Paid Ads hub
Paid Ads
Honest coverage of paid acquisition: what to spend on, how to evaluate the agencies that run your accounts, and what to expect when you hire one.
The pillar guide
Decide and evaluate
How Paid Ads Agencies Price Their Services
The three pricing models you will encounter, what each one rewards in agency behavior, and how to read pricing as a signal about the agency itself.
Jun 5 6 min read
Paid Ads Agency Red Flags
The patterns that say walk away from a paid ads agency, organized by where you encounter them, and the smaller patterns that are warnings but not disqualifiers.
Jun 4 6 min read
The 47 Questions to Ask Every Paid Ads Agency
The working interview script for evaluating a paid ads agency. 47 questions across the four meetings of a real diligence process, grouped by what each one is actually testing.
Jun 3 6 min read
How to Tell If You're Ready to Hire a Paid Ads Agency
Eight honest signals that an agency will move the needle for your brand, and the patterns that say you should hold off and fix something internal first.
Jun 2 6 min read
Operate with the agency
The Hidden Costs of Switching Paid Ads Agencies
The cost of switching paid ads agencies is rarely the new retainer. It is the learning lost, the algorithms reset, and the operator attention to get back to baseline.
Jun 9 7 min read
How to Fire a Paid Ads Agency
A clean exit from a paid ads agency relationship without losing the account. The signals, the documentation, the conversation, and the operational steps that protect the work.
Jun 8 7 min read
How to Read an Agency Performance Report
A framework for reading agency performance reports critically. What the numbers actually mean, what gets glossed over, and the five questions to ask every month.
Jun 7 6 min read
First 90 Days With a New Paid Ads Agency
A week-by-week framework for the first 90 days of a new paid ads agency engagement. What good looks like, what the early warning signs are, and how to course-correct in time.
Jun 6 7 min read
Tools for this intent
The articles answer the why. These three resources answer the how, in the shape of a quiz, a calculator, and a template.
Quiz
Operator Archetype quiz
60 seconds, 18 questions. Surfaces your archetype and the three things in your way.
Calculator
TACoS, MER, and CAC payback
The three numbers operators size paid spend against. Run them in 30 seconds, save the result to email.
Library
47-question agency RFP and reader’s guide
The interview script for evaluating a paid ads agency and a pocket framework for reading their reports.