15 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a TikTok Media Agency

The TikTok environment in 2025 is more commercial, more complex, and more competitive than ever before. For businesses seeking to have their voices heard in this high-speed environment, bringing on a TikTok media agency can be the distinction between falling into the background noise—or breaking out, driving sales, and building lasting community capital.
But not all agencies are created equal. Sure, most say they "do TikTok" but not many possess the in-depth platform knowledge, creator partnerships, or performance capabilities to drive scrolls into sales. Selecting the right partner requires more than a quick glance at a trendy site or viewing a viral case study. It requires asking smart, strategic, and sometimes probing questions upfront in order to achieve alignment, accountability, and ROI.
Below are 15 questions that every brand must ask before hiring a TikTok media agency in 2025.
They are structured and loaded with context so that you can decide whether an agency is right for your objectives.

Choosing a TikTok Media Agency Is an Investment for the Long-Term

• TikTok is no longer a test afterthought or marketing playground. It's a central growth platform for fashion, retail, beauty, technology, and lifestyle brands. With in-app purchasing via TikTok Shop, Spark Ads integration, and affiliate ecosystem, the app now supports full-funnel commerce, from discovery to checkout.
• This transformation necessitates your TikTok media agency to do more than simply serve as a content source—but as a strategic growth partner. Someone that can span creative and business outcomes, maximize creators for awareness and conversions, and adjust to the near-daily refreshes of TikTok.
• The wrong agency will waste time and ad money. But the right one will rocket your brand visibility to stratosphere heights, generate actual sales, and build lasting viral traction. The secret? Ask the right questions first—beginning with the agency's history.

Agency Background

1. How many years have you specialized in TikTok marketing?

• Don't ask how long the agency has been around—ask when they started specializing in TikTok. TikTok-native agencies that have processes and staff designed expressly for the platform will always crush generalist shops that added TikTok to their menu last year.
• Seek out signs that the agency was an early mover on TikTok—did they make the transition to the platform in 2020–2021, or are they only responding now? The longer the tenure, the more sophisticated their algorithm knowledge, ad optimization platform, and creator network likely is.

2. Are you a certified TikTok partner?

• TikTok now boasts official partner credentials in ad management, commerce solutions, and creator marketing categories. Ask the agency if they are a TikTok Marketing Partner, Creative Partner, or Commerce Partner—these designations equal credibility and direct access to platform reps.
• While optional, certification can be used to demonstrate that the agency possesses a good track record and is a reputable name in the eyes of TikTok.

Strategy & Execution

3. What is your campaign planning process on TikTok?

• Every successful TikTok strategy begins with insights. Ask the agency to walk you through their end-to-end planning process—trend discovery, creative briefing, content creation, paid plan, and reporting.
• Look for evidence of structure. Do they rely on weekly trend reports? Do they build campaign calendars around tentpole events, season triggers, or competitor benchmarks? Agencies lacking a replicable system are more likely to resort to guesswork.

4. How do you research TikTok trends?

• Trend tracking is the key to TikTok growth. A decent agency doesn't scroll the app blindly—they leverage real-time trend tracking tools, creator insights, and hashtag speed metrics to stay one step ahead.
• Ask them what tools they employ (Trendpop, Pentos, TikTok Creative Center, etc.) and whether they have an in-house team or infrastructure for scanning for daily trends. They who do have in-house trend teams will be more likely to produce on-time, topical content that resonates.

Influencer Marketing

5. Do you have TikTok Shop influencer marketing?

• With the addition of TikTok Shop in the user interface, influencer commerce is going mainstream. Ask if the agency will introduce you to TikTok Shop creators who have pre-existing sales through live streams, pinned links, or affiliate codes.
• This is imperative if you are going to sell directly through TikTok Shop. Both content and affiliate configuration for influencer collaborations which are conversion-driven should be handled by a trained agency.

6. Do you have content creators verified?

• Don't settle for "We know influencers." You want an agency that has a pre-verified list of TikTok influencers, ideally organized by niche, engagement frequency, location, and sales history.
• Ask them how they find and qualify creators, how they deal with contracts, and how they measure past campaign performance. Top agencies will have exclusive access to creators and established connections—especially for TikTok Shop influencer marketing.

Ad Targeting & Management

7. Does it provide Spark Ads and targeted TikTok ads?

• Spark Ads enable you to scale organic creator posts as paid ads—a performance ad game-changer on TikTok. Verify whether the agency has experience with scaling Spark Ads, like creator permission workflows, logistics of boosting, and optimization.
• Also ask about native ad formats like Top View, In-Feed, or Collection Ads and how they leverage native ad formats to customize creative at ad placement. The top TikTok Ads Agencies will have a full-funnel ad plan in place, not a media budget and a loose plan.

8. How do you segment and target audiences?

• TikTok targeting matured very quickly. The agency must be able to create custom audiences, lookalike audiences, and pixel-based remarketing lists. If they are still only targeting broad or demographic buckets, that is a bad sign.
• Ask them how they build funnel steps—awareness, retargeting, conversion—and if they're using TikTok Pixel and server-side events to track customer journeys.

Reporting & Results

9. What KPIs do you track?

• Vanity metrics are easily manipulable. Instead, request performance-driven KPIs such as ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), CTR, CPA (Cost Per Action), and Shop conversions on TikTok.
• For influencer marketing, check if they're monitoring engagement rate, link clicks, average watch time, and affiliate sales. Only monitoring views or followers' numbers isn't on the same level as serious growth.

10. Can you give me past campaign performances for comparable brands?

• Request past clients in your industry or at your same price point to provide confidential reports or case studies. A quality agency will be willing to show you real results—not viral TikToks, but real business results.
• Look for commonalities: Did the campaigns drive sales? Lower acquisition cost? Drive substantial brand lift? Bonus points if they've run TikTok Shop activations that have led to product sellouts or affiliate revenue increase.

Budget & Flexibility

11. What is your minimum ad spend?

• Each agency has varying budget limits, particularly for ad management. Some would only take brands with a $20K monthly spend on TikTok Ads; there are also some who provide modular services or flexible packages for startups.
• Set the minimum spend—and ensure the spend is aligned with your objectives. You would not want to tie yourself up with an agency whose business model is based on a level of spend that you cannot afford.

12. How flexible are your service packages?

• The best agencies offer scalable, modular solutions. Maybe you want to start with organic content and try ads later. Maybe you want to do influencer activations but not a complete media plan.
• Inquire as to whether the agency can adapt their service to your level of growth at the moment—and whether they offer month-to-month testing or only retainers in perpetuity.

Tools & Tech

13. Are you employing TikTok Pixel, Events API, or analytics tools?

• TikTok is data performance-driven. Inquire about what tracking infrastructure the agency uses—TikTok Pixel, Advanced Matching, server-side events via Events API, etc.
• Also ask about their analytics stack: Do they use third-party tools like Dash Hudson, Triple Whale, or Northbeam? Are they at ease with TikTok Ads Manager reporting? Agencies with an undefined data backbone can't maximize campaigns.

14. How does your reporting dashboard stack up?

• Request to view a sample reporting dashboard. How frequently is it updated, weekly or monthly? Can campaign performance be viewed in real-time? Can you view metrics segmented easily by content type, creator, and spend?
• Excellent agencies will provide you with clear, live dashboards and weekly reports with actionable advice—not email blurbs or spreadsheets.

15. Do you offer post-campaign audits or recommendations?

• Once a campaign is closed, will the agency provide a debrief with takeaways and future steps? Or do they just report numbers and call it a day?
• Well-performing TikTok ad agencies run each campaign as a cycle of learning. They should review what performed, what didn't, and how to do better on the next wave—be it a better hook, shorter creator brief, or refined targeting strategy.

Hire a TikTok Media Agency that best fits your growth needs

Finding the ideal TikTok media agency is less about creativity and sick clips—it's more about working with a partner who understands how to power performance through platform-native strategies, creator collaborations, and data-fueled execution.
Whether you're doing TikTok Shop influencer marketing, scaling with paid media with a TikTok Ads agency, or experimenting with organic storytelling to grow community—these 15 questions will show you who's actually capable of helping you scale.

Ready to scale with a top-performing TikTok media agency?

Collaborate with The Short Media—a forward-thinking TikTok-first agency accelerating growth in the UK, UAE, and internationally with trend-led content, TikTok Shop strategy, and full-funnel ads.