How to choose a marketing agency in French-speaking Switzerland

An SME in French-speaking Switzerland looking for a marketing agency quickly finds dozens of similar websites: the same promises, the same platform logos, the same words. The choice is often made on gut feeling, during a first meeting. The seven criteria below let you compare on facts, and ask the questions that really make the difference.

1. What the marketing agency measures

Ask which figure the agency will show you each month. If the answer is “impressions”, “clicks” or “reach”, it measures its own activity, not your results. The right answer talks about enquiries, appointments and sales, linked to their source: this campaign, this keyword, this page. That requires tracking connected to your CRM, or at least to your inbox.

2. Who will do the work

The sales meeting is often with a partner; the work, with someone else, sometimes subcontracted. Ask for the names of the people who will run your campaigns and build your pages, and whether you can talk to them directly. A small team without intermediaries is often worth more than a large organisation where your file changes hands.

3. Who owns the accounts and the data

The Google Ads and Meta accounts, Google Analytics, the website and its hosting should be opened in your name, with the agency given delegated access. Otherwise, the day you change provider, you lose the campaign history, the audiences and sometimes the website. Ask the question before signing and have it written into the contract.

4. How the price is built

A clear proposal separates three lines: the agency's fees, the advertising spend paid directly to the platforms, and any tools. Be wary of a single package that mixes all three: you no longer know how much actually goes into advertising. Be wary too of fees calculated as a percentage of ad spend, which encourages spending more rather than spending better.

At Contrast, the proposal always separates these three lines. The amount of the fees depends on the levers actually activated, and is set after the first conversation.

5. Verifiable references

A useful case study names the client, describes the starting point, states the period and gives a result you could check by calling that client. Logos alone prove nothing. Look for cases close to yours: same sector, same size, same type of sale.

6. Knowledge of the French-speaking Swiss market

The French-speaking Swiss market is small, bilingual at its borders, with its own search habits and property portals. An agency that works in it knows the real cost of local keywords, the portals your buyers use and what a client in Vaud or Jura expects. It also writes in Swiss French, which people notice.

7. Length of commitment

Serious marketing needs a few months to produce stable results: campaigns learn, pages improve. An initial commitment is therefore normal. A twenty-four-month commitment with no exit clause is not. Ask what happens if the results are not there, and what you keep if you stop.

Marketing agency, freelancer or in-house team?

Warning signs

• A guaranteed result (“first page of Google in 30 days”, “50 enquiries a month”). Nobody controls the auctions or the algorithms.
• Figures without a client or a period. “+300%” means nothing without a starting point.
• Accounts in the agency's name. You are renting your own history.
• A monthly report without enquiries or sales. The agency reports on its activity, not on your results.
• No questions about your sales follow-up. An agency that does not ask what happens to enquiries cannot improve them.