Hiring an SEO or AEO consultant, a Google Ads agency, or an AI marketing firm can require a “leap of faith.” You’re paying someone to do something that, almost by definition, you don’t know how to do yourself. If you already understood search engine optimizationm, AEO (Answer Agent Optimization), or AI optimization as well as the consultant or ads agency, you probably wouldn’t need to hire one in the first place. That creates an uncomfortable imbalance. The agency knows more than you do. You have to trust them. But how much trust is healthy, and when does trust become blind faith? More than four hundred years ago, the French philosopher René Descartes asked a remarkably similar question—not about marketing, of course, but about knowledge itself. How do we know what is true? More importantly, how do we protect ourselves from being deceived?
His answer is surprisingly useful for anyone hiring a marketing agency today. Welcome to “Marketing Philosophy.” I’m your host, Jason McDonald. Here is where we use philosophy to understand marketing, and marketing to ask why and when we should trust our gut vis-a-vis our SEO agency, our Google Ads experts, or – God forbid – our Meta ads specialists, including the folks who work at Meta, Google, or GoDaddy for that matter. Let’s dive in.
Why We Prefer Trust to Skepticism
Most business relationships begin with optimism. We like working with people we enjoy. We appreciate the friendly account manager who remembers our name, responds quickly to emails, and reassures us that everything is moving in the right direction. As the philosopher Taylor Swift asks, “Don’t we try to love, love?” What Taylor is saying is we tend to believe what we want to believe, and a lot of that is believing that other people have our best interests at heart. Spoiler alert for at least half of Swift’s songs: they do not. Hashtag surprise. Hashtag White Horse.
Our preference to trust people (agencies, consultants…), however, comes with a hidden cost.
Once we begin to like someone, it becomes harder to ask uncomfortable questions. We don’t want to sound distrustful. We don’t want to imply that the expert doesn’t know what they’re doing. We certainly don’t want to admit that we don’t fully understand the technical details ourselves. Especially in today’s Gen Z and Millennial culture, we want to at least appear “nice.”
Without realizing it, we stop evaluating the work and start evaluating the relationship. A pleasant conversation begins to substitute for evidence. Being nice might come to substitute for real results.
- Mistake #1 – confusing “being nice” with getting real metrics from your agency.
Descartes’ Lesson About Deception
Descartes, however, thought differently. He approached deception through one of the most famous thought experiments in philosophy. He imagined an “evil demon” whose sole purpose was to deceive him about everything he believed. The demon wasn’t meant to be taken literally. It was a way of asking a deeper question: if someone—or something—were trying to fool me, what could I actually know with confidence?
That’s a good question to ask or pre-ask of your SEO or AEO company, your ad agency. How should you choose one, how should you trust one, and how to you “trust but verify” in the words of philosopher President Ronal Reagon?
Descartes’ response wasn’t cynicism or paranoia. It was disciplined skepticism.
Instead of accepting claims because they sounded reasonable, Descartes trained himself to ask a simple but powerful question:
How do I know this is true?
That question lies at the heart of good decision-making, whether you’re evaluating philosophy or hiring an SEO agency. So, take out a piece of paper, and ask yourself these sorts of questions –
- What is the end result I want out of this campaign / relationship? Is it “branding” (views, impressions, buzz) or is it “results” (sales leads or sales?). Those are the two big targets in digital marketing… Maybe a third is “viral buzz” or “word of mouth” – getting people to talk about your brand… Identify the end results.
- What are the intermediate results I need to get towards success? In SEO / AEO this is easy – your company needs to surface at or near the top of an SEO / AEO query. If they Google best barber in Bixby, Oklahoma – do you rank? Do you look good? Or, if its social media – its about engagement – likes, comments, shares. Take a look at Facebook and a brand, for instance – REI. Check out their posts for engagement. On the back end, does it lead to website / e-commerce store landings? Purchases?
Now you know the results, so shift towards the process or workflow. What steps are being taken that lead to the intermediate results and ultimately the final results? These could be –
- Link-building. Building and measuring inbound links for better SEO performance.
- Google review strategy. Figuring out how to ask for, and get, better and more reviews on Google.
- Ad creative. Building and testing engaging ads on Facebook or Instagram. Do people like puppies? Or children? Or children with puppies?
- Content. Are you blogging? Building new pages? Creating informative YouTube scripts that ultimately become good videos?
A good SEO or ads agency will not only help you measure end results or intermediate results, but also be transparent about what work is being done that leads towards those results. Many give itemized invoices. Some just charge monthly retainers. But even a monthly retainer should be connected to some “proof of work.” What was done? What do you have that shows it?
You must be skeptical. But also look for real metrics. And, yes be patient, Rome was not built in a day, nor was a good Google Ads campaign or SEO strategy. (Or AEO strategy!)
Remember, here’s what you want, working backwards:
- sale / sales lead > inquiry (via website, phone call, chat, text message or e-commerce purchase ) > landing page experience > click from Google (organic = SEO, ads = reg. Google Ads, LSAs, shopping ad etc).
Each creates a measurable KPI such as “rank on Google” or “conversions on the landing page”. Hold your agency accountable – is what they are doing working, or at least leading towards working? How would you know? What would the KPIs / metrics actually be.
- HAVE A CONVERSATION ON METRICS and DELIVERABLES (WORKFLOW)
But uncertainty is not an excuse to stop asking questions. Asking for reports. Asking for fact-based accountability with some reasonable lee-way for “it takes time.” Asking for clear metrics that show “progress” towards your ultimate goals – sales / sales leads.
A smart marketer wants to understand what work is being done, why particular strategies were chosen, how progress is being evaluated, and under what circumstances the plan might need to change. Those aren’t hostile questions. They are the questions of someone who remains engaged in their own business. You should work WITH your agency as a team, and that means communication and coordination.
In fact, the best agencies usually welcome good metrics. Professionals who are confident in their work rarely object to explaining their reasoning. They know that transparency builds trust far more effectively than vague promises or marketing jargon ever could.
Another litmus test – if your SEO or Google Ads agency gets weird when you ask questions about facts or timelines, or is super vague, or is hesitant to give references or show previous work – BE AFRAID BE VERY AFRAID. Be afraid of any agency that puts friendship ahead of metrics, or gets angry when you ask questions. Sometimes you have to agree to disagree…
Don’t Outsource Your Judgment
The greatest mistake a business owner can make is not hiring the wrong marketing agency. Mistakes happen. Campaigns fail. Markets change.
The greater mistake is outsourcing your judgment.
You can delegate the work, but you should never delegate your curiosity. You have to “trust but verify” in the words of Ronald Reagon. You don’t have to become an SEO expert, a Google Ads specialist, or an authority on AI optimization. You simply need to remain willing to ask, politely but persistently, “Help me understand.”
That’s the habit Descartes was trying to cultivate. Skepticism isn’t about assuming everyone is dishonest. It’s about refusing to surrender your capacity to think critically simply because someone else claims to be the expert. Descartes was not an empiricist, like Bacon, but I bet he would also promote testing against facts.
In an age of AI, marketing automation, and increasingly complex digital strategies, that lesson may be more valuable than ever. A trustworthy agency doesn’t ask for blind faith. It earns confidence by welcoming scrutiny, explaining its decisions, and treating informed questions as part of a healthy partnership.
In the end, perhaps the most important marketing question isn’t, “Will this strategy work?” It’s the simpler—and more philosophical—question that Descartes asked centuries ago:
- How do I know this is true?
Healthy Skepticism Builds Better Relationships
Healthy skepticism is the habit Descartes was trying to cultivate. Skepticism isn’t about assuming everyone is dishonest. It’s about refusing to surrender your capacity to think critically simply because someone else claims to be the expert.
In an age of AI, marketing automation, and increasingly complex digital strategies, that lesson may be more valuable than ever. A trustworthy agency doesn’t ask for blind faith. It earns confidence by welcoming scrutiny, explaining its decisions, and treating informed questions as part of a healthy partnership.
In the end, perhaps the most important marketing question isn’t, “Will this strategy work?” It’s the simpler—and more philosophical—question that Descartes asked centuries ago: how do I know what I (think) I know. And yes we made it through the whole video without asking, “I think, therefore I am – or am I?”
This has been “Marketing Philosophy” with Jason McDonald. Thank you for watching.
