How to Choose a Facebook Agency for an iGaming Brand: 12 Questions to Ask First

Choosing a Facebook agency often comes down to three things: the case studies in the deck, the rate and how the call felt. A month later it turns out the agency had never worked your GEO, the ad accounts are in its name, and the report shows nothing but clicks and CPA. To surface surprises like these before the first payment, ask the twelve questions below.

The questions are grouped by topic. At the end you'll find a cheat sheet of good answers and warning signs, plus a list of red flags.

Questions 1–3: vertical and GEO experience

1. Which GEOs and products are you working with right now? Casino and sports betting mean different audiences, different creatives and different restrictions. Experience “in gambling generally” isn't the same as experience in your country with your product. Ask for specific countries — and for an honest answer about where they have no experience.

2. What problem did you solve, and what can you show us? An agency doesn't have to name its clients, but it can show an anonymized breakdown: the goal, the GEO, what was tested, what worked and what funnel metrics came out of it. If all you get instead are ad account screenshots with CTR and CPM, that's a story about clicks, not deposits.

3. How do you check that the product can be advertised in this GEO, and what do you need from us? A good answer starts with a counter-question about your license. An agency that doesn't ask for documents is quietly shifting all the risk onto you.

“Walk us through your last launch in our GEO: what product, what goal, what didn't work and why. No need to name the client.”

Questions 4–5: working within Meta's rules

Online gambling ads on Meta are a restricted category. Under Meta's current policy, these ads can only run once the ad account has been authorized. The application is submitted through Meta Business Suite, together with proof that the business is licensed by a regulator or is otherwise legal in the target territory. Before expanding into a new jurisdiction, you have to declare your intent to advertise there separately.

4. Which ad account will the ads run on, and how will authorization be obtained? A good answer is a clear process: which documents the brand needs to provide, who submits the application and what the agency does while Meta reviews it. Review times are up to Meta, so a promise to “go live tomorrow” without an authorized account is a reason to be wary.

5. How do you comply with age and geographic restrictions? Meta's policy prohibits targeting these ads at people under 18 and lists markets where they aren't supported at all — India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam among them. Local law applies on top of that: Meta states plainly that it isn't responsible for how authorized accounts comply with local laws — that's the advertiser's responsibility.

Ask about landing pages separately. Authorization is also required for ads that lead to a page promoting online gambling, even if you can't gamble on that page — a review or affiliate site, for example.

Questions 6–8: creatives, team and reporting

6. Who makes the creatives, and how are they approved? Find out whether the agency has its own designers and video editors, how often it launches new hypotheses and how creatives are checked before launch: against Meta's rules, local advertising requirements and your brand guidelines. A good sign is when the agency names the restrictions itself: no promises of easy money, no imagery that could appeal to minors, an 18+ label and warnings wherever regulation requires them.

7. Who exactly will run our account? Ask who the media buyer is, how many projects they're handling in parallel, who covers for them when they're on vacation and who your point of contact is. Senior leadership often shows up for the sales call, while the work is done by someone you haven't met yet. Ask to be introduced before launch.

8. What does the report look like, and where does the data come from? Ads Manager shows spend and clicks, not deposits. A good agency asks about postbacks from your tracker or back office right away and proposes a format that ties spend to registrations, FTDs and player quality. We covered which metrics belong there in our article on agency reporting.

Questions 9–12: money, the test, data and traffic quality

9. What's the payout model, and what does it cover? A flat management fee, a percentage of ad spend, CPA, RevShare or a hybrid — each model carries its own risks for both sides. What matters is that the contract spells out exactly what's being paid for and on what terms, rather than “we'll sort out the details as we go.”

10. What kind of test are you proposing? A sound agency talks about a test budget or cap, a timeline and success criteria before it talks about an annual contract. If you're offered a large budget straight away with no clear plan, ask why. We described how to structure a pilot in our article on running a test launch.

11. Who will own the ad accounts, the pixel and the data? This is the most underrated question. There are usually two options. In the first, the assets — the ad account, the pixel (dataset) and the audiences — live in the brand's business portfolio, and the agency gets partner access: Meta lets you share a pixel with another business, including an agency. In the second, the ads run from the agency's authorized accounts — in which case agree in advance what you get if you part ways: exported stats, creative source files, conversion data.

Keep in mind that Meta grants authorization to the ad account. If the account belongs to the agency, the agency keeps both the campaign history and the permission to advertise.

12. How do you control traffic quality? Ask how the agency filters out fraud, multi-accounting and players who only come for the bonus, and what happens to disputed FTDs. The criteria for a valid player, the review period (hold) and the process for handling disputed cases are best fixed in the contract before launch — more in our article on traffic quality and fraud.

Cheat sheet: good answers and warning signs

Red flags

• A guaranteed CPA or volume before the first test.
• Offers to bypass moderation, launch without authorization or “spread” campaigns across other people's accounts.
• Readiness to launch in any GEO without asking about your license.
• No name for the person who will run the project.
• Refusal to put traffic quality criteria and payment terms in the contract.
• A demand for a large prepayment with no test plan.
• A vague answer about who keeps the accounts and data.

One flag is a reason to ask a follow-up question. Two or three are a reason to keep looking.

If you don't have time to compare agencies yourself, you can hand this part of the work to an outside team. Avero shortlists a Facebook or influencer agency for a brand's specific advertising task and supports the negotiations — more on our page for brands.