What to Know Before You Hire a Web3 PR or Marketing Agency

Before you sign with a Web3 PR or marketing agency, find out who will do the work each week, how many other clients that team is carrying, and which outcomes they will be held to. The name on the pitch deck tells you very little. The working team, how they communicate and how invested they are in your project decide what you get.

Who does the work after the famous founder closes the deal?

I have worked on the agency side for a few years, and this is the pattern I see most often. A project picks an agency because its founder is well known or because the business development team presents a great vision. Then the contract is signed and a different set of people shows up.

Many Web3 projects hire agencies just because the founder is well-known or because the BD team sells the dream. But once the deal's closed? People actually working on the project usually do a half-baked job. Shilika Jain on X, 20 Jun 2025

In the same thread I wrote about teams that paid a lot up front, believed they had locked in growth, and then got stuck with no real results and no accountability.

The fix is simple and most founders skip it. Ask to meet the people who will be in your Slack or Telegram channel every week, before you sign.

Not just the face on the pitch. The real team behind the scenes. That's what makes the difference. Shilika Jain on X, 20 Jun 2025

Are big PR agencies better than boutique agencies or fractional consultants?

Funded projects tend to chase the biggest agency names because they assume a big name means big coverage. I pushed back on that as early as 2022.

Funded web3 projects run behind mainstream PR agencies so that they can get substantial coverages. But what they don't realise is that these PR agencies are at max capacity with clients and already diluting the attention of their journalists. Shilika Jain on X, 16 Dec 2022

A reporter has limited attention for any one PR contact. When that contact is pitching for a long client list, each client gets a thin slice of the relationship.

My view has not changed. Big agencies are not bad. They are also not special.

There's nothing crazy about working with big PR agencies!! they deliver the same work what boutique agencies or PR consultants deliver but at a higher cost. what matters is the way they communicate and how invested are they in your project. Shilika Jain on X, 16 Aug 2026

So choose on communication and investment, and treat size as a cost question. Boutique teams and fractional consultants usually win on both because the person you hired is the person doing the pitching. I have seen this from the other side too: teams that could not hire me full time came back and signed long-term contracts with me as a contractor. If you are weighing the two models, I compare them in detail in fractional vs agency, and I explain how my own setup works on the fractional Web3 PR consultant page.

Should an agency be selling you services or value?

A list of deliverables is easy to sell and easy to buy. It does not tell you what changes for your business.

Whenever you're working with clients/companies, try selling value as opposed to services. Shilika Jain on X, 7 Aug 2023

I wrote that as advice for service providers, and it works just as well as a filter for buyers. In that post I listed what selling value looks like. A good partner will:

• show you the results they can bring in
• show you the impact those results will create
• educate you about how the process works
• manage expectations
• keep communication honest and transparent

If a pitch has none of the last three, you are looking at a sales deck. An honest partner will sometimes tell you something that costs them the deal. I wrote in 2022 that honesty might lose you a client but brings a credible reputation, and I still work that way.

How long does PR take to show results?

Longer than most founders plan for. PR is relationship work, and relationships with journalists do not start the week you need a headline.

PR works when you have a long term approach, work on building relationships, carving out the brand, sharing your story, ongoing convos with journos. PR is not magic! Shilika Jain on X, 26 Jul 2023

In the same post I said you cannot snap in and out and expect massive results. A one-month engagement around a single announcement can get the announcement out. It cannot build the story, the spokesperson and the reporter trust that produce coverage you did not have to chase.

There is a second expectation to set, and it sits with you. As I put it in November 2023, before you question your marketing efforts, question your product-market fit. No agency of any size can communicate its way around a product people do not want.

What questions should I ask a Web3 agency before signing?

These come straight from the problems above. I would ask all of them on the first or second call:

1. Who is on my working team, and can I meet them now?
2. How many clients is each of those people handling?
3. Who pitches journalists for me, and which reporters do they speak with regularly?
4. What will you need from my team each week, and how fast?
5. What does month one look like compared with month three and month six?
6. What have you told other clients not to do?
7. How is payment structured, and what happens if targets are missed?

Question four matters more than founders expect. From my work with large ecosystems, the bigger teams are often the ones with delayed responses, missed deadlines and little collaboration with their own PR people. An agency can only move as fast as your approvals. For a longer list, see my checklist for choosing a Web3 PR agency and the roundup of common Web3 PR agency mistakes.

Which KPIs should I set, and should they differ for agencies and freelancers?

In June 2026 a conversation with a potential client showed me a double standard that I suspect is common.

companies hire agencies w/o asking too many questions or hard bounding them on the KPIs because those agencies are famous, but when they don't deliver they hardbound freelancers or small contractors for all the things that they agency couldn't achieve!! Shilika Jain on X, 1 Jun 2026

Fame is not a reason to skip KPIs. Hold every partner to the same standard, write the targets into the agreement, and review them on a fixed schedule. A workable set mixes three kinds of measure:

Agree which outcomes are realistic for your stage, since a pre-product team and a live protocol should not carry the same targets. I cover the measurement side in how to measure PR ROI.

## Posts this piece is built on - 20 Jun 2025: I've been in the agency game for few years - 20 Jun 2025: I've seen teams pay a ton up front - 20 Jun 2025: Founders, know who you're working with - 16 Dec 2022: Funded web3 projects run behind mainstream PR agencies - 16 Aug 2026: there's nothing crazy about working with big PR agencies - 3 Nov 2023: web3 hiring is stupid and broken - 7 Aug 2023: whenever you're working with clients/companies - 4 Apr 2022: Winning trust is so important in building businesses - 26 Jul 2023: instant gratification expectations with PR - 8 Nov 2023: Before you question your marketing efforts - 1 Jun 2026: weird thing that I noticed with a potential client today - 10 Nov 2025: I always used to think that big chains/projects have solid comms team

Comparing agencies and want a second opinion on the proposal, the team or the KPIs? Send me the details and I will tell you what I would ask before signing.