Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out. I thought I'd give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on my experience running paid ad campaigns.
To be blunt, the issue you're facing with the 5-7 day turnaround isn't really about your agency being a bit slow. It's a massive red flag that points to a much deeper, more fundamental problem with how your advertising is being managed. You're focusing on the symptom – the delay – while the actual disease is that you've likely hired an expensive uploader, not a strategic partner. This is probably costing you a lot more than just a week's delay; it's costing you performance, growth, and the entire potential of your ad spend.
Let's unpack this a bit, because fixing this goes way beyond just asking them to be quicker.
We'll need to look at what you're actually paying for...
First things first, a 5-7 business day turnaround to upload a handful of pre-made ads is completely unacceptable. For an agency, uploading creative and copy that's already been provided is a task that should take minutes, not days. Even with internal checks and balances, this process should be completed within a single business day, two at the absolute maximum if there's a genuine queue. A week-long delay tells me one of two things: either your account is so unimportant to them that it constantly gets pushed to the bottom of the pile, or their internal processes are so broken and inefficient that they can't handle even the simplest of tasks in a timely manner. Neither is a good look.
But let's move past the timing for a second. The real question is, what value are they actually providing? You said they "mostly just decided the budget and maybe few minor targeting options like state." Honestly, that's not a service worth paying an agency retainer for. That's admin work. You've hired someone to tick boxes and press the 'publish' button. A true agency partnership is a collaborative, strategic relationship. They should be challenging your assumptions, not just taking your orders. They should be coming to you with ideas, with data-backed insights, with a clear plan for testing and scaling. They should be acting like an extension of your marketing team, obsessed with driving results, not just completing tasks.
If you handed us 10 complete ads, our first question wouldn't be "what's the budget?". It would be "what are we testing here?". We'd want to know the hypothesis behind each creative. Why this copy? Why this image? Who is this for? What have we learned from past ads that has informed these new ones? If the answer is "we just need to get these live", we'd push back and explain that we're about to waste money by not having a proper testing framework in place. That is the job. That's what you pay for. You're paying for expertise and strategy, not slow data entry.
I'd say you need to fix the process, not just the timeline...
This leads to the core of the problem. Your entire process seems to be built on a misunderstanding of how successful paid advertising works. It's not a linear process where you create an ad, hand it off, and hope for the best. It's a continuous, cyclical process of hypothesising, testing, learning, and iterating. And your current setup breaks that cycle before it even begins.
When you provide a fully "complete" ad – copy, creative, and all – you hamstring your agency's ability to do its most important job: optimise. How can they test what resonates with your audience if all the variables are locked in? A performant ad campaign isn't built on one perfect ad; it's built by running dozens of variations to find winning combinations.
A proper approach involves a testing matrix. For example, for a single campaign, a good agency would want to test:
-> 3-4 different creative concepts (e.g., a static image vs. a user-generated style video vs. a polished brand video).
-> 3-4 different headline variations (e.g., one focused on a pain point, one on a benefit, one with a question, one with a special offer).
-> 2-3 primary text variations (e.g., short and punchy vs. longer form storytelling).
-> 2-3 different target audiences.
The agency then mixes and matches these elements within the ad platform to let the algorithm find the most effective combinations for each specific audience. The data from these tests is gold. It tells you what messages resonate, what creative grabs attention, and which audiences are most receptive. This data then informs the next round of creative your team makes. You're creating a data-driven feedback loop.
Your current process is a one-way street. Your team creates in a vacuum, throws it over the wall, and the agency just uploads it. There's no learning, no iteration, no optimisation. You're just throwing stuff at a wall and not even paying attention to what sticks. It's an incredibly inefficient use of both your creative team's time and your ad budget.
You probably should implement a real campaign structure...
A key part of a real strategy is structure. Simply having one campaign where you dump 10 new ads a month is a recipe for poor performance. When we take on a client, we build a structure that mirrors the customer journey, typically split into different funnels. Your "general targeting specs" approach just doesn't cut it.
For most of our eCommerce or lead gen clients on Meta, a basic, effective structure looks something like this:
| Campaign (Funnel Stage) | Objective | Audiences to Test (Ad Sets) | What You're Doing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prospecting (Top of Funnel - ToFu) | Conversions (e.g. Sales, Leads) | -> Detailed Targeting (Interests, Behaviours) -> Lookalike Audiences (of purchasers, high-value customers, etc.) -> Broad Targeting (once pixel is seasoned) |
Reaching new people who have never heard of you but fit your ideal customer profile. This is where you scale. |
| Retargeting (Middle/Bottom of Funnel - MoFu/BoFu) | Conversions (e.g. Sales, Leads) | -> Website Visitors (last 30/90 days) -> Added to Cart / Initiated Checkout (last 14/30 days) -> Video Viewers / Social Engagers |
Bringing back warm traffic that has shown interest but hasn't converted yet. This is where you maximise ROI. |
| Retention (BoFu - Post-Purchase) | Conversions (Sales) | -> Past Purchasers (e.g., last 180 days) -> High-Value Customer Lists |
Encouraging repeat purchases and increasing customer lifetime value. This is where you build a sustainable buisness. |
Each of these campaigns needs its own creative and messaging, tailored to the audience's temperature. You don't talk to a cold prospect the same way you talk to someone who abandoned their shopping cart an hour ago. Your current "one size fits all" approach of just giving them 10 ads completely ignores this. You're likely showing introductory ads to people who are ready to buy, and sales-heavy ads to people who have no idea who you are. It's just not effective.
I remember one client, a medical recruitment SaaS, whose previous agency was doing something similar to yours. Their cost per user acquisition (CPA) was over £100, which was crippling them. We came in, threw out their entire structure, and rebuilt it from the ground up based on a proper funnel and rigorous testing. We reduced their CPA to just £7. That's a more than 90% reduction. That kind of result is impossible to achieve when your only job is to upload finished ads. It comes from strategy, structure, and relentless optimisation.
You'll need to define your customer by their nightmare, not their demographic...
The phrase "general targeting specs" is another huge warning sign for me. It suggests you're defining your audience with broad, generic demographics. "Women aged 25-45 who like online shopping" is not a target audience; it's a guess. It tells you nothing of value and leads to generic ads that speak to no one.
To stop burning cash, you have to define your customer by their pain. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a demographic; it's a problem state. What is the specific, urgent, expensive nightmare that your product or service solves? What keeps them up at night?
For example, if you sell high-end ergonomic office chairs, your customer isn't just "people working from home". The nightmare is 'chronic back pain that's making it impossible to focus, threatening their productivity and career progression'. You don't sell a chair; you sell a pain-free workday and the ability to perform at their best. If you sell a B2B SaaS for project management, the nightmare isn't 'needing a new tool'; it's 'a key project going off the rails, risking a major client relationship and a huge financial loss'.
Once you've identified that specific nightmare, then you can figure out where these people live online. What niche newsletters do they read? What podcasts do they listen to? What specific software tools do they already pay for? What industry leaders do they follow on LinkedIn or Twitter? This intelligence is the foundation of a real targeting strategy. "General targeting" is just hoping you get lucky. A proper deep dive into the ICP is the work you have to do before you should spend a single pound on ads.
You'll need a message they can't ignore...
Once you know their pain, you can craft a message that speaks directly to it. Your internal team creating ads without direct, data-driven feedback from the ad platform is a flawed system. The agency should be the source of truth for what works.
The feedback loop should work like this: 1. The agency tests various messages and creative angles against your target audiences. 2. They analyse the data: Which headlines get the best click-through rates? Which images lead to the most conversions? Does a 'problem-focused' ad work better than a 'benefit-focused' ad for the cold audience? 3. They deliver these insights back to your creative team as a data-informed brief: "For our next prospecting campaign, we need three short-form videos that show the 'before-after' transformation. Our data shows this format is performing 2x better than static images. The copy should focus on the frustration of [customer nightmare], as that angle drove our cost per lead down by 30% last month."
This transforms your creative team from guessing what might work to knowing what does work, and then using their talent to build on that success. Without this loop, you're just making pretty pictures that might not sell anything.
This is the main advice I have for you:
So, the 5-7 day delay is the least of your worries. It's a sign that your entire paid advertising function is broken. You're paying a premium for a slow admin service and missing out on the immense potential of a strategic, data-driven approach. Here’s what I would recommend you do, starting today.
| Recommendation | Why It's Important | How to Do It |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Confront Your Agency with Strategic Questions | This will immediately reveal whether they have any strategic capability or if they are just uploaders. Their response will tell you everything you need to know. | Schedule a call. Don't mention the delay. Instead, ask them: "Could you walk me through our current testing strategy? What have we learned from the ads over the last 3 months? What is your plan for scaling our results in the next quarter?" If they can't answer this clearly and confidently, they are not a strategic partner. |
| 2. Redefine the Process and Roles | You need to shift from a "hand-off" model to a collaborative, cyclical model that is built for optimisation and learning. | Propose a new workflow. The agency is responsible for the overall strategy, structure, testing plan, and data analysis. Your internal team is responsible for executing creative briefs that are directly informed by the agency's data and insights. |
| 3. Fix Your Foundations: The ICP | All effective marketing starts with a deep, empathetic understanding of the customer. "General" targeting is a waste of money. | Get your team in a room and map out your customer's 'nightmare'. What is their biggest frustration related to your product category? What is the emotional outcome they are truly seeking? Build your messaging and targeting around that, not broad demographics. |
| 4. Re-evaluate or Replace the Partner | If your current agency is unable or unwilling to step up into a strategic role, you are better off doing it yourself or finding a partner who can. | If the confrontation reveals a lack of expertise, it's time to look elsewhere. When vetting new agencies, look for detailed case studies in your niche. Get on a call and grill them on strategy. A good agency will give you valuable advice and insights even in the initial consultation, showing their expertise before you've paid them a penny. |
I know this is a lot to take in, and it's a fundamental shift from how you're currently operating. But this is the difference between running ads and building a scalable customer acquisition engine. The latter is what drives real business growth. The former is what you're doing now.
Getting this right requires specialist expertise, which is why businesses hire firms like ours. It's not just about knowing how to use Ads Manager; it's about understanding strategy, data, consumer psychology, and how to weave them all together into a coherent, effective programme.
If you'd like to have a proper chat about what a real paid advertising strategy could look like for your business, we offer a free, no-obligation strategy session. We could go through your current setup and give you some actionable advice on how to move forward. It might be the most valuable 30 minutes you spend on your marketing this year.
Hope this helps!
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
