Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out!
I read through your situation, and it sounds incredibly frustrating. Spending that kind of money for two years with little to show for it is a tough pill to swallow. It's no wonder you've hit a wall. I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts on how you should be thinking about this. The agency vs freelancer question is actually a distraction from the real issues that are likely holding your brand back.
TLDR;
- The 'agency vs freelancer' debate is the wrong question. The right question is who can act as a true growth partner, and that comes down to their strategic approach, not their business structure.
- Your previous agency's "cookie-cutter" methods failed because they likely defined your customer by shallow demographics, not by their deep-seated, expensive problems. Real growth comes from understanding your customer's 'nightmare state'.
- Stop worrying about the cost per lead and start focusing on your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). Understanding this number is the only way to know what you can truly afford to spend to acquire a customer, which unlocks aggressive scaling. This letter includes an interactive calculator to help you figure this out.
- Your ad creative and offer are probably failing. Generic, feature-led ads don't work. You need a message that speaks directly to your customer's pain and an offer that provides immediate value, rather than asking for a high-commitment "demo."
We'll need to look at why your ads are really failing... and it's not about the agency's size
Honestly, whether you hire a premium agency or a boutique freelancer is secondary. I've seen brilliant solo operators run rings around large agencies, and I've seen well-oiled agency teams achieve incredible scale. The problem isn't the wrapper; it's the contents. Your last agency failed because they were tacticians, not strategists. They gave you "cookie-cutter" solutions because they never did the hard work upfront to understand your customer's world.
They probably built an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) that looked something like this: "Female, 35-55, lives in London, household income £100k+, interested in luxury goods and wellness." This is utterly useless. It tells you nothing of value and leads to the generic, ineffective ads you've been paying for. It’s a demographic, not a customer.
To stop burning cash, you have to define your customer by their pain. Their specific, urgent, expensive, career-threatening (in B2B) or life-disrupting (in B2C) nightmare. Your ICP isn't a person; it's a problem state. A true partner spends the majority of their onboarding time getting to the bottom of this. They become an expert in your customer's frustrations. I remember one of our eCommerce clients selling high-end cleaning products, the nightmare wasn't 'a dirty house'. It was 'the dread of inviting friends over and feeling judged for not having a perfectly pristine home'. That's a completely different emotional trigger, and it's what we built the entire campaign around. The result was a 633% return. The previous agency just targeted 'people interested in cleaning'. See the difference?
This is the deep troubleshooting your old agency never did. They looked at a low CTR and said "let's test a blue button instead of a red one". A real partner looks at a low CTR and says "we've fundamentally misunderstood what keeps our customer awake at night". It's a different level of thinking, and it has nothing to do with being an agency or a freelancer, and everything to do with being an expert.
"Who are they?"
"e.g., Target 'Business'"
"Our product does X, Y, Z"
"What is their urgent pain?"
"Where do they go to solve it?"
"Tired of [Problem]? Imagine..."
I'd say you need to understand the only numbers that matter
The next reason you're getting nowhere is that you're probably focused on the wrong metrics. Your agency likely sent you reports filled with vanity metrics like impressions, reach, and maybe even cost-per-click. When perfomance dipped, they couldn't tell you why because they weren't tracking the numbers that actually drive the business.
The real question isn't "How low can my Cost Per Lead go?" but "How high a CPL can I afford to acquire a truly great customer?" The answer is your Lifetime Value (LTV). Once you know what a customer is worth to you in profit over their entire relationship with your brand, everything changes. It’s the key that unlocks aggressive, intelligent growth and frees you from the tyranny of cheap, low-quality leads.
Let's do some simple maths. You need three numbers:
- Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What you make per customer, per month/year.
- Gross Margin %: Your profit margin on that revenue.
- Monthly/Annual Churn Rate: The percentage of customers you lose in that period.
The calculation is: LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Churn Rate
For one of our B2B SaaS clients, their LTV was over £10,000. They were struggling to scale because their old agency was obsessed with getting them £50 leads, which were mostly rubbish. Once we calculated their LTV, we showed them they could afford to pay up to £300 for a qualified lead from a decision-maker and still be wildly profitable. Suddenly, LinkedIn Ads, which had previously seemed "too expensive," became their most profitable channel. We got them leads from B2B decision makers for around $22 each. This is the kind of deep financial analysis that separates a vendor from a partner.
Use the calculator below to get a rough idea of your own LTV. It will likely change how you think about your £2k/day ad spend.
You'll need a message they can't ignore
Once you know who you’re talking to (their pain) and what they're worth (their LTV), you can finally craft a message that resonates. Your agency was likely writing ads that listed features. This is the fastest way to be ignored. Nobody cares about your product's features; they care about their own problems.
Your ad needs to speak directly to the nightmare. We use a couple of simple, powerful frameworks:
1. Problem-Agitate-Solve: You state the problem, you pour salt on the wound by describing the negative consequences, and then you present your product as the solution.
Example for a B2C subscription box:
(Bad, Feature-led): "Get 5 curated beauty products delivered monthly. Starting at £25."
(Good, PAS): "Tired of wasting money on beauty products that don't work for you? Is your bathroom cabinet a graveyard of half-used bottles? (Problem) It feels like you're just guessing, and the clutter is a constant reminder of money down the drain. (Agitate) Discover your new holy grail products every month, tailored to your skin type. Stop guessing, start glowing. (Solve)"
2. Before-After-Bridge: You paint a picture of their current frustrating reality (Before), show them the ideal future they desire (After), and position your product as the vehicle to get them there (Bridge).
Example for a B2B SaaS tool:
(Bad, Feature-led): "Our platform offers real-time analytics and automated reporting."
(Good, BAB): "Another Monday morning spent manually pulling data into spreadsheets, knowing it's already out of date. (Before) Imagine walking into your weekly meeting with a live dashboard that answers every question before it's even asked, making you look like a genius. (After) Our platform is the bridge that turns data chaos into strategic clarity in under an hour. (Bridge)"
This is not complicated, but it requires empathy and a deep understanding of the customer. It's work that can't be done with a "cookie-cutter" template. It requires thought. For a women's apparel brand we worked with, this shift in messaging was part of a strategy that led to a 691% return on ad spend. It works.
You'll need an offer that actually offers something
This brings us to the final piece of the puzzle, and often the most overlooked: the offer. Let's assume you've done everything right so far. You've identified the customer's pain, you know their LTV, and you've crafted the perfect ad. They click. Where do they go?
If the answer is a landing page with a "Request a Demo" or "Contact Us" button, you've just fumbled at the goal line. These are some of the most arrogant Calls to Action in marketing. They presume your prospect has nothing better to do than book a meeting to be sold to. It's high-friction and low-value. You're asking for their time before you've proven you're worth it. This is why conversion rates on these pages are abysmal.
Your offer's only job is to deliver a moment of undeniable value—an "aha!" moment that makes the prospect sell themselves on your solution. You must solve a small, real problem for them for free to earn the right to solve the whole thing. What that looks like depends on your business:
- SaaS: A free trial or a freemium plan. No card details. Let them use the actual product. The product becomes the salesperson. We've worked on campaigns for several SaaS clients, and getting them to switch from a "demo" to a "free trial" model has been the single biggest lever for growth. One campaign we ran generated 5,082 trial signups at just $7 each because the barrier to entry was so low.
- eCommerce: A compelling discount on the first order, a free gift with purchase, or access to an exclusive product. Something that makes the first purchase a no-brainer. For a subscription box client, we offered a free 'mystery box' with their first order. That campaign achieved a 1000% ROAS.
- Services/Consulting: Bottle your expertise into a tool or asset. A free, automated audit. A valuable checklist. A short, interactive video module. For what we do, it's a free 20-minute strategy session where we audit failing ad accounts. We provide real value upfront, which builds trust and demonstrates our expertise far better than any sales pitch could.
A weak offer is often the root cause of what looks like an "ad problem". Your agency was probably trying to fix the ads when the real issue was that you were asking too much, too soon. A great partner looks at the entire funnel, from impression to conversion, and optimises every step.
This is the main advice I have for you:
So, back to your original question: premium freelancer or premium agency? As you can see, it doesn't matter. What matters is finding a partner who thinks this way. When you're interviewing your next potential partner, don't just look at their case studies. Ask them these questions. Ask them how they would define your ICP. Ask them how they would calculate your LTV. Ask them what kind of offer they'd run. Their answers will tell you everything you need to know.
You're not just hiring someone to press buttons in Ads Manager. You're hiring a strategic mind to help you grow your business. Here is what I would recommend you look for, regardless of their company structure.
| Area of Focus | What to Look For in a Partner | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Strategy & Discovery | They spend significant time understanding your customer's 'nightmare state', not just demographics. They should ask more questions about your customers than about your ad account access. | This is the foundation of all effective advertising. Without this, you're just guessing and wasting money on "cookie-cutter" campaigns. |
| 2. Financial Acumen | They immediately want to discuss and calculate your LTV and CAC. They frame the conversation around profitability, not just cheap leads. | This aligns them with your business goals (profit) instead of agency goals (hitting a CPL target). It allows for intelligent, aggressive scaling. |
| 3. Creative & Messaging | They talk about frameworks like Problem-Agitate-Solve or Before-After-Bridge. They focus on turning features into benefits that solve a customer's pain. | Your ad creative is the single biggest lever for performance. A partner who understands copywriting and psychology will always outperform a pure "media buyer". |
| 4. The Offer | They challenge your current offer and suggest lower-friction, higher-value alternatives. They think about the entire funnel, not just the ad click. | A broken offer can make even the best ads fail. Optimising your offer can often have a greater impact than optimising the campaigns themselves. |
| 5. Partnership Model | They feel like a member of your team. They are proactive, transparent when things go wrong, and bring solutions, not just problems. Communication is clear and frequent. | You need a partner who is as invested in your success as you are. This is a feeling you'll get on the first call—trust your gut. |
As you can see, this level of work goes far beyond just managing ads. It's a deep, strategic partnership. It requires expertise not just in a specific ad platform, but in business strategy, finance, and human psychology. This is why you pay a premium—not for the size of their office, but for the size of their thinking.
Doing this work is intensive and requires a specific skillset that, frankly, most agencies and freelancers don't have. But finding the one that does will be the difference between another two years of frustration and finally achieving the scalable growth you're looking for.
We offer a complimentary, no-obligation strategy session where we can walk through this framework for your specific brand. It's a chance for you to see this level of thinking in action and get some immediate, actionable advice you can use, whether you decide to work with us or not. Feel free to book one if you think it would be helpful.
Hope this helps!
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
