Hiring a paid-media agency for fashion, beauty or interiors
The questions that reveal category expertise, commercial discipline and responsible AI use before you appoint an agency.
Short answer
Choose a partner that can explain your category's economics and buying journey, not simply its automation stack. Ask about returns, replenishment, feed complexity, creative testing and attribution. Verify who will work on the account and how that team turns commercial context into accountable budget decisions.
Key takeaways
- Relevant category experience should be demonstrable.
- Ask how the assigned team handles commercial exceptions.
- AI capability matters most when it improves judgement and execution.
Look for understanding of the category
Fashion requires attention to fit, stock coverage and return leakage. Beauty adds claims discipline, sampling and replenishment. Interiors introduces longer consideration, samples and delivery economics. A credible partner can describe how these factors change its work.
Neither a specialist label nor an AI dashboard proves capability. Ask for relevant operating examples and the reasoning behind the decisions.
Ask questions that reveal the process
The proposal should explain measurement, staffing and the way commercial information enters campaign management.
- How do you measure success beyond platform ROAS?
- How do you test retargeting incrementality in this category?
- How do returns, contribution and repeat purchase affect targets?
- Who works on the account, and what relevant experience do they have?
- Where is AI used, and what requires human review?
- When have you overruled a platform recommendation, and why?
Choose an accountable partnership
Look for clear ownership, an appropriate workload and evidence of structured learning. The strongest use of AI reduces routine effort while preserving the commercial relationship with the brand. The outcome to buy is better acquisition decisions, not a promise that the work will run itself.
FAQ
What should a category-specialist agency demonstrate before appointment?
It should explain the buying journey, relevant unit economics and practical account decisions. Verify the assigned team's experience and ask how its process adapts to your actual data, stock and constraints rather than relying on a standard playbook.
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