Hiring someone to run advertisements does not remove uncertainty about your offer or customers. It should give you a clearer way to test those assumptions and manage the work. Prepare these five things before comparing proposals.
1. Define the business problem
More traffic, more suitable enquiries and more completed sales are different goals. Describe where the current journey breaks down. Bring the offer, margins, capacity and common customer objections, not just a desired follower count.
2. Compare the actual scope
List media management, creative production, page work, tracking and reporting separately. Clarify revisions, production rights, approval responsibilities and additional costs. A lower or higher fee does not establish quality without knowing what is included.
3. Establish a usable baseline
If you have existing records, preserve a comparable period with spend, valid leads and completed sales. Label known tracking gaps. If you are starting from zero, say so and agree how the initial baseline will be built; do not invent historical performance to make the proposal look complete.
4. Agree access and oversight
Document account ownership, required access, approval and handover. Ask who performs the work and who is accountable for changes. Agree a reporting rhythm that supports decisions without requiring constant intervention from the owner.
5. Prepare the follow-up
Someone must respond to enquiries, qualify them and record the outcome. An advertising partner cannot accurately judge lead quality if the business never updates the record. Decide what Lead, Disqualify, Qualify and Deal mean in your workflow.
What evidence should you ask for?
Review relevant creative work, the reasoning behind it and any supported outcome data. Ask for the period and measurement definition behind a claimed result. Respect confidentiality: a properly explained anonymous case can be more useful than a wall of client logos.
Ask what the provider would test first, what could prevent success and what would change the plan. Guaranteed ROAS, fixed learning periods or a promise of profit by a particular date should not replace an explanation of the assumptions.
Decide the engagement on written expectations
Review the scope, fee, initial period and notice arrangements together. Our current partnership terms explain CLS's structure; our advertising service explains the work. For measurement definitions, read the ROI framework.
Editorial review: 30 September 2026. Practical guidance; examples are not performance guarantees.
