18 Screenshots and a Checklist: How to Verify Any Agency's Results

Every agency site has a wall of screenshots. Revenue charts. ROAS numbers. A client texting "insane" in Slack. Mine has eighteen of them, over at /results. Most of what agencies show you is real. Some of it isn't. This is the checklist I'd want if I were on the other side of the screen, checking me.

I'm not asking you to take my word for it. I'm handing you the tools to check. Run every step below against my own archive while you read. If something doesn't hold up, I want to know.

What a real screenshot actually shows

A real screenshot has four things a fake one almost never has.

The date range. Every Shopify or Google Ads screenshot worth trusting shows the exact window, something like "Nov 28 2025" or "Oct 1 to Oct 20." Without a date, a number means nothing. A big revenue figure could be one huge day. Or three slow months. You can't tell unless the date is right there.

The account and currency. You should see the store name, or at least enough of the interface to know whose numbers you're looking at, and what currency they're in. A brand quoting pounds one week and dollars the next, with no explanation, is worth a second look.

The native platform interface. Shopify's dashboard looks like Shopify's dashboard. Its own fonts, its own chart style, its own layout. Google Ads looks like Google Ads. Slack looks like Slack, sidebar and timestamps included. Faking that convincingly takes real effort, so most fakes skip it entirely. Typing a number into a design tool is faster.

Go check mine. Result 16 on my archive shows 105,883.8 pounds in sales over Nov 27 to Dec 8 2024. Inside the real Shopify dashboard. Orders and conversion rate sit right next to the revenue number. That's what a real one looks like. Nothing hidden.

What fakes get wrong

Fakes tend to fail in the same few ways.

The number gets cropped tight, no date, no account, nothing you could use to check it. The layout looks close to Shopify or Google Ads but not exact. It was built in a design tool, not pulled from a real dashboard. The currency is missing, or it changes between screenshots with no explanation. No name attached. No Slack handle. No account. Just a chart and a claim.

None of that proves an agency is lying. Plenty of real agencies just take lazy screenshots. But it means you can't check the claim. And a claim you can't check isn't proof.

A screenshot you can't verify is marketing dressed up as proof.

Why a video is harder to fake than a photo

A screenshot is one image. A video with a real person's face and their real first name is a much bigger lift to fake.

I've got six of them on my site. Arthur is one. He runs an 8-figure fashion dropshipping brand. He's on camera, talking about going from Meta-only to tripling his revenue once Google Ads got the right structure underneath it. I wrote up his full story with the actual numbers next to the video. Watch him say it, then read the account details in the same place.

That's the standard I'd hold any agency to. Not just "we have testimonials." A face. A first name. A video you can actually watch. And a written story with numbers you can cross-check against what he says on camera.

Why third-party proof matters

Nothing I say about myself should be the only thing you check. That's the whole point of third-party proof. I don't get to write it.

Press coverage is one form of it. My press page lists where I've actually been featured, with real links and real dates. A journalist at an outlet putting their own name on a story is a different kind of proof than a screenshot I control myself.

Review platforms are another. ZenoX Media's client reviews, including Trustpilot, live on zenoxmedia.com/results, a page I don't write the wording for. Trustpilot verifies who left a review and timestamps it. That's a layer of proof no agency can screenshot into existence on their own site.

Some people don't even think Google Ads is worth this level of scrutiny anymore. I answered that directly in is Google Ads dead. Short version: no. Plenty of people saying otherwise are selling you something else instead.

The strongest test of all

Screenshots and videos get you most of the way there. The last piece is simple. Ask to talk to a client.

Skip the testimonial page for a second. Ask the agency to introduce you to someone they've already named in public, on a quick call or even just a short message. A real agency with real results will make that happen without much friction, because the client is real and the number is real. An agency that stalls on this, or gets vague about it, is telling you something, even if they never say it out loud.

The checklist: verify any agency's screenshots

Run these five steps on any agency's proof page, including mine.

1. Check the date range. No date means the number can't be trusted on its own.
2. Check the account and currency. Confirm whose money it is and what currency it's in.
3. Check for the native platform interface. Shopify should look like Shopify. Google Ads should look like Google Ads.
4. Look for video, not just static images. A real face and a real first name are hard to fake.
5. Ask to talk to a named client. This is the test that separates real agencies from the rest.

Questions I get on this

How do you verify agency results screenshots?

Check four things. The date range, so you know the window the number covers. The account and currency, so you know whose money it is. The native platform interface (Shopify, Google Ads, Slack), because that's harder to fake than a cropped number in a design tool. Then look past the screenshot. Video testimonials with real names, press coverage, and third-party reviews back up what a single image can't prove on its own.

Are Google Ads screenshots on agency sites real?

Some are, some aren't. The way to tell is not to trust the number, it's to check the context around it. A real Google Ads or Shopify screenshot shows a date range, an account, a currency, and the platform's actual interface. A screenshot that's just a big number on a plain background, with none of that, can't be verified. Don't treat it as proof.

What should I ask an agency to prove their results are real?

Ask them to walk you through one screenshot live, on a call, inside the real dashboard, not a slide. Then ask to talk to a client they've already named in a testimonial or case study. A real agency will connect you. One that stalls on that request is telling you something.

I built my results archive assuming someone would eventually run exactly this checklist against it. Eighteen screenshots. Six videos. Real first names on every one. If something doesn't hold up, tell me. If it all checks out, you'll know what real proof looks like, and you'll have a bar to hold the next agency to. Go check the archive.