The UK Founder's Guide to Vetting and Hiring Paid Media Freelancers

Right then. You're a UK founder, you've built something you believe in, and now you need to get it in front of people. So you think, "I'll hire a paid media freelancer." Stop right there. That thought process is probably the first step toward setting a pile of money on fire. The market is flooded with people who've watched a few YouTube videos, got a Google certification, and now call themselves an expert. They'll talk about clicks and impressions while your bank account quietly drains.

The truth is, most founders in the UK hire the wrong person. They hire a technician when they need a strategist. They focus on the hourly rate instead of the potential return. They get dazzled by jargon and forget to ask the simple questions that actually matter. This guide is here to fix that. I'm going to give you the framework we use, the maths you need to know, and the red flags to look for, so you can find someone who will actually grow your business, not just manage your ad spend.

So, you think you need a freelancer?

Let's get one thing straight. There's a huge difference between a freelancer and a proper consultant or specialist agency. A freelancer is often someone you hire to execute a task you've already defined. "Here's the ad copy, here's the audience, please set up the campaign." If that's what you need, fine. But as a founder, is that really what you need? Or do you need someone to challenge your assumptions, help define the strategy, and build a scalable system for acquiring customers?

You're not just paying for someone's time to click around in an ads manager. You're paying for their expertise, their experience from running hundreds of campaigns, and their ability to see the bigger picture. The hidden cost of going cheap isn't just the wasted ad spend; it's the opportunity cost. Six months of running ineffective ads is six months a competitor has been figuring it out. This is what I call the 'learning tax', and for a startup, it can be fatal. Deciding whether to keep it in-house, hire a freelancer, or partner with a specialist is your first major hurdle. The reality is, a true expert partner isn't a cost centre; they are a growth engine, but you have to know how to find them, which can be a real challenge for many UK businesses weighing up DIY ads versus hiring an agency.

We see it all the time. A founder comes to us after spending £10k with a "freelancer" and has nothing to show for it but a report full of meaningless metrics. The freelancer did what they were told, but they never asked if it was the *right* thing to do. They never pushed back on a weak offer or a poorly defined target audience. A real expert will spend more time talking about your business model than your ad account in the first call. That's the difference.

Forget their CV. Demand Case Studies.

When you start talking to people, they'll send you polished pitch decks and talk about their "process." Bin it. The only thing that matters is proof. Can they show you, with real numbers, that they've solved a similar problem for a similar business before? This is non-negotiable.

And I mean *specific* proof. Don't accept vague claims like "we increased traffic for a client." That means nothing. You need to see the guts of a campaign. Look for things like:

-> Relevance: Have they worked with other B2B SaaS companies? Or UK-based eCommerce brands? Or course creators? Niche experience matters. Someone who's brilliant at selling £20 t-shirts on Instagram might be totally lost trying to generate leads for a £50k software contract.
-> Metrics That Matter: Don't get distracted by vanity metrics like 'reach' or 'impressions'. You're a founder, not a brand manager at a FTSE 100 company. You need to see business results. How much revenue was generated? What was the Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)? What was the Cost Per Lead (CPL) or Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)?
-> Real Numbers: A good case study should have real numbers. I remember one campaign where we took a B2B software client from a standing start to generating 4,622 registrations at $2.38 each on Meta Ads. In another, we generated £107k in revenue for a client in the prize draw space at over 600% ROAS. That's the level of detail you should be looking for. It shows they track what matters and aren't afraid to be judged on performance.

If a candidate gets defensive when you ask for this, it's a massive red flag. They'll say "client confidentiality." Nonsense. It's easy to anonymise data. The real reason is usually that they don't have any results worth showing. Honestly, if someone has reviewed our detailed case studies and still feels the need to ask for references, we know it's not a good fit because it shows a fundamental lack of trust from the start. Your job is to find a partner you trust, and that trust should be built on a foundation of proven results. When you're ready to start, this is the core of the UK guide to hiring a paid ads agency that gets results.

The One Bit of Maths That Unlocks Growth

Right, here is the single most important concept you need to grasp. If you learn nothing else, learn this. Your success with paid advertising has very little to do with finding the cheapest leads. It has everything to do with knowing how much you can afford to *spend* to acquire a customer. This is the difference between amateurs and pros.

The magic numbers are your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) and your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). The LTV is the total profit you'll make from an average customer over the entire time they stay with you. The CAC is what you spend on sales and marketing to get that customer.

A healthy business should aim for an LTV:CAC ratio of at least 3:1. This means for every £1 you spend to acquire a customer, you get £3 back in profit over their lifetime. Once you know your LTV, you can work backwards to figure out what you can afford to pay for a lead.

Let's do the maths. Say your LTV is £9,000. A 3:1 ratio means you can afford a CAC of £3,000. If your sales team closes 1 in 10 qualified leads, you can afford to pay up to £300 for a single lead. Suddenly that £150 CPL from a targeted LinkedIn campaign doesn't look so expensive, does it? It looks like a bargain. This is the maths that lets you scale aggressively while your competitors are stuck trying to get £5 leads from Facebook.

Any freelancer or consultant worth their salt will ask you about these numbers on the first call. If they don't, they're not thinking like a business owner. They're thinking like an ad manager. And you need a business owner. This is particularly true for UK B2B SaaS founders looking for an expert, where long sales cycles make understanding these numbers absolutely critical.

To make this real for you, here's a simple calculator. Play with the numbers for your own business. This is your new truth.

What to Ask on the Vetting Call

Once you've seen their case studies and you're confident they understand business maths, it's time for a call. But please, don't ask them generic questions like "what's your experience?". You already know that from their case studies. You need to test how they *think*. Here are the questions that will separate the experts from the amateurs.

1. "Talk me through your process for understanding our ideal customer."
A bad answer will be about demographic data like age, location, and job title. An expert answer will be about pain. They'll ask about the "nightmare scenario" your customer is facing. What keeps them up at night? What's the expensive, urgent problem they have that your product solves? They'll want to understand the customer's world, the podcasts they listen to, the newsletters they read. This is how you develop targeting and ad copy that actually works.

2. "Based on what you know about our business, what platform would you start on and why?"
This is a test of strategic thinking. There is no single "best" platform. The right choice depends entirely on your customer and their behaviour. Are they actively searching for a solution to their problem right now? If so, Google Search ads are likely the place to start. Are they unaware they have a problem, or not actively looking? Then you need to get in front of them on social platforms like LinkedIn or Meta. A good consultant will be able to justify their choice clearly. A bad one will just recommend the platform they are most comfortable with.

3. "What would you change about our current offer or landing page?"
This question is crucial. A top-tier consultant will immediately dissect your offer. They'll tell you that "Request a Demo" is a terrible call to action because it's high friction and offers no immediate value to the prospect. They'll suggest alternatives like a free trial, a valuable lead magnet (like a free audit or a calculator), or a freemium model. They should be brutally honest. If they just say "it looks great," they're either being polite or they lack strategic depth. You need someone who will tell you what's wrong, because that's what you're paying them for. The number one reason campaigns fail is a weak offer, and a real pro knows this.

4. "What do you think a realistic starting Cost Per Lead would be for us?"
This is a bit of a trick question. An expert will never give you a definite number, because it's impossible to know for sure. Tbh, in paid ads, you can't promise anything. However, they *should* be able to give you a realistic range based on their experience and industry benchmarks. For example, from our experience, we know B2C services can range from £5 per lead for something like home cleaning up to £50-60 for a competitive trade like an HVAC engineer. B2B SaaS leads on LinkedIn might be £20-£50. They should be able to have an intelligent conversation about the factors that will influence the cost, like the competitiveness of your market, the strength of your offer, and the country you're targeting. Someone who promises you a £2 CPL without knowing anything about your business is a charlatan.

The goal of this call isn't for them to sell to you. It's for them to demonstrate their expertise so clearly that you realise you'd be a fool not to hire them. That's why vetting ad spend consultants properly in the UK requires you to go beyond the surface questions.

Red Flags: When to Run for the Hills

It's just as important to know what to avoid. If you hear any of the following during your vetting process, end the conversation and move on. It will save you a world of pain and money.

-> The Guarantee: "We guarantee a 5x ROAS in 90 days." This is the number one sign of an amateur or a scammer. There are no guarantees in paid advertising. The market changes, platforms change their algorithms, competitors adapt. An expert deals in probabilities and processes, not promises.
-> The Secret Sauce: "We have a proprietary algorithm/secret strategy that nobody else has." Rubbish. There are no secrets. Success comes from relentless testing, deep customer understanding, and solid execution of fundamentals. Anyone selling you a "secret" is selling snake oil.
-> Focus on Vanity Metrics: If their proposal and reports are full of talk about impressions, reach, and clicks, but light on details about conversions, revenue, and ROAS, they are hiding a lack of performance behind useless numbers. You can't pay salaries with impressions.
-> No Pushback: A good partner will challenge you. They'll tell you your website's conversion rate is terrible, your offer is confusing, or your target market is too broad. If a candidate agrees with everything you say, they are not an expert; they are a yes-man. You don't need another one of those.
-> One-Size-Fits-All Approach: If they immediately recommend the exact same strategy for your B2B SaaS company as they used for their last eCommerce client, they don't understand your business. Strategy must be tailored. Period.

Ultimately, you're looking for a partner, not a vendor. You need someone who is as invested in your business outcomes as you are. Their success should be tied to your success. This is a subtle but critical mindset shift that separates the top 1% of paid media professionals from the rest.

Your Ads Aren't the Problem, Your Offer Is

I'm going to say this again because it's that important. Most of the time, when a founder says "my ads aren't working," what they really mean is "my offer isn't compelling enough." You can have the most brilliantly targeted, beautifully designed ad campaign in the world, but if it leads to a landing page with a weak offer, it will fail. It's like having a brilliant salesperson who can get anyone to the front door, but the shop inside is empty.

Your offer's only job is to provide a moment of undeniable value. For a SaaS company, the gold standard is a free trial with no credit card required. Let the product sell itself. For a service business, it could be a free, automated audit that provides instant insight. For us, it's a free 20-minute strategy call where we audit failing ad campaigns. We solve a small part of the problem for free to earn the right to solve the whole problem.

The most common offender is the "Request a Demo" button. It's arrogant. It presumes your prospect has nothing better to do than schedule a meeting to be sold to. It's all about what *you* want, not what *they* need. You have to flip that. Give, give, give, then ask. Provide value upfront. A good paid media expert will help you engineer an offer that people can't refuse. If your conversations are all about ad creative and not about the offer, you're focusing on the wrong thing. This is the core reason you need a consultant and not just a button-pusher, which is something we explore deeply when discussing the real differences between hiring a B2B ad consultant and going DIY.

So, What Should This Actually Cost?

This is the question every founder asks. The answer, frustratingly, is "it depends." But I can give you some realistic goalposts for the UK market.

For management, you're typically looking at two models: a fixed monthly retainer or a percentage of ad spend. For smaller budgets (under £5k-£10k/month), a retainer is more common, and you can expect to pay anywhere from £1,000 to £5,000+ per month for a good consultant or small agency. For larger spends, a percentage model (usually 10-20%) is more common.

Then there's the ad spend itself. Don't even bother starting unless you're willing to commit at least £1,000-£2,000 per month. Anything less and you simply won't get enough data fast enough to make intelligent decisions. The goal in the first few months is to buy data and learn, not necessarily to be profitable from day one.

To help you budget, here's another calculator. Set your monthly lead goal and select your industry to get a rough idea of the ad spend you might need. This is based on the typical CPL ranges we see across our clients.

Your Vetting Action Plan

Right, that was a lot of information. Let's boil it down into a simple, actionable plan. This is how you vet and hire a paid media expert who will actually help your business grow.

When It's Time to Call in the Experts

Look, you can try to do all this yourself. You can spend months learning the platforms, testing audiences, writing copy, and probably making all the classic mistakes. And you might eventually figure it out. But what is the cost of that time? How many customers could you have acquired in those six months if you'd had an expert guiding you from day one?

Hiring the right paid media partner isn't an expense. It's an investment in a predictable, scalable growth engine for your business. It's about buying speed and expertise, and avoiding the costly 'learning tax' that sinks so many startups.

If you're a UK founder and you're serious about growth, you need a partner who thinks like you do—in terms of profit, customers, and long-term value. If you're tired of the jargon and want a straightforward conversation about how to actually grow your business with paid advertising, perhaps we should talk. We offer a completely free, no-obligation strategy session where we'll look at your business and give you an honest assessment of what's possible. No hard sell, just actionable advice.

Hope this helps!