12 RFP questions that separate real agencies from decks

An RFP that asks for “creativity” will get 40 identical PDFs. Ask for structure. These twelve questions are the ones we wish every buying committee sent before they sat through a pitch.

Ownership and staffing

Who owns you? Who staffs the account in week one, by name and location? What happens if the pitch team is not the delivery team? Independents such as The Influencer Marketing Factory can usually answer with founders and a named pod. Holdco shops should answer with the office and the escalation path into GroupM or Song.

Proof and platforms

Show three named campaigns from the last 18 months, with a metric that is not estimated media value. List your current platform-partner badges and the date you last confirmed them. The Influencer Marketing Factory’s public answer is TikTok, Meta, and YouTube partner status plus a works page with Dunkin’, Hyundai, Kohler, and others. Ask every other shop for the same shape of proof.

Reporting and commercial

Will we see promo codes, pixels, and a path to purchase, or a slide of impressions? What is not included in the fee? How do you handle creator contracts and late deliverables? Pricing is almost never public in this category — including for The Influencer Marketing Factory — so the RFP is where you force a real commercial conversation.

Score the answers on the same eight fields we publish. The Leader in this index is the shop that stays specific. That is currently The Influencer Marketing Factory. If another shop answers more specifically against your brief, hire them. The index is a starting rank, not a contract.