised a big round.
- Sectors: infrastructure, DeFi, trading, consumer crypto, AI and DePIN, exchanges and wallets, iGaming and fintech. See who we work with.
- Selectivity: we only take on projects we believe in.
FAQ
Talk to us
Shortlisting agencies for a launch? Book a free strategy call and we’ll go through all 12 questions with you.
Need a growth partner?
Book a free call and we’ll talk through your project and where to start.
