Whether you’re just starting out as a Facebook ad manager or you’ve been running Facebook ads for clients for a few years or more, it’s important to think about how to price your ad management services.

In this episode, I share three reasons why properly pricing your ad management services is so important.

1. Your Experience 

When you’re starting out running Facebook ads, typically you won’t charge the same rate as you will when you’re two or three years down the track.

But if you are, you’re not alone!

I have people who come into my Elite Ad Manager Certification who were in that exact situation. They still have clients who are at that old, original rate that they initially started charging right at the start. Maybe they’ve managed to increase their rate by $200 or so, but it hasn’t changed much.

Inside Elite Ad Manager, we give them strategies to increase their rates with confidence and make the mindset changes needed to be able to charge what they’re worth.

However, when you are starting out, you’ll typically charge a lower rate because you’re still learning.

I recommend that if you’re taking on your first ad client, and you don’t know anything about ads, you shouldn’t be charging $2,000 a month at the start.

You can work up to that rate, but when you’re starting out, be very clear with your client that the rate you’re charging is just about getting started. You can suggest the lower rate is to help you get experience, and you’d like to have some testimonials and case studies, so you’re doing it for a reduced ads management rate for now.  But it’s not going to stay at this reduced rate.

2. You don’t want to burn out

If your ads management rate is too low, you’re going to need to juggle many clients to be able to make things affordable. Let’s say you want to make $10,000 a month. That’s just looking at revenue, not even what you would bring in.

For $10,000 a month in revenue, if you’re charging, let’s say, $750 a month, then you need to have 13 clients.

That’s one three…13 clients to be able to make that $10,000 a month!!

Compare that to being an experienced ad manager and your rate is $2,000 a month, plus a percentage of ad spend, now you just need five clients to make $10,000 a month.

Maybe you think ‘holy cow, there is no way I could charge $2,000 a month!’

Well, if you’re just starting out it might seem like a big jump, but $2,000 a month could be something that you can work towards.

However, if you have been running ads for clients for a number of years, then I suggest that you could be charging $2,000 a month.

If you find that difficult to visualize, let me ask you this: what do you think would be better for you, for your lifestyle, for working at home with your family, and for your mental health?

If you had 13 clients that you were working with vs. just 5 and you’re making that same amount of money?

Look after yourself and have an hourly rate that is worth all of the service and the value that you bring. You help clients generate more revenue and build and scale their business; that is worth a lot more than $750 a month.

I know people who do organic Pinterest marketing for example, and they charge anything from $750 a month, $1,000 or even $2,000 a month.

So why would you charge anything less than that if you’re an experienced Facebook ads manager?

Make sure you have a decent hourly rate that reflects the value that you bring so you don’t have to juggle too many clients to hit your income goals and risk burning yourself out.

3. Outsource support tasks

With 13 clients, you would likely need to get help to manage the workload. And if you’re only charging $750 a month, that leaves very little wiggle room to be able to afford the support you need.  There’s a lot to do with 13 clients, so you’ll need a virtual assistant, or someone to help out with writing copy, or someone to help out with graphics.

The point here is, you’re doing yourself a disservice by charging a low rate. And you’re also doing your clients a disservice by not being able to give them the correct support to run their Facebook ads.

Even if you’re a bit of a digital unicorn and you can do it all…

I love that, but chances are, there are some areas that aren’t your strong suit.

And if you’re saying, “heck I’m nowhere near a digital unicorn”, then that’s fine too. Not everybody is, that’s for sure, but you can still be great at running ads even if you may not be so strong at copywriting. That’s a whole different talent all by itself.

The best thing that you can do for your clients is help them get results, and outsourcing tasks makes sense.

If your clients don’t have a copywriter on board, and offering copywriting is part of your services, then you need to factor in that cost so you can outsource it.

Then you can have someone who can write great copy for your client’s ads, and you’ll know they’ve got the best chance of getting awesome results in the newsfeed.

It’s a similar case with graphic design. You may not be the best at graphic design, and your client may not have a graphic design person, so that’s part of your agreement as well. You need to have that factored in to be able to afford to outsource to a social media graphic designer.

Perhaps you’re not the most organized person. You may have all your to-do’s in your head, but by the time you’re running Facebook ads, talking to the clients, doing client meetings, taking discovery calls, loading up campaigns, optimizing, and so on it goes, there’s simply not enough hours in the day for everything!

You’ll end up working way too many hours day after day.

You need to get someone on board, a virtual assistant or a marketing assistant, who can help you. They can take the load off by gathering the weekly reports of the ads, or even preparing the daily reports. They can help you manage your inbox, your calendars, and take your mind out of doing all the backend tasks.

They can even learn how to load up campaigns and get ad sets ready for you to come in and just put in the ads and the copy, or to do the audience targeting.

I mean, that in itself can save you so much time!

When you charge appropriately for your services, you can buy some of your time back by getting a VA or a marketing assistant on board to help you. But if you’re just charging $750 a month or another low rate, then it’s impossible to get that support in your business.

You end up burning out, working way too many hours, and then you start to miss things.

Which means your clients won’t get the best results from working with you.

This is why it’s important to charge appropriately for your ad management services and not bottom dollar. You want to provide the best ad management services possible for your clients and guard your time and your energy without burning out over too many hours trying to do it all.

To recap, it’s important to properly price your ad management services so that it reflects your experience. It lets you guard your time and gives you the ability to hire someone like a VA, or a copywriter or graphic designer, to help you get the best results possible for your clients.

What’s been your experience pricing your ad management services? Have you been charging too low? Have you been able to summon up the courage to charge more premium prices of $2,000 or more?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Comment below or send us an email at success@socialcharlie.com. We would love to hear from you!