10 Strategies to Hire the Perfect Ads Expert + 45 Q's to Ask Them

Hiring a freelancer can be scary. You often don't know what their experience is in your niche. You don't know if they've worked with other brands in your industry. And you have to go by their references or their sales pitches, without a concrete way to vet them. Outsourcing decisions can be risky and they can get expensive. Sometimes you're stuck working with someone for several months until you finally realize that they're not a good fit.

To minimize the risk involved and save yourself time and money, you need to make sure you have all the right information upfront.

Yep, we've all been there. Sometimes we want to expand into a certain marketing channel - like Facebook ads. And we can't find the right expert that will help us be profitable and reach our ROAS goals.

So, let's ensure that you have everything you need to hire the world's best advertising experts. We’ve gathered a list of strategies and questions designed to help you hire the best people.

1. Get an expert with the right experience

A person may be extremely skilled in one area, such as paid advertising or Facebook ads, but completely inexperienced in Pinterest ads. They may also be inexperienced in managing campaigns in your industry. The type of budget and strategy you need may vary depending on the industry or niche that you're trying to market to. The more they know about and are proficient in each of these areas, the greater the chance that they’ll be a good fit for your brand.

Questions to ask them:

1. What industry-relevant experience do you have?
2. What kinds of campaigns have you previously managed?
3. Which niches and audiences have you targeted?
4. What was the highest budget you have managed thus far?
5. Describe some work-related success stories.
6. Can you show me some examples?

2. Make sure they know advertising, inside and out

Time is money. You don't have time to train your freelancer to use the channels and tools you might be using. Otherwise you would have hired someone in-house right? Make sure that your expert knows advertising, campaign structure, budget management, and the particular channels that you are going to be using (Facebook, Google, Instagram, Pinterest, Amazon ads).

Questions to ask them:

1. What is your experience with each advertisement channel?
2. Do you have a Facebook and Google score?
3. Which advertising tools do you use?
4. Which platforms have you advertised on?
5. Do you know how to connect product feeds to these platforms?
6. Can you show me your results from a previous campaign you ran?

3. Check their availability

You have to make sure that your freelancer has the time to put in to the project. So be upfront and ask them the right questions. Don't let them string you along while they're busy working on other things. Make sure that your brand is at the top of their priority list.

Questions to ask them:

1. Can you make yourself available to meet our marketing schedule needs?
2. Are you available during our working hours?
3. How many projects are you currently working on?
4. How many hours will this project take you per week/month?
5. What type of communication agreement (weekly/bi-weekly call) can we set up with you?

4. Compare their fee to the media budget

It's important to understand how your expert came up with their pricing structure. In order to properly prioritize marketing activities, marketers must understand how much each activity costs. And then weigh those costs against the potential revenue they are expected to drive.

Questions to ask them:

1. How do you set your fee? (As a percentage of the media budget or is it a fixed fee?)
2. Do you charge a minimum fee?
3. Is your fee related to the results you generate? (It's usually tied to the CPA or cost per acquisition)

5. Can they build the right campaign strategy?

A good plan is a great recipe for success. You can quickly tell how good the expert is based on the strategy they create for your business. It's important to create a plan before starting to advertise. That's why here at Mayple we get the world's top expert to create a marketing strategy for all of your campaigns before you pull the trigger.

Questions to ask them:

1. How do you plan a campaign?
2. How do you decide on each campaign’s channel distribution?
3. What do you think about retargeting?
4. Do you A/B test different campaign messages?
5. Can you make a comprehensive marketing strategy before starting any work?

6. KPI tracking

It is important that every member of your team understand your expectations of their work and what KPIs they need to hit every month. It's also important that the ads expert understands which KPIs are their top priority and has a plan to hit them. Don't let them fool you by saying "I really don't know what will happen in the future". Get a basic idea, a marketing plan, and see if that's doable for your business.

Questions to ask them:

1. Which KPIs do you think are relevant to us?
2. Which KPI’s do you expect to reach?
3. How long will it take you to reach them?
4. What are your ROAS goals for the next 3,6,12 months?
5. Can you show me other brands you've worked with that hit these goals?

7. Clarify the timeline

The KPIs bring you to a large discussion of the timeline. Now that you have an idea of their strategy and the kind of growth that they can achieve get really granular and talk about the timeline. Make sure you know when they start the execution phase, when they finish testing each campaign or iteration. Get an idea of how much time they need to spend on each project or campaign.

Questions to ask them:

1. When can you start?
2. How long will it take you to launch new campaigns?
3. For how long will you test each campaign?
4. What happens in month 1, month 2, and month 3?
5. How many hours per week will you be dedicating to my brand?

8. Clarify the reporting

Like in any relationship, communication is key when you're working with an advertising expert. One of the most challenging aspects of working with a freelancer is the lack of transparency and communication. It's really important to establish regular meetings and set the expectation of what you want to see on the freelancer's reports every week/month.

Questions to ask them:

1. Which metrics do you track?
2. Which reporting format do you use?
3. What would be the frequency of the reports you generate (weekly/monthly)?
4. How detailed are your reports? Ad-level or campaign-level?

9. Make sure they have what they need

A happy hire makes for a more productive, efficient and successful worker. Knowing the freelancer's needs can help you ensure that both sides are happy. It's also a great way to prevent confusion and technical delays once they’re hired.

Improper ad account management can lead to clumsy and lengthy work processes, it’s important that you make sure they know how to use the tools your company uses. Also, make sure that the ads expert has access to your existing campaigns - such as Facebook Ads or Google Ads.

This way the freelancer will be able to create well-organized campaigns and a better work structure.

Questions to ask them:

1. Are there any materials you need us to send to you?
2. What about access to our ad accounts?
3. Do you have all our brand assets (colors, logos, designs)?

10. Must Haves

Here are a few more general tips to help you protect yourself from scammers and find the right people to work with.

1. Own your own accounts - this is very important. No freelancer or agency should ever own the accounts you use to manage your campaigns.
2. Transparent fees and media budgets - know where your money goes.
3. Make sure you actually work with the person you meet - ensure you’re their top priority..

Mayple resolves all these for businesses. We make sure you own your advertising data and digital assets and get high-quality service and high-end performance over time.

Bonus tip

If the freelancer or agency has a chance to review your past campaigns before you start working together, they will be able to assess how they can improve your performance in future campaigns.

Give them the chance to decide whether they can improve your campaign's performance or not. And as always, let us know if you need to get matched to one of the top ads experts in your niche.