If you buy traffic from Meta or Google, the agency running your Klaviyo account decides how much of that traffic you can reach again after the first visit. Klaviyo's partner directory and a handful of agency websites are the obvious places to look, and from the outside the agencies are hard to tell apart.

We have these conversations on sales calls with Danish webshops, many of which have already worked with an agency or a freelancer. On those calls, owners often end up holding an agency's price up against what a freelancer or an employee would cost. The questions about ownership, terms and price below come from those calls, and they help you compare on something more useful.

Who owns the Klaviyo account and the list

Ask this first, and get the answer in writing. The Klaviyo account should be in your company's name, with you as owner, and the agency added as a user. Your subscriber list is one of the few marketing assets you actually own, and it should stay yours when the agency leaves.

One webshop owner told us what happened when she changed agencies. On the way out, the previous agency deleted 78,000 of her 88,000 profiles and switched off her flows and her signup form. Revenue per email send fell by about 98%. "And you sit there as the owner, and you can't do a thing," she said.

Before you sign, check that you are the account owner, that you can export your profiles at any time, and what the agency hands over when the contract ends. We go through it step by step in How to protect your email list when you change agency.

How long you are bound, and what happens when you leave

Binding periods vary a lot, from month-to-month to several months up front. A longer commitment can be reasonable, because the first months go into setup before the results arrive. What matters is that you know the terms before you start and have them in writing.

Ask what the notice period is, what you own when you leave (designs, templates, flows, copy), and whether the agency will help hand over to whoever comes next.

How they measure results

Klaviyo reports attributed revenue, and every agency will show you that number. It is a useful number, but it is not the same as extra revenue: some of those orders would have happened anyway.

Ask how the agency reports, and how it separates what email added from what it only touched. A good answer compares your account with itself over time, for example how flow revenue developed against campaign revenue, or how this quarter compares with the same quarter last year. Be careful with an agency that promises a fixed share of revenue from email. The right share depends on what you sell, and for some categories 15 to 20% is a strong result.

Whether they ask about your traffic

Pay attention to what the agency asks you on the first call. If the questions are about how many emails you send and how often, you are being priced as work hours, and you will end up comparing the agency with a freelancer or an employee.

The more useful questions are about your traffic and your margins. How much do you spend on ads, how many visitors does that buy, how many of them leave an email address, and what is a customer worth to you over a year. Those numbers decide whether email can pay for itself. One webshop owner put it plainly on a call with us: at 10,000 kroner a month, the agency needs to bring in two or three extra conversions a month before it has paid for itself. A good agency does that sum with you before it sends a price. We show how in What a Klaviyo agency costs, and what to hold the price up against.

Who writes and designs your emails, and in which languages

Ask who will do the work, and whether it is the same people you meet in the sales process. If you sell outside Denmark, ask who writes the German, Swedish or Norwegian versions, and whether those are written for the market or translated word for word.

What the partner tier tells you

Klaviyo's partner directory lists agencies by tier. A tier tells you about the agency's relationship with Klaviyo, not about the results in your account. Treat it as a starting point and judge the agency on the questions above.

How Markeity works

Markeity is a Copenhagen agency working in Klaviyo for ecommerce brands that buy their traffic. We start from what a customer is worth to you, and build the email and SMS setup that raises it. If you are comparing agencies, book a free 15-minute call and ask us the questions above.