We recently spoke with a scale-up that had spent €50,000 over six months with a YouTube agency. They got 12 videos, 200 subscribers, and zero attributable leads. The agency had a slick website, impressive-sounding case studies, and a pitch that made it sound like subscribers would fall from the sky. Six months later, the company had nothing to show for it except a lighter bank account and a deep scepticism toward YouTube as a channel.

The worst part? The signs were there from the start. They just didn't know what to look for.

After analysing dozens of YouTube agencies and, frankly, cleaning up after more than a few failed partnerships, we've identified seven red flags that predict disaster with remarkable accuracy. If you spot three or more of these in your next agency evaluation, walk away. Your budget will thank you.

🚩 Red Flag #1: They Guarantee Subscriber Numbers

This is the single biggest warning sign in the YouTube agency world, and it's surprisingly common. If an agency tells you they'll get you to 10,000 subscribers in six months, they're either lying or they don't understand how YouTube works. Neither is a good look.

YouTube's algorithm is highly complex and underpinned by Google's AI models, which means even the engineers responsible for it don't have complete control over its output. And it also means it's in a constant state of flux.

No agency, no matter how talented, can guarantee a specific subscriber count. There are simply too many variables at play: everything from the whim of the algorithm to the quality of the content, the competitive landscape, the company's funnel, the strength of the offer—even the charisma of whoever's on camera. A good agency can influence all of these things, but they can't control the outcome with precision.

What subscriber guarantees really signal is an agency that's telling you what you want to hear rather than what you need to hear. Real agencies guarantee a process: rigorous research, consistent publishing, data-driven iteration, and strategic distribution. They'll give you realistic ranges based on comparable channels they've grown, and they'll be upfront about the variables that could shift those numbers in either direction.

At Humble&Brag, we provide our clients with a modelling doc into which we plug three scenarios (conservative, realistic, optimistic), as well as their conversion metrics from comparable channels, to demonstrate how the channel works at a metrics-level. This approach enables them to set and track targets internally—and enables us to operate transparently without commitments to specific view counts and revenue outputs.

What to look for instead: Case studies that show growth trajectories over time, not just endpoint numbers. An agency that talks about systems and processes rather than promising outcomes.

Question to ask: "Can you walk me through a channel that didn't meet initial expectations, and how you adapted?"

🚩 Red Flag #2: They Don't Ask About Your Funnel

Here's a scenario that plays out all the time: a company hires a YouTube agency, gets beautiful videos with solid production values, and the videos even get decent views. But nothing happens. No leads, no revenue, no business impact whatsoever.

Why? Because the agency never asked what happens after someone watches a video. They didn't ask about the company's customer journey, their lead magnets, their sales process, or their conversion funnel. They just made videos, uploaded them, and called it a day.

Production agencies make videos. Growth agencies drive business results. And there's a canyon-sized gap between the two. If a YouTube agency doesn't ask about your cost of acquisition, your lifetime value, your sales cycle, or your ideal customer profile in the first conversation, they're a production house wearing a strategy hat.

At Humble&Brag, the funnel conversation happens before we even discuss video topics. We've seen that companies with well-designed funnels, including a compelling lead magnet, a nurture sequence, and a clear path from viewer to customer, consistently outperform those without, regardless of how good the videos are. In fact, as we explain in our guide to growing a YouTube channel from zero, designing your funnel is arguably the most critical phase of a successful YouTube launch.

What to look for instead: Agencies that run a deep discovery process and ask about your CAC, LTV, and sales cycle before they pitch you on video ideas.

Question to ask: "How will you measure success beyond views and subscribers?"

🚩 Red Flag #3: It's Just Production, No Strategy

Paying €5,000 a month for someone to edit your videos isn't a YouTube growth strategy. It's an expensive editing subscription. And yet, many agencies operate exactly this way: they take your footage, make it look nice, upload it, and send you an invoice. No research into what topics will resonate. No competitive analysis. No packaging strategy. No distribution plan.

Strategy includes channel positioning, format selection based on your business goals, topic research grounded in data, SEO optimisation, distribution across your marketing channels, and a measurement framework that connects video performance to business outcomes. Production without strategy is an expensive hobby, not a growth channel.

The distinction matters because on YouTube, what you make is often more important than how well you make it. A scrappy video on the right topic with the right packaging will outperform a beautifully produced video on the wrong topic almost every time.

What to look for instead: A clear strategic framework the agency walks you through before any camera is turned on. Think positioning workshops, content audits, and documented research processes.

Question to ask: "What's your process for determining which videos to make, and why?"

🚩 Red Flag #4: No Measurement Framework

"We'll track views and engagement." If that's the extent of an agency's measurement promise, you have a problem. Views and engagement are vanity metrics when they're disconnected from business outcomes. You need to know which videos drive leads and which drive revenue, and you need to know that before you publish your first video.

Measurement on YouTube isn't as straightforward as Meta or Google Ads, where every click has a trackable destination. But it's far from impossible. With tagged links in video descriptions, self-reported attribution in your sign-up forms, and a bit of data work in your CRM, you can build a clear picture of YouTube's revenue impact. We've tracked revenue back to specific videos for everything from e-commerce to edtech, and it's this kind of attribution that separates YouTube as a hobby from YouTube as a performance channel.

An agency that doesn't bring a measurement plan to the table in their proposal is an agency that can't prove their own value. And if they can't prove their value, how will you justify the investment to your CEO or your board?

What to look for instead: A detailed measurement plan included in the proposal, covering automated attribution, self-reported attribution, and regular reporting cadence.

Question to ask: "How will we track revenue back to specific videos?"

🚩 Red Flag #5: They Use Creator Tactics for Business Channels

There's a critical distinction between growing a creator channel and growing a business channel, and most YouTube agencies don't understand it. Creator tactics, like chasing trending challenges, optimising purely for watch time, or deploying clickbait thumbnails, can drive views. But views from the wrong audience are worthless for a business.

A creator monetises through ads and sponsorships, so broad reach is the goal. A business monetises through product sales or service contracts, so reaching the right people matters infinitely more than reaching many people. A video with 5,000 views from your ideal customer profile will almost always outperform a video with 100,000 views from a general audience when it comes to actual business impact.

This is something we talk about in nearly every strategy workshop we run. The positioning of a business channel, the topics you choose, the way you structure your calls-to-action, all of it needs to be tailored to the fact that you already have a product. You're not building an audience to monetise later. You're building an audience that already maps to your customer base.

What to look for instead: B2B or business-specific case studies in their portfolio. An understanding of buyer education, consideration cycles, and how content drives purchase decisions.

Question to ask: "Can you show me a business channel you've grown, not a creator channel?"

🚩 Red Flag #6: Suspiciously Cheap Pricing

When an agency offers you "full-service YouTube management" for €2,000 a month, alarm bells should ring. Good YouTube strategy requires senior expertise: people who understand positioning, scripting, data analysis, SEO, and business strategy. Those people don't come cheap, and they certainly don't come in a €2,000 monthly package.

What you'll typically get at that price point is a junior freelancer or two, probably working across multiple clients, probably without much oversight, and almost certainly without the strategic depth to make YouTube work as a real growth channel. The videos might be fine. They might even look decent. But "fine" doesn't move the needle.

YouTube agency pricing reflects the scope and quality of service. You can get a detailed breakdown of what different price points actually buy in our guide to YouTube agency pricing, but the short version is this: if an agency's price seems too good to be true, it is. You'll end up paying twice: once for the cheap agency and once for the agency that fixes what the cheap one broke.

What to look for instead: Transparent pricing that reflects real scope, with clear deliverables attached to each line item.

🚩 Red Flag #7: No Process for What Doesn't Work

Every YouTube agency has videos that flop. Every single one. The algorithm is unpredictable, audience preferences shift, and sometimes a video that looks great on paper simply doesn't connect. That's not the problem. The problem is what happens next.

Bad agencies keep doing the same thing, blame the algorithm, and reassure you that the next batch will be better. Good agencies have a systematic process for diagnosing why something underperformed, extracting lessons, and iterating on the approach. They dig into the retention data, analyse the packaging, review the suggested video sources, and come back with specific, actionable changes.

This iterative mindset, treating each video as a data point that informs the next one, is the difference between agencies that eventually crack the code and those that spin their wheels for months. We discuss this data-driven approach in detail in our video on YouTube analytics that actually matter, but the principle is simple: if your agency can't explain what they'll do when things go wrong, they're not prepared for reality.

What to look for instead: A clear explanation of their iteration process, including how often they review data and how they make decisions about what to change.

Question to ask: "Tell me about a format or topic that didn't work, and how you adapted your strategy in response."

What to look for: The green flags

Now that you know what to avoid, here's what signals a YouTube agency that will actually deliver results.

They have a portfolio of actual business channels they've grown, not just creator channels or their own channel. They run a detailed onboarding process, typically a strategy workshop lasting a few hours, before any cameras roll. Senior team members are named in the proposal, and you know exactly who will work on your account. They give you realistic timelines: expect three to six months before meaningful traction, not instant viral success. They can provide client references you can actually speak to. Their proposal includes a measurement and reporting framework. Content ownership terms are crystal clear. And their deliverables are specific, not a vague promise of "content creation."

Perhaps most importantly, the best agencies challenge your assumptions. If you walk in saying you need reaction content because that's what a competitor does, a good agency will ask why and whether that format actually serves your business goals. They're advisors, not order-takers.

Choosing the Right YouTube Agency

Most YouTube agencies look similar on the surface. They all have reels, they all have logos on their websites, and they all promise growth. These seven red flags help you cut through the noise and separate agencies that will deliver real business results from those that will drain your budget and leave you with nothing but mediocre content.

Your YouTube investment is too important to get wrong. The difference between the right and wrong agency is the difference between a channel that drives hundreds of thousands in annual revenue and one that gathers dust. Take your time, ask the hard questions, and if you see three or more of these red flags, keep looking.

Better to wait for the right partner than to rush into the wrong one.