How to decide if you should hire or DIY your Facebook and Instagram Ads
As a local business owner, you've probably asked yourself: "Should I learn to run my own Facebook ads, or should I hire someone to do it for me?"
It's one of the most common questions I get, and for good reason. You're busy running your business, being an expert in your craft, and serving your clients. The last thing you want is to waste precious time and money on marketing strategies that don't work.
Hi, I'm Nicole Eldridge. I've helped hundreds of local business owners with their Facebook and Instagram ads, and today I want to break down the pros and cons of DIYing your ads versus hiring them out.
The Real Cost of Facebook Ad Management
Let's start with what most business owners care about first: price.
When it comes to hiring someone to manage your ads, you have three main options:
Option 1: Large Agencies ($700-$2,000+ monthly)
Large agencies typically charge anywhere from $700-$800 per month on the low end, up to several thousand dollars per month for premium services. And that's just the management fee – it doesn't include your actual ad spend.
Here's the catch: if an agency is charging something really low (like $400-500 per month), that's a red flag. The agency I used to work for charged in this range, and do you know how they made it profitable? By assigning each ad manager 25-30 accounts at once.
Think about that. If you're struggling to keep up with your own social media, imagine trying to manage ads for 25-30 different businesses simultaneously. Even as a full-time job, that's simply too many accounts for one person to handle effectively.
Option 2: Freelance Ad Managers ($1,500-$5,000+ monthly)
The second route is hiring a freelance ad manager or a boutique agency (which is typically one main ad manager with some support staff for deliverables like graphics and ad setup).
For context, I consider myself in this category.
The minimum you should expect to pay a qualified freelance ad manager is $1,500 per month. I'm in several ad manager training groups, and this is the standard starting rate that's being taught for new ad managers.
For experienced freelancers with years of results under their belt, you're looking at $2,000 to $5,000 per month for the service fee alone – again, not including your ad spend.
Personally, I charge between $2,000-$3,000 per month with a minimum ad spend requirement of $1,500. Why the minimum ad spend? Because with a smaller budget, there simply isn't enough work for me to do to justify my fee. When you're only spending $5-20 per day on ads, there just isn't that much day-to-day management required.
Most of my clients actually ran their own ads before hiring me. They're businesses doing $500K to $1M in annual revenue, and they reached a point where they were spending so much on ads ($20K-50K monthly) that they no longer had time to manage everything themselves.
Option 3: Budget Freelancers ($300-500 one-time setup)
There's a third option I didn't originally plan to discuss, but it's important: hiring someone very cheap from sites like Fiverr or Upwork to set up your ads.
I had a client who went this route before finding me. She paid someone $300 to set up her ads, spent another $300 in ad spend, and came to me confused about why she hadn't received a single booking or lead.
The reason? Her ads were set up completely wrong.
I've heard this story so many times: business owners try to go the affordable route, but end up wasting more money in the long run through wasted ad spend and then paying someone else to fix the mess.
As the saying goes, you get what you pay for.
Option 4: Learning to Run Your Own Ads
This brings us to the final option: learning to do it yourself.
Programs like my Hometown ADvantage cost around $1,800 (roughly the same as one month of management fees from a freelancer). For that one-time investment, you get three months of mentorship, lifetime access to the course materials, weekly calls for feedback on your ads, and personalized support.
The Time Factor: How Much Will You Actually Save?
Obviously, hiring someone to run your ads will save you time – but perhaps not as much as you think.
If you've done any outsourcing in your business, you know that bringing in help always requires an investment of your time up front. You need to onboard them, train them, and communicate regularly.
Many business owners assume they can hire an ad manager and completely check marketing off their list. But that's simply not realistic. No one knows your business like you do. We don't know who's following up with leads, what your financial goals are, or what's happening behind the scenes.
I've actually stopped positioning my done-for-you services as a "we'll handle it all" solution because it's just not true. Every successful client relationship requires consistent communication.
In fact, I've had several client relationships that didn't work out because the business owners ghosted me. They hired me because they didn't have time to run their own ads, but then they also didn't have time to communicate with me about copy approvals, lead quality, or performance metrics.
That's a structural time management issue that hiring someone can't solve.
On the flip side, learning to run your own ads does take an upfront time investment. With my program, I estimate you'll spend about two hours per week for the first 4-6 weeks, and then you can scale back to 30-60 minutes weekly for maintenance and optimization.
Either way, implementing new marketing strategies takes time. You can outsource that time (and pay a premium for it), or you can invest in learning the skills yourself.
Results: What Are You Actually Getting?
This is my favorite topic, because it's where the rubber meets the road.
Remember my client who hired the $300 Fiverr freelancer? She had no way of knowing her ads were set up incorrectly, so she wasted money on ad spend with zero results.
Another client told me she spent over $4,000 with an agency and still didn't get any bookings or new leads.
My client Robert came to me after paying an agency $1,500 per month (plus $1,500 in required ad spend). Month after month, the agency ran one type of ad and handed over a list of leads that never converted. Now Robert spends $20 per day using my framework and recently posted in our Facebook group that he hasn't seen this many people coming through his doors in ages.
The problem with large agencies is that they struggle to keep up with what's working right now. By the time the whole company learns a new strategy, it's already becoming outdated. They follow rigid SOPs and protocols, but marketing requires nuance and adaptation.
I once joined a call with a potential client who was using an agency. The account manager couldn't speak to the results they were or weren't getting. There was a second person on the call (someone my client had never even heard of) who knew a bit more, but still couldn't explain why they were boosting posts that weren't performing and running Black Friday promotions in the spring.
When you learn to run ads yourself, you have full control over your spending, your strategy, and your results. Having that control might feel scary at first, but when you have an expert guiding you – showing you what to try first, what numbers to watch, and how to optimize – you can make fast decisions and see results much quicker than working with someone who's spreading their attention across dozens of accounts.
Remember that client who spent $4,000 with an agency and got nothing? After joining my program, she created a $1/day ad that's still bringing her clients months later.
The Long-Term Investment: Renting vs. Buying
Think about the difference between renting and buying a home.
When you rent, you're paying month after month for something you'll never own.
When you buy, you might have to invest more upfront (both money and time), but you end up with an asset that belongs to you.
Learning to run your own ads is like buying. Yes, it requires more of your time upfront, but you come out with a skill that can make you money for the rest of your business career.
When you outsource without learning, you're renting expertise. The second you stop paying, you're back at square one with nothing to show for your investment.
Marketing, advertising, and selling are essential skills for any business owner. There's simply no getting around the need to understand these areas if you want to sustain and grow your business.
My Recommendation
I'm sure you can tell that I'm a proponent of learning ads first, before considering outsourcing.
This doesn't mean you can never hire it out. In fact, an excellent approach is to:
Learn the fundamentals of Facebook ads
Implement them successfully in your business
Then hire a VA (virtual assistant) to help manage them under your guidance
This gives you the best of both worlds: you save time by delegating the task, but you have the knowledge to properly oversee the work and ensure it's being done correctly.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
If you're ready to take control of your Facebook and Instagram ads and start seeing real results for your local business, Hometown ADvantage is for you.
For just $1,500 (normally $1,800 – I'm running a special $300 off promotion right now!), you get:
Three months of expert mentorship from me, someone who's managed hundreds of thousands in ad spend for local businesses
Lifetime access to my complete Facebook ads course that breaks down complex strategies into simple, actionable steps
Weekly live Q&A calls where I give you personalized feedback on your ads, help you interpret your numbers, and optimize for better results
Multiple access points to me throughout the program, including personalized video audits and a one-to-one strategy call
My clients are seeing incredible results with just $5-10 daily ad budgets:
Jen, who owns a car detailing shop, turned $27 in ad spend into 3 new client bookings
Robyn, who markets for a sauna wellness spa, saw a 35% uptick in sales within weeks of joining
Samantha, who owns a doula agency, gained 50+ new targeted local followers using just the "local follower ad" I teach inside
Instead of paying $1,500+ EVERY MONTH to an agency or freelancer who might not get you results, invest once in a skill that will serve your business forever.
Ready to become the obvious choice in your local area? Grab your $300 discount now at hello.nicoleeldridgemedia.com/300
Have questions before joining? Message me on Instagram – I'd love to chat about your specific situation and help you determine if Hometown ADvantage is the right fit for your local business.
