How much should I charge as an ad manager? That’s a question I get asked all the time by members of my inner circle and other ad managers that I’ve been coaching over the years. So how much should you charge as an ad manager?

Well, that’s kind of a bit of a long piece of string. It depends on a few various options, like who it is that you serve and what your experience level is like. And also what your mindset is like as I’ve spoken with ad managers over the years, and they’ve really struggled with charging higher prices, a lot of it comes back to their own mindset and what they think that they’re worth.

You see a lot of ad managers and a lot of people in general, they struggle with the thing called imposter syndrome. And it’s especially true for ad managers. A lot of us can feel like we get our worth from the results that we get with our ads. If things are doing great, we’re riding high and you have that confidence to charge more but if things aren’t going well, then it’s kind of like, gee, should I even give them a refund? Well, that’s a whole nother kettle efficient something for a whole nother episode. But coming back to our mindset and realizing what you’re worth as an ad manager is one of the biggest things that’s going to help you to decide what you can charge as an ad manager.

And we’ll circle back to that one shortly, but first of all, what should you charge? Well, there’s going to be various different levels, obviously when you’re just starting out, you’re not going to be charging $3,000 a month. Hello? Sorry. No, if you’re new to it and if you’ve got, you know the learner wheels on. It’s really not, integrous, if that’s such a word for you to be going out and charging these high fees, if you don’t know what you’re doing.

So initial stages while you’re learning you charge appropriately and you make it clear to the person that you’re working with, that, yes, I am fairly new to Facebook ads but if you are happy to give me a go with this minimal charge and I’ll give you my all and you don’t have to learn Facebook ads, I’m doing all that for you. And I’ll be able to apply everything that I’m learning into your campaign so that you can get the best results possible. And they’ll go sure, yeah, that sounds great. I don’t want to have to learn them, so please go ahead, feel free and do it.

So for myself, when I started out and I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing. With my first client, I got paid $12 an hour to run Facebook ads. It’s a starting point. And you know, I’m very glad to have had that experience. I’ve worked really hard by the hours I would have put in it was probably more like $4 an hour.

Because I just went above and beyond and seriously, that’s sometimes what you need to do, especially when you’re learning on the job as well. So you’ll be putting in extra time to do that extra learning and then be implementing. So if you’re starting out as an ad manager, hooray, kudos to you! Probably don’t go with those thousand dollar marks.I would probably be benchmarking at a minimum of $500 a month to manage someone’s ad campaigns.

And a great place to start is with a training program that I have for that, which is called the client attraction code. It’s a fantastic strategy to help get you up and running with learning Facebook ads, as well as bringing great value to businesses. As they build audiences, you can go out, target their ideal client, start building that audience and be drawing them in and attracting their ideal client. So you can grab that over at jodymilward.com/tendollars. And that’s a great place to start learning Facebook ads and offering that as a service to clients.

So from there though, if you have a client that is wanting to do lead generation campaigns,
that is someone who, or when they want people to opt in for a checklist or teach it or watch a webinar, then that would be a lead gen campaign. Now, in my inner circle, we had a couple of members recently who were working with clients who had like a $600 a month budget, which is not much wiggle room. It’s about $20 a day.

So when you’re doing lead gen campaigns at that level, yes, that could be something that you could again offer for like a $500 a month price point as you get to learn, because obviously that business owner, they don’t have that big budget for someone to go all in spending, you know, $3,000 a month on their ads. They’re just sort of starting out as well.

So it’s a bit of a testing ground. So again, great place for you to learn but we need to make sure that the client would have those clear boundaries and expectations of like, well at $20 a day, we might get two leads in. We might get four, but there’s a bit of testing underway. So when you are just starting out, don’t overcharge and don’t pretend to be something you’re not, don’t pretend to be someone who’s been running Facebook ads for a long time.

You have all these case studies and success stories and stuff, be honest, okay, that’s going to serve you so well in the long run. As you communicate with your clients saying yeah I am new to this. This is something that I’m learning, but I’m willing to do this at this reduced rate just for a little while, while you’re getting your learner wheels off. And we can talk about increasing what your monthly retainer would be after you’ve, you know, worked with them for maybe a month or two and generating some results for them.

So that is a way you should be starting off as an ad manager and providing ad management services to clients and answering that question of how much should I charge? Now I know ad managers, who’ve been doing this for a couple of years. They know their stuff. They’ve gotten great results for clients, but they’re still just charging a thousand dollars a month.

Now this is where I’m trying to teach them, educate them and show them that the value that they are bringing by running ads for clients and they’re managing $5,000 a month ad spends they’re generating leads and helping that business owner get sales and increase their revenue. So when you are doing that, when you are a Rainmaker for a business and you can do something,
that’s helping them to improve their revenue, then you need to charge accordingly.

You are a very valuable asset to that business. And as you get the skills as you get the experience, and as you know what you’re doing, then yes, charge a higher rate. And I’m not saying an hourly rate at all, go for a monthly retainer. And then that’s up to you is how many hours are you going to do? I know for myself, I do put in a lot of hours and that’s why like I charge a higher premium rate because as I like to say, when I kind of have a boutique style that I work with people it’s very exclusive, very close. And so I give them the white glove treatment rather than the rubber glove treatment.

So when you’re working and you have that kind of level of service, you can charge more and work really nicely intimately with people. And they know they’re well looked after and well taken cared for. So if you’re in that interim of like, I have just started out, but I don’t have that confidence to be charging higher rates yet.

Look at what you’ve done. Look at the case studies, look at your own mindset, consider how you’re viewing yourself. If you’re viewing yourself as someone who is just, you know winging it and not getting results now, and then you need to look at your mindset and you need to, you identify that you have a very valuable skillset.

And by having that skillset, you’re helping other people build their business. They need you! And so when you are a great ad manager, when you give it your all, and you do do your best, you are justified by charging those rates of what, $2,000 a month, $3,000 a month.

And then also this is where it’s very popular with ad managers to either charge a percentage of ad spend on top of that monthly retainer, or possibly even a percentage of sales that have come in via Facebook. So you can see there, if you’re charging $2000 or $3,000 a month and you work with a client that is, you know spending $10,000 a month and you’re getting 10% of the ad spend so you get an extra thousand dollars. So you’re rewarded for your hard work. What other businesses or careers can you get rewarded like that? Where it’s like here, this is what I charge. And then I’m getting rewarded for my work. Sales, I know you get that with commissions but it’s also a great benefit to being an ad and to be able to add that on because you’re doing a great job and you should be rewarded for it.

Now you may be thinking most people can’t afford to spend $2,000 a month for an ad manager. Well, if you have that conversation with someone where you are having a discovery call and you’re seeing if they’re a great fit for you and if they say, Oh, $2,000, I don’t have that kind of money for an ad manager. Then they’re not your ideal client. It’s as simple as that. Some people will say yes, some people will say no. So what! You will find that with the rates that you charge, you will attract the right clients for you.

So if someone can’t afford you, that’s fine. You know, that’s where they’ll maybe need to go and hire somebody who is starting out an intern, so to speak. But if they’re wanting someone else who is more experienced, then they need to pay for that service. And if they can’t afford it, that’s fine. You say, good luck. Look, I look forward to working with you at some point, when you are able in a position to be able to afford this management fee, that’s it,

it’s not the end of the world. There are millions and millions of businesses all around the world that you can tap into to offer Facebook ads as a service to, and between you and me, when you are working with people that are easy to say, yeah, sure. $2,000 a month. No problem, let’s sign up! They’re going to be sweet clients and away you go,it is possible.