How to Choose a Klaviyo Agency: The Questions That Matter

We wrote this as a genuine evaluation guide, including the questions that would work against us if we didn’t hold up under them. If you’re comparing agencies, use this as a checklist regardless of who you end up choosing.

Ask for Real Numbers, Not Testimonials

A testimonial saying “they grew our revenue” tells you nothing verifiable. Ask instead: what open rate, click rate, and email-attributed revenue are you currently seeing on accounts like mine, and how is that revenue attributed? A serious agency can answer specifically, ideally with a case study you can read in full, not just a pull-quote.

Be skeptical of round, suspiciously clean numbers with no context. Real performance data has texture: it varies by industry, list size, and send frequency. “We doubled everyone’s revenue” is marketing copy. “40.3% open rate and 2.66% click rate sustained across 46 campaigns on an activewear account” is the kind of specific, attributable result that separates a real program from vague promises.

Ask Who Works on Your Account

The person on the sales call is not always the person who writes your emails or builds your flows. This is normal at larger agencies, but you should know it going in. Ask directly: who is doing the strategy, who is writing the copy, and how many other accounts does that person manage. An agency stretching one senior strategist across forty accounts is going to give you less attention than one running a focused roster.

Ask What Month One Looks Like

Vague onboarding promises (“we’ll get to know your brand”) are a red flag. A real onboarding plan is specific: an audit of your current flows and list health in week one, a prioritized fix list in week two, and a build timeline for the highest-impact gaps. If an agency can’t tell you what they’d do in the first 30 days without first being hired, that’s worth noting.

• Week 1: Full audit of existing flows, segmentation, and list health. This should surface specific, named issues, not generic advice.
• Week 2–3: Prioritized roadmap based on what’s broken or missing, ranked by expected revenue impact.
• Week 4+: Build begins on the highest-priority items first, not a fixed 90-day plan applied identically to every account.

Pricing Structure Should Match Your Situation, Not Their Template

Pricing varies. Fixed monthly retainers, hourly rates, and performance-based arrangements each make sense in different situations, and a good agency should be able to explain why they’re recommending one over the others for you specifically. Be cautious of any agency quoting a firm price before understanding your list size, current flow setup, and send volume: pricing before scoping usually means a generic package, not a plan built for your account.

Ask What’s Wrong With Your Current Setup

This is the single best test. Before you sign anything, a competent agency should be able to look at your current Klaviyo account and tell you specifically what’s underperforming: a missing flow, a segmentation gap, subject lines that aren’t earning opens. If the answer is vague (“everything could be better”), that’s not an audit, that’s a sales pitch. A specific answer, even an uncomfortable one, tells you they’re looking at your data.

Agency vs. In-House: Not Always an Either/Or

Some brands need a full-time in-house hire once email becomes their largest revenue channel and requires daily attention. Others need an agency’s senior-level flow architecture and copywriting without adding headcount. Many run both: an agency handling strategy and flow builds, an in-house coordinator managing day-to-day sends. Neither is universally correct. It depends on volume, internal bandwidth, and whether you need ongoing strategic thinking or execution support.

What We’d Tell You to Ask Us

If you’re evaluating OpenRateLab specifically, ask to see the full case study ledger, ask which of our services fit your current gap, and book the free audit before committing to anything. You should walk away from that audit with a specific, honest read of your account, whether or not you end up working with us.

→ Klaviyo Email Performance Report 2026: flow and campaign data from 22+ active DTC accounts