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Welcome to the Marketing Matters podcast for small business owners, entrepreneurs and really anyone who has anything that you want more people to find. Because you being the best kept secret helps no one, right? And that's because you can be so great at what you do. But if you aren't great at advertising what you do, then no one can find you, right? That's why in every single episode, I'm going to show you how you can use paid ads to hit your goals 10 times sooner. It's time you finally learn how to win with paid ads. I'll show you how to score and be known by more. Let's get started. Today we're going to talk about outsourcing and Ashley, if you are not watching this on YouTube, if you're listening to it on the podcast, you might want to go watch this on the on the YouTube channel. And I don't know if you knew this about YouTube, but you can click the little gear and click playback Speed and speed it up. I don't know if I'm the only like crazy person that like has to listen to everything on 2x or like 5x speed if it lets me. So I am doing some drawings on the board. So if you're listening to this, don't fear, I'm going to verbalize it really well because we're just going to do a little bit of math. So if you're driving or walking, just like envision the math. It's going to be great. So what we're talking about is should you outsource your advertising? Because I worked at four ad agencies over the last decade and I love ad agencies. Thank God for ad agencies because I wouldn't be here with you if I hadn't worked at these companies. And, and I worked at four incredible companies. All of them were amazing and it was so many different clients, so many different experiences and I'm going to share with you when it does make source does make sense for you to use an ad agency when it doesn't. And in my opinion, just a few things you should think about as pros and cons no matter what you decide to do with your business. Now, before I jump in, if you haven't gotten your ticket to the Power of Paid Ad Summit as I sit here today and record it, it is 14 days. It is two weeks from today. We sold out a Platinum VIP. We have less than five regular VIP VIP tickets and then we're going to sell out of general admission soon. And by my estimations, it's going to be in the Next week. So I'm really excited to see you. If you already have your ticket, I hope you are so ready for the event that could change your life, change your business and could change you. So get your ticket below. I cannot tell you about how I'm just like a little giddy kid at Christmas at the idea of just being in this room with these six, seven and yes, eight figure entrepreneurs. So the thing I shared recently is that no matter where you're at, if you have a 0 to $10,000 a month business, at 10 to $100,000 a month business, or 100,000amonth to $1,000,000 a month business, wherever your business is at, paid ads can speed up how quickly you get to the next level. So some of you that have these more established businesses, you have half a million, a million, $5 million a year and you're like, is there more? Yes. I mean think about it, think about this, big companies, you know, the, the on cloud, the Apple, the, you know, Stanley cup that's sitting here. These companies, you know what they don't do, they don't hit 5 million in a month or 10 million in a month and say we're good, we're done, we don't need even more any more customers, we don't need any more clients. They say, here's the goal for next year. There's always more, there's always more, there's more impact, there's more money, there's more lives. You can benefit and serve with what you have to offer. So even if you have an established business, this is for you, okay? Paid ad speeds up how quickly you get to the next layer and level. So if you have not gotten your ticket to the power of paid Ad Summit, click the link below this video or this podcast or go to ashleybrock.com summit, get your ticket. There are some power houses in the room and yeah, someone that I've looked up to for a very, very, very long time who has a multi million dollar, I'm pretty sure she has a eight or nine figure business if I'm being honest. She's going to be there. So it's going to be a surprise to your delight. And I'm not going to tell you who it is. It's just someone I look up to and admire who is just in her, in her calling. And yeah, I'm going to just stop there. So let's talk about if and when you should outsource. So I'm going to do some math, I'm going to do some pros and cons. I have my notes. So if you are watching me on YouTube, I'm going to just reference my notes here because I. I, like, wrote, like a novel for this because I have so many strong opinions about outsourcing and whether you should do that or not. Because it can be very tempting to just say, here's the money. Go do it. Right. Like, we do that for a lot of areas of our life. Like, we're like, landscaping. Yes, please. Instacart. Yes, please. And so you might be tempted to follow that same behavior pattern when it comes to your advertising. Just pay the money. Yes, please. Well, unlike landscaping and unlike Instacart, you are not guaranteed something specific. Like, you are not. You are not immediately getting instantaneous gratification for your decision with paid advertising. Now, have I seen it happen? Yes. Would it be surprised if it happened? No. But what I can say is advertising is a skill and it takes time. And so I really want you to think about these few things as it. As you make your decision on should you outsource or not. And I really want you to consider this. And I actually wrote this in an email today. I was gonna pull it up, but I really pray for you that 2025 is the year where your desire for instantaneous gratification goes to die, so that the opportunity for you to actually hit your goals comes to life. And let me look at how I shared this earlier today. I said, gosh, I said, imagine if you actually decided that 2025 was the year we let our desire for instantaneous gratification go to die. What would happen? I'll tell you. Your results would come to life because they would not be suppressed by the pressure we put on everything to be instant. Your dream would actually have room to grow. Literal breathing room. Have you ever been in the middle of doing something and someone is, like, breathing over your shoulder, tapping their foot, like, hurry up. It's frustrating, right? Don't do that with your goals. Don't do that with the new plant that you're watering. And don't do that with a new skill that you're growing. Now, if you're coming to the Power of Paid Ad Summit, it's probably paid ads, which is the skill. But I really want you to think about you having a year where instantaneous gratification goes to die. You say, goodbye. You say, I am in it for everything beyond the three seconds in front of me, the three miles in front of me. I'm here for the 300 miles, the 3,000 miles in front of me. Imagine if you actually gave your goals room to breathe. So I just want to get started with that because what we're talking about today is a big decision. Do you outsource? Do you not? And so let's take a look at some of the facts. So with outsourcing, I'm not bash. Let's be clear. What I'm not doing on this episode, what I am not doing is bashing ad agencies. I think they're a brilliant business model. I think I've seen them grow and transform businesses. And there are instances where it makes sense. Okay, so I'm not going to bash. I will never say one single bad word about any company that I worked for, because they're all incredible. I learned something every single day for over a decade at those jobs. So there's pros and cons. Let's do some math real quick as we think about, like, okay, let's talk about money. So if you were to outsource advertising, and when I say outsource advertising, let's. Let's specifically talk about social media ads. Because there's so many types of ads, right? Y'all know I'm so big on Google Ads, YouTube ads, TikTok ads, Instagram ads, all the ads. Well, let's just pretend that you're outsourcing just social media ads. And it is fifteen hundred dollars a month. It's going to range between fifteen hundred and five thousand a month for you to have someone do your Instagram ads. And if they're less than fifteen hundred dollars a month, I am literally scared for you and your safety of your ads. Because if someone's remotely good at what they do, they're not going to charge fifteen hundred dollars or less than fifteen hundred dollars. Now listen, let's be clear. Everybody has to start somewhere. Every body. So if you're okay spending money with someone who doesn't have much experience, it doesn't mean they can't be great. It just means, like, they don't have much experience. So just be careful, that's all. We all have to start somewhere. Like, I get that. I just, I want you to think about how, like, I charged years ago, at minimum $10,000 to manage one account, minimum. $10,000 a month, that is. And so if I did it today, it would probably be $200,000 a month minimum. So $1500 a month for just social media ads. Let's just pretend on the absolute lowest end, someone is helping you manage ads for that price. And that's one service line. So imagine if you paid fifteen hundred dollars a month for Facebook ads, and then another fifteen hundred dollars a month for Google Ads, and then another $1500 a month for TikTok ads, and then another thousand dollars a month for someone to help you with email and list growth, and then another like 500amonth for people to help you create lead magnets in your business. So that adds up to 3000-4500-5500-6000. So that's 6000amonth. And that's the bare minimum. Bare, bare, bare bones. Oh, we didn't even add YouTube ads in there. Let's just pretend you got a bargain and it's 500amonth. So now we're at 3, 4, 5, 5500. We're at $6,500 a month. Okay. With all of those services. Now, again, that fee, like, actually scares me on how low it is for each of those. But just pretend that $6,000 a month. And then if you were to say, okay, $6,000 a month times 12, that's $72,000 a year. And that's not $72,000 for one year. That's $72,000 per year. And you know that rates will go up. So that'll end up being 72k a year, 100k a year, 150k a year. And I'm going to be honest with you, some of the clients that I was managing at the ad agency that I most recently had worked at, they were paying six figures per month to the agency. Six figures per month to have our team do their advertising. Right? Six figures a month. I just want to make sure you heard that that's what they're paying in fees. That's not what they're paying on their ad spend. They were, they were spending about $1 million a month. Okay, so they were paying a 10% fee. In fact, let me help you think about how you're probably going to be charged by an agency. You're going to be charged by an agency in one of three ways, most likely. So option number A, being an agency is just a retainer fee. So they're just going to charge you a certain amount per month. Okay. The other option that you might get paid for with an agency is a retainer plus commission. So that retainer might be lower, like 500amonth plus a percentage of spend. POS a percentage of spend. Retainer plus POS is percentage of spend. So what that could mean is, hey, we'll charge you $500 per month, plus we're going to charge you 5% of spend. So if your spend is 1,000, they would charge 5% of that, et cetera. And then obviously as you grow and you're spending $100,000 a month, that 5% of spend grows. Now you might be thinking, why would agencies keep that percentage of spend? Does that disincentivize people to spend more? So it could be in the eyes of like you, if you're the person paying that 5% spend, you're like, crap, if I spend more, I'm having to pay more. I'll tell you right now the amount of work and attention to detail and care that your ad account needs. If you're spending $500 a month versus half a million dollars a month or $5 million a month, it's just a different level of care. There's more moving pieces, there's more data that's being, you know, accumulated. There's more decisions you need to make. So there is more work that must be done when you're spending more. Right? So it makes sense to have a percentage of spend sometimes. And then the third option is just a straight up pos, which is you're saying, hey, all we're going to charge is a flat rate of your spend and sometimes it's tiered. It's like, hey, we're going to charge 2% up until a million and then we'll charge a 1.5% past 1 million so as not to disincentivize too much for that increased level of spend. So those are the three options. Retainer, retainer plus fee, and just straight fee based with the percentage of spend. So the thing I want you to think about with paid advertising is even if your business is super small or you have like a $5 million business, you are, you're going to be paying this fee indefinitely forever. So one of the advantages with working with me, for instance, is you will pay a one time fe and then you will be good. Now. So I do have options for my mastermind where some sometimes to protect cash flow and to just spread those, those payments out, there is an option to split a payment over some months for, for my mastermind because it's a larger investment, but it's once. I mean, you can stay in the mastermind forever because I'll be honest, many of the clients in my mastermind, they get clients from other people in the mastermind, you know, and so they're like, this is valuable. Or they get ideas from other people in the mastermind that just made them, you know, Half a million dollars. So they, hey, I'm going to stay in here for the community aspect. This is what I need. These are my people. This is where I feel at home. This is where I don't feel lonely. So yes, they will continue to invest in the Mastermind because it feels free to them. So like there is a reason where you're like, oh you, Ashley, what if they pay multiple times? Great, I have people that will renew. So just mathematically what you think you have to think about with an agency is it's indefinitely and you are, you are not. It's kind of like with a home, you know how there's like renting and owning. It's like you're renting versus owning. Like when you learn this or someone on your team learns this, you're building equity in your business, you know what I mean? And one of the other things you have to think about when you're deciding agency versus in house. And by in house, I mean like you in your company. So whether that company is a one person company, a five person company, a 50 person company or a 5000 person company, I mean I can 100% help you scale your business with advertising by having someone on your team do this. But what I want you to think about is one of the disadvantages if you do outsource your advertising is you are going to have a delay. Because an advertising agency, the model is that the people that are working on your account are working on other accounts. Now I have seen in the advertising world with some of these massive companies, they're like, hey, I want a dedicated account rep, I want one person on my account. And that comes at a quite a premium to have one person exclusively focused on your account. So it's possible, but you will pay probably a million dollars in fees, agency fees, to have like a dedicated account team specifically. And if your company's at 30 million, it may make sense. But here's some other things I want you to think about is the speed and that delay. So if you decide on a random Tuesday, I want to have a sale in my business. I want to set this up. We're going to change the landing page. We want to make this change in the ad copy and the messaging. If you're outsourcing, you have to say, hey, we would like to make a change. And most agencies, they're going to have someone respond to you within 24 hours. One business day, one to two business days, it's totally normal. You can make that change like immediately if it's you. So you have to be okay with that delay. And sometimes that delay could cost you revenue and how quickly that action can be taken because they're just working on other accounts. Another thing you have to think about is you get your messaging better than anyone else and so does your team. So there is all this time that can be spent when you are onboarding an agency and getting them to help understand your business. And I have seen it. Time after time after time, clients come to me and they say, I already tried agencies, I already tried this, already tried this. They didn't get my message. I was having to micromanage them because they didn't get it and I was making tweaks. And then they start to give up. Because when you spend a couple months and someone still doesn't get what you have to offer or how to communicate it the right way, you just spent all this time with your most valuable resource that's limited. And it's your time trying to get this agency to understand what you have to offer. Now, listen, I worked at an agency. I can get. I got businesses, I got this software business like it was the back of my hand. And I loved it. So it's not to say it's impossible. I'm just saying it's not guaranteed. Where it is guaranteed that you get your messaging better than anybody else. Right. And so does your team. So onboarding, granting access, you know, and you know, you are opening up like someone spending your money. So there is that risk, like make sure that they click the right button on the right dollar amount. Like that's a reasonable thing to think about. And let's see, I've made. And by the way, I've made errors. When I worked at the agency side, there was one time I. I was hysterical because I made. Made an error. I'm a human being. I made an error and I clicked the wrong button. I found it within 24 hours, which was good. And I immediately told my boss as I shook while I spoke, but I'd accidentally spent too much money on something because I did click a button. And so it's just a risk. It's just a risk. Granted, I was able to work with Google and get a credit for that back, thank the Lord, because it was kind of like their algorithm kind of messed up. Like it was a whole thing. I'm not gonna go into it. It was all good. But it is a risk that you're letting someone else spend your money. But that's with anything, right? So let's see, we talked about service line price, Varies on how good someone is. Let's see, that person is on many accounts. Yeah, you're going to be on many accounts. And you just have to hope that your account manager either is not overwhelmed and on too many accounts or that they really like your business and they prefer yours. I'm just being honest. It's true. So if you're, if you're like their favorite, then like you'll probably get more attention. Now granted, I will tell you this, some agencies are on a like hourly basis. Like that account manager has to spend a certain number of hours on your account and then they log your time and so that you are like guaranteed to get that, that time slot, you know. But it's just, it's the truth that they're human beings too. And when you're overwhelmed and you have a lot of squeaky wheels, if one wheel, one person's got a flat tire and your car is intact, they're going to let yours keep rolling while they manage the, the one that's on the side of the road stranded, you know? You know what I mean? So just think little things you have to think about when you outsource. See, here's a benefit of an agency, a really big benefit and I'm so grateful for this. When you work at an ad agency, you have an abundance of people with experience with different clients and different levels. Like I had a hub of brilliant people that I could say, hey, this account isn't performing well. What, what have you seen work with this? Or hey, this retail client is struggling. What audiences are you trying? Or oh, what age targeting are you using? What location targeting are you using? What is your retargeting structure? What's working best with prospecting? Like you get to see data and what's working because there's so many tests being done at once. I mean there's hundreds of thousands of dollars at an ad agency being spent a day. There's data and data makes decisions and decisions make dollars. So it's really cool that when you are at an agency, like the person that you're outsourcing to has other resources to tap into, which is really nice. Which is why if you are outsourcing to like a one man band or like a freelancer, which I was for a while by the way, and thank God, thank goodness that I was able to help people not have to pay what they would pay an agency to pay me to do the work. But one disadvantage when I was doing that by myself is I didn't have a team to bounce ideas off anymore. It was kind of just my way or the highway. Granted, I had done this for so long, so I felt super confident. But there were moments where I'm like, man, I wish I had my team back so that I could say, hey, what would you do? Hey, can you help me think through this? And that is one of the reasons I created a mastermind for business owners is. And even, even with the program I offer having coaching in an environment where you're getting exposure to other business owners because that outside perspective and feedback is really, really powerful. Let's see. Squeaky will gets the grease. We talked about that with the ad agency. Another like challenge with ad agencies is like account rotation. So you may get someone on your account who kills it. They're doing great, you love them, they get your business and then it just rotates because it's normal turnover. It's a business. A big account comes through, the top account person is going to go work on that bigger account and someone else will get rotated on yours. And it's not to say they're a bad account manager, but one of the facts of the matter is that you might get rotated out with your account support even when you're like in a place where you really enjoy working with that person. Let's see. Onboarding. Okay, okay. We talk about own owning versus renting. You gaining equity by having the skill. And listen, renting is easier, but you have less control. If you want to paint the walls, sometimes you can't. Whereas you do have control when you're the person with the keys and you're in charge. One thing I wrote down in my notes that we're so willing to pay for magic to happen. We're like, hey, I'll just pay for it. It'll just magically happen. And time after time, I've seen instances where the, the challenge, let's do some math real quick is if you are paying, let's just pretend that you are paying $2,000 in ad management fees. So you're paying someone $2,000 a month to do your ads. And let's pretend that you're spending $1500 on the ads themselves. So that's $3500 a month that you're spending on your ads. Right? 2000 to manage and 1500 on the ads themselves. That's 3500. Well, even if your ads get a 2 to 1 return, which means for every dollar you spend, you get double. Woohoo. So if you spend $1500 a month and you're getting a two to one return on your ads. That means you've made $3000. Well, rats, you're paying someone two grand a month. So when you think about the fact that you made 3000, well, your costs are $1500 for the ads and $2000 for the ad management fee. You just lost $500. Oh, no, not good. That's why I say not advertising cost you revenue. Outsourcing your advertising cuts into your revenue. And you or someone on your team knowing advertising and having advertising skills creates revenue. Imagine this dream world, which is actually just complete reality. Imagine where you have someone on your team and they do the emails, they do the social media, and they just so happen to be advertising experts because they've learned from an expert. And so now this is just a part of their job. This is just an hour of the day. You're, you could pay them now. You should give them a raise over time as they can, as they grow the business. You should do that. That is, I have had good increases. I, I, my goal is to pay my people as much as I can possibly pay my people indefinitely. And so you get to do that too, especially when they start creating revenue for you and it's tangible like this. So you really could have someone that just like this is a part of their day. It's an hour of their day. And done. Now you're, now you have like a person on your team that gets your business better than anyone else, who can make changes quicker than anybody else who knows how to not just do Facebook ads, but Also Google Ads, YouTube ads, all the ads. Right. How cool that you can just take someone who is already so eager to learn and on your team and get your message and give them and how empowering that they get a new skill too. Win, win, win. And it doesn't have to cut into your revenue. Woo. Gets me fired up. All right, so last few things is I, I gave the example of a lawn care service I wrote. When you outsource and they can't get to your house and for two weeks. That's what I was talking about with that delay. When you work with an agency is like sometimes you have to pull into your driveway and look at grass you hate because it's growing, but the team just can't get to it quick enough. And it's just something you have to be able to overcome if you are not willing to invest in a lawnmower yourself or having someone on your team or in your family who knows how to cut the grass. See. Okay, yeah. One of the other Notes I wrote is the two biggest line items in my business and in yours. Most likely, if your business is growing exponentially, is that you are paying the most for your team and for your advertising. Your team and your advertising. And those are two things that as the leader of your company and your business, you have got to understand. You've got to have some base level of understanding of how to grow a team and how to advertise and how advertising works. You need to be able to speak to. Because even if you do outsource, say you're like, no matter what, I have all the money, I don't care, I'm in abundance of money. I don't want someone on my team to learn this, which I don't understand why you wouldn't, but pretend that you were like, no, I want to outsource. Great. So you should at least know how to have you or someone on your team be able to manage the advertising agency confidently. And I wrote this, I said, you need to know the basics so that you can confidently manage. Because you will either have ignorance or competence and one will cost you and one will emboss you. And the definition of emboss is to raise or elevate you. Let me say it again. Ignorance. You will have one of one, one or the other of these. You will either have ignorance or competence, one will cost you and one will emboss you or raise you up and elevate your business. And you can't have an elevated business without elevated skills and elevated beliefs. And so it's so important that you or someone on your team at least has the competence to be able to have conversations that you do not. That allows you to not get taken advantage of by someone saying, yeah, impressions are up and yeah, this is just how it works. And yeah, we're making these changes. I have seen someone that says they are an expert in Google Ads and they are indeed not that I have seen someone outsourced to an advertising agency. And I look at the change log, which is the little log that says all the changes that have been made to the account and it's empty. So it's really nice when you at least know what questions to even ask. That's why it's important for you to at least have this foundation of advertising, especially if it's going to be your single largest line item in your business outside of your team. So when you think about what are the pieces of knowledge that will elevate your business and allow you to make the most out of every single dollar you Spend and it's advertising. And Tony Robbins actually said it recently. He said, you can either be a manager of your circumstances or a creator of your life. And you can expedite living that life by becoming findable, which is my core message. You can become findable and it's simpler than you think. That's why those big companies, they don't stop just because they get their revenue target. They don't stop just because they're, they're growing and they've hit a million dollars. They want to go to a billion. They don't just say we're good, they say we're good. We're just getting started. That's what big companies say as they're going to scale. And you know, I've seen people hop around to different ad agencies, like they hop around to different restaurants for burgers. They're just waiting for the right person to make it right for them. But you know just how you like it, which is why you are someone on your team. You could be like, listen, I like it thick, I like it medium, a little pink, I like it sizzling. Char the outside. Like when you're in control, you can guarantee that your burger, when you put it in your mouth, is stinking good. And here's the thing, you may make the burger the first time and you're like, oh, that's gross. But you can refine over time and make your burger the best tasting burger than any burger because you know how you like it. And when you know how to cook the burger and make it have the crisp, you can make that burger on repeat over and over and over again. And although it takes time to make the burger, you've got that strategy forever. And it is the very same thing with advertising. And most companies, I'll be honest, don't go in house until they're at like six figures a month on ad agency fees. In my opinion, you have an advantage to be the company that is not outsource from the. At the end, you can start in house today. You can save the money today. You can create the money today. When you have advertising skills, which is exactly why you belong in the room. At the Power of Paid Ad Summit, I can help you. I can show you how you can train your team. Whether you have a two person team, 50 people team, or 5,000, you belong in the room. At the Power of Paid Ad Summit. I hope this was really helpful as you think about pros and cons of working with an ad agency or not. And, and listen, at the end of the day. I would not be here without the ad agencies I worked for. They are incredible, incredible. And one of my dreams is to enable some of these massive companies to be able to have a team that does this because I just feel like there is so much power in paid advertising, which is one of the reasons we named it the Power of Paid Ad Summit. So I hope this was helpful. I'd love to know if you have other opinions. Honestly, like, if you have experienced something that I missed here as an advantage or disadvantage of an ad agency, please send it to me. I am always so open to feedback, so please send me that those thoughts and I would love to know if this was helpful for you or not. Okay. Can't wait to see you. Click the link below to get your ticket and I will see you on the next episode. We're going to talk about 2025 goal planning and the five things you have to have if you actually want to hit your revenue goals in 2025. So I will see you on the next episode.