How to Quickly Vet Your Next Agency Or Media Buyer

Perception often illudes reality.

I can craft a persona on Instagram with curated content, and brand messaging, and position myself as an expert making millions of dollars even if I’ve never made a dime.

It’s the catch-22 of the internet.

The same tools that allow us to get in front of people can also be used in nefarious ways to persuade, make false claims and promises, and arm-wrestle people into buying.

As we develop our bullshit detector, we learn how easy it is to slap a fancy logo and a list of services, experiences, and doctored testimonials on a website.

When they don’t always reflect the whole truth.

I don’t want to make it seem like everyone is out to get you. Those people do exist. Rather it’s like a first date or job interview where people curate the best version of themselves to “make the sale.”

Agencies might charge $5,000, $10,000, or over $15,000/Month for their services.

So it pays to know how to vet them.

What agencies ask (or don’t ask) can tell us more about their services than their websites ever will.

The next time you hire someone to run your Facebook ads.

Whether it's an agency or a freelance media buyer.

Here’s what I recommend:

Don’t lead.

Before you send over your spreadsheets, google docs, and reports.

Your funnels, offers, and email sequences.

Let them take charge.

You’re looking to see what they ask you, or, just as importantly, what they don’t ask you.

Traffic is part of the solution, but it’s not THE solution.

Let’s pause for a quick moment.

I am making the assumption that you’ve hired (or inquired) with this company because you’re looking to scale or improve performance. To get more customers or get them for less.

(If you have different goals his may not be as relevant)

There’s a reason I call myself a marketer and not a media buyer. It’s because I help businesses sell more products, and courses, and fill their programs.

In my experience “ads” alone are never the solution.

They are a part of the overall solution.

I wrote about how to engineer profitable ad campaigns here.

Exponential results come from looking at traffic as well as:

• Creative and positioning.

• Offers and funnels.

• Email marketing.

• Backend automation.

• Profit economics.

• Branding.

And this is how we vet people.

In a casual conversation about your goals, the items above should come up. 

Usually in an exploratory way like…

“Tell me about this…”, 

“How you tried this…”, 

“Walk me through that…”, 

“Do you have this in place…”,

“When I worked with __, we found __ to help with this…”

Think, have they opened your eyes?

When they audit your ad account, WAIT, and see what they ask to review.

This simple action, or inaction rather, allows you to quickly vet them.

It shows you how they think about marketing and the approach they will take.

Do they do a quick ad account review? Or do they do a comprehensive analysis of:

• Funnels, landing pages, and sales pages.

• Conversation rates.

• ROAS, MER.

• Email marketing.

• Social media profiles/podcast.

• The products you offer (not just the one you hired them for)

• Customer journey.

• AOV, LTV.

• CAC, nCAC.

• CRM data.

• Retention, Churn.

Yes, this is a long list. And it could be longer.

Are they taking a holistic approach to improving your performance? Or at least have a holistic understanding of what’s required. Are you even ready to run ads?

I wrote about 16 questions to prompt you about improving these areas in my article on engineering profitable ad campaigns.

Even if they don’t do these things or you’re not hiring them to do them. If they understand their importance they will do a better job managing your ads.

Ads alone can only move the needle so far.

Maybe you already know the importance of this or what needs to be improved. If so, you’re ahead of the game.

But trust me when I tell you it pays to understand the components of a successful marketing campaign. Nothing stings more than pouring money into a funnel that has the cards stacked against it right from the start.

Hope this helps.

-Landon

P.S.

If you enjoyed this, you may also be interested in the following articles:

How To Engineer Profitable Facebook Ads: 16 Simple But Potent Prompts To Improve Your Campaigns:
https://landonpoburan.substack.com/p/how-to-engineer-profitable-facebook

When Facebook Ad Performance Doesn’t Tell You The Whole Story…
https://landonpoburan.substack.com/p/when-facebook-ad-performance-doesnt

Outdated Facebook Ad Strategies That No Longer Work:
https://landonpoburan.substack.com/p/outdated-facebook-ad-strategies-that