The easiest Meta ads client to win is a business that is already running ads. They have a budget, they have decided ads are worth trying, and their ads are public. Meta publishes a searchable ad library of every active ad on its platforms, so you can see who is spending before you write a word.
That changes the pitch. You are not persuading a business to advertise. You are telling a business that is advertising one specific thing you noticed about the ad. Below is a 10-minute review routine, the email built on it, three ways to price, and what a first 30-day test should look like.
What a business gets from a media buyer
A business owner who runs Facebook and Instagram ads on their own typically presses the "boost" button, picks an audience and a budget, and watches what happens. A media buyer brings three things: ads built to a plan instead of a guess, regular testing of different images and wording, and someone watching the numbers every week so a bad ad is switched off in days, not months.
That is the value you sell. What you do not sell is a promised result. No one can promise a cost per lead before looking at the business, and owners who have been burned by agencies remember the promises that weren't kept.
Using the ad library to find businesses already spending
Meta's Ad Library is free and does not need a login for most searches. Search by a business category and a location, or by keywords such as "free estimate" or "book now." For each result you can see the business name, the date each ad started, whether it is still active, how many versions exist, and the ad text and creative.
Some signals worth noting:
- An ad that has been running for 60 days or longer is probably earning enough to leave on, or nobody is watching it.
- Five near-identical ads with only a different image means they're testing, but without a plan.
- A single ad running for months with no variations means it hasn't been looked at.
- No ads at all in a seasonal industry with a peak coming means a missed opportunity.
Search twenty categories in your area: dentists, gyms, home remodelers, med spas, auto detailers, local ecommerce shops. Collect 40 businesses with active ads. You can find the owner or marketing manager's name from the business's own site. See finding a business owner's email address and how to build a lead list.
Spotting weak ads you can name
Spend ten minutes per business and look at one ad. Write down one fixable thing, specific enough that the owner can verify it in the ad library themselves:
- The offer is vague. "Great service, call today" gives no reason to act now. A concrete offer such as "$79 first cleaning, booked this week" does.
- The image is a stock photo. Real photos of the business, the team or the work are usually more believable.
- The next step sends people to the homepage rather than a page about the offer.
- The first line of text is cut off on a phone before it says anything useful.
- One ad only, running for months with no test of an alternative.
Pick the one you are most sure of. Do not list five. A long list reads as an audit nobody asked for, and any wrong item undermines the right one.
A first email built on one ad
Subject: Your "spring tune-up" ad on Facebook
Hi Greta, I saw that Pinecrest Auto has run the same "spring tune-up" ad since August. The offer line is cut off after "Keep your car running smoothly," so on a phone no one sees the $89 price. Moving the price to the first line is a ten-minute change. I manage Facebook and Instagram ads for local shops. If it would help, I can send a short page with the three changes I'd test first. Isaac Brandt, [mailing address]. Reply "no" and I won't write again.
The email is about her ad and says nothing about your agency's history. If she is curious, she will ask. For how to keep each message specific when you send many, read personalisation at low volume.
What to charge: flat, percentage, or both
Three common models:
- Flat monthly fee. Simple to explain. Works for small budgets. Example: $900 a month.
- Percentage of ad spend. Scales with the work but rewards raising the budget. Example: 15 percent of spend.
- Both. A flat base plus a smaller percentage. Example: $600 a month plus 8 percent of spend over $3,000.
Run the arithmetic for a client spending $4,000 a month. Flat: $900. Percentage at 15 percent: $600. Combined: $600 plus 8 percent of $1,000 (the part over $3,000) is $600 plus $80, or $680. At $10,000 of spend, those become $900, $1,500 and $600 plus $560, or $1,160. The percentage model pays you more as spend grows, and the flat fee gives the client a number to budget. For small local businesses, a flat fee is easier to sell. Whichever you choose, ad spend is paid by the client directly to the platform, never through you, and say so in writing.
Following up with a short audit
After four days, send the one-page audit you promised: the ad as it is, the ad with your change, and two more things to test. Then a final note at day ten asking whether next month is the right time. If a business is in a slow season, set a date to write again before their busy one.
The first 30-day test
Offer a paid audit and a two-week test, not a six-month contract. For example, a $300 audit credited against the first month if they continue, then a 30-day test with an agreed budget and one number to judge by (cost per booked appointment, cost per lead, or cost per sale). Agree up front what you will review at day 30. See marketing agency clients and SEO agency clients for the surrounding services, and ecommerce brands if online shops are your focus.
Reviewing forty ads takes a morning. The follow-ups take the rest of the month. Rocketship finds owners and marketing managers by name, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the call on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and both Launch and Frontier start with a 7-day free trial, card required. See the AI workers.