By Steve Merrill · August 16, 2026
How do you actually choose between two good Shopify agencies?
Score them. Pick five things that matter (attribution honesty, AI visibility, email ownership, reporting, and real pricing) and rate each agency 1 to 5 on every one. The one with the highest total wins. Gut feel is how you end up 90 days into a bad contract.
I built a clothing brand to $10M a year and spent over $5M of my own money on ads before I ran an agency. I have sat on both sides of this table. The pitch always sounds great. The scorecard is where the truth shows up.
This post is the follow-up to our roundup of the best Shopify ads and email agencies. That one gave you the shortlist. This one gives you the way to pick from it.
Why can't you just hire the agency with the best case studies?
Because case studies are marketing. Every agency shows you the one client who went to the moon. They do not show you the twelve who churned. A scorecard forces you to compare the same five things across every agency, so the shiny deck stops doing your thinking for you.
Here's the thing. Two agencies can both be good and still be wrong for you. One is great at scaling spend past $500K a month. The other is great at squeezing profit out of a $40K budget. Same industry. Very different fit.
What are the five things to score a Shopify ads and email agency on?
Rate each agency from 1 (bad) to 5 (great) on these five. Add up the scores. The max is 25. Anything under 18 is a pass for me.
1. How honest is their attribution?
This is the one most stores get wrong. Ask how they measure revenue. If the answer is platform ROAS, the number inside Meta or Google, they are counting sales you would have made anyway. Meta's own attribution documentation spells out how it credits conversions, and it overcounts. That is not a conspiracy, it is how the pixel is built to make the ads look good.
Good agencies triangulate. They use post-purchase surveys (Fairing and KnoCommerce are the common ones), blended ROAS across the whole business, and Shopify's own reporting. Northbeam and Triple Whale exist for exactly this reason. An agency that leans on platform numbers alone gets a 2. An agency that talks blended and survey data without you asking gets a 5.
2. Do they have an answer for AI shopping?
This is new since last year and most agencies are asleep on it. People are buying through ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews now. Adobe Analytics reported that traffic to US retail sites from generative AI sources jumped more than 1,200% during the 2024 holiday season compared to the year before, and it has kept climbing. Gartner has predicted a 25% drop in traditional search volume by 2026 as AI assistants take over.
So ask the agency what they do to get your products cited in those answers. Ask how they structure your product feed for AI. If they stare at you, that is a 1. If they have a real process for answer-engine visibility, that is a 5. This is the fastest-moving part of the whole game right now.
3. Who owns the email list and the flows?
You do. Or you should. Get it in writing before you sign anything. The Klaviyo account, the list, the flows, all of it belongs to you. Some agencies host your list on their own account so you can't leave. That is a grip they keep over you at renewal, and it is a hard no.
While you're there, ask for their inbox placement rate. A pretty email that lands in spam earns nothing. Klaviyo's own benchmarks show email drives roughly $0.10 per recipient for the average store, and good flow work pushes that higher. An agency that can't tell you its deliverability number is guessing.
4. Can they show you a real report?
Ask to see an actual client report, redacted if they need to. Not a sample dashboard. A real one. You are looking for whether it shows profit, not just spend and clicks. You want to see cohort data and repeat purchase rate, not a wall of vanity charts.
Then ask who your contact is and how fast they reply. Say the name out loud. If the person who sold you the deal disappears after signing and you get handed to a junior, your results go with them. I have seen this exact pattern kill accounts that had nothing wrong with the strategy.
5. Does the price work against your margin?
Retainer alone tells you nothing. Add it all up. The monthly fee, any percentage of ad spend, and the tool costs they pass through. Then hold that total against your contribution margin per order. A $6,000 retainer is cheap for a store doing $2M a year and brutal for a store doing $300K.
Most solid Shopify agencies land between $3,000 and $8,000 a month. The number matters less than what it does to your profit. If the fee eats your margin, the best media buying in the world won't save you.
How do you run the scorecard without fooling yourself?
Fill it out right after each call, before you talk yourself into anyone. Memory bends toward whoever was most charming. Score attribution, AI visibility, ownership, reporting, and price on the same day you meet them.
One more rule. If any agency scores a 1 on attribution or list ownership, they are out no matter how high the total. Those two are dealbreakers. A high average can hide a fatal flaw, and those are the two that cost you real money.
What if both agencies score close?
Then break the tie on communication. Data does not lie, but a tie means the numbers ran out of things to say. Pick the team that answered your questions straight and didn't dodge. The one who told you what they would actually do instead of promising a specific ROAS number. We don't promise results either. We promise the work, and the work is what you can hold someone to.
The bottom line on picking a Shopify agency in 2026
Nobody is going to make this decision for you. But you don't have to make it on vibes. Score five things, kill anyone who fails attribution or list ownership, and break ties on how straight they talk. That is the whole method.
If you want an agency that treats AI shopping as the main event and not a footnote, that is what we built WRKNG Digital to do. See how we get Shopify stores cited and bought inside AI assistants.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most important thing to check before hiring a Shopify ads and email agency?
Attribution honesty. Ask how they measure revenue. If they only quote platform ROAS from inside Meta or Google, they are counting sales you would have made anyway. Agencies that use post-purchase surveys and blended ROAS give you numbers you can trust.
Should a Shopify agency handle both paid ads and email?
For most stores under $20M a year, yes. Ads and email share the same customer data and the same creative. When one team runs both, retargeting and flows line up. When two agencies run them, you become the messenger and things fall through the cracks.
How much should a Shopify ads and email agency cost in 2026?
Most solid agencies charge a $3,000 to $8,000 monthly retainer, sometimes plus a percentage of ad spend. The retainer matters less than what it does to your contribution margin. Add up retainer, spend percentage, and tool costs, then check it against your profit per order.
Do I own my email list and Klaviyo account if I hire an agency?
You should. Get it in writing before you sign. The Klaviyo account, the list, and the flows belong to you. If an agency wants to host your list on their own account, walk away. That is a hold they keep over you at renewal.
What questions should I ask an agency about AI shopping in 2026?
Ask what they do to get your products cited in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Ask how they structure your product feed for AI assistants. If they treat AI visibility as someone else's job, they are behind.
