An outside referee for the agency you already pay.
AgencyReferee is an independent service that checks the marketing work done for local service businesses, like SEO, Google Ads, the Google Business Profile and tracking, and explains what we find in plain English.
AgencyReferee reviews marketing agency work from the outside for owners of local businesses in the United States. We are not a marketing agency, we don’t sell marketing services, and no agency pays us.
Why we exist
If you run a roofing company, dental practice, HVAC or plumbing business and pay an agency every month, the report you get may be written by the same people you pay. When calls slow down, it’s hard to tell whether the market changed or the work stopped. We give owners a second opinion based on evidence they can check.
What we do
- Free mini-audit: using public information only, we check tracking tags, rankings in real search results and the map box, Business Profile basics, page speed and public ad records, then send a one-page summary.
- Deeper review (waitlist): with read-only access that you grant and can revoke, we compare what you spend with the calls and forms it produced.
- Guides: free, sourced guides so you can check the basics yourself.
How we work
We aren’t an agency
We don’t sell SEO, ads or websites, and we won’t pitch you a replacement agency.
No referral fees
No agency pays us, and we take no commissions for sending you anywhere.
Evidence, not opinion
Every finding names its source and the date it was checked, so you or your agency can verify it.
Fair to your agency
We report what’s working too. Anything we can’t see from outside is clearly labeled as unknown.
Read-only, always
We never ask for passwords or edit access. The deeper review uses view-only access you can remove at any time.
Private by default
Your report goes to you and no one else. We never publish rankings of businesses or agencies.
Editorial standards for our guides
- Each guide answers one question and states the short answer first.
- Factual claims link to official documentation or primary sources, such as Google’s help centers, the FTC or ICANN. We don’t invent statistics, testimonials or case studies.
- Every guide shows the date it was published and last updated.
- Corrections are welcome at james@agencyreferee.com.
Where we are today
AgencyReferee is new and in early access. Audits are prepared by our team and sent by email. The self-serve dashboard shown on our homepage is a preview of where the product is going, not a live product. AgencyReferee is new, so pricing for the deeper review isn’t set yet.
Contact
Email james@agencyreferee.com, or use the inquiry form. A real person reads every message.