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How do I check a video agency's work before I hire them?

Akash Gupta Founder, PhantasyLabs Last reviewed 4 October 2026 8 minute read

You are about to give a team your face, your name and a year of your time. Before you sign, you ask the fair question: can I see what you have done, and can I talk to somebody you have done it for?

This is the question I am asked most on sales calls after price. Doctors ask it, coaches ask it, and the team members who have to take the decision back to their boss ask it most of all. So here is how I would check any agency, including mine.

What proof should I ask a video agency for?

Ask for three things, in this order. Each one tells you something the others cannot.

A showreel is not on this list. A showreel proves the team can edit. It does not tell you whether anyone watched, or whether the person in the video got anything from it.

How do I know the numbers in a case study are real?

Open them yourself. A real number can be found on a public page, and it comes with a date.

Here is what to check, and it takes about ten minutes.

• Ask for the live link to every video they show you. Not a screenshot. On Instagram, YouTube and Facebook the view count sits under the video for anyone to see. If they only have screenshots, ask why.
• Check how old the account is. Instagram has a page called About this account. It shows when an account was created and how many times its username has changed. An account that changed its name five times last year may not be what it looks like.
• Look for the date beside every number. "2 million views" means nothing. "2 million views on these 95 reels, April to August" is something you can check.
• Ask who did the work. Did they make the video, or did they only edit what the client shot? Did they choose the subject, or did the client? Both are fine. You just need to know which one you are buying.
• Ask to see the numbers behind a video. On a short video call, a client or the agency can open the app's own analytics on the screen. Nobody needs to send you a password.

If a number cannot be checked any of these ways, treat it as the agency's own claim and give it less weight. That is not an insult. It is what you would do with any other number a seller gives you.

Should I talk to an agency's clients before I sign?

Yes, if you can. One short call with one client is a fair thing to ask for. Ten calls is not, because clients are busy people and they owe the agency nothing.

Do not ask the client whether they are happy. Almost everyone says yes to that. Ask questions with real answers:

1. How much of your time does it take each week? This is the cost nobody puts in the quote.
2. What did you have to do yourself that you did not expect?
3. What happened in month two? This is when most video stops, because the person in front of the camera runs out of time.
4. When something went wrong, what did they do? Every team gets something wrong. You want to know how they fixed it.
5. What changed in your business, not only on your account? More enquiries, more bookings, more people paying, or only more views?

If the agency says none of its clients will take a call, ask whether a client has written about the work in public instead. A post, a review or a recorded video from the client works almost as well.

What if the agency has never worked in my field?

Then somebody has to be the first. Every agency was new in every field once. What matters is that they tell you so plainly, and that they can explain what carries over.

This is what I tell people on calls when we have not worked in their field yet. I say it straight: you would be the first in your field with us. Then I show the closest work we have, and I explain which parts are the same and which parts we would be learning together. The way a video holds a stranger, the page they land on and the follow up are the same for a kidney doctor and a yoga teacher. What changes is the subject, the words your people use, and the rules for your field.

The rules matter more than people think. A doctor in India has three sets of rules on what he can say in a video, and most video teams have never read them. If you are a doctor, ask any agency which rules apply to your speciality. We wrote about what a doctor can and cannot say in India so you can judge the answer.

Which claims should make me walk away?

Any promise of a fixed number of views, followers, leads or sales. Walk away from that one first.

Nobody controls what Instagram or YouTube shows to people. An agency can make good videos, post them at the right time and learn from every one, and the honest result is still a range, not a promise. An agency that guarantees a number is either planning to buy it, or planning to explain later why it did not happen. If a team has ever offered you followers for money, read what bought and boosted followers do to your reach first.

Be careful with testimonials you cannot trace to a real person. In India, the Central Consumer Protection Authority's guidelines, notified on 9 June 2022, say an endorsement must reflect the genuine and reasonably current opinion of the person giving it, based on real experience. The same release notes fines of up to 10 lakh rupees for a false or misleading advertisement, and up to 50 lakh for repeat cases. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission announced a rule in August 2024 that bans fake reviews and testimonials, including ones made up by AI. A testimonial with no name, no face and no link is not proof of anything.

Other warning signs:

• They will not put their proof in writing after the call.
• Every result they show is from one client, from two years ago.
• They rush you to sign today for a special rate.
• They cannot tell you who will actually make your videos.

Can a portfolio tell me if the videos will bring clients?

Only half of it. A portfolio shows you the video. It does not show you what happened after someone watched it.

So ask the next question: where did the viewer go after the video, and how many of them paid? A good agency can answer that for at least one client, with a date. If the answer is only views and likes, you now know the agency makes videos and stops there. That can still be the right hire, as long as you know you are also hiring someone else for the rest. Our honest list of video production companies in Gurgaon and Delhi NCR sorts teams by exactly this: the ones who make a film and stop, and the ones who run video every week and build what comes after.

It also helps to know what you should be paying before you compare proof. We put the published Indian price guides side by side in what a video production company in India actually costs.

What proof does PhantasyLabs show?

The same three things I just told you to ask for, each with a link you can open.

• Our own channel. Peepoye, my YouTube channel, has 1.28M subscribers. In 2026 we published 117 reels on it without filming anyone, and they have been watched 5.37M times. Our article on AI clones explains how that works.
• Work for a doctor. Dr Madhusudan, an Ayurvedic doctor with 374,000 followers on Instagram. We published 95 reels for him without him filming one. They reached 19.5 lakh views in five months, and people now buy on his own pages without calling the clinic first. Every step is on his case study page, with dates, published with his permission.
• Work for an expert who teaches. Dr Arjun Sabharwal, a kidney doctor, opened a paid members' room in March 2026. It had 247 members on 4 September 2026, and you can check that on his own public page. His case study is here.

When someone asks for proof on a call, I send it by email the same day, so they can take it to their team and check it without me in the room. If we have not worked in their field, I say so on the call. These results are theirs, and yours will depend on your subject, your audience and how long you keep going. I will not promise you a number, and you should not trust anyone who does.

Akash Gupta

Founder of PhantasyLabs, part of Peepoye Network. He built a YouTube channel to 12.8 lakh subscribers before building the system that now runs it, and PhantasyLabs produces and publishes video for doctors, coaches, experts and brands. More about us.