Just four years ago I was sitting in on a company call sighing at every time our ad agency told us the reason we didn’t get any purchases that week was because of “People typically don’t purchase directly from ads on Facebook.” When I challenged them on this, they replied “well, at least you have tons of engagement!”

To give you a back story, I was the recent hire at my second job as a Marketing Manager for a well-known HSN brand. I was initially brought in to manage and scale their affiliate program, but my knowledge in Facebook and Google ads made me an undeniable asset to their marketing team. I sat in on weekly touchbases between our company and this ad agency and was in awe of how long they managed to keep us as a client while producing very little results.

I went on to become a Marketing Manager for one more brand before I realized that there was a pattern agencies had with their clients — their high monthly retainers almost never translated to breakeven ROI to our company. Pretty much every single call was a revolving door of excuses:

“CPM’s are high”

“There’s too much competition”

“You need to test new creatives”

Another trick I also saw ad agencies pull was reporting inflated revenue or purchase metrics to claim high performance. This is more egregious than the latter because you’ll sit on these calls feeling absolutely confused – especially if you’re tracking top-line sales for your business closely. They’ll claim X% increase in purchases or conversion value attributed to their ads or management but your overall sales have plateaued for months with no upward trend in sight. It’s the ultimate gaslight that keeps you wondering “Are these ads really knocking it out of the park?” and keeps you second-guessing the true value of your investment into Facebook Ads.

Look at this account I recently signed on – their previous agency managed their account for years, but their recently hired marketing lead suddenly grew baffled at the high ROAS being reported every month and very little top line sales to account for the supposed-growth. During my discovery phase, I audited their ad account and uncovered something unsettling:

For over 18 months, their former agency spent aggressively on retargeting/remarketing campaigns, essentially blasting ads on existing customers and other warm audiences, by over 220%! In other words, for every dollar spent on prospecting (or new customers), they were spending close to $2.20 on re-engaging current customers.

Current customers are already cheaper to acquire, just off the fact that they have purchased from you before. They’re also likely to have signed up for your email list or already follow you on social media, or on your SMS list or searching for you on Google – making paying to reach them through FB ads an exorbitant waste of precious ad spend.

When I transitioned into performance marketing, I saw first hand how most agencies twist these very plausible reasons into elaborate explanations that an unsuspecting brand could accept at face value. This is precisely why most business owners feel like they’ve been played after working with an agency – thousands of dollars of investment lost yet virtually nothing to show for it. No wonder ad agencies have a bad reputation and why many business owners believe Facebook Ads is a scam.

If you’ve ever worked with an agency and got poor results, I just want to let you know that I see you. This is precisely why I feel compelled to do what I do – I obsess over getting results for my clients and I’m ready to get results for your brand as well. The question is, are you ready to turn your ad account around in 30 days (or less?)