UK Ad Consultant: The Founder's Vetting Guide

Finding a decent paid ads consultant in the UK can feel like a proper nightmare. The market's flooded with people calling themselves 'experts' who've done a quick online course and now think they're ready to manage your hard-earned cash. They talk a good game, promise you the moon, but when it comes to it, they waste your budget on vanity metrics and deliver nothing that actually moves the needle.

You're right to be struggling. You need someone who gets your specific business, who can deliver results you can actually see in your bank account, and who doesn't cost the earth. The good news is, they do exist. You just need to know how to spot them. This isn't about finding the person with the slickest website; it's about finding a genuine partner who will treat your business and your money like their own. It's about vetting for strategic thinking, not just technical skills. Forget the sales pitches. We're going to walk through how to find someone who can actually do the job.

Why are good UK ad consultants so hard to find?

The main problem is that most business owners are looking for the wrong things. They get bogged down in the wrong details and miss the massive red flags waving right in their face. It's easy to get dazzled by a low price or big promises, but that's usually where it all goes wrong.

First off, let's bust a few myths. The idea that you need a consultant in your specific city, be it London, Birmingham, or Glasgow, is outdated. I've worked with clients all over the country, and the world for that matter. What matters is their expertise in your niche, not their proximity to your office. A video call is all you need. Secondly, the cheapest quote is almost always the most expensive in the long run. A low management fee is worthless if they're burning through your ad spend with no return. I've seen 'cheap' freelancers waste thousands of pounds of a client's money before they came to us for help.

The biggest mistake, though, is hiring a 'technician' when you need a 'strategist'. A technician knows how to set up a campaign in Facebook Ads Manager. They can pick some interests, write some basic copy, and hit 'publish'. A strategist, on the other hand, starts by asking about your business. What are your profit margins? What's your customer lifetime value (LTV)? What's your average order value? They understand that the goal isn't just to get cheap clicks or leads; it's to acquire profitable customers. They'll help you figure out how much you can actually afford to pay for a customer and build a campaign backwards from there. One of teh biggest challenges we help clients with is figuring out a sustainable paid advertising strategy that actually makes them money.

This is the fundemental difference. A technician reports on Cost Per Click (CPC). A strategist reports on Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) relative to your LTV. You're not just hiring someone to manage ads; you're hiring a commercial partner to help you grow. Finding this person requires a proper vetting process, not just a quick glance at their LinkedIn profile.

What should I be looking for in a consultant?

Alright, so you know you need a strategist. But how do you actually identify one in the wild? It comes down to a three-part vetting process: their proof, their process, and their initial consultation. This isn't a quick chat; it's an investigation.

Proof is in the Pudding (Case Studies)

Any consultant worth their salt will have case studies. But don't just get impressed by big revenue numbers. You need to dig deeper. The first question should be: "Is this relevant to my business?" If you're a B2B SaaS company, a case study about a local pizza shop is pretty much useless to you. You want to see that they have experience in your world.

For example, we've worked with numerous software companies. I remember one campaign generated 4,622 registrations at $2.38 for a B2B software, and another got 5082 software trials at $7. These aren't just vanity numbers; they show an understanding of the B2B funnel. For another client, a medical job matching SaaS, we took their Cost Per User Acquisition from a painful £100 down to just £7. That didn't happen by accident; it happened because we understood their business model and built a strategy to match. If a consultant can't show you this kind of specific, relevant success, they're probably not the right fit.

When you look at a case study, it should tell a story: What was the client's problem? What was the consultant's strategy to fix it? What were the specific results (ROAS, CPA, revenue), and what did they learn? If it's just a logo and a vague testimonial, it's not a real case study.

The Initial Consultation is the Audition

This is where you seperate the wheat from the chaff. A weak consultant will use this call to sell to you. A great consultant will use it to diagnose your problems. We offer a free initial consultation where we'll actually go into a potential client's ad account and review their strategy with them. By the end of that call, they have actionable advice they can use, whether they hire us or not. That's the standard you should look for.

Go into this call prepared with questions. Don't ask "Can you get me results?". Ask "How?". Here are some good starters:

• -> "Based on what you know about my business, which platforms would you prioritise and why?"
• -> "What's your process for testing new audiences and creative?"
• -> "How do you measure success beyond clicks and impressions? What KPIs matter to you?"
• -> "What information would you need from me to get started?"

Their answers will tell you everything. A good answer to the testing question would be something like, "We'd start by defining your ideal customer profile based on their pain points, then build lookalike audiences from your existing customer list and test interest-based audiences in separate ad sets to find winning segments. For creative, we'd test 2-3 different angles—maybe a UGC video, a static image focused on the outcome, and a carousel showing features." A bad answer is "We'll test lots of things and see what works."

The biggest red flag is someone who guarantees results. You can't. Paid advertising is dynamic. You can have a solid process and a high degree of confidence, but you can't promise a specific ROAS. Anyone who does is either lying or inexperienced.

The simple flowchart below shows how you should approach vetting a consultant from start to finish.

How much does a UK paid ads consultant actually cost?

This is a big one, and rightly so. You need to know what to budget, not just for the ad spend itself but for the expert managing it. In the UK, freelance consultants typically use a few different pricing models.

The most common is a monthly retainer. This is a fixed fee you pay each month for them to manage your campaigns. For a skilled freelancer, you should expect this to start at around £1,000 per month and go up to £5,000 or more, depending on the complexity of your account and the scope of work. Be very wary of anyone charging a few hundred quid a month. At that rate, they either have way too many clients to give yours proper attention, or they're just not very good.

Another model is a percentage of ad spend. This is more common for larger accounts, typically spending over £10,000 a month. The fee is usually between 10-20% of the monthly ad spend. It can work well as it scales with your investment, but you need to make sure the consultant is focused on efficiency, not just on encouraging you to spend more.

Finally, there's performance-based pricing. This sounds great in theory—you only pay for results!—but it's often a red flag. It can create misaligned incentives. For example, a consultant paid per lead might focus on generating a high volume of cheap, low-quality leads rather than the qualified prospects your business actually needs. A true professional backs their ability and charges for their time and expertise via a retainer, because they know their value will be proven in your business's growth.

It's absolutly vital to distinguish between the management fee and the ad spend. The fee is what you pay the consultant. The ad spend is what you pay the platforms like Google and Meta. Don't let anyone bundle these together without a clear breakdown. For a deeper dive into this, we've put together a full guide on how to understand and budget for UK ad costs.

To help you work out the potential return on your investment, you can use the simple calculator below. You can adjust your expected ad spend, the consultant's fee, and your target Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) to see what the numbers might look like.

What results can I realistically expect?

This is the million-dollar—or rather, million-pound—question. The honest answer is: it depends. It depends on your industry, your offer, your pricing, and how good your website is. But a good consultant should be able to give you a realistic ballpark based on their experience.

Let's talk about some real numbers. For something like a lead, a signup, or a newsletter subscriber in a developed country like the UK, you can generally expect a Cost Per Click (CPC) between £0.50 and £1.50. With a decent landing page converting at 10-30%, your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) will likely land somewhere between £1.60 and £15.00. One campaign we worked on for a software app got over 45,000 signups at under £2 each, which is on the very good end of that scale.

For eCommerce sales, the numbers are different. Your conversion rate will be lower, probably in the 2-5% range. This means your cost per purchase could be anywhere from £10 to £75. Of course, what really matters here is ROAS. We've seen campaigns for eCommerce clients achieve fantastic returns. A women's apparel brand we worked with got a 691% return, and a cleaning products company saw a 633% return. For these businesses, a £25 cost per sale is brilliant if the average order value is £150.

The key is to have these conversations upfront. A good consultant will help you establish realistic KPIs before a single penny is spent. They'll talk about a 'testing phase' where the goal is to gather data and find what works, during which costs might be higher. Then, they'll move into a 'scaling phase' where they double down on the winners to improve efficiency. Anyone who skips the testing phase and promises instant, cheap results doesn't understand how this works.

To give you a clearer picture, the chart below shows typical CPA ranges you might see in the UK for different advertising goals. It's not a guarantee, but it's a realistic starting point for your expectations.

I've found someone. Now what?

So you've done your due diligence, vetted a few candidates, and found a consultant who seems like a great fit. The work doesn't stop there. The first 30-60 days are critical for setting the relationship up for success. This is the onboarding phase, and it's a two-way street.

Your job is to arm your new consultant with everything they need to win. This means providing clear, unrestricted access to your ad accounts, Google Analytics, and any other relevant platforms. But more importantly, you need to give them context. They need to understand your business inside and out. You should provide them with:

• -> A detailed Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Not just demographics, but their pain points, their goals, what keeps them up at night.
• -> Your core business goals. "More sales" isn't a goal. "Increase new customer revenue by 20% in Q3 while maintaining a 4x ROAS" is a goal.
• -> Your numbers. What's your average customer lifetime value? What are your gross margins? They need this to know how much they can afford to spend to acquire a customer.
• -> Any past advertising data. What have you tried before? What worked? What was a disaster? Don't let them repeat your past mistakes.

In return, your consultant should provide you with a clear plan of action. This should be more than just "I'll run some ads". Look for a 30-60-90 day plan. What will they focus on in the first month? (Usually this is account audit, research, and initial campaign builds). What about the second month? (Testing and optimisation). And the third? (Scaling winners). They should also establish a clear communication and reporting cadence. Will you get a weekly report? A bi-weekly call? You need to know what to expect. This entire process is about building a partnership, and if that sounds like a lot of work, we have a complete framework for how founders can effectively manage their agencies and freelancers to get the best possible return.

So, what's the final checklist?

We've covered a lot of ground. It can seem daunting, but it really boils down to a systematic process of asking the right questions and looking for the right evidence. To make it easier, here's a summary of the entire vetting process in a simple table. Use this as your checklist when you're assessing potential consultants.

Finding the right consultant is one of the most important investments you can make in your business's growth. It's not just about offloading a task; it's about bringing in specialist expertise that can unlock new levels of scale and profitability. A great consultant pays for themselves many times over, not just in the revenue they generate but in the costly mistakes they help you avoid.

The process takes time and effort, but rushing it and hiring the wrong person will cost you far more in the long run. Follow this process, do your homework, and trust your gut. You're not looking for a magician; you're looking for a skilled, strategic partner who can build a predictable and profitable advertising system for your business.

If you're going through this process and want a second opinion, or if you'd like to see what a professional, data-driven approach could look like for your business, we offer a completely free, no-obligation strategy session. We'll dive into your ad account, look at your current strategy, and give you our honest, expert opinion on how you can improve. Feel free to get in touch to schedule yours.