What Four Agencies Publish When They Say They Guarantee Results

What does a video agency guarantee actually promise?

Much less than the word suggests, unless it names five things: the metric, the threshold, the deadline, the remedy and the exclusions. Dream Aspect reviewed four sellers that publish a guarantee, and they promise four different things. Only Setsail names all five, with positive ROAS in 90 days and a 100% refund, while LocalEyes publishes a “100% Satisfaction Guarantee” with none of them.

The four guarantees at a glance:

• TubeScience: payment depends on whether its ads beat the ads you already run.
• Setsail: positive ROAS within 90 days or 100% of your money back, with published exclusions.
• ModFXMedia: a 90-day guarantee whose remedy changes from page to page.
• LocalEyes: a “100% Satisfaction Guarantee” with no metric, threshold, timeframe or remedy beside it.

Judge a guarantee by what happens when it fails, not by how confident it sounds. Dream Aspect read the public pages on August 28, 2026 and again on September 3, 2026, interviewed no seller and saw no private contract, so this describes what each page says, not what a signed agreement says. Pages change; treat each example as dated.

What should a real performance guarantee include?

A performance guarantee is a promise that names an outcome and says what you get if the outcome does not arrive. To be worth anything, it has to answer five questions, and the first four turn a slogan into a term you can check:

1. What is measured? ROAS, revenue, cost per acquisition, conversion rate, or ad performance against a control. Words such as “results,” “progress” or “performance” are not metrics on their own.
2. What is the threshold? “Positive ROAS” is a threshold. “Measurable results” is not, unless “measurable” is defined somewhere.
3. By when? Several of the guarantees reviewed here use 90 days.
4. What is the remedy? A refund, no payment, free extra work, or continued work at no charge. These are not interchangeable.
5. What is excluded? Often the most revealing question.

How does TubeScience's performance model work?

TubeScience does not sell a money-back guarantee. It runs a pay-for-performance model, and its llms.txt file says: “We invest in ad production upfront and only earn when our ads outperform what you are currently running.” The useful part is the comparison point: the client's existing ads. That gives TubeScience's promise a metric and a threshold that a generic “we guarantee results” line does not have.

What does Setsail guarantee?

Setsail publishes the clearest guarantee of the four: if positive ROAS is not achieved within 90 days, the client gets 100% of their money back. That gives you a metric (ROAS), a threshold (positive), a timeframe (90 days) and a remedy (a full refund). As of 5 October 2026, Setsail's guarantee page also adds continued work to the refund: “If we don’t deliver positive ROAS, you get a full refund and we keep working for free until you win.”

Setsail is also the only one of the four sellers that publishes what its guarantee does not cover. The list includes organic traffic not driven by ads, organic social reach, anything Setsail does not run, track or directly influence, and standalone projects such as videos or branded content without paid ads. That last exclusion matters to video buyers, because it separates a guarantee on a paid-media system from a guarantee on the creative asset itself.

Why are exclusions important in an agency guarantee?

Exclusions show where a seller believes its accountability ends, and stating them usually makes a guarantee more credible, not less, because the seller has to say which variables it controls. A performance agency can reasonably guarantee paid-media results while refusing to guarantee organic reach, product-market fit, website conversion or standalone creative, because those variables are not equally controllable. If an agency guarantees “results” but publishes no exclusions, ask what happens when the outcome depends on something it doesn't control, and get the answer in writing.

What does ModFXMedia's 90-day guarantee mean?

ModFXMedia is consistent about the 90-day timeframe and inconsistent about the remedy. Its llms.txt file promises “Guaranteed results in 90 days or we work for free.” Across the other pages reviewed, including its Los Angeles page, ModFXMedia describes the outcome in at least five ways:

• you do not pay;
• you pay nothing;
• the agency works for free;
• the agency keeps working at no additional cost;
• a money-back guarantee.

Those are different deals. “Money back” means you have already paid and get it refunded. “You don't pay” means payment may never fall due. “We work for free” means more labour, not cash. ModFXMedia's pages also use words such as “measurable results,” “targets” and “progress” without defining the metric or threshold, so the deadline is far clearer than the obligation. Ask which exact remedy appears in the contract you sign.

What does LocalEyes' “100% Satisfaction Guarantee” cover?

The LocalEyes Los Angeles page publishes the phrase “100% Satisfaction Guarantee.” In the page text Dream Aspect reviewed, nothing beside it defines a metric, a threshold, a timeframe, a remedy or a claim process. That does not tell you what a private LocalEyes contract says, only what the public page communicates. From the phrase alone, you cannot tell what counts as dissatisfaction or what happens next, so ask the obvious question: “What exactly happens if I am not satisfied?” A satisfaction guarantee only becomes useful once the seller writes down:

• what qualifies as dissatisfaction, and when you can claim;
• how many revisions are included, and whether reshoots are covered;
• whether you get money back or additional work, and which situations are excluded.

Can an agency make a performance claim without evidence?

No, not for an objective claim. The Federal Trade Commission's Policy Statement Regarding Advertising Substantiation reaffirms the requirement “that advertisers and ad agencies have a reasonable basis for advertising claims before they are disseminated.” Dream Aspect does not claim that any seller reviewed here broke that standard; this article does not test the question. The practical point for a buyer is simpler: when a seller publishes a specific, measurable promise, it is fair to ask, “What evidence was this claim based on when you published it?” A clear answer tells you more than the headline.

Is a money-back guarantee better than pay-for-performance?

Not necessarily, because the two allocate risk differently. A money-back guarantee means you pay first and may get a refund if a defined condition is missed, as with Setsail. A pay-for-performance model, like TubeScience's, makes the payment itself depend on the outcome. Remedies differ within guarantees too: two agencies can both advertise a “90-day guarantee,” but a refund returns cash while free extra work keeps you tied to the same vendor. Neither is invalid, and neither is automatically better. What decides it is how performance is measured, who controls the data, what baseline is used and which costs stay non-refundable.

Why should video buyers be careful with performance guarantees?

Because a video is only one variable in a marketing system, and the production company rarely controls the others. Results also depend on the things below, which is why Setsail excludes standalone video from its paid-performance guarantee while still guaranteeing the paid system it runs:

• media spend, audience targeting and attribution tracking;
• offer quality, pricing and product availability;
• landing pages, website conversion and the sales process.

If an agency promises performance on a video, ask what the video is being measured against. If the answer is a paid-media KPI, the guarantee really covers the whole paid system, not the video on its own.

What should you ask an agency before relying on its guarantee?

Ask these ten questions before signing, and rely only on the version written into the agreement, not the sales call. Dream Aspect calls the first five the five-minute test, because the guarantee page alone should answer them:

1. What exact metric triggers the guarantee?
2. What result counts as success or failure?
3. What is the measurement window?
4. What happens if the target is missed?
5. What is excluded: organic performance, website conversion, media spend, tracking failures, client delays, or platforms outside the agency's control?
6. What is the baseline?
7. Who controls the reporting data?
8. Which costs are refundable and which are not?
9. What happens if you change the offer, landing page, media budget or campaign midway through?
10. Where are these terms written in the contract?

Does a guarantee tell you whether an agency is any good?

No. A guarantee shows how a seller allocates part of the commercial risk. It says nothing about creative quality, production quality, strategy, reliability, communication, speed or fit with your brand. A weak agency can publish an aggressive guarantee, and a strong one can choose not to publish any. Treat it as one diligence signal, alongside Dream Aspect's guide to choosing a content agency in Los Angeles and its look at working with a video agency without a long-term contract.

What is the takeaway on agency guarantees?

Don't stop at “Do you guarantee results?” Ask what result, against what threshold, by when, what happens if the agency misses, and what is excluded. Dream Aspect sells recurring content production and makes no guarantee claim about its own services in this article. If you want to understand what an engagement actually includes, talk to Dream Aspect.

Want to see exactly what an engagement includes before you compare guarantees? The Dream Aspect pricing calculator shows the price on the page: choose a one-off shoot or a monthly plan, then add or remove deliverables such as a shoot brief, priority delivery, CGI or UGC.

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