Meta Ads Agency: What to Check Before Hiring

Hiring a Meta ads agency can save time, but the wrong setup can cost you more than the agency fee. If the agency owns your ad account, mixes your ad budget with its fee or reports only clicks, you lose control of your results without noticing.

This guide explains what a Meta ads agency should do, how fees and ad budget should be separated, which access you should give and which questions to ask before you sign.

What does a Meta ads agency do?

A Meta ads agency plans, launches and manages paid campaigns on Facebook and Instagram for a business: it sets the targeting and budget, prepares or briefs the creatives, sets up conversion measurement and reports on the results that matter to the business.

Solya Agency: a remote digital growth agency that provides Meta ads management together with conversion tracking and analytics. The ad budget is paid directly to Meta from the client's own account, and every campaign is measured against real messages, forms or sales.

What a good Meta ads agency should handle

A campaign is more than an ad. Before you compare agencies, list the work you expect:

• Measurement: installing and checking the Meta pixel and, where it makes sense, the Conversions API, so results are recorded correctly.
• Strategy: choosing the campaign objective, audience and budget split based on your goal, not on what is easiest to report.
• Creatives: writing ad copy, preparing or briefing images and videos, and testing more than one version.
• Landing page or message flow: making sure the ad leads to a page, form or chat that can turn interest into a lead.
• Reporting: a short, regular report that connects spend with real results, and a clear next step.

If an agency only offers "boosting posts" and a monthly reach number, you are paying for activity, not for results.

Fees and ad budget: keep them separate

There are two different costs in a Meta ads project:

• The ad budget is what Meta charges for showing your ads. It should be paid directly to Meta from your own ad account and payment method.
• The management fee is what the agency charges for its work. It should be written down separately.

When both costs are paid to the agency as one amount, without a clear breakdown and access to the ad account it can be difficult to verify how much was spent on ads. Ask for the ad account's billing to stay in your name, and for the management fee to be agreed in writing before the campaigns start.

Which access to give the agency

You do not need to hand over your password or let the agency create the ad account in its own name. Meta's business tools are built for partner access:

• Keep your assets in your own business portfolio: the ad account, the Facebook Page, the Instagram account and the pixel.
• Give the agency partner access to the assets it needs. Meta explains the steps for partner access in its Business Help Centre.
• Review access when the work ends, and remove partners you no longer work with.

This way, if you change agencies, your campaign history, audiences and pixel data stay with you.

Questions to ask before hiring a Meta ads agency

Use these questions in your first call. The answers tell you more than a sales deck:

1. Who owns the ad account and the pixel? The answer should be: you do.

2. Is the ad budget paid directly to Meta? It should be, from your own payment method.

3. What counts as a result? Messages, forms, calls or sales should be agreed before the launch.

4. How is measurement checked? Ask how they confirm that the pixel or the Conversions API records real actions, not duplicates.

5. Who prepares the creatives? Know whether copy, images and videos are included or need to come from you.

6. What does a report look like? Ask for a sample and check whether it shows spend next to real results.

7. What happens when the work ends? Access should be removed and all assets should stay in your portfolio.

Red flags

• Promises of fixed results in a fixed number of days. No one controls the auction or your customers' decisions.
• Your ad account created inside the agency's portfolio, with no way to move it.
• One combined price for budget and management with no breakdown.
• Reports with only reach, impressions and clicks, and no link to leads or sales.

In-house, freelancer or agency?

• In-house works when you have time to learn the platform and test regularly.
• A freelancer can be a good fit for a single channel and a clear, stable campaign.
• An agency fits when you need measurement, creatives and campaigns handled together, or when you advertise on more than one channel or in more than one language.

Talk to us about your Meta ads

If you are comparing Meta ads agencies, start by checking ownership, budget and measurement. Solya Agency works remotely with businesses internationally; campaign availability and language requirements are confirmed before work begins. Send your website or Instagram account and your main goal through the contact page, and we will plan the first campaign structure with you.