Many dealer–agency relationships start the same way. Someone from the agency comes to the showroom with a deck, explains that they run Facebook and Instagram ads for "a dozen other dealers in the region", and quotes a monthly fee, in most cases with the ad budget on top. The principal signs because the alternative is to keep doing nothing, and the agency is at least someone.
Three questions are worth asking before you sign.
1. "What is mine when we stop working together?"
Every setup has an answer to this, and you should know it in advance. Ask specifically about the Facebook Page, the ad account, the audiences and any tracking on your website. The Page should always stay yours; nobody but you should own it. For the ad account, there are two honest models. Either you own it and the agency works inside it, or the provider owns it and runs the ads for you. Both can be fine, as long as you know which one you are getting and what happens at the end.
For transparency, here is our answer. With LaLista, the ads run under your own Facebook Page, which stays entirely yours. You share it with us with the "Ads" permission only. The ad account is ours, which is why you never need one. Meta's Ad Library still lists your dealership, not LaLista, as the advertiser and payer — the ads are already covered by your monthly price. We put nothing on your website, so there is no tracking to take back. If you cancel, the ads stop at the end of the month you have paid for, and you can remove our access to your Page at any time in your own Meta Business settings.
2. "What exactly will you do every week?"
Good agencies have a concrete answer: "Every Monday we review which ads are working, switch off the ones that aren't, create ads for your newest cars and send you a short report on Thursday." Weaker ones answer with phrases like "we optimise continuously". If nobody can describe the weekly routine in concrete terms, there probably isn't one. Ask to see a sample report from a real dealer client, with the name removed.
3. "How do you handle a stock that changes every day?"
This question separates agencies that understand dealers from agencies that understand "retail" in general. If the answer is "we update the ads when you send us the new stock list", that model can't keep up with a live lot. If the answer is "we read your listings, keep a vehicle catalogue in sync and build an ad for every car", ask to see it running for another dealer. Keeping the ads in step with the stock is the capability that matters most for a dealer; much of the rest is craft that many agencies share.
Two optional questions
"How long do your dealer clients usually stay?" and "Can I talk to a client you have had for a long time, without you in the room?" The answers often tell you more than a reference call arranged by the agency.
The point isn't to trap the agency. It's to separate the ones who do the work from the ones who sell the work, and the good ones welcome these questions.
A fourth question if you are also looking at platforms
If you are comparing agencies with platforms such as LaLista, ask each one: "Is keeping the ads in sync with my stock something you add on top of campaigns, or is it how the whole thing runs?" An agency is someone who manages your marketing; a platform is something that does one job continuously. Which fits your dealership depends on whether you want a person to talk to about marketing, or every car advertised without having to think about it.
