What should you ask before hiring a Meta ads agency?
Before hiring a Meta (Facebook and Instagram) ads agency, pin down four things: who owns the ad account and pixel, how tracking works with the Pixel and Conversions API, who produces creative and how it is tested, and which metric the reports are judged on. No clear written answers? Walk away.
This post is specific to Meta ads. We cover general agency selection criteria in our guide on how to choose an ecommerce agency; here we focus only on what to ask the team that will run your Facebook and Instagram ads.
Why does choosing a Meta ads agency need its own checklist?
Meta's ad system hands more of the targeting work to the algorithm every year. Advantage+ campaigns and broad audiences are the most visible part of that shift. The practical effect: the agency's job used to be finding clever interest combinations. Now the job is feeding the system the right signals and enough good creative.
That changes what you should ask in the pitch meeting. "Which audiences will you target?" tells you very little these days. "What data will you send to Meta, and how many new creatives will you test each month?" tells you a lot more.
Whose name will the ad account and pixel be under?
Start with ownership, every time. In Meta's business asset structure, a business can own assets such as ad accounts, Pages, catalogs and pixels, or it can access another business's assets as an agency. The right setup keeps the assets in your business portfolio and connects the agency through partner access.
If an agency says "let us open the account on our side, it's quicker", stop and ask why. When the account lives in the agency's portfolio, years of pixel data, audiences and campaign history can become a problem the day you part ways. A good agency raises this with you before you even ask.
How will tracking be set up with the Pixel and Conversions API?
The Meta Pixel sends events from the browser; the Conversions API sends them from the server. Meta's own documentation recommends running both with identical event names and adding an event_id so duplicates aren't counted twice. Events Manager shows an Event Match Quality score out of 10 for each server event.
Ask the agency: "After setup, how will you check match quality and duplicate events?" A team that can open the screen and show you knows tracking. Also ask them to place a test order and confirm the purchase event carries the right order value and currency.
Who will make the creative, and how will it be tested?
On Meta, creative drives most of the performance. So settle this early: does the agency produce creative, or does it only launch the visuals you send over? Both models can work, but the proposal and your expectations should match whichever one you pick.
Ask about the testing routine too. How many new concepts go live each month, how is a winner chosen, and what signals tell them a creative is fatigued? "We test constantly" isn't an answer. Ask for a testing calendar and a sample test report.
Which metric will the reports be judged on?
ROAS in the Meta dashboard is calculated with Meta's own attribution settings, and it rarely matches GA4. If the agency only reports dashboard ROAS, you're seeing part of the picture.
A good agency shows at least three layers side by side: the Meta dashboard, GA4 or your store admin, and total ad spend against total revenue. Example: if a brand spends 150,000 TL a month on Meta and the dashboard shows a 4 ROAS while new-customer revenue in the store stays flat, the report should say so plainly.
12 questions to ask a Meta ads agency
Take this list to the meeting and ask for written answers:
- Will the ad account, pixel and catalog stay in our business portfolio?
- Which access level do you actually need from us?
- How will you set up the Conversions API and prevent double counting?
- Which events' match quality will you monitor after setup?
- Will you produce the creative, or will we supply it?
- How many new creative concepts do you plan to test each month?
- How will you structure the campaigns, and why?
- How will you set target ROAS or target acquisition cost from our margins?
- Which data sources will the report use besides the Meta dashboard?
- What rules do you follow when raising or cutting budget?
- Who will work on our account day to day, by name and role?
- If we stop working together, how are the assets handed over?
How should you judge the agency's answers?
This table helps you sort common answers into good ones and red flags:
| Topic | Good answer | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Account ownership | Assets stay in your portfolio; agency gets partner access | "Let's open the account on our side" |
| Tracking | Pixel and Conversions API together, with event_id | "The Pixel is enough" |
| Creative | Monthly test calendar and a sample report | "We test constantly" |
| Reporting | Dashboard, GA4 and store data side by side | Dashboard ROAS only |
| Targets | ROAS or acquisition cost calculated from your margin | One industry average |
| Team | A named owner with a clear role | "Our team will handle it" |
One red flag on its own isn't a reason to drop an agency. Two or three together point to a working style, not a single gap.
Which agency is the right fit for Meta ads?
The right agency is the one that fixes your bottleneck. If your tracking is broken, you first need a team that can repair it. If tracking is solid but you can't produce creative, look for an agency that puts creative at the centre of the work. If the site is weak, no ads agency can turn Meta traffic into sales on its own; an ecommerce agency that handles ads and the site together makes more sense.
A mistake we see often is judging the agency on the first month alone. Learning and testing on Meta take time. Judge the first 30 days on tracking and structure, and the next 60 on creative testing pace and cost trends.
At Performetic we run Meta, Google and TikTok ads for ecommerce brands; our approach is on the performance marketing service page. If you'd like to see how your current Meta account scores against these questions, request a free growth audit.
Key takeaways
- Ask about ownership first: the ad account, pixel and catalog should stay in your own business portfolio.
- Tracking should run the Pixel and the Conversions API together, with event_id to prevent double counting.
- Creative production and a testing calendar have the biggest effect on Meta results; ask for a concrete plan.
- Reports should go beyond dashboard ROAS and include GA4 and store data.
- Judge the agency on tracking, structure and testing pace over the first 90 days, not on month-one ROAS.