Ads
5 Questions to Ask Your Ad Manager (and What a Good Answer Sounds Like)
If someone runs your ads, these five questions show where your money goes, what an enquiry really costs, and what a good answer sounds like.
On this page
- Why it pays to ask your ad manager questions
- 1. Where is my money going?
- 2. What does one enquiry cost me?
- 3. Which ads did you stop, and why?
- 4. What are you testing next?
- 5. Can you explain it in plain English?
- Two more things worth checking
- What a good monthly report includes
- Want a second opinion on your ads?
- Frequently asked questions
If someone runs your Instagram, Facebook or Google ads for you, it is fair to expect a clear picture of where your money is going and what it is producing.
You do not need to understand every setting in an ad account to check on your ad manager. You only need to ask the right questions and know what a good answer sounds like. Here are five that work for any business, whether you spend a little each month or a lot.
Why it pays to ask your ad manager questions
Advertising platforms are complicated, and that complexity can hide problems. Money can be spent on the wrong audience, enquiries can go untracked, and reports can celebrate numbers that do not matter to your business.
None of that means your ad manager is doing a bad job. Good managers welcome questions because it keeps both sides focused on the same goal: more of the right enquiries at a cost that makes sense for your business.
1. Where is my money going?
Why it matters: your ad spend should be easy to follow. You should be able to see how much went on which platform, which campaigns and which audiences.
What a good answer sounds like: a simple breakdown, such as “£X on Instagram and Facebook, £Y on Google search, split across these three campaigns, and here is what each one produced.” You should also be able to see the ad account itself, even if only in a view-only role.
Red flags: one lump number with no breakdown, or being told the ad account is private and cannot be shared with the business whose money is being spent.
2. What does one enquiry cost me?
Why it matters: clicks, likes and views are not the goal. Enquiries are. The number that matters is how much each real enquiry costs you, on average, whether that is a form, a phone call or a message.
What a good answer sounds like: a cost per enquiry, with a clear definition of what counts as an enquiry and how it is tracked. A good manager will also put that number next to what a customer is worth to you. If an enquiry costs only a small fraction of what a typical job earns you, the maths starts to make sense.
Red flags: reports that focus on reach, impressions and click-through rate without ever mentioning enquiries. Be wary too of tracking promises that sound too perfect. In the UK, the Meta Pixel and the Google tag only run after a visitor accepts cookies, so tracking will never capture everyone. An honest manager will tell you that.
3. Which ads did you stop, and why?
Why it matters: running ads well means switching off what does not work and putting more behind what does. If nothing has ever been paused, nobody is looking closely.
What a good answer sounds like: specifics. “We paused this ad because after a fair amount of spend it brought clicks but no enquiries, and we replaced it with a new angle.” Good managers can name an ad, say what they saw and explain what they did about it.
Red flags: “Everything is working,” month after month. The opposite is a warning sign too: changing ads every day. Ad platforms need time and data to settle, so constant tinkering means nothing gets a proper test.
4. What are you testing next?
Why it matters: the best results usually come from steady, deliberate testing: one audience, message or image against another, learning what your customers respond to.
What a good answer sounds like: a plan with a reason. “Next month we are testing a price-led message against a results-led one for the same audience, because last month’s data suggests people are comparing prices.” You should hear what is being tested, why, and how you will know the result.
Red flags: no plan, or “the algorithm will figure it out.” Platforms do a lot of the heavy lifting, but they cannot tell you what your customers care about. That still takes human judgement.
5. Can you explain it in plain English?
Why it matters: if you cannot follow your own advertising, you cannot judge it. A good ad manager can explain what is happening, what it means for your business and what happens next without hiding behind acronyms.
What a good answer sounds like: short sentences, no jargon, and a report you can read in five minutes. You should finish it knowing whether things are going well, and what is being done about it.
Red flags: a wall of acronyms and screenshots, or any suggestion that the question is too technical for you to ask.
Two more things worth checking
Who owns the ad account and the tracking? Your ad account, Meta Pixel and Google tag should belong to your business, with your agency given access. If they sit in the agency’s account, you may lose your data and history if you ever move on.
What happens after the click? Even brilliant ads cannot rescue a slow or confusing website. If people click and then leave, the problem is the page, not the ad. Our guide to getting more enquiries from your website covers the fixes that matter most.
What a good monthly report includes
Whoever runs your ads, you should expect, at least once a month:
- How much was spent, and where
- How many enquiries came in, and the cost of each
- What was paused, what was kept and why
- What is being tested next
- Anything you need to do, such as sending fresh photos or approving an offer
Want a second opinion on your ads?
We run Meta (Instagram and Facebook) and Google ads for UK businesses, with clear communication and honest reporting. If you would like a straight answer on how your current ads are performing, try our free website check or book a call and we will tell you what we would look at first. You can also read more about our ad management service, or start with our beginner’s guide to Meta ads.
We run both Google Ads and Facebook and Instagram ads, and we are happy to answer these questions about your campaigns.
Frequently asked questions
How long should I wait before judging the results?
Give campaigns long enough, and enough budget, to gather meaningful data. Judging after a few days is usually too soon, because platforms need time to learn who responds. A good manager will tell you in advance how long a fair test will take for your budget.
Do I need a good website before I start running ads?
Yes. Ads send people to your website, so a slow or unclear site wastes the money you spend getting visitors there. It is often worth fixing the website first or alongside the ads.
What if my ad manager cannot answer these questions?
Start by asking them to put the answers in writing. If they still cannot, or will not, that tells you something. You are entitled to understand how your money is being spent.
