Most business owners choose a social media agency on the wrong criterion. They look at the portfolio, the price, and who sounds nicest on the phone. None of that predicts the outcome. An agency that sells you smiles will deliver smiles. An agency that shows you numbers will deliver numbers. What follows goes against most of the advice you have read so far: six weak criteria, swapped for six filters that kill 80% of the offers before the first call. All prices below exclude VAT.
A beautiful portfolio proves one thing: the agency knows how to pick its best frames out of work it did for someone else. It does not mean you get the same result. The useful question is not how the posts look. It is what happened after they went live. Ask for three numbers on their last three clients: monthly follower growth, engagement rate, and new customers they can trace back to social. If the answer turns vague, or slides into "it depends on the industry", you already have your answer.
An offer like "five posts a month, 160 EUR" is lost before it starts. You get image files, you upload them yourself, you forget to reply to comments, and the page looks abandoned. A real agency runs seven jobs at once: strategy, calendar, production, copywriting, scheduling, replies to messages, and a monthly report with numbers you can trace. If an offer covers one or two of those seven, it is not an agency. It is a supplier handing the problem back to you. And cheap stops being cheap the moment the page goes quiet.
In 2026 the question "do you use AI?" has exactly one good answer: "yes, for production and iteration, never for strategy and ideas". An agency that denies using AI at all is either uninformed or protecting old rates. An agency that runs everything through AI, from brief to caption, ships content you cannot tell apart from your competitors'. The filter is simple: ask to see three posts made for the same client last month. If they look interchangeable, AI is driving. If they look distinct, AI is serving.
A low price is not a sign of efficiency. It is a sign of too many clients handled too fast, or of templates a machine fills in. Realistic 2026 benchmarks, excluding VAT: a post from 8 EUR, a carousel from 13 EUR, a short video from 50 EUR, full monthly management from 50 EUR. An offer of 100 EUR a month for "full management" hides one of two things: either the agency works at a loss until it walks away, or nobody reads the content before it goes out. Either way you pay twice. The second time is when you replace the supplier after six months of nothing.
Three days to answer a prospect means three weeks to answer a client. It holds in every service business, every time. The test is free: message them on WhatsApp on a Sunday evening, not a Monday morning. A reply the same day means somebody there thinks about the business when you think about the business. A reply on Monday at lunch means you are fifth in a queue where everybody has the same priority.
An agency that only shows work from other industries is hoping you will do the translation yourself. Do not. Ask for the exact thing: three clients in your niche, and the numbers they moved. A medical practice plays by different rules from an online store. A lawyer from a coach. A restaurant from a SaaS. An agency that ignores the difference runs one template over everyone, and nothing moves. If they have nothing from your niche, ask whether they would take you on as the first client at a reduced rate, portfolio work in exchange for the exposure. The answer tells you whether they are selling you an experiment or a service that already works.
At i-vory Studio we use AI for production, not for thinking. In practice: posts from 8 EUR excluding VAT, at least one post a day, and a human who reads every piece before it goes out. We do not sell "management at 100 EUR a month" because we know what the work actually costs. We do not take a client in a niche where we do not already have at least two others with numbers to show. We do not promise followers in the first month, because that number does not predict customers. We promise frequency, consistency and weekly measurement. If we are a fit, the first thirty days look exactly like what we discussed. If we are not, you walk away with nothing hidden in the bill.
If you want to check the claims: our portfolio, with real numbers on every case. If you want to talk: WhatsApp, a first 30-minute call with no strings, and a written report with recommendations within 48 hours.
Three new criteria. Your call.
A first 30-minute conversation, no strings, written report within 48 hours.
Message us on WhatsApp →Look at what kind of content they actually make, not just at pretty pictures. Ask who they worked for and what results came out of it. If they cannot answer with numbers or concrete examples, that is your answer.
Strategy, editorial calendar, copywriting, scheduling, replies to comments and a monthly report. If all you get is a folder of images to post yourself, you do not have an agency, you have a freelance designer.
A serious agency uses AI in production as a tool, not as a replacement for thinking. If all of their content looks the same, they are probably letting AI run unsupervised.
8 EUR for a post and 50 EUR a month for a management package are real numbers. If someone asks 2,000 EUR for 15 posts, ask why. If someone asks 100 EUR for full management, ask yourself how.
If an agency takes 3 days to answer a message from a prospect, it will take just as long when you have an emergency. Test it before you sign: message them on WhatsApp and time the reply.
Every industry has its own rules. If you run a law practice, ask whether they have worked with professional services before. If you run an e-commerce store, ask whether they know how to make content that sells, not just content that looks good.
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