How to Choose a Facebook Ads Agency: 7 Questions to Ask Before You Sign
PapayAds Team Β·
How to Choose a Facebook Ads Agency: 7 Questions to Ask Before You Sign
Choosing a Facebook ads agency comes down to seven questions: who owns the ad account, how they report, who actually runs your spend, whether they handle your vertical, how pricing works, what their onboarding looks like, and how they define success. Ask these before you sign, and you avoid the most common ways agency relationships go wrong.
Below is the checklist we'd use ourselves.
1. Who will own and control the ad account?
Account ownership is the question most advertisers forget β and the one that hurts most later. If the agency runs everything inside their own Business Manager, you can lose your campaign history, audiences, and pixel data the day you leave.
Ask for admin access to your own Business Manager and ad accounts. A good agency is comfortable with this. For regulated verticals or advertisers scaling spend, also ask how they structure accounts to keep campaigns approved and stable over time.
2. How do they report, and how often?
"We'll send you updates" is not reporting. You want a live dashboard plus scheduled reports tied to a real business metric β ROAS, cost per acquisition, or installs β not vanity numbers like impressions.
Ask to see a sample report before signing. If the only metrics on it are reach and engagement, that agency is optimizing for the wrong thing.
3. Who actually runs my account day to day?
At many agencies, the person who sells you the deal is not the person who runs your campaigns β and your account ends up in a rotating support queue. Ask whether you get a dedicated media buyer and whether you can reach them directly.
A single accountable buyer who knows your account is worth more than a large team you can never get on a call.
4. Have they run my vertical before?
Facebook advertising is very different across industries. E-commerce, lead generation, mobile apps, and regulated verticals like finance and crypto each have their own account-approval and creative challenges.
If you're in a hard-to-place vertical, this is the single most important question. Ask specifically: have you kept accounts live in this industry, and how? Agencies that avoid the topic usually have not.
5. How does pricing actually work?
Most Facebook ads agencies charge a management fee β a percentage of ad spend or a flat retainer β on top of the ad budget you pay to Meta. Be clear on:
- What's included (creative? landing pages? other channels?)
- Whether there's a minimum spend or contract length
- Whether there are setup or "onboarding" fees
A transparent agency gives you a written quote after understanding your goals, with no hidden line items.
6. What does onboarding look like?
The first few weeks set the tone. A solid onboarding includes an account audit, tracking and pixel setup or review, an agreed target metric, and a clear launch timeline. After setup and creative are ready, most campaigns can go live within a few business days.
If an agency wants to "just start spending" without setting up proper conversion tracking, that's a red flag β you won't be able to tell what's working.
7. How do they define success?
Before money moves, agree on the number that matters. Is it ROAS? Cost per lead? Installs at a target CPI? Pin it down, get it in writing, and make sure their reporting measures against it.
When the success metric is vague, every monthly report becomes a story instead of a scorecard.
A quick checklist
Use this when you talk to any Facebook ads agency:
- [ ] I keep ownership/admin of my Business Manager and ad accounts
- [ ] There's a live dashboard + scheduled reports on a real metric
- [ ] I have one dedicated buyer I can reach directly
- [ ] They've kept accounts live in my vertical
- [ ] Pricing is in writing, with no hidden fees
- [ ] Onboarding includes proper conversion tracking
- [ ] We've agreed on the success metric before launch
Where PapayAds fits
PapayAds is a Facebook ads agency built around exactly these principles: a dedicated buyer per account, transparent ROAS reporting, and mature account strategies for regulated verticals most agencies avoid. We've served 2,000+ advertisers across 30+ markets.
If you're weighing options, book a free consultation and ask us all seven questions.
FAQ
- How much does a Facebook ads agency cost?
- Most agencies charge a management fee based on ad spend or a flat retainer, separate from the ad budget itself. Expect a custom quote after a scoping call rather than a fixed public price, since cost depends on channels, spend, and scope of work.
- Should the agency or I own the ad account?
- You should retain ownership or admin access to your Business Manager and ad accounts wherever possible, so you keep your data and history if you ever switch agencies. Ask this before signing.
- How long before a Facebook ads agency shows results?
- Plan for a learning period of roughly two to four weeks while the agency tests audiences and creative. Meaningful optimization usually shows after the campaign exits the learning phase and has enough conversion data.