Black Friday and Cyber Monday aren’t just shopping holidays anymore, they’re an Olympic-level sprint where every brand fights for the same eyeballs, carts, and credit cards. Except instead of medals, you’re chasing ROAS, and instead of carbs, you’re fueled by caffeine, panic, and an alarming amount of Google Sheets.

For brands heading into the holiday season, one question keeps popping up:

👉 Should you run your advertising in-house or hire an agency?

It’s a fair question. Both options have perks. But here’s the thing: there’s no magic formula, no revenue threshold, and definitely no universal answer. The only wrong choice? Waiting until November to figure it out.

The Case for Going In-House

Running ads in-house makes sense when you want full control. You know your brand voice better than anyone, you can pivot fast, and you get to keep everything lean. If you’ve got a team member who geeks out over Meta’s Ads Manager dashboards (God bless them), in-house execution can feel scrappy, flexible, and budget-friendly.

The upsides:

• You control every lever (creative, targeting, budgets).
• You stay close to your audience feedback in real-time.
• You avoid agency fees (though… hold that thought).
  

The downsides:

Doing BFCM ads in-house can feel like trying to bake a five-tier wedding cake in an Easy-Bake oven. Technically possible. Probably stressful. Almost definitely messy.

As AdWeek points out, the brands that thrive during BFCM are the ones with rigorous planning. If you’re already buried in ops, inventory, and customer support, you might not have the bandwidth to execute a sophisticated campaign, no matter how many Red Bulls you chug.

Why Hiring an Agency Before BFCM Just Makes Sense

Agencies aren’t here to “steal your budget.” We’re here because Q4 is too important to leave to guesswork. By mid-September, testing windows are closing. By October, CPMs are climbing. By November, it’s the Hunger Games.

Here’s what you get with an agency:

• Proven playbooks. We’ve tested the funnels, built the frameworks, and know what works. (Check out our 90-Day Campaign Framework for a peek.)
  
• Faster pivots. When Meta doubles your CPMs overnight, we don’t panic, we adjust.
• Extra hands on deck. While you’re sweating fulfillment, we’re tweaking creative, scaling winners, and making sure your budget is actually working for you.
  
• Creative firepower. Agencies don’t just buy media. We craft ads designed to stop thumbs and start conversions, because creative is the real lever, not just media buying.
  

Even Shopify notes in their BFCM Prep Guide that competition will be fierce, and the brands who start testing early will come out ahead. With an agency, you’re not just reacting—you’re running a playbook that’s already been tested and optimized.

Signs You’re Ready to Call in Reinforcements

You don’t need to hit $500K or $1M in revenue to “justify” an agency. (Who came up with those numbers, anyway?) What you do need is a brutally honest gut check:

• Are you wearing 17 hats already?
  
• Is your “testing framework” just throwing spaghetti at the algorithm?
  
• Do you have a real scaling plan if a campaign takes off?
  
• When you hear “Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns,” do you secretly hope it’s a magic button?
  

If you answered yes to any of those, an agency might be the smarter move.

When DIY Still Works

Running ads in-house can still make sense, especially if you’re in test mode, scrappy, and want to learn the ropes. Some founders thrive on this, and some brands do pull off solid results on their own.

But here’s the catch: timing. Doing it all in-house works best if you start early, when costs are steady and there’s time to test. If you wait until mid-November to “DIY your way to glory,” well… it’s the advertising equivalent of microwaving a turkey.

(Spoiler: it won’t be pretty.)

Meta even suggests in their Holiday Marketing Guide that brands should lock in creative testing months in advance. Translation: don’t procrastinate.

TL;DR

Running ads in-house = control, scrappy vibes, and lower upfront costs, but you risk burnout and under-optimized campaigns. Hiring an agency = expertise, speed, and proven frameworks, with a higher investment that pays off if you don’t have the bandwidth to manage campaigns yourself.

The real deciding factor is your team’s capacity. If you’re stretched thin, let the experts take the wheel before Q4 ad costs spike. Your future self (and your revenue report) will thank you.

The Bottom Line

Whether you keep things in-house or partner with an agency, one truth holds: BFCM rewards the prepared.

In-house works if you’ve got bandwidth, structure, and someone who loves living in Ads Manager. Agencies work if you’d rather not gamble your biggest sales season on hope, vibes, and caffeine.

At Good On, we do more than place media buys. We build scroll-stopping ad creatives, run full-funnel strategies, and make sure every dollar works harder during Q4.

So if you’re staring down BFCM wondering whether to keep ads in-house or call in backup, let’s chat. We’ll bring the strategy, the execution, and yes, even the memes.

👉 Check out our services and let’s make sure your brand doesn’t just survive BFCM, it wins it.

Because ads shouldn’t be the scariest part of Q4.