“We hired an agency and nothing happened” is one of the things I hear most from small business owners. The agency was rarely bad. More often it was hired at the wrong moment, on the wrong pricing model, or without agreeing what success meant.
When it makes sense, and when not yet
An agency performs when there is something to optimize. The clearest signal is sustained monthly ad spend and a problem that has shifted from starting to performing: rising cost per customer, leads that do not close, no idea which campaign works. Not yet if there is no defined media budget, if the basics are not in place (see small business digital marketing: where to start), or if the real problem is product, price or nobody answering the phone.
How agencies charge
- Fixed monthly fee for a defined scope. The most predictable.
- Percentage of ad spend. Often does not cover real work on small accounts, and at any size it rewards spending more rather than better. Often combined with a monthly minimum.
- Per project: an audit, a campaign build, a tracking implementation.
In all three, ad spend is paid separately, ideally with your own payment method, in accounts you own.
Five questions before signing
- Who will work on my account? The person, not the agency. Senior people often sell; juniors often run accounts.
- Will the ad accounts be in my name? Google Ads, Meta, Analytics, pixels. History and audiences must stay with you if the relationship ends. The most important question here.
- What does the fee include, and what is extra? Creative, landing pages, video, site changes.
- How will we measure success? The answer should be leads, sales or cost per customer, not reach and followers.
- What is the minimum term and how do I exit? Three months is reasonable; twelve with no way out is not.
More questions in what to ask before hiring a performance marketer.
Warning signs
- Specific results promised before seeing your account.
- Ad accounts created in the agency’s name.
- Reports without a single business number.
- Nobody asks about your margin or what a customer is worth.
- “We’ll put it all in Performance Max and let the algorithm learn” on a small budget with no tracked conversions.
Agency, freelancer, or yourself
- Yourself, with method, while spend is small and there is one channel. See Google Ads for local businesses and how much Google Ads costs.
- A senior freelancer with sustained spend, when you want judgment without agency overhead.
- An agency when you need several disciplines at once or production volume one person cannot sustain.
The detailed comparison is in Google Ads agency vs freelancer. If you already spend on ads and want a second opinion before hiring anyone, an account audit leaves you a written diagnosis useful whoever you pick.
