Short term? Agency feels easier.
You pay, they handle the headache, you focus on creatives and funnels. No learning curve, no infrastructure stress, no waking up to banned accounts and wondering what broke overnight. On the surface it looks cheaper because you’re not buying devices, proxies, team, time.
But that’s rental business.
Long term, in house wins if you’re serious.
Building your own farm has a learning curve. You’ll burn accounts. You’ll misconfigure stuff. You’ll question your life choices at 3am. That’s part of it. But while you’re suffering, you’re also learning how Meta actually behaves under pressure.
And that knowledge compounds.
When you control the infrastructure, you control the data. You see patterns. You see which creatives trigger flags. You see which accounts age better. When Llama moderation shifts again, you can pivot fast. No waiting for an agency Slack reply.
Agencies protect themselves first. That’s normal. If results dip, they adjust to protect margin. When it’s yours, you adjust to protect growth.
Also nobody talks about this part. Once your setup is stable, it becomes an asset. You can use it for your own campaigns and later offer infrastructure access to other buyers. Now you’re not just spending on ads, you’re monetizing the backend too.
If you’re small and just testing offers, agency is fine to start. If you’re planning to stay in the game, build your own engine. Control beats comfort in the long run.
