How to Choose a Digital PR Agency: Eight Questions That Sort the Market
Choosing a digital PR agency comes down to one question asked early: which parts of what you are buying are earned, and which are paid? Agencies that answer it plainly are usually good. Agencies that blur it are usually selling paid placements with press language wrapped around them, at earned-media prices. This is how to choose a digital PR agency without relying on a pitch deck.
Everything else — case studies, team size, awards — is secondary to that.
How to choose a digital PR agency: the eight questions
1. Which of these results were paid for?
So point at their case studies and ask, piece by piece. A good agency will tell you immediately: this was earned, this was a sponsored slot, this was a contributor byline. Therefore, an agency that cannot separate them either does not track it or does not want you to know.
2. What do you guarantee?
So correct answers: delivery dates, number of pitches sent, reporting frequency. Incorrect answers: coverage in named publications, rankings, traffic. Anything an agency guarantees in a named title is paid placement.
3. Who actually does the pitching?
Next, ask for the name of the person who will email journalists, and whether they are on this call. After all, pitching is a relationship job. If it is being done by a rotating junior or an offshore contractor, response rates reflect that.
4. Show me three placements from last month that are not in your deck
However, decks contain the best work from three years. By contrast, last month’s ordinary work tells you what your months will look like.
5. What is your refusal rate?
In fact, an agency doing real outreach gets refused constantly. A confident answer — “most pitches go nowhere, we land three to five a quarter from a good dataset” — is a good sign. An agency with no refusals is not pitching.
6. What will you report, and could I verify it myself?
Coverage and referring domains are checkable. Reach, impressions and advertising value equivalent are constructed numbers that flatter. Ask which they lead with.
7. Who else in my sector do you work with?
Overlapping clients in one niche means overlapping publisher pools, which is visible from outside. It is not automatically disqualifying, but you should know.
8. What do you need from us?
The right answer involves your data, your people and your time. An agency that says they need nothing from you is planning to buy placements, because that is the only version of this work that requires nothing from the client.
What good and bad look like
| Signal | Good | Bad |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Retainer for time, placements itemised separately | Per-link pricing for “PR” |
| Publications | Named before anything is ordered | Tiers and authority bands |
| Guarantees | Process and delivery only | Coverage, rankings, traffic |
| Reporting | Coverage, referring domains, brand search | Reach, impressions, AVE |
| Bad months | Told about them | Never happen |
| Your input | They want your data and your experts | They need nothing from you |
Agency, freelancer or in-house
An agency suits you when you need several things at once — research, pitching, paid placements, monitoring — and want one accountable party. You pay for coordination, and the risk is that the senior person you met is not the person doing the work.
A freelancer or small operator suits you when the main need is pitching and relationships. You get the person you met, and their contacts are real. The limit is capacity, and there is no cover when they are unavailable.
In-house works when someone owns it consistently. The failure is rarely skill — it is that the work stops the first time something urgent appears.
Many companies do best with a small in-house owner plus an outside specialist for campaigns.
What to ask for in the proposal
- Paid and earned work listed separately, with separate prices.
- A named person responsible for pitching.
- The reporting format, with a sample from a real month.
- What happens in a month with no coverage.
- Notice period and what you keep if you leave — media lists, data, assets.
Point five is worth more than it looks. The media list and the research built during the engagement should be yours.
Warning signs when choosing a digital PR agency
Guaranteed coverage in a named publication. Paid, whatever the label.
A deck full of national titles with no trade coverage. Either bought, or contributor bylines described as editorial.
Reporting that leads with reach. If the first number is a constructed one, ask why.
No refusals, ever. Not possible in earned media.
Reluctance to name publications before ordering. The single most reliable signal in this market.
Frequently asked questions
How much should a digital PR agency cost?
Earned work is priced as time, usually a monthly retainer. Paid placements should be itemised per placement. Be cautious about anyone quoting earned coverage per link, because that pricing only makes sense if it is bought.
How long should I commit?
Long enough to run two campaigns and see how they handle a bad month — usually two quarters. Shorter than that and you are judging the onboarding.
What if they deliver no coverage in month one?
Normal, if the first month was spent building the dataset and the list. Not normal by the end of a quarter with a genuinely good story.
Should I hire an agency in my sector?
Sector knowledge helps with pitching and hurts with publisher overlap. Ask who else they work with and decide with that in front of you.
How do I check their case studies?
Open the coverage. Look at the byline, look for a disclosure label, and check whether the link is followed. Two minutes tells you what the case study will not.
How to choose a digital PR agency: the short version
Ask which results were paid for, ask what is guaranteed, and ask to see the publication names before anything is ordered. An agency that answers all three plainly is worth talking to. One that does not has already told you what it sells.
If you want a proposal that separates paid from earned, with real names and full prices, send a brief.
The eight questions above are really one question: can they show you the last ten placements? That is how to choose a digital PR agency without relying on a deck.
For the numbers behind this, see press release SEO. Google’s guidance on creating helpful content is the standard this work is ultimately judged against.
Anyone advising you on how to choose a digital PR agency who will not name publishers is selling you a tier, not a placement.
Put the shortlist through the same brief and the differences appear quickly. That is the cheapest version of how to choose a digital PR agency. Anyone still unsure how to choose a digital PR agency should ask for a single-campaign trial first.
That is really all how to choose a digital PR agency comes down to: evidence over promises.