There is no single right answer; it depends mostly on how much you spend on ads each month and how much of your own time you can give. An agency fee only makes sense above a certain ad budget. Doing it yourself is free in fees and expensive in hours. An AI agent sits between the two: it does the setup and proposes changes, and you stay the one who decides.
The three options side by side#
All fees below are for the help only. What you pay Meta for the ads is on top in every column.
| Agency or freelancer | Do it yourself | AI agent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee, UK | Freelancer £300–£800; small agency £750–£2,500 or a percentage of ad spend (Lilach Bullock, 2026). Agencies £300–£1,500 or 10–20% of spend (Whito, 2026). Most agency retainers about £1,000, up to £10,000 (The Social Shepherd, 2026) | No fee | Depends on the tool. Madder is free during early access; it will be paid later and the price is not set yet |
| Monthly fee, US | $500–$1,500 at the lowest tier, $1,500–$4,000 in the middle (Clicks Geek, April 2026). One large agency's entry plan: $975 or 15% of ad spend, whichever is greater (WebFX, 2026) | No fee | As above |
| Your hours a week | No sourced figure. Expect a brief at the start, then reports to read and calls | 4–8 hours a week if you do it well (Lilach Bullock, 2026) | No measured figure for Madder yet. Your part is reading drafts and proposals and answering them |
| Who holds the ad account | Ask. It should be your own account with the agency added as a partner; some agencies run ads from their own account | You | You. Madder works in your own Meta ad account |
| Who pays Meta | Usually you; confirm it in the contract | You | You, from your own ad account |
| Who decides on a change | The agency, within what you agreed | You | In Madder, you: every change waits for your approval. Other tools differ; check |
| What you still do | Brief them, approve the plan, supply or pay for photos and video, answer the leads | Everything | Give a page link, supply your own photos, approve or dismiss, define what a lead is, answer the leads |
| Photos and video | Often available, sometimes at extra cost | Yours | In Madder, your own photos. It does not generate images |
| Who is responsible for the plan | A named person | You | You. The agent drafts; it does not take responsibility for results |
What does a Facebook ads agency cost a month?#
In the UK, 2026 figures from three published guides run from £300 a month for a freelancer to £2,500 a month for a small agency, with larger agencies charging more. The Social Shepherd, a UK agency, reports that most agencies charge about £1,000 a month as a retainer and that prices reach £10,000 a month; its own fee is £2,500 a month for ad budgets under £20,000 a month (updated March 2026).
In the US, an agency guide from April 2026 puts basic management at $500–$1,500 a month and a fuller service at $1,500–$4,000 a month. WebFX publishes its own entry plan at $975 a month or 15% of ad spend, whichever is greater, with $1,975 in the first month and a required ad spend of $1,000–$30,000 a month (2026).
Percentage fees are common in both countries: 10–20% of ad spend in the UK (Whito, 2026) and 12–20% in the US (Clicks Geek, 2026).
When is an agency the right choice?#
Hire a person when the fee is small next to the ad budget and when you need things only a person does.
- You spend enough. The Social Shepherd suggests an agency for new businesses and startups that plan to spend at least £3,000 a month on ads (2026). Whito makes the same point from the other side: under £500 a month of ad spend, a £500 fee means you pay more for management than for ads.
- You need photos, video or a new offer made. An agency or a freelancer can produce them. Madder cannot.
- You want someone accountable. A named person who answers for the plan, explains the numbers on a call and changes course.
- You advertise on several platforms now. Madder's only live platform is Meta.
- Your ads need city or interest targeting set by hand today. Madder aims a campaign at a country and has no city or interest targeting yet.
Before you sign, ask three things: whose ad account the ads will run in, who pays Meta, and what happens to the account and its history if you leave.
When is doing it yourself the right choice?#
- Your budget is small and your time is available. No fee is the lowest fee. In a survey of more than 250 US marketing professionals that WebFX reports on its 2026 pricing page, 63% said they spend $500 a month or less on Facebook ads; at that level there is little room for anyone's fee.
- You want to learn how it works. Running one campaign yourself teaches you what to ask of an agency or a tool later.
- You can give it the hours. Lilach Bullock puts it at 4–8 hours a week when done well (2026). If those hours are not there, the ads run unwatched.
If you go this way, Meta's own tools are free, and since 29 April 2026 Meta also offers official connectors that let an AI assistant work in your ad account. See Can ChatGPT run my Facebook ads?.
When is an AI agent the right choice?#
- You have no marketer and no agency, and the setup is what stops you. The agent does the setup; you read and approve.
- Your ad budget is too small for a retainer but you do not have 4–8 hours a week either.
- You want the account, the card and the decisions to stay yours.
It is the wrong choice if you expect it to replace judgment. An agent does not know whether your price is right or your photos are good enough, and no honest tool promises leads. Check how any tool connects and whether it can spend without you: Is it safe to connect an AI tool to your ad account?.
A rough rule by monthly ad budget#
These thresholds come from the sources above, not from our own data.
| Monthly ad budget | What the sources suggest |
|---|---|
| Under £500, or under $500 | A fee of the same size as the budget is hard to justify (Whito, 2026). Do it yourself, or use a tool that costs little |
| £500 to about £3,000 | A freelancer at £300–£800 a month fits accounts in this range (Lilach Bullock, 2026). So does a tool, if you are willing to approve and supply photos |
| £3,000 and above | The level at which one UK agency says an agency partnership starts to make sense for a new business (The Social Shepherd, 2026) |
What Madder does here#
Madder is the third column, with limits you should know. Its agents read your page, draft a campaign with a goal, a daily budget and a country, build ads from your own photos, and create everything paused in your own Meta ad account after one approval. Every later change waits for you. It is in early access, Meta is its only live platform, and it has no customers' results to show you yet. The full sequence is at How Madder works, and the price is at What Madder costs.
Questions people ask#
Should I hire an agency, do it myself or use AI on about £500 a month?
At about £500 a month of ad spend, the published agency fees are as large as the budget itself, which Whito's 2026 guide warns against. That leaves doing it yourself, a freelancer at the low end of £300–£800 a month, or a tool. Choose by how many hours you can give each week.
Can AI replace a marketing agency?
For setup and routine changes on one platform, a tool can do much of the work. It does not replace a person for the offer, photos and video, several platforms at once, or being accountable for a plan.
Is a Facebook ads agency worth it?
It can be when your ad budget is large enough that the fee is a small part of it; one UK agency names £3,000 a month as the starting point for new businesses (2026). Below that, the fee takes too much of the money that could go to ads.
Who should own the ad account when someone else runs my ads?
You. Keep the ad account and the payment method in your own name and add the agency, freelancer or tool to it, so the history and the audience stay with you if you part ways.