Dallas Facebook Ads Management: The Complete Pricing Guide

So, you're running a business in Dallas, or maybe the wider DFW metroplex, and you're trying to figure out what a fair price is for Facebook Ads management. It’s a bit of a jungle out there, isn't it?

One agency in Plano tells you it’s $5,000 a month minimum. A freelancer you found on Upwork says they'll do it for $400. And your cousin's friend says he'll do it for free if you buy him a few beers at the Katy Trail Ice House. Who do you trust?

I've been in the paid ads game for a long time, managed millions in spend, and I've seen the good, the bad, and the absolute ugly of agency pricing. Dallas is an interesting market. It's got that mix of massive corporate HQs, booming real estate, and a scrappy tech scene. This means the range of "experts" is huge, and the pricing is all over the place.

Tbh, the question shouldn't really be "what does it cost?", but rather "what am I getting for my money?". Because in paid advertising, the cheapest option is usually the one that costs you the most in wasted ad spend.

I'm going to break down exactly what you should expect to pay, the different pricing models you'll encounter in Texas, and how to spot a rip-off from a mile away.

Why is pricing so confusing in Dallas?

The Dallas-Fort Worth area is highly competitive. You've got national agencies with satellite offices in Uptown charging New York prices, and you've got local shops in the suburbs trying to undercut them.

In my experience, local businesses often get burned because they compare apples to oranges. They see a "Facebook Ads Package" for $997 and assume it includes the same level of strategy, copywriting, and technical implementation as the $4k retainer proposal. It doesn't.

If you look at other major hubs, the disparity is similar. For instance, if you look at the real cost of PPC services in New York, you see the same tiered structure. High rents and high demand drive up agency fees, but the core issue remains: expertise costs money.

The Main Pricing Models You'll See

Before we talk specific numbers, you need to understand how these agencies bill you. This is where most people get tripped up.

1. The Flat Retainer

This is the most common model for small to mid-sized businesses. You pay a fixed monthly fee for the agency to manage your ads.

Typical Dallas Rate: $1,500 - $5,000 per month.

Pros: Predictable costs. You know exactly what’s going out the door every month.
Cons: If your ad spend is low, the fee might be a huge percentage of your total budget. If your spend is huge, the agency might not be incentivized to put in extra work since they get paid the same anyway.

I’d say this is usually the best place to start for most businesses generating under $1M a year. It keeps things simple.

2. Percentage of Ad Spend

This is standard for larger accounts. The agency charges a base fee plus a percentage of whatever you pay Facebook.

Typical Dallas Rate: 10% - 20% of ad spend (often with a minimum floor of ~$2k).

Pros: Scales with your growth. If they do a good job and you scale spend to make more money, they get paid more. It aligns incentives... mostly.
Cons: Some shady agencies might push you to spend more just to bump their fees, even if the ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is dropping.

3. Performance-Based

This sounds like the holy grail. "We only get paid if you get results!"

Typical Dallas Rate: $50 - $100 per lead, or 10-20% of revenue generated.

The Catch: Tbh, I rarely see this work well for long-term growth. Why? Because the agency will cherry-pick the "easy" leads (like branded search or remarketing to your existing email list) to get their numbers up, but they won't invest in the hard work of finding new cold traffic. Also, if they have a bad month, they don't get paid, their cash flow dries up, and they fire you or go bust.

Also, "results" can be manipulated. I've seen agencies claim credit for sales that would have happened anyway. If you want to dive deeper into how to structure agreements specifically for hiring, check out our guide on hiring a paid ads agency, which covers these pitfalls in detail.

4. Hourly

Just... don't. Ads require constant monitoring, late-night checks, and random fixes. Paying hourly discourages the agency from checking your account unless they're "on the clock". You want someone obsessing over your account, not watching a timer.

Interactive Calculator: Estimate Your Agency Costs

I whipped up this calculator to help you visualise how different pricing models impact your bottom line. It's a rough guide, but it helps to see the numbers.

Cost Tiers: From Freelancer to Big Agency

You can find someone at every price point in DFW. Here is what you usually get at each level.

Tier 1: The Freelancer / Offshore ($500 - $1,500/mo)

You'll find plenty of these on local Dallas business Facebook groups or LinkedIn.

• Who they are: Usually a solo operator, maybe a student at SMU or UTD doing this on the side, or someone outsourcing the work to the Philippines.
• What you get: Basic campaign setup. Don't expect high-level strategy, copywriting, or custom creative.
• The Risk: If they get sick or busy with exams, your account gathers dust. They often lack the experience to handle a crisis (like when Meta bans your ad account for no reason).

Tier 2: The "Full Service" Local Shop ($2,000 - $4,000/mo)

These are the agencies you see at local networking events in Addison or Fort Worth. They do SEO, web design, social media posting, and... oh yeah, paid ads.

• Who they are: Generalists. They are "jacks of all trades".
• What you get: Better communication than a freelancer. You can call them. They probably have an office.
• The Risk: They often treat paid ads as an afterthought. They might just "boost posts" or run very basic traffic campaigns because they don't have a dedicated paid ads specialist. Their expertise is spread too thin.

Tier 3: The Specialist / Boutique Agency ($3,000 - $8,000/mo)

This is where the magic usually happens for serious businesses.

• Who they are: Teams that only do paid ads (or maybe just ads and email). They eat, sleep, and breathe ROAS.
• What you get: Deep expertise. They know about CAPI (Conversion API), server-side tracking, creative testing frameworks, and advanced audience segmentation. They are proactive.
• The Risk: They are more expensive. If you have a tiny budget (under $2k/mo), the fees might outweigh the returns initially.

Tier 4: The Big Dallas Agency ($10,000+/mo)

The big names with offices in Downtown or Legacy West.

• Who they are: Massive teams, massive overheads.
• What you get: Lots of meetings. Fancy reports. A dedicated account manager (who might be a fresh grad).
• The Risk: Unless you are spending $50k+/month, you will be a small fish to them. Your account might be handed off to a junior intern while the senior staff work on the Toyota or AT&T accounts.

What Are You Actually Paying For?

When I send a proposal to a client, they sometimes look at the number and ask, "Why does clicking a few buttons cost this much?"

Fair question. But we aren't just clicking buttons. Here is the actual work involved in a proper management retainer:

1. Strategy & Research
Before we spend a dime, we need to understand your customer. In B2B, this means analyzing the nightmare scenarios of your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). In eComm, it means analyzing unit economics. If an agency skips this and just asks for your credit card, run.

2. Technical Setup (The Boring but Critical Stuff)
Tracking is a nightmare these days with iOS14+. We have to set up the Pixel, Conversion API, domain verification, and event prioritization. If this isn't done right, your data is garbage. Garbage data = garbage results.

3. Creative Strategy & Copywriting
The algorithm does a lot of the targeting work now. Your creative is the new targeting. We spend hours writing scripts for video ads, briefing designers, and writing ad copy that actually converts. Note: Actual video production is usually NOT included in management fees. You'll need to pay extra for a videographer or UGC creator, or film it yourself based on our scripts.

4. Daily Optimization
We are in the accounts every day. We're killing losing ads, scaling winning ones, checking search terms (for Google), and monitoring frequency. It's not passive.

5. Reporting & Communication
Translating the data into plain English. You don't care about "Link Clicks"; you care about "Cost Per Acquisition" and "Revenue".

Visualizing Value vs Cost

It's helpful to see where your money goes. In my experience, spending too little on management often leads to higher ad costs (CPM/CPA) because the ads are poorly optimised.

Industry Specifics: Dallas Context

Your industry dictates your costs heavily. In Dallas, certain sectors are hyper-competitive.

eCommerce & Retail

Dallas is a major retail hub. But standing out online is tough. This means the CPMs (Cost to reach 1,000 people) can be high if your creative doesn't engage.

Advice: Don't just run standard product ads. You need a funnel. For example, for a luxury brand launch, we generated 10 million views by focusing on high-quality video content to build awareness before retargeting. Expect to pay $3k+ for management here because the creative needs to be top-tier.

B2B / Tech / SaaS

With the "Silicon Prairie" growing in places like Richardson and Irving, B2B ads are big. But B2B on Facebook is tricky. You can't target "CTOs" as easily as on LinkedIn.

Strategy: We use broad targeting but let the ad copy call out the specific pain points (e.g., "Engineering Managers: Your AWS bill just arrived. It’s 30% higher than last month, and your engineers have no idea why."). If you want to scale B2B, check out our guide on the profitable ad scaling blueprint for more advanced tactics.

Local Services (HVAC, Home Services)

Summer in Dallas = HVAC goldmine. The demand is seasonal and urgent.

Advice: For urgent services, Google Ads is usually better (high intent). But Facebook works great for retargeting. Management for this is usually cheaper ($1.5k - $2.5k) as the campaigns are less complex, but the ad spend will be high during peak season.

Red Flags: When to Run Away

When you are interviewing agencies, watch out for these deal-breakers:

• "We guarantee results." No one controls the Facebook algorithm. It changes weekly. I can promise diligence, strategy, and expertise. I cannot promise X leads for Y dollars in month one. It's impossible.
• "We don't share ad account access." This is huge. The ad account is a business asset. You should own it. If they say "it runs on our proprietary platform," they are holding your data hostage.
• Long-term contracts (6-12 months) upfront. We usually do a 3-month initial term to let the strategy take hold, then move to rolling monthly. If they try to lock you in for a year before you've seen a single lead, they aren't confident in their work.
• They ask for access as an "Admin" to your personal profile. Massive security risk. They should ask to be a partner in Business Manager.

Hidden Costs You Need to Budget For

The management fee isn't the only thing you'll pay.

• Setup Fee: Most reputable agencies charge an onboarding fee ($500 - $2,000) to audit the account, fix the tracking, and build the initial strategy.
• Creative Production: As mentioned, if you need a glossy video shoot or high-quality product photography, that's extra.
• Software Fees: Sometimes agencies pass on costs for reporting tools (like Supermetrics) or landing page builders (ClickFunnels/Unbounce).

So, is it worth it?

It depends on your LTV (Lifetime Value). If you are selling a $20 product with no repeat purchases, paying an agency $3k/month makes no sense. You need to be doing huge volume.

But if you are a B2B consultant in Dallas selling a $10k service, or a MedSpa where a client is worth $5k over a year, then paying $3k/month to generate an extra 5-10 clients is a no-brainer.

My Main Recommendation

Don't shop on price. Shop on case studies in your niche. If an agency has successfully scaled a similar business in a similar market, they are worth their weight in gold.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

Look, hiring the right partner is tough. There are a lot of sharks in the water, especially in a money-driven city like Dallas. You need someone who will tell you the truth, not just what you want to hear. If you want a second pair of eyes on your current setup or proposal, feel free to book a free initial consultation. We'll look at your account together and I'll tell you honestly if you're overpaying or if your strategy is sound.

Hope this helps you navigate the Dallas agency landscape!