We read 402 small-business complaints about marketing companies. Half were about trying to leave.

Short answer: in 402 public complaints from small businesses about 13 marketing companies, half (50%) were about trying to leave: being billed after cancelling, cancellations that went nowhere, or contracts they couldn't get out of. 30% said they paid and got no leads or results. 13% lost, or couldn't get back, their own website, Google profile or data.

We expected these complaints to be mostly about marketing that didn't work. They weren't. More often, owners wrote that once they decided it wasn't working, they couldn't stop paying. Here is what we found, how we found it, and what to check before you sign with anyone, including us.

Key findings

• 50% of complaints were about leaving: 38% described being billed after cancelling or not being able to cancel, and 16% described a contract they couldn't exit.
• 64% involved an exit problem or an unexpected charge. Wrong or surprise charges appeared in 24%.
• 30% said they paid and got no leads, calls or results. Only 14% complained about results without also describing a billing or exit problem.
• 20% said a sales promise wasn't delivered, and another 20% said they couldn't reach anyone or kept getting new account managers.
• 13% lost or couldn't get back their website, Google profile, ad accounts or data. At the two companies with the highest share, it appeared in 9 of 20 and 6 of 10 complaints.
• 11% said things got worse during or after the work: rankings fell, calls dropped, or wrong phone numbers and details appeared on their listings.

How we did it

In October 2026 we read 600 public reviews of 14 companies that sell marketing, SEO, ads, business listings or websites to small businesses. They range from national all-in-one platforms to independent SEO agencies. The reviews came from Trustpilot and Clutch. 266 had a date recorded: they range from June 2019 to October 2026, and 69% are from 2024 to 2026.

We set out to understand complaints, so we deliberately pulled 1- and 2-star reviews (436 of the 600; 160 were 4 or 5 stars and 4 were 3 stars). We removed 34: 19 from people who weren't customers, mostly about sales calls, and 15 that were off-topic or too vague to code. That left 402 complaints about 13 companies, from those companies' business customers. We read each one and tagged every theme it raised, so one complaint can count toward several themes. Five Clutch reviews rated half a star were counted as 1 star.

What this data can't tell you: it's a complaint sample, not a random one. It shows what goes wrong when things go wrong, not how often things go wrong. Reviewer location wasn't recorded, and we didn't remove a few possible repeat posts by the same business.

Three large companies account for 76% of the complaints, because they have far more public reviews. Leaving out either of the two largest still puts cancellation complaints at 34 to 35%. We don't name the companies; this is about patterns, not any one business.

Press contact: contact@skylinewebagency.com. The data is free to use with a link to this page: theme totals (CSV) and every complaint, coded, companies anonymized (CSV).

Finding 1: leaving was the biggest problem

Half of all complaints were about getting out. The same situations came up again and again:

• The charge after the cancellation. A 30-day notice rule meant one more bill. A phone cancellation was never recorded. One owner was charged while still on the call to cancel.
• The contract they didn't know about. Owners described trials that rolled into 6-month terms, 3-month agreements billed for 6, and contracts that renewed for years without warning.
• Collections. Several owners who stopped paying for a service they'd cancelled were sent to collections.
• No way to buy out. Owners at one company who were getting no leads asked to pay off the rest of the term and leave. They were refused.

If you're in this spot now, our guide on what to ask before you hire an SEO company covers the contract questions, and the steps below show how to protect yourself.

Finding 2: paying for nothing, often with no way out

30% of complaints said the money brought no leads or calls. One owner paid $1,287 a month with no leads. Another paid $15,000 for SEO and got two calls that may have been real. A third paid $750 for three ad clicks in a month.

Just over half of these owners (64 of 122) also described an exit or billing problem. The other 58, 14% of all complaints, were about poor results with no billing or exit problem.

Finding 3: promises, silence and surprise charges

One in five complaints said a sales promise wasn't kept: a website in two weeks, more search visibility within two weeks, 8 to 10 leads a month, a free website after three months. Another one in five couldn't reach anyone, or described a new account manager every few months.

A quarter described charges they didn't expect. These included price rises with little notice, add-ons they never agreed to, and duplicate charges for the same month.

Finding 4: some owners lost their own website and Google profile

13% of complaints were about ownership. Owners said their website was switched off the day they cancelled, sometimes after being told they'd own it. Others found their site lived on the provider's domain, or that a separate "microsite" with a different phone number was competing with their real one.

Some were locked out of their Google profile, ad accounts or social pages. One said their Google Analytics account was deleted after they left. This problem was concentrated: at the two companies with the highest share, it came up in 9 of 20 and 6 of 10 complaints.

Finding 5: sometimes the marketing made things worse

11% said things got worse during or after the work. Owners described rankings falling from the top spot to lower positions, Google profiles suspended, and tracking phone numbers that stopped working. Some saw wrong addresses or wrong phone numbers appear on their listings.

What happy customers said

We also read 160 positive reviews of the same kinds of companies. The praise was consistent, and it mirrors the complaints:

• A named person who answers quickly and explains the numbers.
• Candor, including being told a plan wouldn't work, or that a project wasn't worth paying for.
• Work tied to calls, leads and revenue, not just rankings.
• Flexibility when money was tight, and a professional exit when they left.

What to check before you sign with any marketing company

1. The exit, in writing. Minimum term, notice period, auto-renewal, and how a cancellation is confirmed.
2. Ownership, in writing. Your domain, website, Google profile, ad accounts and analytics in your name, with the company as a user you can remove.
3. What happens to your website if you leave. Do you get the files, or does it disappear?
4. Every promise in the contract. If a lead count or timeline matters to you, it should be in the signed document, not just the sales call.
5. Who you'll talk to, and what happens when that person leaves.
6. How results are reported, and whether you can check the numbers yourself in your own Google accounts.

Prices matter too. Our guide to what a contractor website costs in 2026 covers fair ranges.

How Skyline handles this

We sell SEO, content and websites, so we're in this market too. That's why we're publishing this, and why we put our own terms on the site: plans go month-to-month after three months, and your domain, content and Google profile stay in your name. Our services and starting prices are public.

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