Facebook ad agency contracts: terms to check
Most trades sign an agency agreement after a good phone call and a quick skim of a PDF. The problems surface six months later, usually around leaving. This guide walks through the twelve clauses that decide how much the engagement really costs and how cleanly it ends, with the wording to look for and the wording to push back on.
Start with the end
Read the termination clause before anything else. How you leave determines your real exposure. An agency with a brilliant onboarding deck and a twelve-month lock-in has given you one month to judge and eleven to regret.
The benchmark in the trades sector is rolling monthly. Several agencies in our database state it publicly: One Base Media (one monthly payment, no contracts), Lead Wave (month-to-month, no lock-in), SanXpert Digital (rolling monthly, no contracts) and Roofing SEO Services (rolling monthly on 30 days' notice). If an agency wants longer, it should explain what it is investing up front that justifies it.
The twelve clauses
| Clause | Acceptable | Push back on |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum term | Rolling monthly, or 3 months with a written reason | 6 or 12 months with auto-renewal |
| Notice period | 30 days | 60 or 90 days, or notice only at anniversary |
| Setup fee | None, or itemised against specific build work | Unexplained 'onboarding' charge |
| Management fee basis | Fixed monthly figure | Percentage of spend with no cap |
| Ad spend handling | Paid by you direct to Meta | Paid to agency, marked up or bundled |
| Account ownership | Your Business Manager, your pixel, your page | Agency-owned assets with 'access' granted |
| Creative ownership | You own ads, video and images on payment | Licence only, revoked on exit |
| Landing pages and forms | Built on your domain or handed over | Hosted by agency, deleted on exit |
| Lead data | Exported to you monthly and on exit | Held in agency CRM only |
| Exclusivity | Defined by postcode, in writing, no premium | Vague 'your area' wording or a surcharge |
| Reporting | Named metrics, frequency and format | 'Regular updates' with no definition |
| Performance language | No guarantees, clear what is measured | Guaranteed leads with undefined 'lead' |
Fees: fixed, percentage or hybrid
A fixed fee is simplest. You know the cost, and the agency has no incentive to push your spend up. SanXpert Digital states 'no percentage of ad spend' as a selling point, and Trustmark Trades publishes a flat £299 plus VAT a month, which is the clearest fee statement in our set even though it does not run paid ads.
A percentage of spend is common in bigger agencies and is defensible when spend is large and variable. For a trade spending £1,500 a month it tends to produce a low fee that the agency then supplements with setup charges. Watch for the combination.
If a fee is quoted as 'from', ask what moves it. Roofing SEO Services publishes £499 to £2,599 a month and says the difference is local competition. That is a legitimate variable. 'Depends on your goals' is not.
Where the ad spend goes
Insist on paying Meta directly from your own card on your own ad account. Rated Media says clients pay ad spend direct to platforms, and that should be universal. When spend flows through the agency, you lose sight of the true cost per lead, you depend on the agency's invoice for the number, and you have no account history if you leave.
The ownership of that account is the second half of the same issue, and it is large enough to have its own guide.
Exclusivity wording
Lead Wave offers one business per trade per area. Scale Through Us caps at three per niche per location. Roofing SEO Services writes one roofer per town into the agreement. Three different promises, and only the last says it is contractual.
If exclusivity matters to you, the clause must name the postcodes or towns, state the number of competitors permitted (zero or otherwise), and say what the remedy is if the agency breaches it. A promise on a sales page is not a term. And do not pay more for it; the reasoning is in area exclusivity is mostly a pricing trick.
Reporting as a contractual term
Reporting is rarely in the contract and should be. Specify what you will receive, when, and in what form. A minimum for Meta campaigns is monthly spend, leads by campaign, cost per lead, and the agency's own note on what changed and why.
Better still, add booked jobs. Local Leads Accelerator and Roofing SEO Services both say they report on booked jobs rather than clicks or traffic. If an agency makes that claim in its marketing, ask it to make the same claim in the agreement. Our article on what a good monthly report looks like gives a template to attach.
Guarantees and 'lead' definitions
Guarantees are not automatically a red flag. TradesGrow's lead-gen offers say the first leads are free. The Build Agency promises to keep working free until a genuine tender opportunity arrives. Those are specific and testable.
What to avoid is a guaranteed number of 'leads' where a lead is undefined. A form fill with a fake number is a lead by some definitions. Ask for the definition in writing: a lead is a homeowner in your area who has requested a quote for a service you offer and can be contacted. Anything looser and the guarantee is worth very little.
Exit mechanics
The last point sounds absurd but non-compete style clauses do appear in small agency contracts. Strike them. You are the client, not an employee.
If you reach the point of leaving, our guide on when to fire your Facebook ads agency covers the timing and the conversation. The contract you sign now decides how painful that conversation is.
- Written handover of Business Manager admin, pixel, page roles and any domains within 5 working days of the end date
- Export of all lead data in CSV form, including dates, sources and status
- Transfer or deletion of landing pages at your choice, with files supplied
- Final report covering the full engagement
- No post-termination restriction on you hiring another agency or running ads yourself
Frequently asked questions
Is a 12-month contract ever reasonable for Facebook ads?
Rarely for a small trade. It can be justified where the agency builds a substantial website or video library up front and needs to recover that cost, in which case the build should be itemised and owned by you.
Should I pay ad spend to the agency or to Meta?
To Meta, from your own card on your own account. That keeps the true cost visible and the history yours.
What if the agency says its terms are standard and cannot be changed?
Several agencies in the trades sector publish rolling monthly, no-contract terms. If one insists on a lock-in, there are alternatives.
Does exclusivity need to be in the contract?
Yes, with named postcodes or towns and a stated remedy. A sales-page promise is not enforceable.