Is figuring out how to start a Facebook Ad agency one of your goals for 2024? If so, you’ve come to the right place. Whether you already have some experience running ads on Facebook or you’re just getting started, this guide will cover the basics involved in starting an agency and optimizing your processes to set yourself up for success.
We’re Slam Media Lab, an award-winning web design agency based out of San Francisco with multiple high-profile clients across the country. In our 10+ years of experience, we’ve learned a lot about managing a digital ad agency, and we’ve spent countless hours figuring out everything from project management to creating the perfect proposal.
Recently, we started documenting our agency processes and turning them into digital products for founders to download and use. So, if you’re in the process of figuring out how to start a Facebook ad agency, we’ve got your back!
In this article, we’ll cover:
- The basics of how to start a Facebook ad agency
- The benefits of starting a Facebook ad agency
- How to start a Facebook ad agency and make it legal
- How to start a Facebook ad agency with digital tools
- How to start a Facebook ad agency and make your offer unique
- How to start a Facebook ad agency with Slam
For an in-depth look at these topics, check out our How to Start an Agency masterclass. Taught by our founder and CEO Silvia Li Sam and packed with over 20 professionally designed templates, this course has everything you need to create a million-dollar agency in 2024.
The agency course goes over:
- The behind the scenes of how I decided to start my own agency during the pandemic and, in 2023, have earned over $2 million.
- How to pinpoint your niche, perform research for it, and where to start your client search.
- Everything you need to know about legal and operational setup, from business registration to banking solutions.
- How to craft winning, high-conversion proposals.
- How to market your agency with branding, SEO, and social media strategies.
- How to leverage ChatGPT to streamline your processes.
- …and more!
With 10+ hours of video content, 20+ templates, and assignments designed to translate knowledge into action, my goal of this course was to distill all the work we’ve done in three years.
How to Start a Facebook Ad Agency: Benefits
Businesses are increasingly prioritizing their online presence these days, which means demand for digital marketing expertise is growing exponentially. Are you thinking about entering this competitive but lucrative industry? From remote flexibility to financial freedom, there are many great reasons to take advantage of the digital advertising boom.
As with everything, it’s all about timing the market – and now is a great time to get involved!
There are many benefits to starting a Facebook Ad agency. Here are our top 3:
- High demand for services
- Remote work opportunities
- Entrepreneurial freedom
2024 is a great year to join the digital marketing game. Let’s take a closer look at how you can make that happen.
How to Start a Facebook Ad Agency: The Basics
A solid foundation is the key to success in any industry, especially in the highly competitive field of digital marketing. If your goal is to create and manage successful Facebook ad campaigns, you need to spend some time laying the groundwork before getting down to business.
You’ll avoid ineffective campaigns, wasted resources, and disappointed clients by making it a priority to master the fundamentals.
In this section, we’ll take a look at:
- Getting started
- Choosing a niche
- Understanding your audience
Once you’ve mastered the basic principles of how to start a Facebook ad agency, you’ll be well-positioned to enter the industry and make an impact.
Getting Started
Before starting an ad campaign on Facebook (or any platform), make sure you have an in-depth understanding of these three things:
- Platform features
- Algorithms
- Policies
Do you know which advertising features are available to businesses on Facebook? What about the platform’s algorithms and how they determine which ads are shown to users? Keep in mind that a policy misunderstanding is enough to tank a promising campaign in the blink of an eye.
When getting started, it’s also important to establish clear legal processes, contracts, and ethical guidelines from the get-go. We’ll discuss the legal aspects of how to start a Facebook ad agency later in this article.
Choosing a Niche
In this section, we'll talk about how to start a Facebook ad agency and choose a niche.
Specialization in a specific industry or target audience is crucial because it allows you to develop deep expertise and become an authority. This will help you attract clients who are specifically seeking expertise in the niche you've chosen.
At Slam, we follow a 7-step process for picking a niche:
- Write down 20-30 niches you can think of
- Dive deeper and be specific
- Narrow it down and do your research
- Perform in-depth market research
- Figure out if your niche is spending money
- Find out your niche’s problems, desires, and questions
- Understand your niche’s audience
Our How to Start an Agency course takes you through each of these seven steps in more detail. We also discuss the challenges involved with entering the industry as a generalist.
Understanding Your Audience
When starting a Facebook ad agency, understanding your niche’s audience is critical. An effective ad campaign hinges on precise targeting. If you want your efforts to convert to tangible results, your Facebook ads need to resonate with the demographic you’re specifically trying to reach. Otherwise, you’re just wasting time and money.
There are many ways to evaluate and understand your target audience. For example, you can spend time reading online reviews or browsing TikTok content related to your niche. Or, research your market competition and make note of the questions and comments made by people engaging with their online content.
Whatever strategy you pursue, don’t even think about launching a marketing campaign without thoroughly researching the likes, dislikes, and needs of your target audience!
How to Start a Facebook Ad Agency and Make It Legal
If you’re starting a Facebook ad agency, you need to be legally compliant and mitigate your risk. From properly drafting contracts and terms of service to ensuring your adherence to advertising standards and privacy laws, legality is a non-negotiable part of running a digital marketing agency.
In this section, we’ll cover:
- Legal setup and registration
- Licenses and permits
- Accounting and HR
This is a complex topic that can’t fully be covered in a blog article. For a more in-depth look at how to start a Facebook ad agency and make it legal, check out our How to Start an Agency course.
Legal Setup & Registration
Before launching your agency, one of the first things you need to decide is your business structure. This will affect your tax obligations, liability, and registration requirements. When it comes to choosing your business structure, you have several options:
- LLC
- Corporation
- Sole proprietorship
- …and more!
If you’ve already done some research into legal setup and registration, you may have noticed that many businesses choose to incorporate in the state of Delaware. This is due to the state’s favorable laws and business environment which offer a high degree of flexibility and stability.
Whether you’re incorporating your agency in Delaware or somewhere else, we recommend using Stripe Atlas to register your business with the relevant authorities. Stripe also simplifies the process of getting a tax ID number from the IRS.
Licenses & Permits
Once your business is set up, you’ll need to obtain licenses and permits – especially if you plan on conducting business operations in a different state from the one where you filed your registration. The process varies depending on your location and the services you provide, so be sure to do some research at the local level.
For example, Slam is registered in Delaware but we conduct most of our business out of San Francisco. To stay legally compliant, we used this service to set up our California operations.
Moreover, your business will likely need insurance. Requirements vary state by state, so this is another area where some local-level research is required. We recommend Gusto for finding insurance quotes and deals on coverage.
Accounting & HR
When figuring out how to start a Facebook ad agency, we recommend moving banking logistics to the very top of your agency reporting to-do list. Keeping track of financial movements is a critical part of business management, and you’ll quickly run into serious problems without an organized system for bill payments, payroll, and tax obligations.
At Slam, we use and recommend these three accounting tools:
Of course, accounting and HR responsibilities go hand-in-hand! If you’re going to work with a team, you need reliable processes in place to ensure everyone gets paid on time. Furthermore, your employees need to be registered for tax and benefit purposes. We recommend using Gusto for these processes.
How to Start a Facebook Ad Agency with Digital Tools
The digital marketing industry is highly competitive, and finding ways to automate your business processes is crucial if you want to be successful.
From using project management software for streamlined collaboration to tracking social media content with pre-made templates, digital tools will reduce errors and save you time.
Digital marketers use tools for things like:
- Project management
- Content planning and design
- Communication
In this section, we’ll take a look at why it’s a good idea to optimize your agency processes with digital tools and software. We’ll also share some recommendations based on our experience as an award-winning B2B web design agency.
Project Management
Running a digital marketing agency involves some pretty complex project management. From tracking content creation to managing agency client reporting, there are a lot of moving pieces that need to be organized across multiple departments and team members. That’s why you should prioritize project management from the very beginning when deciding how to start a Facebook ad agency.
At Slam, we rely on tools like Notion, Airtable, and Google Docs for managing our projects and ensuring everything stays on track. For a detailed look at our system, check out this Loom walkthrough.
Over our 10+ years in business, we’ve spent a lot of time documenting our project management processes and creating templates to save time and effort. Here are a few of the resources we’ve created:
If you’re evaluating different software and looking for a breakdown of the pros and cons, check out these guides:
Content Planning & Design
Content planning is a critical aspect of running a digital marketing agency. It isn’t enough to just create content on the fly – you need a streamlined process for ensuring your content is high quality, keyword-rich, and relevant to your target audience.
At Slam, we’ve prepared several pre-made templates to simplify the content planning process:
- Airtable Content Calendar
- Notion Content Creation Template [+Calendar]
- SEO Keyword Research Template
- TikTok Content Planner
Design is another important aspect of planning and publishing content. For complex projects, you should consider working with either an in-house designer or a freelancer hired through UpWork. However, for visual content like logos, banners, and social media graphics, Canva is a great tool for your Facebook ad agency.
If you’re working on a project that involves web design, Figma is another great tool to consider. As award-winning Webflow experts, we also rely heavily on Figma to Webflow integrations for our design-to-development workflows.
Communication
Digital marketing is a client-oriented business. It also relies heavily on remote work models, often involving teams of specialists distributed across multiple time zones. That’s why robust digital communication tools are important for your Facebook ad agency.
At Slam, we rely on Slack for most of our communication needs. With its real-time messaging and collaboration features, it’s a great way to organize all the moving parts involved in running an agency. Slack also makes it easy to organize channels by project, team, or topic. It’s more streamlined and efficient than trying to organize moving parts in an email inbox!
How to Start a Facebook Ad Agency and Make Your Offer Unique
To make it in the digital marketing industry, you need to find ways to stand out. That’s why creating a unique offer for your Facebook ad agency is crucial to attracting clients. A unique offer will give businesses a compelling reason to choose your agency over competitors.
Several factors are involved in creating a unique offer for your digital marketing agency. In this section, we’ll focus on three key aspects:
- Determining your service framework
- Setting your prices
- Personalizing your offer
We get into these topics in more detail in our How to Start an Agency course, so be sure to check it out!
Determining Your Service Framework
Setting up your service framework starts with outlining your core services. This could include things like:
- Social media management
- SEO optimization
- Facebook ad design and copy
- …and more!
Regardless of the services you offer, it’s important to figure out how they align with the pain points experienced by your niche target audience.
Once you’ve outlined your core services, the next step is to prepare a proposal outlining how your agency will address your client’s pain points. This is your chance to craft a unique offer that proves the benefits of working with your agency.
Setting Your Prices
With your unique offer crafted and proposed, it’s time to figure out service pricing. Will you work on a retainer, providing services like monthly maintenance, Facebook ad management, or ongoing lead generation? Or, will you charge a fixed rate for projects with a clear scope and end date?
Either way, we recommend a 7-step process for setting your prices:
- Understand your cost
- Consider your value proposition and experience
- Determine your niche dependency
- Evaluate your client’s budget
- Build flexibility into your model
- Research what other people are currently charging
- Factor scalability into the equation
Remember, your rate needs to reflect both the market average and the distinct value you bring to the table.
Personalizing Your Offer
The digital marketing industry is competitive, and most clients review multiple proposals before deciding who to hire. Making your offer as personalized as possible is a great way to stand out from the competition.
We suggest following these five steps for crafting a personalized offer when pitching a client:
- Define your prototype client
- Develop a tailored solution
- Demonstrate expected outcomes
- Offer a unique element that sets your service apart
- Communicate your unique value
The goal is to prove that you can address the client’s needs in a way no one else can.
How to Start a Facebook Ad Agency with Slam
Getting started isn’t easy. Agency founders routinely spend hours figuring out things like project management, required documentation, and how to pitch and land clients. At Slam, we’ve put a lot of effort into documenting our processes and creating templates to save time and money.
Now, we’re making our templates and tools available to agency founders like you!
To access Slam’s processes and 20+ templates, check out our How to Start an Agency course which will provide you with everything required to start a successful Facebook ad agency.
As an award-winning design agency, we’re also available to partner on projects for everything from consulting to campaign design and implementation.
Here are just a few of the award-winning services we offer our clients:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Webflow Design & Development
- Content Writing & Strategy
- Brand Strategy & Identity
Interested in starting other types of agencies? Check out our guides:
