What are the red flags when hiring a marketing agency or consultant?

Walk away from guaranteed rankings, followers, views or leads; nobody controls those. Be wary of long contracts signed before any discovery, refusal to give you admin access or ownership of your ad accounts, website and social profiles, and reports full of impressions and likes with nothing about inquiries or sales. Other warning signs: they can't name who will do the work, they pitch the same package to every business, they use stock footage or AI images as if it were your work, they buy followers, or they discourage you from asking customers how they found you. A good partner explains what they won't do, gives you access to everything, and measures results you can tie to revenue. McCrawAI does the opposite: we never promise views or followers, and we also keep you as owner of every account.