Creative production: in-house or agency?
On Meta, the creative is the targeting. Since the platform's detailed targeting options were cut back, the image or video decides who stops scrolling, and a campaign with weak creative cannot be rescued by settings. That makes the question of who produces it one of the most consequential decisions a trade makes, and one that most agency pitches gloss over.
Three production models
Almost every trades agency in our database runs the first model whether it says so or not. The agency needs footage; the cheapest and most authentic source is the person doing the work. The question is whether the agency admits that and gives you a brief, or quietly produces stock-image ads when your footage does not arrive.
| Model | Who shoots | Who edits | Typical cost | Refresh speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trade-shot, agency-edited | You, on a phone, on site | Agency | Low; often within the fee | Days |
| Agency-produced | Agency videographer on site | Agency | Medium to high; often a separate line or higher tier | Weeks to months |
| Fully in-house | You | You or a freelancer | Time rather than money | As fast as you make time for it |
Which agencies sell creative explicitly
A few agencies name production as a service. Grow My Trade, which works only with kitchen, bedroom and bathroom showrooms, lists photography and videography and says clients own all photo and video assets. Home Improvements Digital Marketing lists authority video content for builders. Home Improvement Growth sells Meta video ads to glazing firms and promises scroll-stopping creative. LeadFly offers short-form video production at a published £299 a month. The Build Agency lists photography.
Most others describe ads management without describing where the creative comes from. That is the gap to probe on a sales call, and one reason our pricing comparison asks what a fee actually covers. Ask: who films, who writes the hook, how many new ads a month, and what happens when an ad fatigues.
What works for trades on Meta
The ads that perform for trades are rarely polished. A 20-second clip of a resin driveway being poured, shot on a phone with the installer narrating, outperforms a drone-and-music brand film for a direct-response campaign. Homeowners are looking for proof that a real person does real work nearby.
That favours the trade-shot model. The agency's value is then in direction (what to film, how to hold the phone, what to say in the first three seconds), editing (captions, cut length, the call to action) and testing (five hooks on the same footage to find the one that converts).
Agency-produced video earns its cost in considered-purchase trades. A £40,000 extension or a £15,000 garden build is sold on trust over weeks, and a well-shot walkthrough with the builder talking to camera supports that. This is why Home Improvements Digital Marketing frames video as 'authority' content rather than ad creative.
A worked cost comparison
Take a hypothetical heating engineer spending £1,200 a month on Meta ads. In model one, they film two or three installs a month on a phone, taking perhaps an hour of their time in total. The agency edits within its fee. Creative cost: roughly an hour of labour.
In model two, the agency sends a videographer twice a year for a half-day each. Suppose that is billed at £600 a visit. Creative cost: £1,200 a year, or £100 a month on top of the fee. The footage is better, but there are only two shoots' worth of it, so the ads refresh slowly and fatigue sets in between shoots.
In model three, the engineer films and edits in CapCut themselves. Creative cost: perhaps three hours a month. For a sole trader that is three hours not on the tools, which at a £50 an hour labour rate is £150 a month in opportunity cost. These are illustrative figures to show the shape of the trade-off, not anyone's actual costs.
Decision table by trade
| Trade type | Job value | Recommended model | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency and repair (plumbing, locksmith, electrical faults) | Under £500 | Trade-shot, agency-edited | Volume and speed matter; authenticity beats polish |
| Installation (driveways, fencing, guttering, garage doors) | £1,000 to £10,000 | Trade-shot with occasional agency shoot | Before-and-after footage is the ad; a quarterly pro shoot adds variety |
| Considered purchase (extensions, garden rooms, solar, kitchens) | £10,000 and up | Agency-produced plus trade-shot | Trust-building video justifies cost; phone footage keeps the feed fresh between shoots |
| Showroom retail (KBB, windows and doors) | £5,000 to £30,000 | Agency-produced | Product presentation and brand matter; Grow My Trade and JDR Group target this end |
Ownership of the creative
Whoever produces it, you should own it. Grow My Trade states that clients own all photo and video assets, and that should be the standard. If an agency produces video under its fee and keeps the rights, you lose your ad library when you leave, which compounds the problem described in who owns the ad account.
Ask for raw files as well as finished ads. Raw footage can be re-edited by the next agency or by you; a finished 15-second clip with the old agency's end card cannot.
Questions to put to an agency about creative
The fourth question matters more than it looks. Stock and generated imagery of 'a plumber' is instantly recognisable to homeowners, and campaigns built on it tend to produce the low-quality enquiries discussed in lead quality versus lead volume. An agency that is honest about using it when footage is short is preferable to one that does it silently.
- How many new ad variations do you produce per month, and from what source footage?
- Will you give me a filming brief, and will someone show me how to shoot usable footage on my phone?
- What do you do when I do not send footage for a month?
- Do you use stock images or AI-generated images in trade campaigns, and will you tell me when you do?
- Do I own the finished ads and the raw files?
- How do you decide an ad has fatigued, and how fast do you replace it?
Frequently asked questions
Do I need professional video for Facebook ads as a tradesperson?
For repair and installation trades, no. Phone footage from site, well edited, generally outperforms polished production. For high-value considered purchases, professional video earns its cost.
Which trades agencies include video production?
Grow My Trade, Home Improvements Digital Marketing, Home Improvement Growth, LeadFly and The Build Agency all list photography or video as a service. Most others do not specify where creative comes from.
How often should ad creative be refreshed?
Often enough that cost per lead does not climb. In practice that means new footage or new hooks every few weeks for an active local campaign.
Who should own the ads and footage?
You. Ask for finished ads and raw files, and have ownership written into the agreement.