Interview Questions to Ask Marketing Candidates, With a Scorecard

Decide the question set before you post the job. Every candidate for the role gets the same questions, in the same order, and each answer is scored on the same scale.

The US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) defines a structured interview as a method that measures job-related competencies by asking about past or hypothetical behavior.

OPM's guide says research consistently shows that unstructured interviews have little value in predicting job performance, and that their rating consistency is low.

OPM also says structured interviews have demonstrated a high degree of reliability, validity and legal defensibility.

Validity studies from 2022 and 1998 matter here, and they give different numbers. Sackett and colleagues (2022) re-examined the range-restriction corrections in meta-analyses. Their revised estimates were .10 to .20 points lower, and structured interviews still ranked as the top selection procedure.

Schmidt and Hunter (1998) reported an average validity of .51 for structured interviews and .38 for unstructured interviews. Those are older, higher estimates, so cite them as 1998 findings only.

FirstHR, an HR software vendor, argues that marketing candidates present well, which makes unstructured interviews less reliable for them. That is the vendor's opinion, not a study, so use it as a reason to add structure.

Use the same follow-up probes for every candidate too. OPM says very similar probes give every candidate the same chance to excel.

The rule for every interview: same questions, same order, same scale, same probes.

Each stage of the marketing interview process needs its own question set. Keep the same rule at every stage, so the final comparison rests on the same evidence.

Write the scorecard before the first interview. Take each competency from the tasks the hire must do, not from a generic list of traits.

OPM says structured interview questions should reflect competencies from a job analysis, be open-ended and be free of jargon.

Use one rating scale for every criterion and every candidate. OPM calls a common rating scale for all candidates a key component of the structured interview.

Label each level with what the answer contained, not with praise. OPM's example labels are unsatisfactory, satisfactory and superior.

Rate each candidate right after the interview, from your notes. OPM says the interviewer should rate the candidate immediately after the interview, and tie each rating to specific behavioral examples.

Write down the reasoning for each rating on each competency. OPM says the notes should document that reasoning.

OPM names rating errors that distort interview scores. Check your own scoring for each one.

Ask each role's questions in the same order for every finalist. The strong and weak answers below come from FirstHR's published question sets, an HR software vendor, plus Google's own guidance. They are not a validated rubric. Judge the answer against the middle column, and probe further when you see a red flag in the last column.

Candidates can rehearse for these questions on the interview questions by marketing role page. Score the specifics in an answer, not how polished it sounds.

Decide which hire you are running before you write the questions. An operator, an agency manager and a hybrid need different questions and different weights.

FirstHR, an HR software vendor, says the hire is one of three types: a person who runs the ad accounts, a person who manages an agency that does, or a person who splits the two.

Google says you remain responsible for the actions of any company you hire. Ask an outside SEO how they will communicate with you, and how often.

MarketerHire, a marketing talent marketplace, suggests recruitment agencies or fractional hiring models when take-homes filter out busy candidates.

Ownership stays with your company in every model. FirstHR says the business should own the ad account, the analytics property and the billing method, without exception. The same risk applies to agencies. FirstHR says an ad account you do not own leaves with the person who does, taking your campaign history and conversion data with it.

Budget for the full cost of an in-house hire, not the salary alone: list recruiting, tools, training and management time, and put your own figure on each.

Score an agency's pitch with the same scorecard, and ask the agency for the same work sample. Owners who would rather hire a team can start on the services page.

Decide before the interview whether the task is paid, how long it runs and what you will do with the output. Give the same task to every finalist.

OPM defines a work sample test as a task that mirrors the work employees do on the job.

Use a work sample only when the skill must be present on day one. OPM says work sample tests should only be used when applicants are expected to have the required competencies on entry.

OPM says work sample results relate highly to job performance, and candidates often see them as very fair.

They cost more to run. OPM says scores come from trained assessors who observe the work or measure the output, and that work samples can be time consuming and expensive to administer.

Set the cap in writing before you send the task. FirstHR, an HR software vendor, says to pay for the time, cap the exercise at two hours, and grade against criteria written before you read the first submission.

MarketerHire, a marketing talent marketplace that sells paid trials, puts the industry standard at 2 to 4 hours. It says anything over 6 hours without pay is unreasonable.

The same vendor says standard practice is no pay under 4 hours. It adds that a task solving a real business problem you will use should be paid, and that some companies pay $200 to $500 for complex work.

Pay is a fairness policy, not a rule in the EEOC guidance on tests. That guidance says only that a required test must be necessary and related to the job.

Unpaid multi-week projects filter out the strongest candidates first, since those candidates have other offers.

MarketerHire also warns that take-home tasks favor candidates with free time, such as parents, full-time workers and caregivers.

The take-home and assessment page covers the same kinds of tasks from the candidate side.

Give every finalist the same brief. FirstHR's sample gives the candidate a website, pricing and three customer reviews, then asks for a one-page plan for the next 90 days.

Make clear that you will not use the output. FirstHR says to pay for the time, give every finalist the same brief, and treat the conversation about the plan as the real assessment.

Probe further when a candidate promises results, hides ownership, or cannot show their own part of the work.

FirstHR's rule for paid search is that any two of its red flags together are usually enough to stop. Treat Google's warnings about hiring an SEO firm as the hard stops, and treat a single weak answer as a question to follow up.

• Guaranteed rankings. Google says no one can guarantee first place on Google, warns against claims of a special relationship or a priority submit, and says to find someone else if an SEO guarantees first place.
• Secrecy. Google says to be careful with a company that is secretive or will not clearly explain what it intends to do.
• Deceptive content. Google says deceptive content made by an SEO can get a site removed from the index, and that you are responsible for the companies you hire.
• Link schemes or mass submission. Google says you should never have to link to an SEO.
• A candidate who asks for write access to Search Console before an audit. Google advises read-only access at that stage.
• Quality Score as a result. Google says Quality Score is a diagnostic, not a key performance indicator.
• Reach, impressions or follower growth presented as the result on their own.
• A guaranteed follower count, viral post or revenue figure by a date.
• Accounts, business assets or billing registered to the candidate. FirstHR says keeping ownership with a candidate or their agency is a hard stop.
• Scaled AI content. Google says using generative AI to generate many pages without adding value may violate its spam policy on scaled content abuse.
• A candidate who cannot state a result in numbers, has never stopped or cut an activity, or promises a rebrand before diagnosing anything.
• Industry benchmarks quoted in place of your unit economics.
• Impressions, followers, clicks and engagement listed with no order of importance.
• A migration plan that redirects everything to the homepage.
• Opening with a 200-point technical audit before learning the business.

Keep every question tied to the job. The EEOC says pre-employment questions should be limited to what is essential to decide whether a person is qualified for the job.

The EEOC also says such questions can serve as evidence of intent to discriminate, unless a business purpose justifies them.

A job ad that asks for 'females' or 'recent college graduates' may violate the law.

The last column gives examples of job-related wording. Check them with an employment lawyer before you adopt them.

Current or past pay

Salary history is a state-law question, not an EEOC one, and several states bar employers from asking. Ask for the candidate's expected range instead. The salary expectations page covers how candidates answer.

• California. An employer may not seek salary history, orally or in writing, and may not rely on it to decide whether to offer a job or what to pay.
• New York. An employer may not rely on wage or salary history, and may not require it as a condition to be interviewed.
• Illinois. It is unlawful to screen applicants on prior wages, or to require a wage or salary history as a condition of being considered or interviewed.
• Washington. Employers cannot seek an applicant's wage or salary history. They may confirm salary after they make an offer that includes pay and the applicant accepts it.

In California and New York, a candidate may still volunteer pay history unprompted. Check your own state's labor department page before you ask about pay.