Don't let them dazzle you with a slide deck. Grill them. You are hiring a partner, not a fan.
1. "How do you handle the boring stuff, like GDPR and WCAG compliance?"
The Why: If they glaze over, they are a liability. Legal compliance isn't optional; it's survival.
2. "Tell me about a campaign that crashed and burned. Why did it fail?"
The Why: Everyone fails. Liars pretend they don't. You want the guy who learned from the wreck, not the one who hid it.
3. "Who is actually touching my account? The senior strategist or the intern?"
The Why: The pitch team is rarely the work team. Demand to meet the pilot, not just the ticket agent.
4. "How do you define app marketing strategies when the budget is tight?"
The Why: Anyone can grow with millions. Can they grow with pennies? That’s where the skill is.
5. "What is your retention rate for clients over the last two years?"
The Why: Happy clients stay. If they churn through customers, they’ll churn through you.
6. "Do you do creative in-house, or do you farm it out?"
The Why: Speed kills. If they have to email a freelancer in a different time zone to change a banner, you lose.
7. "How do you stay ahead of app marketing trends that change weekly?"
The Why: The platform you love today might be dead tomorrow. Are they watching the horizon?
8. "Show me an anonymized report. I want to see the data, not the fluff."
The Why: Transparency is the only metric that matters in a relationship.
9. "What is your approach to fraud detection?"
The Why: The bots are out there. If they aren't hunting them, you are paying them.
10. "How do you integrate the role of app marketing companies with my product team?"
The Why: Marketing can't fix a bad product. They need to be in the kitchen with the chefs.