12 Questions to Ask an Agency Ad Account Provider Before You Top Up

Ask for the legal name, the country of registration, a VAT or company number and the whole contract. A summary isn't enough. For EU companies you can test a VAT number yourself on VIES, the European Commission's lookup. Elsewhere, use the company register of that country.

If the website, the contract and the bank account show different names, ask why. Group companies are normal, and we have them too. You just want that explained in writing before the wire leaves.

Whatever sits on a provider's own site was picked by the provider, so look elsewhere. Read the one-star reviews on Trustpilot along with the replies under them, because how a company answers a complaint tells you more than its score.

If a seller claims a platform partnership, look it up in the Google Partners directory or the TikTok partner directory. Being absent doesn't make a provider fake. We aren't listed in either one ourselves. Claiming a badge the directory can't find is a different story.

Be careful with "best provider" lists. Providers in this market pay for referrals, we do too, 30% of the fees we collect, for life, so a list can earn from the names it ranks and the disclosure isn't always easy to spot. If someone recommends us, it's fair to ask whether they earn from it. Our own comparison of providers includes us, so read it with the same care.

A bank wire to a corporate account, followed by an invoice that matches, leaves a trail a chat handle never will. If the beneficiary is a private person, stop there.

Crypto alone isn't the problem. It's common in this market and we take USDT and USDC. The problem is crypto as the only route, with no contract and no invoice around it.

A fee on the top up is paid on money that hasn't been spent yet, which matters the day an account stops with budget still on it. Ask whether that fee ever comes back. Fees on spend work the other way round, so ask how often they're charged.

Then ask how the percentage is worked out, because 5% can mean two things. Take $10,000 sent at 5%, as an example.

The gap is small on one top up and adds up on a monthly budget. Ask for one worked example on your real number, in dollars. If you want the wider picture, what an agency ad account costs goes through flat fees and percentages side by side.

A low fee can sit next to other lines. Ask about setup fees, monthly minimums, a charge per account, currency conversion, surcharges by payment method, whitelisting or verification add-ons, and VAT.

Ask what a quiet month costs as well. A percentage costs nothing at zero spend, and a monthly plan keeps charging.

Contracts often let a provider change prices, and ours does, with at least one month's notice and the option to leave if you don't accept. What you're after is the notice period and the exit.

Ask how the rate moves as you scale, too. To compare a percentage with a flat monthly plan, divide the monthly price by the percentage and you have the spend where the two meet. A $500 plan against a 5% fee meets at $10,000 a month. Check where a flat plan stops, because many of them end at a spend ceiling. Our own numbers are on the offers page.

You want a yes or no today, with the reason. Complaints about providers often read the same way. The buyer was told one thing before paying and a different thing after.

Ask who handles approvals, since some can't be done for you. For gambling and gaming, Snapchat says the form must come directly from the advertiser and that it "does not accept submissions from other third parties, such as agencies". X says pre-authorizations for restricted categories "must be approved before launching" campaigns. When someone tells you their accounts come pre-approved for your vertical, ask to see where the platform says so.

The word covers several different things, and we took them apart here. Ask which platform feature or document it points to.

"Verified" deserves the same treatment. On Meta, business verification belongs to the business and it "won't give you a verified badge", so ask who was verified. Scores and metal tiers are harder still. We looked for a Meta document defining "Platinum HiVA" and didn't find one.

A label a seller invented is fine as long as they say so. Adtucon Certified is exactly that, a programme we made ourselves, with 15 public checks and no platform behind it.

Ask who is admin on the ad account, whether your Page, pixel, domain and catalog stay in your own portfolio, and what happens to the account's history when you leave. Keep your assets where you own them and give the provider access as a partner. On Meta, only the organization that owns an asset can share it onward. If a provider wants your Page moved into their BM, ask why.

We go deeper on this in Is it safe to use an agency ad account?

You want to hear it from a person, with the reason, before you spot it in the numbers. Accounts fall at every provider, so ask what happens next. Who files the review matters, because on Meta "you must be an admin on the account", reviews are limited in number, and once one is completed the decision is final. A rushed appeal can use up your chance.

Ask about replacements as well. Find out what they cost, whether the cause changes the answer, and whether there's a limit.

This is where reviews of this market get ugly, so it's the place to be stubborn. Ask which money is covered, how many days it takes, what's deducted and how it comes back.

Compare the answer with what platforms do. TikTok aims for 5 business days on a suspended account, with up to 60 in some cases, and it may charge a service fee of up to 10% of the remaining prepaid amount. A provider promising your whole balance the same day is either fronting the money or promising more than it controls, so ask which. The detail is in what happens to your balance after a ban.

What buyers praise most in reviews is a named person who answers. Ask for a name, a handle, hours and who covers holidays.

Take the handle from the provider's website, never from whoever messaged you first, because fake Telegram accounts copying providers are a known problem in this market. Before you pay, send one hard question at a bad time, the kind you'd send when a card gets declined at 3 in the morning, and time the reply.

There's no scorecard. A "trust us" on questions 1, 3 or 11 is reason enough to stop. A weak answer anywhere else means a smaller first top up and a closer watch. Whatever you're told in chat, ask for it again in an email or in the contract, so it exists somewhere other than a thread that can be deleted.

Ask us the same twelve. We wrote our own answers in Is Adtucon legit?, including the ones that don't flatter us, our full Terms sit in the sign-up form, and you can reach a person here. If you like what you hear, start from the platform you run.