Hiring An Agency

What to Look For in an Ad Agency (Inc.com) 
Once you've decided that you need an advertising agency, use this checklist as a guideline for selecting the best possible one for your needs and goals.

How to Hire an Agency (BusinessWeek)
Ten guiding principles to consider the next time you're looking for an advertising agency.

How to Select an Ad Agency (Inc.com)
Use this checklist to define what you need from an ad agency.

Seven Steps to Take Before Hiring an Ad Agency (National Federation of Independent Business)
The entire process of contacting and beginning work with an advertising agency can be broken into seven steps.

10 Questions to Ask Before Choosing an Ad Agency (Inc.com)
Ask yourself these 10 questions and choose an ad agency that meets your business's needs.

A Client's Guide to Conducting an Agency Search (AAAA)
In 2006 the American Association of Advertising Agencies published A Marketer's Guide to Best Practices and Processes for Finding a New Agency. This is a synopsis, in outline form, of this publication to help answer frequently asked questions.

From Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy "Then invite the chief executive from each of the leading contenders to bring two of his key men to dine at your house. Loosen their tongues. Find out if they are discreet about the secrets of their present clients. Find out if they have the spine to disagree with you when you say something stupid. Observe their relationship with each other; are they professional colleagues or quarrelsome politicians? Do they promise you results which are obviously exaggerated? Do they sound like extinct volcanoes, or are they alive? Are they good listeners? Are they intellectually honest? Above all, find out if you like them; the relationship between client and agency has to be an intimate one, and it can be hell if the personal chemistry is sour."