This is the question we get asked most, usually a little sheepishly, as if we are going to be offended. We are not. The right answer genuinely depends on where your business is, and pretending it is always “hire us” is how people end up paying for things they did not need.
When to do it yourself
If you are early, cash is tight, and you have more time than money, do it yourself. Not forever, and not everything, but the fundamentals are learnable and the early wins matter more than polish. Post consistently. Reply to every enquiry fast. Ask happy customers for a review. Send the occasional email to the people who already know you. None of that needs an agency, and doing it yourself teaches you what your customers actually respond to, which is worth more than a strategy deck when you are just starting.
When to hire
Hire when the constraint flips from money to time, or when the thing in front of you is genuinely specialist. There is a point where every hour you spend fighting an ad platform is an hour you are not spending on the work only you can do. There is also a point where the job needs skill you cannot pick up on a weekend, like building the site everything runs through, or wiring your tools together so leads stop falling between them. Pay for the things that compound and the things that are dangerous to get wrong.
What you should never fully hand over
Whoever runs it, the strategy and the assets stay yours. You should always be able to answer who you are for and why they choose you, even if someone else executes it. And you should own everything: the website, the ad accounts, the domain, the customer list. If an agency builds you a site you cannot log into, or runs ads from an account you do not own, they have not delivered an asset. They have built themselves a hostage.
The terms that quietly trap you
- Long lock-in contracts. A short minimum so the work has time to land is fair. Twelve months you cannot leave is a business model, and it is theirs, not yours.
- Marked-up ad spend. If your budget quietly funds their margin, they are rewarded for spending more, not for making more.
- No offboarding. Ask what leaving looks like before you sign. If nobody can tell you how you get your accounts and data back, that is the answer.
- Reports with no decision in them. If the monthly update never says stop doing this or spend more here, it exists to look busy.
The tell for a good agency is simple: they will talk you out of things. If the first conversation is all upside and no “you do not need that yet,” you are being sold to, not advised. The right partner tells you when to stop spending, even though it costs them, because the alternative is a client who quietly churns and never refers anyone.