Agency ad accounts
What an agency ad account provider does
An agency ad account provider supplies advertising accounts held through an agency relationship with the platform, rather than opened directly by you. AF Ads provisions those accounts, supports them while they run, and reports on what they are doing — which is the part most providers leave out.
The category
Why the accounts exist at all
Advertising platforms sell most of their inventory through self-serve signup, and for a settled business advertising in its own country that is usually the right route. Agency accounts exist for the cases where it is not: a market where self-serve is unavailable, a business too new to have any advertising history, an advertiser who needs to run in a country other than the one they are registered in, or a spending level that wants support attached to the account.
A provider sits between you and the platform. It holds the agency relationship, provisions accounts through it, handles funding into those accounts, and takes up problems with the platform when they happen. You still run your own campaigns in the platform's own interface — targeting, budgets, bidding and creative stay entirely yours.
What separates providers is almost never the account itself, which is a commodity. It is what happens afterwards: whether anyone reviews your business before taking your money, whether the cost of advertising is visible or has to be reconstructed from statements, and whether you can see what an account is doing without opening the platform's own dashboard alongside a spreadsheet.
New to the category? What an agency ad account is explains it without selling anything, and the comparison against opening your own is the cheaper question to settle first. Worth checking before you send anyone money: who you would actually be contracting with.
Platforms
Which platforms we can supply
Availability is stated honestly. A platform we cannot supply today says so rather than taking an application we cannot fulfil.
TikTok Ads
Available nowTikTok rewards native vertical video and punishes repurposed television advertising. That shapes who does well on it.
TikTok Ads accounts in detailMeta Ads
Available nowMeta remains the broadest-reach performance channel available, and the one where accumulated data matters most.
Meta Ads accounts in detailGoogle Ads
Available nowGoogle suits businesses whose customers already know they have the problem. It is a poor fit for demand that has to be created.
Google Ads accounts in detailSnapchat Ads
Available nowNarrower than the other three platforms, and worth being honest about — a mismatched product wastes budget here faster than anywhere.
Snapchat Ads accounts in detailFees differ by platform and by the country an account is registered in. They are published in full on the pricing page.
Suitability
Who this service is for
It is worth being clear about this, because an agency account is not the right answer for everybody who lands here.
Media buyers running client budgets
Multiple accounts across clients, where consolidated reporting and a per-client view of spend is the difference between a working process and a monthly reconciliation exercise.
Marketing agencies
Agencies that need accounts provisioned for clients quickly, and a report they can put in front of one without rebuilding it by hand every month.
E-commerce and DTC brands
Advertisers scaling spend who want the account, the funding and the performance data in one relationship rather than three.
Advertisers in restricted markets
Where the platform does not offer self-serve signup in your country, or where a local entity cannot get an account approved on its own.
New businesses without advertising history
A business with no track record is the hardest case for self-serve approval, and the most common reason people look for a provider at all.
Not a fit: very small budgets
Below a certain monthly spend the package and the fee do not pay for themselves, and self-serve is simply cheaper. We will tell you if that is you.
Account options
How to choose the right account
Three decisions, and they interact. Getting them right at application saves the slowest kind of rework — the sort that means a second account.
The platform
Decided by where your buyers are and what your creative is. Short-form video and a young audience points to TikTok; existing search demand points to Google; a product catalogue points to Meta. Each platform page sets out who it suits.
The account country
Where the account is registered affects which markets you can target comfortably, what verification is required and how quickly it can be provisioned. Tell us the markets you sell into and we will confirm what is in stock.
How many accounts you need
One per client, one per market or one per brand — the package tiers are built around that number rather than around your spend, so it is worth deciding before you apply.
Unsure on any of the three? Ask us before you apply — it is a five-minute conversation that regularly saves a fortnight. If you are also comparing providers, the eight checks worth making apply to us as much as to anyone else.
Before you apply
What every application needs
These apply whichever platform you choose. Each platform then adds its own — Meta wants business and domain verification, Google wants working conversion tracking, TikTok wants vertical video.
About your business
- Business details, or your own if you advertise as an individual
- A website or landing page you intend to advertise
- What you sell, and the markets you sell into
- Verification documents where the platform requires them
About your advertising
- The platform you want to advertise on
- Target countries
- Expected monthly advertising spend
- Creatives, or a clear description of what you plan to run
Advertising platforms enforce their own policies and decide their own approvals. We cannot guarantee an account will be approved, and we would be cautious of any provider who said otherwise. What we can do is tell you honestly whether your business and campaigns look like a fit before you spend time on an application.
After assignment
What happens once an account is yours
The handover is where most providers stop. It is roughly where the useful part of this one starts.
- The account appears in your dashboard with its status, its country and its history, assigned to you alone
- You fund it from your wallet, and the fee that applies is shown before you confirm
- You build and run campaigns in the platform's own interface, exactly as you would in an account you opened yourself
- Step-by-step video tutorials sit in your dashboard — setting the account up, installing and checking tracking, structuring a campaign, and reading the numbers afterwards
- Campaign, ad group and ad performance syncs into your dashboard as the platform reports it
- Platform spend and total advertising cost sit side by side, so the real cost is never reconstructed
- Status changes, funding history and every ledger movement stay on the record and can be reconciled entry by entry
- If the platform restricts or suspends the account, we take it up with the platform and the provider on your behalf
Which tutorials you get depends on your package — the comparison table shows what each one includes.
Ready when you are
Applying takes a couple of minutes and costs nothing. No payment until an account has been assigned to you.