Should you sign a 6 or 12 month contract with a marketing agency?
You've probably heard it on a sales call. "Results take time, so we ask for a six month commitment." Sometimes twelve.
That sounds reasonable. Growing a business does take time. But a minimum also does something else: it protects the agency if the work doesn't land. And plenty of owners have learned that the hard way.
In a 2025 survey of 500 small businesses by vcita, 40% of the ones that outsourced their marketing ended up switching or dropping their agency. More than half of those breakups, 56%, happened six to twelve months in. Right about when a lot of minimums run out.
What a minimum really means
Terms.Law, a free legal tools site, says six to twelve month minimums are standard in marketing agency contracts. It also warns that leaving early can trigger payment for the remaining months or a real cancellation fee.
So a six month minimum isn't a promise of results. It's a promise of payments. Those are two very different things.
A minimum isn't automatically a red flag. Some work really does take a while to show up, like ranking in a new town. But you should know what you're paying for before you're locked in.
Ask these before you sign
- How long is the minimum, and what does it cost to leave early? Get the number in writing.
- Does it renew on its own? Read the renewal language, because some contracts roll over unless you cancel in time.
- What will I see in month one? Not "results." Actual work you can point at.
- What exactly is guaranteed? Terms.Law notes that rankings and returns are almost never guaranteed, whatever the sales call sounded like.
- Is ad spend included, or billed on top of the fee?
- Are my accounts in my name? If you leave, your Google profile, ad accounts and website should leave with you.
The month one test
Here's the simplest way to judge any agency: what can they show you after 30 days?
There's a lot that should be done in the first month. The website brought up to standard. The Google Business Profile complete and active. Spam calls screened out and every real call answered. Reviews answered. None of that takes six months, and all of it starts paying off the day it's done.
If an agency can't name what you'll see in month one, a long contract is doing their job for them.
Why we're month to month
At Momentum we don't ask for a minimum. There's a one time setup fee for the foundation, then one monthly fee, month to month. We're not afraid to earn it every month, because a business owner's peace of mind is worth more to us than a contract.
If you're still deciding what kind of help you even need, start with marketing agency or growth agency? What to ask before you hire anyone.
And if you want to know where your business is leaking before you talk to anyone, our free Growth Ladder assessment takes about four minutes.
