A marketing company needs four things from you before the ads go live: access to your ad accounts, photos and video of your own work, your numbers (what each kind of job is worth and which ones pay you best), and an answer on who picks up when a lead calls. With me, that adds up to an hour or two of your time up front. Once the ads are running it drops to a few minutes a week, plus a short call once a month.
What happens between saying yes and the ads going live?
It starts with one link. The link walks you through the agreement, the payment for my fee and the intake questions in order, and you can do all of it from your phone. The agreement sets up a year-long partnership with a 90-day first term, then month to month with 30 days' notice. The intake runs up to 21 short screens with one question each, and only a handful are required. After that come the access requests, then a kickoff call where we sort out how you want updates and who approves what. Before any ad spends a dollar, I set up tracking around what your jobs are worth, and you approve the plan and the first round of ads. The build takes most of the first month, and longer if I'm coming out to film.
What account access does a marketing company need?
Admin access to your Meta ad account and Facebook Page, plus your Google Ads account if Google is part of the plan. If I'm building the page the ads point to, I'll also need a login for your website or domain. You don't have to dig through any settings. You text me your ad account number, your Page link and your Google customer ID, I send the access requests from my side, and you tap Approve on each one and type your password once. Meta and Google bill the ad spend to the card on your own account, separate from my fee. Everything stays in your name and I only get access, which is how it should work with anyone you hire (what a marketing retainer should include has more on that). If a past agency's business owns your ad account, it can't be moved over to you. You open a fresh one in your own name and send me that number.
Why does a marketing company ask what your jobs are worth?
Because the budget, the tracking and the ads all get built on that number. The intake asks for your top three services and a rough average job value for each, picked from ranges like $500 to $1,500 or $5,000 to $15,000, so you don't need your books open. Ranges are fine. Then it asks which service makes you the most money, which isn't always the one you sell the most of. I use those numbers to tell Meta and Google what a form fill or a booked call is worth to you, so the platforms chase the jobs that pay. You don't have to share your margins line by line, but knowing roughly what you keep on each kind of job tells me how much a booked job can cost before the ads lose you money. Tell me about the jobs you don't want too, like small repairs or a material you've stopped working with, so I don't pay to bring them in.
What photos and video should you send?
Whatever you've got from your own jobs, and phone shots are fine. Finished work, work in progress, your team and your shop or trucks all count, and more is better because I do the sorting. Put it all in one shared folder (Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud, whichever you already use) and send the link along with your logo and a link to your reviews. No brand kit is fine too. Just tell me your colours. Every ad wears out once the same people have seen it enough times (why your ads stopped working covers that), so after launch a clip from a job every week or two means a new ad is ready before the old one tires. If your package includes production, I come out and film at your jobs or your location, and all that day asks of you is letting me work around your team.
Why does a marketing company ask who answers your leads?
Because the follow-up gets built around that person. The intake asks who picks up when a lead calls, and the choices include you, someone in the office, an answering service, and "it rings out sometimes." Any of those is workable. On most packages, every new lead gets a text and an email back within minutes no matter who answers, and a missed call gets a text back, so somebody hears from you while you're on a job. I also need your hours and one decision from you. Do you want interested leads sent to you so you can call them, or booked straight into your calendar? Booking them in is faster and loses fewer people, but only if you show up to the slots. A lead that waits overnight often looks like junk by morning, which I went through in why Facebook ad leads look like junk.
What should you tell a marketing company about your customers and service area?
Where you work, who your best customers are, and what's going on in their lives right before they call you. A service area can be as simple as 25 km around Vaughan or a list of towns, and it decides where the ads show. For customers, the intake asks about the best one you've ever had, what usually sets off the search (a move, say, or a leak that finally got bad enough), what makes people hesitate before they say yes, and what they say once the job's done. Paste lines from your reviews or texts if that's easier. Their own words often end up in the ads. It also asks what you've tried before and how much more work you can take on, because if you're already booked three weeks out, I push the budget less hard at the start. Whether Google belongs in the plan at all depends on your trade, which I covered in Google Ads or Facebook Ads.
How much of your time does it take once the ads are running?
A few minutes a week, plus a short strategy call once a month. Your side is answering the leads that come in, showing up to the appointments that get booked, and marking which leads turned into work in your client portal, which takes a tap per lead. Send a clip when you're on a good job. When I text you about a bigger decision, like a new offer or a budget change, you approve it or tell me no. I handle the ads, the page, the follow-up and the reporting, and if a week goes badly you hear it from me before you see it in a report. Expect the first month to cost more per lead than month three, because the platforms are still learning who your buyers are, and how long before ads work walks through that timeline.
What to have ready for the first call
You don't need any of the above yet. The first call is about where your work comes from now and what a customer is worth to you, and if it isn't a fit, I'll say so on the call. If it is, the link comes after. Book a call and bring a rough number for your average job.
