What questions should you be asking of a potential freelancer or agency during the initial discovery call? And what questions should you be prepared to answer?
- You’d rather watch paint dry than manage them yourself
- Ads Manager is a load of complicated columns and terminology that constantly changes
- You’d much rather hand it over to the experts than tear your hair out doing battle with Facebook on a daily basis
It’s a big step and it’s the right step – but not one to be taken lightly.
Unless you’re a hot shot whizz at keeping up with Meta functionality, know how to read the data AND have time (days, even) to spend knee-deep in Ads Manager, this move will be the best solution to save you time, energy – and sanity!
But where do you start?
There’s a lot of ads managers out there – freelancers and agencies – but not all are created equal
The aim of this is to see whether we’re a good fit. It’s also an opportunity for both sides to ask questions.
But what questions should you be asking – and, importantly, what questions should you prep for?
Let’s break this down
Questions you should expect to answer…
Do you own and can you access all your own Facebook assets?
When freelancers or agencies need to work on your accounts, the best way to do this is via partnership access. Your Business Manager partners theirs and you assign them access to the assets they need.
Don’t let anyone runs ads for you from assets that aren’t owned by you. Potentially this could mean that you don’t own the data – and is likely to be a very costly mistake. Your money needs to be spent accruing your data, in your accounts.
What are your objectives?
Sounds obvious doesn’t it? You’re an e-comm brand, it’s sales! But there are other objectives within Facebook ads manager that could all be used to help you reach your goals. Maybe you want to also increase your email list, or get more eyes on your video content.
Any freelancer or agency will want to know your business’s goals, as this will help us form an idea of whether we’re a good fit for you and whether your goals are achievable.
Have you used ads before and what level of success have you seen?
Background information is important. It helps us form an idea of what you’ve previously done, what you’ve tried, what worked and what didn’t.
We need to know the sticking points, the good, the bad and the ugly! It also helps us to know whether your expectations are realistic. Which brings me neatly on to point 4…
Do you know your numbers?
You need to be willing to share your numbers with us. Any freelancer or agency worth their salt will want to know the basics: cost per acquisition; lifetime value; average order value; website conversion rate; profit margin.
This helps us to work out what your budget considerations need to be and the level of sales needed – again, we need to figure out if this is achievable for you.
What other marketing are you doing?
Facebook ads don’t work in isolation to the rest of your business. We need to know what you’re doing with your organic social, whether you’re running Google ads and whether your utilising your email list.
We want to know which baskets you’ve got your eggs in – and how these other channels fit into your sales funnels. We need to be able to see the bigger picture.
Questions we expect to answer…
What kind of results can you get?
We expect to get this question – but we won’t have an answer! Nothing is guaranteed with Facebook ads. In fact, what you’re more likely to hear us say is ‘it depends’!
There are so many moving parts – costs, seasonality, the economy, your website conversion rate – that we never guarantee anything. However, your answers to the questions listed above will give us an idea of what ‘could’ be possible. If anyone on these discovery calls guarantees to ’10x your ROAS in 60 days’…. run!
Who will be working on my account?
A very valid question. If you hire a freelancer or a small agency, it’s likely to be that same person working on your account, and you’ll likely have a direct line to them.
If it’s a larger agency, it’s possible the account might be managed by a team member, but your access is to the account manager. Make sure you’re clear on this – and that you’re happy with the answer – before you hand over the reins.
How often will I receive reports and updates on the account?
Again – the answer here will likely differ between freelancer and agency. Large agencies will likely offer a monthly call and a monthly report. Smaller agencies/freelancers invariably have more flexibility. It’s likely the lines of communication will be shorter and so more frequent contact is possible.
For me, I like to work quite closely with clients, and so contact is frequent and I give full transparency on what is happening in the account – positive and negative.
How often will my account be looked at?
Every day. At least that ‘should’ be the answer. Any good ads manager will want to know the nuances of the account: does it perform better at the weekend or during the week; is the ‘payday effect’ evident in the account; how do sales periods perform; do the ads feed out more in the morning, afternoon or evening?
Only by being in the account on a daily basis will we learn this information. In addition, sometimes Facebook does ‘break’! Whether it’s ad rejections, a campaign that’s not spending or a Meta outage (it happens), these need to be attended to promptly. Do we build campaigns and optimise campaigns every day? No. But watching and monitoring is daily.
What are your fees and contract commitment?
We also expect this question! And anyone you’re talking to should be able to tell you this or include it in a proposal submitted after the discovery call.
Make sure you know what is included and what isn’t. Does it include copywriting? Does it include any image / video creation, for example?
For me, my answer here is: my full-service management fee starts at £1,000/month +VAT and is dependent on ad spend. Ad spend above £2,000/month takes an extra 10%. This service includes all set-up, copywriting, campaign build, strategy, optimisation, data analysis, reporting and client communications. All creative imagery and video needs to be supplied by the client. Minimum monthly ad spend for this service is £2,000/month, and minimum contract is three months.
The discovery call (sometimes called a sales call) is a vital step in finding the right provider for your Facebook ads. Any potential provider should be asking about your business, your results and any pain points you have, in order to then provide a diagnosis and a path forward should there be a good fit between the two businesses. They should also be able to happily answer and clarify any questions you have.
Good luck!
(PS: an account audit will quite often be carried out after the initial discovery call. Find out more about this process here)
Find out more about my full management service for Facebook ads here.
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