Is it worth learning Facebook ads myself or should I hire an agency?

How much is there to learn about Meta ads now?

Less than there used to be, because Meta's Advantage+ settings now handle most targeting, placement and budget decisions. What you still need is a clean setup, an understanding of the numbers, and a steady supply of new ads to test.

• Tracking: purchases reaching Meta through the pixel and Conversions API, which the Facebook and Instagram sales channel sets up on Shopify
• One sales campaign with broad targeting, rather than many small ad sets
• Your breakeven ROAS, worked out from your margin (see what a good ROAS is)
• How to read cost per purchase, frequency and click-through rate
• How to add new ads without restarting what already works

When does running Meta ads yourself make sense?

When spend is modest, you can give the account a few hours every week, and you can produce new ads yourself. Many brands start this way, and learning the basics makes you a far better judge of any agency you hire later.

• Your spend is small enough that a bad week will not hurt the business
• You have photos or video you can turn into new ads every few weeks
• You can check the account a few times a week without making changes on impulse
• You know what a sale is worth to you after product cost, freight and fees

When is it time to hire help with Meta ads?

When the account needs more than you can give it: more new ads each month, more time reading results, or more budget than you are comfortable managing alone.

• Ads are going stale because you cannot make new ones fast enough
• You are checking the account daily and changing things on gut feel
• Spend has grown to the point where a bad week costs more than a month of fees
• The hours you spend on ads are coming out of product, stock or customers

Before you hire, know your breakeven ROAS, keep the ad account and pixel in your own business portfolio, and ask every candidate who will make the new ads. Those three things protect you whoever ends up running the account.

What does running ads yourself actually cost?

Your time and the creative. Count the hours spent making ads, launching tests and reading results each week, put a value on them, then add what you pay for photos and video: that is the real price of doing it yourself.

Owners usually undercount the creative. An account needs new concepts every month, and making them takes longer than launching them, so the bottleneck tends to arrive at the design stage rather than in Ads Manager.

Can I run the ads myself and buy the creative?

Yes, and for many owners it is the best fit. You keep control of budget and the account, and a steady supply of new ads arrives without a shoot every month.

This works well while one sales campaign is enough. Once the account needs daily attention, several campaigns or a testing plan you do not have time to run, full management becomes the better trade.