Choosing a performance marketing partner is, in many ways, similar to hiring a key employee. The relationship is going to significantly influence your growth, your compliance exposure, and your reputation with consumers. And yet most businesses spend far less time vetting a marketing partner than they would vetting a senior hire.
Here are the questions that actually matter, framed not as a sales pitch, but as consumer-protection-style due diligence that any business should apply before signing an agreement.
How is consent obtained for every contact you generate? Given the ongoing regulatory attention on TCPA compliance and consent practices — including the FCC’s 2023 rule targeting the “lead generator loophole” and the Eleventh Circuit’s subsequent 2025 decision vacating that specific rule — any credible partner should be able to explain exactly how and when consent was obtained for each consumer contact, and should be able to produce documentation proving it. [1] If a partner cannot answer this clearly, the compliance risk of that gap sits with your business, not theirs.
What does your call recording and quality assurance process actually look like? A partner should be able to describe how calls are monitored, how agents are trained, and how quality issues get identified and corrected. The absence of a real QA process is a strong signal that call quality — and by extension, your brand’s reputation with the consumers being contacted — is not being actively managed.
How do you define a “qualified” lead or a billable call, and how is that definition enforced? This question gets to the heart of what you are actually paying for. A vague or shifting definition of qualification is one of the most common ways performance-based pricing arrangements quietly underdeliver relative to expectations.
What compliance documentation will you provide with each contact, and for how long is it retained? Given FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule requirements around recordkeeping, a partner generating consumer contacts on your behalf should have clear, consistent retention practices — and should be willing to share exactly what that looks like. [2]
How is pricing actually structured, and what is included versus billed separately? Performance-based pricing should align incentives between your business and your partner. Understanding exactly what triggers a charge — an impression, a click, a qualified lead, a live transfer — is essential to knowing whether the incentives in the arrangement are actually aligned with your goals.
None of these questions are unusual or excessive to ask. They are the baseline diligence that any business should apply before entrusting a partner with consumer outreach on its behalf — and a partner confident in their own practices should welcome the conversation, not deflect it.
Conversion Media Group is built around transparency in exactly these areas — consent, quality assurance, qualification standards, and documentation. Call us at 1-800-419-3201, and we are happy to answer every one of these questions directly.
[1] Consumer Financial Services Law Monitor, “Eleventh Circuit Vacates FCC’s One-to-One Consent Rule”