Decide what you are buying first
Posts and a presence is a social media management job, usually priced per month and per post.
Sales from ads is a performance job: creatives, media buying, the page after the click and a weekly look at the numbers.
Many disappointments start when a business needs the second and pays for the first.
Ten questions to ask before you pay
- What number will you judge yourselves on?
For an online store selling cash on delivery, the answer should be cost per delivered order or profit, not reach, likes or ROAS from the dashboard.
- Can I see how you think before I pay?
A short diagnosis of your ads, page and follow-up tells you more than a portfolio.
- Who exactly works on my account?
Ask for the people who will make the creatives and run the budget, and how often you will talk to them.
- Will the ad accounts, pixel and data be in my name?
They should be. If you part ways, you keep your accounts and your history.
- How many new creatives will I get, and how are they tested?
Ads tire. A plan for new hooks and angles every week or two matters more than one polished video.
- What happens after the click?
If nobody looks at the landing page, order confirmation and returns, a lot of the ad budget leaks away.
- How is ad spend separated from your fee?
The fee and the ad budget should be two clear lines, and you should pay the platform directly or see every invoice.
- What does a weekly report look like?
Ask for a sample: spend, orders, delivered orders, cost per delivered order and the decision taken.
- Do you guarantee results?
Nobody controls the auction, your product or your courier. A guarantee of sales or followers is a warning sign.
- How do we end the contract?
A fair notice period and a clean handover of accounts and files, written down before you start.
Answers that should worry you
A price for a fixed package before anyone looked at your business. Results shown only as reach, views or followers. No access to your own ad account. A promise to "go viral". Refusal to show a report sample.
What a small business should expect to provide
Access to the ad accounts and the store, product costs and prices, delivery and return numbers, and one person on your side who can approve things quickly. Without these, even a strong agency is guessing.
The short version
Hire the agency that talks about your delivered orders and your margin in the first meeting, shows you its thinking before you pay, and leaves every account in your name.