I met a founder who pays €25,000 every month to his Meta consultant. On top of the €100,000 he spends on ads every month.
Most people hear that and immediately judge the fee. I get it. For that kind of money you would expect a very sharp account.
This one was not sharp. ROAS was barely above break even. Scaling made it worse. Creatives died in days.
I kept telling the founder to fire the guy. The team kept saying it was fine, at least they were profitable.
No. If you pay someone €25,000 a month and the account still looks like that, you fire them.
I was ready to write the email myself.
Except there was nobody to fire
There was no consultant.
On €100,000 of monthly spend, the difference between 107% ROAS and 132% ROAS is already €25,000.
That was the fee, paid in full every month, in revenue the same €100,000 could bring in at 132%, for the privilege of good enough.
So I had spent the whole conversation wanting to fire a man who did not exist. The actual consultant was Meta, the only one that can underperform, charge more, give you fewer answers, and still get renewed on Monday.
Why this gap survives
Because nobody sends you a receipt for opportunity cost.
An underperforming agency invoice arrives once a month with a number on it, and it gets questioned. The same amount lost to a ROAS gap arrives as nothing at all. The account is profitable, the dashboard is green, and the difference between the account you have and the account you could have never appears as a line item. I saw the same thing in a $383K audit where no dashboard flagged the failing countries. One market there sat at 28% All ROAS for three months inside a campaign that looked fine blended.
The arithmetic is worth running on your own account before the next quarter starts:
| Step | The founder’s account (Meta only) | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Take your monthly paid spend | €100,000 | The base for every row below |
| Take your current blended ROAS | 107% | €107,000 of revenue |
| Take the ROAS you believe the account should reach at this spend level | 132% | €132,000 of revenue |
| Multiply the gap by the spend | (132% minus 107%) times €100,000 | €25,000 a month |
The four steps run on the founder’s account. The two revenue figures are my own arithmetic, each ROAS multiplied by the monthly spend.
Whatever comes out is what good enough is costing you this month, and it will cost you the same next month unless something changes. If that number, after store fees and refunds, is larger than what serious help would cost, you already have your answer. If it is, start with the six criteria I would use to choose that help.