A practical agency selection guide for Kenyan companies: assess relevant work, strategy, account ownership, scope, reporting and the route to a proposal.

To choose a digital marketing agency in Kenya, compare how each team understands your buyers, what it has actually produced, who will do your work and how it will measure progress. A showreel can demonstrate production craft. It cannot, on its own, demonstrate sales results, sound account management or the ability to work through your company's approvals.

Use one brief for every agency you shortlist. Ask each team to respond to the same objective, constraints, budget and timeline. That makes the comparison clearer and reduces the chance of choosing a persuasive presentation that solves a different problem.

Start with the problem you are hiring for

“We need digital marketing” is too broad to price or assess. A stronger brief identifies the audience, what the company sells and where the current process fails. For example: “Our corporate service is difficult to explain online, and sales spends too much time answering basic questions before a meeting.” That may call for explanatory content, clearer service pages and better qualification.

Another business may have strong demand but too little suitable creative to test in its paid campaigns. A third may need a launch film and a coordinated rollout. Our explanation of digital marketing versus social media marketing helps separate those scopes.

Ask for evidence at the right level

For production: watch complete films and short videos, and ask what the agency actually did on each project.
For campaign management: ask how the offer, audience, creative, destination and follow-up were connected.
For a performance claim: ask for the date range, advertising spend, conversion definition, attribution method and the work the agency controlled.
For a testimonial: ask whether it is from a real client and whether that client can confirm the relevant work.

Do not treat the popularity of a creator, a client's total revenue or an ad's long running period as proof of the agency's commercial impact. A team may have contributed a specific skill to a larger project. Accurate credits help you assess that skill fairly.

On Nataka's portfolio gallery, production stills show visual work and the captions identify the context. Those images are evidence of craft, not a substitute for verified customer acquisition results.

Compare a written scope

Ask for deliverables, production days, publishing responsibilities, moderation, advertising management, reporting and review stages. Confirm account ownership, permissions, asset handover and usage rights. Discuss the people who will attend meetings and the person accountable when a deadline or result needs attention.

Price the same responsibilities across proposals. An agency fee, a production budget and media spend are different lines. Creator fees, travel, locations, music and additional edits may also need explicit treatment. Our social media cost guide provides a comparison checklist.

If the scope changes during procurement, ask every finalist to update its quote against the revised brief. Otherwise the lower number may simply cover less work.

Use a selection scorecard

The following is a suggested evaluation method, not an industry ranking. Score each area from zero to five, then multiply by its weighting. Record the evidence behind the score.

Understanding of your buyer and objective, 25%: Did the team ask useful questions and explain a plausible route to the intended outcome?
Relevant work and accurate credits, 25%: Can you inspect work that demonstrates the skills you need?
Delivery and approvals, 20%: Are the team, timeline, review process and dependencies clear?
Measurement and account access, 20%: Can you see how results will be defined and checked?
Commercial clarity, 10%: Is it clear what you are buying and what costs extra?

A scorecard should expose uncertainty. An unverified claim should remain unverified rather than receive a generous score because the presentation looked good.

Agree the first review before signing

Ask what the first phase will deliver, what information your team must provide and when the first meaningful review will happen. A content engagement may first need an approved message, a shoot and a usable asset library. A lead campaign also needs tracking and a staffed sales response. Organic search discovery and indexing are controlled by search engines and cannot be guaranteed by an agency.

For search work, use Google's guidance on hiring an SEO as a useful reference. Ask teams to explain their methods rather than promising a particular search position.

Where Nataka fits

Nataka Inc is a Nairobi media and marketing agency combining campaign thinking, film production, social content and distribution. Our digital marketing service and social media marketing service describe the work we can scope. Monthly social content is published from KES 150,000, with the final proposal based on the brief.

Send your company, objective, target date and working service budget. The next useful step is a scoped conversation about the work, its owners and how you will judge it.