How to Choose a Social Media Agency: 12 Checks

Look for evidence you can check, not claims you have to trust: partner badges confirmed in official directories, case studies backed by dated platform data, a named person running your account, and no bought followers. Then check the contract: you own the accounts and content, music is licensed for business use, customer data is protected, and AI use is disclosed.

Most checklists on this topic are written by agencies, and most of them cite US rules that do not apply in Australia or Singapore. This one is built from what platforms, regulators and review sites actually publish. We are an agency ourselves, so read it knowing that, and hold us to the same twelve checks.

A companion piece covers whether you need a social media agency or a digital marketing agency in the first place. This one assumes you have decided on social and are about to shortlist.

How to choose a social media agency: 12 checks before you sign

Each check below comes with what it proves, what it does not, and where the evidence comes from. You do not need all twelve to pass perfectly. You do need to know which ones failed, and why.

1. Confirm partner badges in the official directory

Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn and Google all run partner programs with public directories. A badge on an agency's website means little until you find the agency in that directory yourself.

Google publishes its requirements in full. A Google Partner must keep a 90-day spend of at least USD 10,000 across managed accounts, an optimisation score of 70% or more, and at least half of its account strategists certified in Google Ads. Premier Partners are the top 3% of participating companies in each country, assessed annually. Meta, by contrast, does not publish a single fixed threshold for its Business Partner badge, and requirements are reviewed over time.

What a badge proves: the agency met the platform's spend, certification and policy criteria. What it does not prove: that the agency is good at creative, community management or results for a business like yours.

2. Ask who holds the certifications, and who will run your account

Meta Blueprint certifications belong to individuals, not agencies, and they expire. The entry-level Digital Marketing Associate credential, for example, is valid for 24 months. If the certified people leave, the agency's credentials leave with them.

So ask for the name of the person who will manage your account day to day, their role, and which of the agency's credentials they personally hold. The strongest answer is a name, not a department.

3. Verify case studies with dated platform data

A polished case study deck is a sales document. Ask for native analytics screenshots or exports with visible dates and account names, the brief the agency started with, and what the numbers were before it began. Then ask to speak with the client in that case study.

For paid work, you can also check what an agency's clients are running today in Meta's public Ad Library. It will not show results, but it shows whether the creative matches what the agency presented.

4. Read reviews knowing how they were checked

Review platforms verify differently. Clutch, for instance, requires reviewers to sign in with LinkedIn, Google or a company email, checks identity and work history, and publishes reviews it cannot confirm with a "Not Verified" label. Those unverified reviews do not count towards an agency's ranking. Know which kind you are reading.

Fake reviews are also a legal problem, not just an ethical one. In an internet sweep, the ACCC found 37% of 137 Australian businesses reviewed had engaged in concerning conduct around online reviews. In 2018, the Federal Court ordered Meriton to pay AUD 3 million for manipulating TripAdvisor reviews. In Singapore, the CCCS found on 21 June 2024 that a furniture retailer had posted fake five-star reviews using real customers' initials and home photos, and secured undertakings to stop. An agency willing to fake its own reviews will be willing to fake yours.

5. Make sure nobody is buying followers or engagement

Meta's policy on inauthentic behaviour and TikTok's integrity and authenticity rules both prohibit fake accounts and artificially inflated popularity. Accounts caught doing it can be restricted or removed. That risk falls on your brand, not the agency.

Estimates of how widespread fake followers are vary enormously between vendors, and many widely repeated figures cannot be traced to a published method. So rather than trusting a statistic, check directly: look for sudden follower spikes with no matching content, audiences concentrated in countries you do not sell to, and comment sections full of generic one-word replies. Ask the agency how it vets any creator it proposes.

6. Judge performance against the right benchmark

Engagement benchmarks disagree because they measure different things. Quid's 2026 benchmark (formerly Rival IQ) put the median brand engagement rate on TikTok at 2.01% and on Instagram at 0.30%, measured by followers across a fixed set of companies per industry. Socialinsider reported TikTok at 2.70% and Instagram at 0.45% for the first half of 2026, using its own sample. Neither is wrong. They are not the same measurement.

We found no published engagement benchmark specific to Australia or Singapore. So when an agency tells you your rate is "below industry average", ask which benchmark, which formula, and whether the sample looks anything like your account.

7. Agree what gets reported before any work starts

Reach, impressions and follower counts are easy to grow and easy to report. Decide at the start which outcomes matter to you, such as enquiries, sales or qualified traffic, how engagement will be calculated, and which system is the source of truth for results. Put it in the scope of work.

8. Keep ownership of your accounts, and lock them down

Your business should own its Meta Business portfolio, pages and ad accounts, and give the agency access that you can remove. The companion article explains the Google Ads ownership rules in detail.

Security matters just as much. Australia's cyber security agency, ASD's ACSC, recommends multi-factor authentication and careful access management for business social media accounts. In Singapore, CSA's Cyber Essentials mark certifies baseline cyber hygiene for smaller organisations, and an agency holding it has at least been through that assessment. Ask how the agency controls logins, who has admin rights, and how access is removed when staff leave.

9. Test how they handle comments, complaints and crises

We found no industry standard in Australia or Singapore that sets response times for community management. That makes it something to agree, not assume. Ask how quickly comments and messages are answered, who covers evenings and weekends, how a complaint is escalated, and who decides when to pause posts during a crisis.

On brand safety for paid placements, note that the industry body GARM was discontinued by the World Federation of Advertisers in August 2024. Its brand safety framework is still referenced in verification tools, but an agency that cites "GARM certification" as current is behind.

10. Check music and content rights

This one catches many brands out. On TikTok, business accounts are limited to the Commercial Music Library, because the wider trending library is licensed for personal use only. Meta's Sound Collection is cleared for commercial use on Facebook and Instagram, but that licence does not carry over to other platforms or your website.

Ask where the agency sources music, who owns the content it produces once you have paid for it, and how long you can use creator content, including in paid ads. Get the answers in the contract.

11. Find out how they will handle your customer data

When an agency handles your customer lists, audiences or enquiries, you usually remain responsible for that data. In Australia, the Privacy Act's principles on use and disclosure (APP 6), cross-border disclosure (APP 8) and security (APP 11) still apply to your business when a supplier holds data on your behalf. A statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy has applied since 10 June 2025, and new transparency rules on automated decision-making start on 10 December 2026.

In Singapore, an agency processing personal data for you is a data intermediary under the PDPA, with its own obligations to protect and not over-retain that data. Your organisation still remains accountable for consent and purpose. Ask where data is stored, who can access it, and what happens to it when the contract ends.

12. Ask how they use AI, and whether they label it

Most agencies now use AI tools somewhere in their process. The platforms have their own rules. Meta labels AI-generated or AI-edited content with "AI info" and gives advertisers disclosure controls. TikTok requires creators to label realistic AI-generated content. YouTube requires disclosure of realistic altered or synthetic content.

Ask which parts of the work use AI, how the agency checks accuracy, how it meets each platform's labelling rules, and who owns AI-assisted content. A clear, specific answer is a good sign. A dismissive one is not.

What AI assistants cite when asked this question

We track how AI engines answer a set of prompts using Promptwatch, an AI visibility platform we hold a paid licence for. One of them is this exact question: "What should I look for when choosing a social media agency to enhance my brand's online presence?"

Between 10 and 18 September 2026, answers from Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode carried 283 citations to 71 domains. By our classification, about two thirds pointed to agencies' own "how to choose an agency" guides. The only regulator cited was the US Federal Trade Commission, with 24 citations. Not one citation went to an Australian or Singaporean regulator, even though the rules on reviews, endorsements and data that matter to buyers in those markets come from the ACCC, the CCCS, the OAIC and the PDPC. Our own site was not cited. The data covers one prompt over nine days with a tracking persona based in Indonesia.

The 12 checks at a glance

Check	Green flag	Red flag
1. Partner badges	Listed in the official directory	Badge on the website only
2. Certified people	Named account lead with current credentials	"The team" with no names
3. Case studies	Dated platform data and a reference call	Deck only, no client contact
4. Reviews	Verified reviews on independent platforms	Testimonials you cannot trace
5. Audience quality	Explains how it vets creators and growth	Guaranteed follower numbers
6. Benchmarks	Names the source and formula	"Industry average" with no source
7. Reporting	Outcomes agreed in the scope of work	Reach and followers only
8. Ownership and security	You own the accounts; MFA on every admin	Agency owns the assets or shares logins
9. Community and crisis	Written response times and escalation path	"We monitor everything" with no detail
10. Music and content rights	Licensed audio; IP assigned to you on payment	Trending tracks on business posts
11. Customer data	Clear storage, access and deletion terms	Cannot say where data is kept
12. AI use	Explains where AI is used and how it is labelled	Dismisses the question

When this checklist does not apply

Hiring a freelancer. Several checks, such as partner badges and crisis cover, assume an agency. A freelancer can be excellent without any of them. Focus on checks 3, 5, 8, 10 and 11.

Organic posting only, no ad spend. Badges tied to managed ad spend tell you little about an agency that only does content and community.

Regulated industries. Financial services, health and products for children carry extra advertising rules in both countries. Check sector guidance on top of this list.

The limits of this article. We found no Australian or Singaporean engagement benchmark, no industry standard for response times, and no fixed published threshold for Meta's partner badge. Fraud statistics in this space are often vendor estimates with undisclosed methods, which is why we did not quote one. Rules change, so check the regulator pages linked below before relying on any detail.

Putting it together

You will rarely find an agency that passes all twelve checks perfectly. What matters is that it answers each one clearly and in writing. The ones that do tend to be the ones worth hiring.

We run social media programs at Arfadia for clients across Asia Pacific. If you want to test us against this list, our social media management page sets out how we scope the work, and our portfolio is where to start asking questions.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What should I look for when choosing a social media agency?

Look for evidence you can verify: partner badges confirmed in official directories, case studies with dated platform data, a named account lead, and no bought followers. Then check the contract covers account ownership, licensed music, content rights, customer data protection and disclosure of AI use.

Is a Meta Business Partner badge a sign of quality?

It is a useful filter, not a quality rating. It shows an agency met Meta's criteria for ad activity, certification and policy compliance. It does not prove good creative, community management or results for your business, and the certified staff may not work on your account.

What does a Google Partner badge require?

Google requires a 90-day spend of at least USD 10,000 across managed accounts, an optimisation score of at least 70%, and at least half of account strategists certified in Google Ads. Premier Partners are the top 3% of participating companies in each country, reviewed annually.

What if the agency buys followers?

Buying followers or engagement breaches Meta's inauthentic behaviour policy and TikTok's integrity rules, and your accounts can be restricted or removed. Watch for sudden follower spikes, audiences in countries you do not sell to, and generic comments, and ask how the agency vets creators.

Who owns the content after the contract ends?

Whoever the contract says. Ask for intellectual property in paid-for content to be assigned to your business, and agree how long you can use creator content, including in ads. Your business should also own its social accounts and ad accounts.

Can a social media agency use trending music on my business posts?

Generally no. TikTok business accounts are limited to the Commercial Music Library because trending tracks are licensed for personal use. Meta's Sound Collection is cleared for commercial use on Facebook and Instagram only.

What is a good social media engagement rate?

It depends on the platform, the formula and the sample. Quid's 2026 benchmark put median brand engagement at 2.01% on TikTok and 0.30% on Instagram, while Socialinsider reported 2.70% and 0.45% for the first half of 2026. No Australian or Singaporean benchmark has been published.

Are fake reviews illegal in Australia and Singapore?

Yes. Fake or misleading reviews can breach the Australian Consumer Law, and the Federal Court ordered Meriton to pay AUD 3 million over manipulated reviews. In Singapore, fake reviews are an unfair practice under the CPFTA, and the CCCS acted against a retailer for them in June 2024.

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