10 questions to ask a marketing agency if you run RealGreen

If you run RealGreen, the agency interview needs ten specific questions, and fair warning: most agencies will fail about eight of them. Not because they're bad at marketing, but because the questions test something different: whether they can work with the operational data that makes RealGreen companies money. Ads are the entry fee. The margin is in condition codes, pricing matrices, completed-job triggers, and sold-program attribution.

Why do generic agencies struggle with RealGreen companies?

Because a RealGreen company's best marketing triggers live in the field, not in an ad account. The technician who logs a grub condition code just created a warmer sales opportunity than any keyword ever will, but acting on it requires reading RealGreen data, pricing from your matrix, and writing results back. A generalist agency's stack (ads, landing pages, monthly PDF) never touches any of that. Yes, we're an interested party here (RealGreen marketing is literally our product), so don't take our word for anything below. Just ask the questions and listen.

The 10 questions (and what a real answer sounds like)

#	Question	A real answer includes	The generalist tell
1	Can you read and trigger campaigns off my condition codes?	Named examples: grub code → priced grub offer within 24h	"What's a condition code?"
2	Can you price offers from my actual pricing matrices?	Quotes generated from your per-sq-ft breaks, not a flat teaser price	"We'd feature a $49 first-app promo"
3	Can you trigger marketing off completed jobs?	Post-service summaries, review asks, neighbor campaigns per job	Everything runs on calendar blasts
4	How do you handle the RealGreen API's limits?	A sync strategy: they know the constraints exist	"We'll just connect via Zapier"
5	Can you suppress by AR status?	Past-due customers get collections logic, never discounts	One list, everyone gets everything
6	How will you attribute sold programs, not leads, to campaigns?	Lead source codes in RealGreen joined to spend data	Cost-per-lead reporting, full stop
7	Can you run my prepay season?	Multi-touch sequence, pay links, payment-triggered suppression	"We could send an email about it"
8	Will quotes come from real property measurements?	Address → measurement → matrix price, on calls and on the website	"The form says 'request an estimate'"
9	What happens to my data and accounts if I leave?	You keep domain, numbers, content, data, in writing	Vague; the contract answers it for you, badly
10	Do you have other RealGreen clients?	References who run RealGreen and will take your call	"We work with all industries"

Which questions matter most?

If you only have time for three: #6 (attribution), because an agency that can't connect spend to sold programs in RealGreen will spend your budget on whatever produces the prettiest lead report; #1 (condition codes), because it's the single best proxy for whether they understand where your margin comes from (here's why); and #9 (exit terms), because the answer tells you how they plan to keep you: results or hostage-taking. Big national agencies commonly run 12-month contracts and proprietary websites you lose on exit; whatever you choose, get the exit terms in writing before signing. Our stance on this is the No-Hostage Guarantee, and we think it should be table stakes industry-wide.

What should you expect honestly?

Most agencies will fail 8 of these 10. Questions 9 and 10 are passable by any decent shop; questions 1–8 test operational integration that generalist agencies were never built for. That's not an insult to them: it's a category difference. The deeper background on why the API question (#4) trips up even technical teams is in the RealGreen API post, and the catalog of what an integrated setup actually runs is in the automation catalog.

What if the agency fails, but you like them?

Honesty section: a good generalist can still be the right hire for a narrow job. If what you need is competent Google Ads management and you're fine with lead-level reporting, a strong local generalist at a fair price beats a mediocre "specialist" charging specialist rates. Go in clear-eyed about what stays unbuilt: no condition-code upsells, no prepay automation, no completed-job triggers, no sold-program attribution. Some owners split it: generalist on ads, integration work handled separately. It's clunkier than one system, but it's better than pretending the gap isn't there. For the broader interview beyond RealGreen specifics, our 12 general agency questions post covers contracts, reporting cadence, and ownership.

How do you structure the engagement once you choose?

However the interview goes, protect yourself with structure. Start with a defined 90-day scope (one or two automations live, ads running, attribution wired) rather than a 12-month everything contract; a shop confident in its RealGreen chops will take that deal, and one that won't is telling you something. Require the attribution plumbing in month one, not month six: lead source codes agreed, entered at sale, and visible in a report you can open yourself. That ordering matters because every month of spend before attribution exists is a month you can never analyze. And watch the pricing shape: percent-of-ad-spend fees quietly reward spending more, flat retainers reward doing less, so ask how the fee changes if you cut spend in winter: the answer reveals the incentive. None of this is adversarial; it's the same discipline you'd apply to a fertilizer supplier. Good partners survive clear terms comfortably. The ones who bristle at a 90-day proving period were planning to win on inertia.

The takeaway: interview agencies on operational integration, not ad competence: condition codes, matrices, completed-job triggers, API strategy, AR suppression, sold-program attribution, prepay, measured quotes, exit terms, and RealGreen references. Expect most to fail 8 of 10, and decide with your eyes open.

Your agency interview checklist

1. Send the 10 questions in advance: the prepared answers are data too.
2. Ask for a live demo of one RealGreen-triggered automation, not a slide about one.
3. Call the RealGreen references; ask what broke and how it was handled.
4. Get exit terms in writing: domain, numbers, data, content, reviews.
5. Score all 10; decide what you're hiring for: leads only, or the integrated system.
6. Whoever you pick: require sold-program attribution from day one.