Hiring an Ads Manager is a critical decision for your business.
Whether you’ve been dabbling with Facebook advertising yourself, watching over the shoulder of someone in your team or are looking to use them for the very first time, searching for an Ads Manager or Facebook Marketing Agency to work with can be a daunting step to take and an investment play you need to get right.
So, how do you know if your business is at the right stage to need one?
Is Now The Right Time To Hire A Facebook Ads Manager?
This is a question we often get asked and one you need to consider carefully. No business is the same, we’re afraid there is no one size fits all, yes or no answer to it, however, considering the following 5 reasons to hire a Facebook Ads Manager will help you make a more informed, considered decision so read on.
Why Should You Hire A Facebook Ad Agency Instead Of DIY?
1. You don’t have the expertise in-house to ensure your ads have the best chance of success.
Are you or your team trained and experienced enough to be really confident you’re using the platforms to their maximum potential?
Running Facebook advertising is very different to posting on organic social media – you shouldn’t expect your Social Media Manager to be able to do ads unless they are trained to a good level AND have experience (DON’T let them practice with your marketing spend).
Effective ad campaigns require deep knowledge of the platforms. We often speak to potential clients who think they’ve been running ads properly when the reality is they are missing vital foundational set up components and are barely scratching at the surface of what they should be doing, all whilst wondering why ads won’t work for them.
Meta and the other platforms make it really easy to spend money with them, but we don’t know what we don’t know – right?
Also, the platform changes constantly – who’s going to be the in-house Facebook Ads expert? What’s the plan to keep up to date with an ever-changing landscape?
2. Either yours or your team’s time is limited.
Profitable ads take expertise but also time. Creating a quick campaign in Ads Manager won’t cut it for most products and services – they need strategy, creative direction, copy, set up and build, monitoring (by someone who properly understands the data – the ‘so what?’ and ‘what next?’ of what they’re seeing) and optimisation – not just once, but on a continuous, cyclical loop. Expect this process to take considerably longer if it’s not an area of expertise.
So, who in your business is going to do this? Ask yourself if running ads is really the best use of yours or your team’s limited time? If the answer is no, it might be time to explore outsourcing.
3. You can see the potential, but you don’t know what to do next?
Perhaps you’re already seeing success? Or maybe you can see the first green shoots beginning to appear? Problem is you don’t know what your next move should be or the next one and the one after that…
There are many levers to pull – offers, creative, target audiences, ad copy, hooks, landing pages / UX – knowing which to pull, when, and in which order is where the real magic happens.
A good Growth Agency will know how to translate your marketing strategy into ad campaigns, whilst also telling you what to focus on right now for the quick wins and having a plan for longer term gains firmly on the roadmap for your business success.
4. You need a wider perspective.
Your business is your baby; you live and breathe it, it means EVERYTHING – we get it, we’re the same about ours, but sometimes we’re just too close to be objective or to spot the related world opportunities beyond what we’ve always done or maybe what we see from our immediate competitors.
Yes, most Ad Managers will be reviewing your competitor watch list, but a great paid social expert will also bring experience across a wide client base; they’ll have their eyes all over the platforms to know what’s working for other advertisers regardless of your niche.
The really good ones will have wider advertising context to pull down on and be able to advise you holistically and honestly regarding the opportunities other platforms and channels might offer, as well as when it’s time to switch from short-term, in market harvesting to longer-term, demand generation.
Another important point of difference are the experts who know they can’t know everything. These are the ones who invest to be plugged into networks with other Elite Ad Managers to benefit from a wider ‘hive’ mind, this brings additional scale, value and knowledge to their clients’ businesses.
5. You can’t afford to hire in-house…yet.
Okay, so by this point you might have realised that you don’t currently have the set up to do what’s needed so maybe you should just hire an employee to do it?
Before you write that job spec, remember that a brilliant Ads Manager is not just someone who can get an ad live for you – the great ones are experienced marketers who understand consumer behaviour, purchase journeys, context and the inter-relationships of other channels as well as paid social strategy and execution.
Yes, you could hire a Junior Digital Marketing Executive – spend time and money training them up but there’s more to it than watching the Meta Blueprint trainings – it takes hands on, deep, varied experience to be good at ads.
You could hire an experienced Ads Manager – a good hire will rightly not be cheap; their skills are valuable and in high demand. A fractional Agency or Freelancer would probably be a more cost-efficient partner in the short term.
Eventually, for established brands with on-going multi-platform / significant spends it will probably make sense to hire an in-house Facebook Ads expert; a good Freelancer or Agency partner will understand this goal and be comfortable helping you map out a plan to support that includes transition, training for your team and ongoing mentorship / coaching if required.
Why Outsource Facebook Ad Strategy & Implementation?
Meta / Facebook / Instagram ads are a powerful tool for businesses looking to scale but only at the right time and when they are run by safe, experienced hands. Budgets placed in the wrong hands are a sure-fire way to burn through your hard-earned cash.
Meta and the other platforms make it super easy to spend with them, a universal drop in organic reach combined with a suite of self-serve options including Boosting, Promoting, Ads Centre and Ads Manager, all designed to maximise the opportunity to monetise their platform no matter how experienced the Facebook user is or ill-advised they would be to add their credit card and press some of these tantalising buttons.
With infinite permutations of objectives, target audiences, creative, copy, destinations etc… it’s difficult to know which way to go and Facebook will not alert you to strategic mis-steps – it’s not always wise to go it alone.
Pros And Cons Of Hiring A Facebook Ad Agency?
We’ve discussed some of the many pros but what about the cons?
Well, cost is the main one – if you want to hire a Facebook Ads expert you’ll need to invest.
You need to weigh up what kind of uplift in ROI you’ll need to make the investment worthwhile – whilst there are never any guarantees (beware of anyone who tells you there are), a good partner will be up-front and able to help you work through the feasibility of this increase at the outset.
Another potential con is allowing an ads partner the space to do what they do best. Whilst there will of course be a period of onboarding, expectation setting, getting to know each other and establishing trust at the beginning, if you know you’ll find it difficult to relax some control in the process then that might be a difficult and frustrating experience for everyone involved, potentially DIY / in-house options might be the way to go for you.
Benefits Of Outsourcing Facebook Advertising.
Ultimately you want to outsource your paid social media advertising so it’s done by someone who can do a much better job than you or your team – quantified by an increase in profitable sales and more importantly return on investment.
What To Expect When Hiring A Facebook Ad Agency?
Honesty always: the right, skilled partner will be able to quickly appraise where you are in terms of your ads journey, giving you feedback on whether they think ads are a viable channel for your product, service and ambition at this point; at Be Seen we actually advise more clients to apply the brakes to do foundational work before investing further, than those we wave the flag and green light for.
Usually this foundational work involves website / UX / landing page improvements, boosting reviews and social proof or even improving organic social media before investing further in paid traffic.
Investing in a partner should make you feel confident that your business and marketing spend are in safe hands; that the right plan is in play for your unique business and advertising stage; reassured by their processes and rigour for testing, validating, optimising and scaling your business.
If this sounds like what you might be looking for then we really should talk – book a free Discovery Call
