Read before you hire.
The surest way not to get played by an agency is to know the game. Everything we wish every founder knew before signing their first marketing contract. POAS, ROAS, margin, red flags, self-audit. No jargon, no corporate speak, written the way we'd explain it over coffee.
Fundamentals
5 articlesWhat brand scaling is, and why it isn't „more Meta budget"
Brand scaling isn't the plus button inside Ads Manager. It's the system that takes a store from €10K a month to €100K without breaking on the way. Five pillars, not one.
What is POAS, and why it matters more than ROAS
ROAS tells you what you billed. POAS tells you what stays in your account after you pay the supplier, the courier, and the bank. Only one of them takes you to dinner.
ROAS vs POAS. Same budget, two completely different decisions.
Two campaigns with the same ROAS. One feeds the company, the other eats it. Here's a walkthrough on real numbers, so you stop guessing at the Monday meeting.
Net margin. Your business's rescue or death.
Below 15% net margin, no agency on earth can save you. Above 30%, you have real room to scale. Here's how to calculate it honestly and what decisions it drives.
Ad spend, media budget, break-even. Three terms, three very different agency conversations.
They sound similar. They get used interchangeably in meetings. The gap between them is the gap between making a profit and thinking you're making a profit. Here's what each one is and when it starts to matter.
Protection
6 articles11 signs the agency you're about to sign with is going to burn you
„We'll optimize." „The algorithm." „You don't have budget for us." These are the phrases you hear right before you torch €10,000 on nothing. Here's how to catch them before, not after.
Why the €1,500 retainer eats your business worse than you think
Sounds professional. Sounds serious. Sounds like what big companies do. It's also the model that guarantees the agency gets paid whether you sell or not. Let me show you the math.
How you tell on the first call that they're going to burn you
You don't need three months to trip over something shady. The signs show in the first 60 minutes of conversation, if you know what to ask and what to listen for.
„We'll optimize." Let me translate the phrases your agency throws at you
„The algorithm." „It's too early." „The ecosystem matures." All these have a real translation you only learn after losing 6 months with the wrong agency. I'm writing them here so you learn them from day one.
„Efficient ROI", „influencer amplification" and other words agencies invent to make you look stupid
If the report uses metrics you can't open in Meta Ads Manager or GA4, you're being lied to. Here's the list of fabrications I see most often and what to do with them.
If the product is bad, no agency on earth saves you
I've seen founders cycle through 3 agencies in a year and still not sell. On the fourth they realized it wasn't an ad problem. It was what was going into the cart.
Practical
4 articlesNet margin on five products, in 30 minutes. Step by step, with category examples.
You need Excel, the last two supplier invoices, and 20 minutes without a phone ringing. You walk out with a single number you can defend in front of any agency, any accountant, and yourself.
A fast agency audit. Eighteen questions, half an hour.
Open your laptop. Meta Ads Manager in one tab, Google Ads in another, GA4 in a third. The last three agency reports next to you. Half an hour later you know whether to stay or switch.
What to set up at home before you call an ads agency
If the pixel isn't in, GA4 is a mess, and Google Ads conversions aren't firing, any agency burns 2-3 weeks on setup. Sometimes they bill you for it. Do the foundation yourself. One weekend is enough.
Are you ready to scale? Twelve checks you run yourself, in order.
Before you sign the contract with a new agency, you go home and verify whether the business survives double the volume. Pass ten out of twelve, we start. Fail that, the problem isn't the agency you're looking for.