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We are finally looking to start running paid ads either google or Social Media. What do you guys think is a good budget ? Also any advice on questions to ask when deciding which company or person to go with ?

Whoa there Chatty McChat Bot, information overload. The question is not answerable without context you have withheld. You will not reveal the context due to abject fear the commenter might cheat you. We seem to be at an odd cognitive impasse.

Fear not, because discussion always goes much faster when the OP plays no role. Thank you for your assistance. Any of these points can be useful for discussion with the modern “agency.”

…Just ask what the word “marketing” is. For marketing is best seen as a multiplier, and you won’t get anywhere multiplying by zero. Product-market fit determines the price of market entry. (Unless you wanted to argue you own a billion-dollar multinational in existence for twelve years.)

…Market research gets you attuned to and (possibly) aligned with any market. Skipping this vital research in a headlong rush to launch at any cost will incur market penalties. Product-market mismatch causes friction with the market thus spiking the cost of market entry. If you are ice skating uphill, costs are prohibitive.

…Word-of-mouth depends upon strong market demand. Nobody doubts you’ve fallen in love with your product, and can’t see the flaws. All the doubt comes in on the cost-effectiveness of putting lipstick on that pig.

…Ask which metrics they want performance to be judged by. As the conversation steers sharply away from the economic to the esoteric, read up on the difference between customer metrics and vanity metrics.

Thank you for being of no help whatsoever. Thank you very little.

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TIL Having no motivation of sticking one’s nose up a client’s ass also has a downside: Blunt Force Trauma of a sort.

Just ask them for a proper plan + measurable results after a certain period.

Personally I would first play with it myself before hiring anyone. Not as a substitute for eventual marketing professional but to be able to gauge their value and competence.

Buying ads is pretty easy, that is the whole point of ad based business models of B2C platforms. You don’t need to be expert to do it.

Totally depends on your business.

Truth is you probably don’t want a generalist. I run an agency that calls itself a plug in marketing department for B2B saas and digital services startups. If someone approaches who runs a 25+ man business, sells e-commerce products, runs a shop, offers local services, etc etc etc then I send them onto my contacts who specialise in that.

You don’t want a guy who says he can do it all, because maybe he can, but how well? Like I’m pretty good at what I do, but if someone’s got SEO questions I pull in our SEO guy because I only know the general stuff in that topic.

It’s fine to hire one person if you want it in-house, but you need to be confident that you’re hiring someone who knows what they’re talking about and isn’t gonna make it up as they go, and you need to be confident you’re hiring them for the job you need done.

I’ve been the one man marketing department at companies before, and scope growth did leave me googling the answers to tasks that aren’t my specialty. I did my best, but it was never going to be the same quality as someone who specialised in that thing.

To be honest, you want to find someone who specialises in what you do. If you’re a corporate lawyer in the USA who mainly handles countersuits, you want an agency that specialises in corporate lawyers in the USA and understands what that entails. Same thing for any other niche.