Choosing a paid advertising agency is about more than just seeing how many leads and impressions you can get. When choosing a paid media agency, you need to ensure they have relevant platform expertise, a clear understanding of your business goals, reliable conversion tracking, transparent reporting and ongoing optimisation. You also want to ensure they understand your business model, can demonstrate relevant experience and can explain how it measures success beyond clicks and impressions.

Paid media advertising delivers results the minute a campaign goes live, giving businesses the opportunity to reach their target audience, generate leads and increase sales quickly. However, fast results don’t always translate into sustainable growth, that’s why choosing the right paid advertising agency is so important.

As Geoff, our paid media specialist at SOMS Digital, explains, getting traffic is only part of the picture.

“You can have loads of traffic coming to a website, but if it’s not turning into leads or sales, then something needs to be looked at.”

So, how do you choose an agency that looks beyond the clicks and focuses on what really matters to your business? Here are five things to look for when choosing a paid media agency.

1. Relevant Platform Expertise

One of the questions we get is: What platform should a paid marketing agency focus on? TikTok advertising, Meta ads, and now ChatGPT ads, the paid media landscape is changing fast and there are endless opportunities for businesses to put themselves out there. But just because there are endless opportunities, doesn’t mean you should spread yourself, or your budget, too thin. 

You want to choose a paid advertising agency that can help your business get in front of your audience.

Think about it. If you’re a company specialising in protective gear for mine workers, do you think your audience is more likely to be on TikTok or LinkedIn? Or, if you’re a skincare brand, are you more likely to find your audience on LinkedIn or Instagram?

Choosing the right paid marketing agency means finding one that understands where your audience is and which platforms are best suited to reaching them. And when it comes to finding a paid marketing agency in South Africa, you don’t necessarily want an agency that tries to do everything.

What’s that old saying: “Jack of all trades, master of none.” When choosing the right paid advertising agency, this can ring true. You want an agency with genuine expertise in the platforms that matter to your business, rather than one that simply offers a bit of everything.

Google Ads, Meta Ads and LinkedIn Ads each work differently, reach different audiences and can support different business goals. The right agency should understand the strengths of each platform and, more importantly, know when and how to use them for your business. 

2. A Clear Understanding of Your Business Goals

The starting point for any campaign isn’t the audience or creative, but the objective. Before anything else, a paid advertising agency should ask: What are you trying to achieve? 

It sounds obvious, but it can be easy for businesses to slip into the habit of only focusing on metrics like traffic. However, a campaign that’s burning budget on getting more impressions and clicks, but that’s still not converting, isn’t delivering results. 

For an experienced paid advertising agency, it all starts with understanding what the client wants to achieve before setting up a campaign.

“Are they looking for more leads, phone calls, online sales or bookings? Once we understand that, we can build the campaign around that specific goal,” explains Geoff. 

Your goals should guide everything from the platforms you use and audiences you target to the campaigns you create and the metrics you measure. Having a clear idea of what you want to achieve helps ensure your paid advertising strategy is focused, measurable and aligned with your business objectives.

For this section, we asked our social media manager, Marlena, to share her recommendations on Meta’s campaign objectives and when businesses should consider using each one:

Brand Awareness: This type of campaign introduces your business to people who don’t know you yet. It’s also a great way to keep your brand visible if customers have come across your business before. 

What Marlena Recommends: “I’d recommend this for a new brand or service, a launch, a new location, or a campaign aimed at building recognition in a defined area.” 

Lead Generation: This campaign is a good option if you’re looking to turn interest into an identifiable prospect. This can look like enquiries, requesting a quote, or sign ups for a consultation. 

What Marlena Recommends: “When a business needs enquiries and has a team to follow up, especially for appointment-based or considered services. Instant forms are also a good way to get customers to submit details easily without ever having to leave Facebook or Instagram.” 

Website Traffic: This campaign encourages people to visit a destination, such as a service page, landing page, blog or online shop. “It’s also useful when the immediate goal is to bring visitors to a website, share information, or build an audience for future retargeting.”

What Marlena Recommends: “This is not a campaign that’s suited for lead because the actual goal is enquiries or purchases.”

Retargeting: These are ads that are being shown to individuals that have already interacted with your business, so your budget is going towards audiences that are already familiar with your brand. Remember, retargeting pools can be small, so the budget needs to match, otherwise frequency climbs quickly and fatigue sets in. 

What Marlena Recommends: “I’d recommend retargeting once awareness or traffic campaigns have built an audience to work with. It’s best for businesses with longer decision cycles, such as dental, education, landscaping, and installations.”

3. Reliable Conversion Tracking

Without accurate tracking, you’re essentially flying blind. When you invest thousands into paid campaigns and fail to drive results, it can be difficult to know where things went wrong. Your campaign might be getting plenty of clicks and traffic, but that doesn’t mean you’re generating leads, if that’s your goal. 

So, what is conversion tracking? Conversion tracking records key actions users take when they interact with your ad. This can be anything from filling out a form, signing up for your newsletter, making a purchase or calling. Having reliable conversion tracking set up shows you what’s working and what isn’t, and allows you to see which creatives work best for certain audiences and where your budget is generating the best results. 

“Tracking also helps us identify which campaigns and keywords are working, so we can make better decisions about where to spend the budget. Ultimately, it’s about getting the right traffic and turning it into actual business results,” explains Geoff.

4. Transparent Reporting and Optimisation

For many businesses, paid advertising is an investment, so you want to know that your budget is working for you. A good paid media agency should give you more than a monthly report filled with numbers. They should be able to explain what happened, why it happened, and what they’re adjusting to ensure you’re reaching your goals. 

One of the biggest questions reporting should answer is: why? For example, if conversions have increased, your paid advertising agency should be able to explain what contributed to that improvement. Was it a change in targeting, a new creative, a different landing page, or a shift in budget?  

The same applies when performance drops. Rather than simply giving you a spreadsheet with numbers to figure out, transparent reporting should help you decipher why conversions decreased or CPC increased, with your paid advertising agency on hand to help you determine what caused the change and explain what they plan to do about it. 

Here’s a quick look at what a paid media report should include: 

  • Campaign performance
  • Ad spend
  • Clicks and impressions
  • CTR (Click through Rate) 
  • CPC (Cost Per Click) 
  • Conversions
  • ROAS, where relevant
  • Any significant changes or trends

Let’s say that your ad spend has increased but your click through rate has decreased – what happens now? Reporting is only useful if you know what happens next. Optimisation becomes the next step and is useful if you’re using the information from reporting to improve the performance of your campaign. 

Here at SOMS, while we focus on outcome metrics, such as leads and purchases, we look beyond the numbers to understand whether ads are actually delivering results and what needs to change to improve campaign performance.

While a low cost per click may be good for your budget, it doesn’t always mean you’re getting the right results, explains Marlena.

“A cheap lead that never answers the phone isn’t a good result, so I always check with the client or their CRM to see how many leads were actually contactable, qualified or booked.”

By assessing lead quality and campaign efficiency, we can identify whether the issue lies with the ads or the website and make informed optimisation decisions based on sufficient data, rather than making changes too soon.

“I rarely change anything based on a single metric or short window. I’ll always wait until there’s enough data, which is usually a few days at minimum, but ideally around 50 optimisation events per ad set per week.” 

5. Experience That Matches Your Business

An agency that’s brilliant at Google Ads may be mediocre at TikTok ads. The objective should be to find a paid advertising agency that specialises in a platform that’s where your audience is. Every business has a different customer journey, which means that a strategy that works for one business may not work for another. A good paid advertising agency needs to understand how your customers find you, what influences them to take action, and which metric best represents what you’re trying to achieve. 

This is where you can bring in the different business models Clarity identified:

  • Lead generation
  • Ecommerce
  • B2B
  • Full-funnel acquisition

The point isn’t necessarily that an agency must have worked in your exact industry.

It’s that they should understand your type of customer journey and what it takes to turn advertising into a business result.

Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Paid Media Agency

Businesses should  be asking straightforward questions to understand what they’re getting out of their advertising. To help you make an informed decision, here are a few questions to ask potential paid advertising agencies: 

  • Are we getting a good return on our ad spend? It’s not just about how many clicks or impressions we’re getting, but whether the campaigns are generating actual leads, sales or enquiries.
  • How do you track conversions, and can we trust the data? It’s important to know that phone calls, form submissions, purchases and other key actions are being tracked correctly.
  • How do you decide where our budget is spent? Businesses should understand which campaigns are performing well and how the budget is being allocated to get the best results.
  • What are you doing to improve campaign performance? There should be ongoing optimisation, whether that’s reviewing search terms, adjusting bids, testing ad copy or refining audiences.
  • Are we reaching the right audience? Getting lots of traffic is great, but it’s not much use if those people aren’t interested in the product or service.
  • What isn’t working, and what are you doing about it? I think this is a big one. Not every campaign will perform as expected, but the agency should be able to explain what’s happening and what changes they’re making.

Ultimately, businesses should feel comfortable asking questions and understanding where their money is going. A good agency should be transparent about performance, explain things in a way that makes sense, and focus on helping the business achieve its goals rather than just producing good-looking reports.

Paid Media in Action: Easi Landscapes UAE

Choosing the right paid advertising company is about more than just promises – you want to see the results. A recent example of paid advertising done right is our work with Easi Landscapes, a landscaping company in the UAE. From 18 June to 15 October 2026, it highlights several strong indicators of growth and positive performance across key metrics and individual campaigns. 

Key Performance Drivers & Highlights

  • Strong Traffic Growth:
    • Clicks: Reached 27,044, up significantly by +14,496 compared to the previous period.
    • Impressions: Expanded visibility substantially with 731,078 total impressions, an increase of +566,942.
  • Solid Conversion Volume:
    • Total conversions (including projected) stand at 1,344.96, demonstrating sustained lead generation and conversion volume.
  • Campaign-Level Growth Leaders:
    • Easi Landscapes – Demand Gen: Leading growth with a dramatic 137.47% increase in conversion value (between 15 Sept and 14 Oct 2026).
    • Easi Landscapes – P-max 2026: Delivering strong performance with a 75.25% increase in conversion value over the same period.

These results demonstrate why ongoing monitoring and optimisation matter. By looking beyond clicks and impressions to conversion activity and campaign performance, businesses can gain a clearer picture of how their advertising is contributing to their goals.

At SOMS Digital, we’re about more than just good-looking reports and numbers. We work alongside you to build and optimise paid media campaigns that focus on what matters to your business, whether that’s generating leads, increasing sales or improving campaign performance.

Speak to one of our incredible team members, or Geoff (😉), if you’re looking for the right paid advertising agency in South Africa!