How do I know if my Meta ads agency is actually doing anything?

Open Ads Manager and check whether new creative has been added or tested in the last 30 to 45 days. Check whether cost per purchase has changed over the last 90 days. If creative has not changed and the outcome metric has not moved, and no explanation has been given for either, those two data points together are the most honest answer available without asking the agency directly.

What metrics should a Meta ads agency be responsible for?

Blended cost per acquisition, meaning total ad spend divided by total new customers in the period, and new customer ROAS. Not impressions, reach, CPM, or click-through rate. Those are inputs to the outcome, not the outcome itself. An agency can optimize all of them while the actual acquisition cost worsens.

How long should I wait before deciding my Meta agency is not working?

A useful benchmark is 60 to 90 days for a measurable change in blended CAC or new customer ROAS, checked in your own Ads Manager data. A brand-new account needs more time to exit the learning phase and build conversion event history. An established account with existing campaigns and creative history should show movement in that window if the work is real.

Can my Meta ads agency's report show good results while my business is actually losing money?

Yes, if the report focuses on blended ROAS including returning customers rather than new customer ROAS specifically. Returning customers inflate blended ROAS because they are attributed back to Meta even when they would have come back organically. A report showing strong blended ROAS can coexist with a new customer CAC that makes first-order acquisition unprofitable. Separating new versus returning in the Ads Manager breakdown is the way to check this directly.

Agency Problems

Part of How to Know If Your Ecommerce Agency Is Working

Meta Ads Agency Not Working: What to Check in Your Own Ads Manager First

Meta advertising generates more reporting data than almost any other marketing channel: impressions, reach, frequency, CPM, click-through rate, add-to-cart rate, cost per purchase. A monthly agency report built from this data can look dense and professional even when the one number that matters to the business, how much it costs to acquire a real new customer, has not moved in three months. This is not unique to bad agencies. It is a feature of how Meta reporting is structured: activity is always happening, so there is always something to report on, regardless of whether the underlying outcome is improving.

The Two Numbers That Actually Prove a Meta Agency Is Working

A Meta ads agency is responsible for two specific outcomes, and both should be checked in your own Ads Manager or GA4, not in the agency's slide deck.

Metric

Blended CAC

Total ad spend divided by total new customers acquired in the same period. This is the all-in cost to bring one new buyer into the business through paid Meta. If this number has not improved, or has gotten worse, over the past 60 to 90 days, that is the actual signal, regardless of what the impression count or CPM shows.

Metric

New Customer ROAS

Revenue from first-time buyers only, divided by spend on campaigns targeting new audiences. This is different from blended ROAS, which includes returning customers who would likely have come back anyway. A Meta agency's job is new customer acquisition, and new customer ROAS is the number that reflects it.

Both metrics are available in Ads Manager under the breakdowns and custom column settings. If your account does not have a new versus returning customer breakdown configured, that is itself a setup gap worth flagging.

What Creative Fatigue Looks Like in Your Own Account

One of the most common reasons Meta ad performance declines without the agency flagging it clearly is creative fatigue: the same small set of ads running long past the point where the audience has seen them repeatedly. In your own Ads Manager, this shows up as frequency climbing above 3 to 4 on a given ad set combined with ROAS on that same creative set declining over a 30 to 60 day window, while no new creative variants have been added or tested.

If the last new creative entered the account more than 45 days ago and frequency is rising, that pattern is worth raising directly. The full diagnostic for this signal is at the ad creative fatigue page.

How to Run the Check Yourself in Under 10 Minutes

Open Meta Ads Manager and set the date range to the last 90 days

Add custom columns: cost per purchase, purchase ROAS, and frequency

Sort campaigns by spend, look at the top 3 to 5 by spend

Check whether cost per purchase has gone up, down, or stayed flat month over month within that window

Open GA4 and check new users from paid social as a traffic source against the same 90-day window to cross-reference the Meta attribution

If cost per purchase has risen or stayed flat and the agency's report has not named a specific reason why and a specific test addressing it, that gap is the conversation to have before deciding whether to switch.

What This Check Cannot Tell You

Checking Ads Manager tells you whether the outcome metric has moved. It does not tell you whether the underlying problem is the agency's execution or something deeper in the business, like a margin structure that cannot support profitable acquisition at Meta's current CPMs, or an audience that has been largely reached at this price point.

If blended CAC has not improved and the agency cannot name what they changed and why it did not work, that points to an execution problem. If they can name what they tried and CAC still has not moved, the problem may be structural rather than a reflection of their effort. The full framework for separating these two is at the Should I Fire My Ecommerce Agency page.

Activity is always happening, so there is always something to report on — regardless of whether the underlying outcome is improving.

Ad Creative Fatigue

The full diagnostic for the most common execution failure this check uncovers: frequency climbing, ROAS declining, and no new creative entering the account.

Decide

Should I Fire My Ecommerce Agency?

If the check shows a flat CAC and no explanation, this framework separates fixable execution problems from structural channel problems a different agency would not solve either.

Frequently Asked Questions

What to Do Next

If the check above shows blended CAC has not moved in 90 days and the agency cannot name what was tried and what it was expected to do, the next step is the decision framework at Should I Fire My Ecommerce Agency — and if the answer looks structural, having someone map the full revenue system before reallocating the budget is the right decision.

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