You want to run advertising on the television and face a fundamental question: do you handle it yourself with a tool like the onescreen Ad Manager, or do you hand it to an agency? Both are legitimate paths, and the answer depends less on a general rule than on your situation: your budget, your time, your team, your need for control.
This article compares both paths fairly and soberly, along the things that make the difference: cost, control, speed, effort and advice. It shows where the Ad Manager scores, where an agency has its strengths, and how to tell which one fits you.
The overview
| Criterion | onescreen Ad Manager | Agency |
|---|---|---|
| Cost model | Media budget plus a small platform fee | Media budget plus commission or retainer |
| Control | You control budget, targeting, runtime | Agency controls, you sign off |
| Speed | Campaign set up instantly, around 14 days lead time | Days to weeks via briefing and coordination |
| Reporting | Daily dashboard, anytime | Report on an agreed schedule |
| Effort for you | Lean, simple interface, quick to learn | Low, you delegate |
| Guidance | Self-service, support when needed | Personal strategic advice |
| Getting started | onescreen campaigns from €1,000 | Usually requires a larger budget |
Cost: where does your money go?
The clearest difference is money. With the Ad Manager, you pay your media budget plus a small platform fee. You see what you get before you book, and the cost is transparent.
An agency finances itself through its service, typically as a commission on the media budget, as a retainer, or through project fees. This is usually significantly higher than a pure platform fee and means that a larger share of your budget goes into account management instead of ad contacts. With smaller budgets, this share weighs more heavily, and many agencies do not take on mandates below a certain size at all.
For you, this means: with small to medium budgets, more of your money ends up on screen through the Ad Manager. The larger and more complex the campaign gets, the more the agency's service justifies its cost. How this plays out for your budget in concrete terms is shown in the article How much does TV advertising cost? The buying model itself also plays a role here, more on that in the article Guaranteed Placement or Auction.
Control: who has their hand on the dial?
With the Ad Manager, you make the decisions yourself. Audience, budget, runtime, region, you set all of it directly and change it whenever you want. Want to increase the budget tomorrow or adjust the region? You do that in a few clicks, no detour.
With an agency, you delegate this control. That takes work off your plate, which can be an advantage, but it also means changes go through a contact person, and there is a coordination loop between your idea and its execution. Anyone who likes sitting at the controls and reacting quickly experiences this as a limitation. Anyone who prefers to hand off responsibility experiences it as relief.
Speed: how fast are you live?
Here the difference is clear. A campaign in the Ad Manager is set up in minutes. Before it goes live, there is a lead time of around 14 days, during which, among other things, the creative is reviewed. Even so, you are faster and more predictable than with the classic route, and setting it up itself costs you only minutes instead of meetings.
The agency route usually takes longer, because more steps are involved: briefing, concept, coordination, approval, booking. This can stretch over weeks. For long-planned, elaborate campaigns, this process is time well invested. Anyone who wants to launch quickly and on their own terms is better served by the Ad Manager.
Effort and guidance: what do you need to do yourself?
The Ad Manager is deliberately kept simple, noticeably leaner than the ad interfaces of Google or Meta. You get up to speed quickly and then have the campaign in your own hands. Anyone who has run online ads before is immediately at home, and anyone who has not gets up to speed quickly thanks to the clean interface. The appeal: you decide what runs, and you get to know your own channel from the ground up, with the same media quality that sets streaming advertising apart from the social media feed.
An agency takes exactly that off your hands. It brings strategy, market knowledge and experience, develops ideas and thinks beyond the single channel. Anyone who has nobody internally who can or wants to handle it gets real value here.
Importantly, self-service does not mean you are left on your own. With onescreen you get support with creative production, and support helps with getting started. The difference is that you keep control instead of handing it over.
When an agency is the better choice
A fair comparison means clearly stating when the other path fits better. An agency is the right choice when your budget is large enough that strategic advice and negotiating power more than make up for its cost. Likewise when you want to outsource marketing entirely, because nobody internally has the time or interest to manage it themselves. And when you are looking for ongoing strategic support that goes beyond pure campaign management.
In these cases, the agency is not an expensive detour, but the right structure.
When the Ad Manager is the better choice
The Ad Manager fits when you want to run focused streaming advertising with a budget in the low to mid five figures, where as much of it as possible should go into reach. When you want to launch predictably and without long coordination loops. When you like to control things yourself and want to keep an eye on the numbers daily instead of waiting for the next report. And when you are already running Google or Meta Ads yourself, the Ad Manager is not new territory, but the same move on the biggest screen in the house.
For many mid-sized businesses, that is exactly the case. The best way to find out is a test: with a small campaign, you see in the dashboard, in black and white, whether the channel works for you before you invest more.
Conclusion
onescreen Ad Manager or agency, that is not a question of right or wrong, but of fit. The agency takes work off your hands and brings strategy, but costs a larger share of your budget and more lead time, and pays off especially for large, complex budgets. The Ad Manager gives you control, transparency and a predictable, lean process through a deliberately simple interface, and fits especially well with focused streaming campaigns on a clear budget. Anyone already advertising digitally and wanting to control things themselves finds the more direct path in the Ad Manager.
The fastest way to know is to see it for yourself. Book a free demo, we will show you in 30 minutes how the Ad Manager works. Or get started directly.
FAQ
Do I need an agency to run streaming ads? No. With the onescreen Ad Manager you control streaming advertising yourself: you set targeting, budget and runtime, starting at €1,000 per campaign. An agency is an option, not a requirement.
What is cheaper, Ad Manager or agency? With the Ad Manager you pay your media budget plus a small platform fee, without an agency commission or retainer. On small to medium budgets, more of your money ends up as actual ad contacts.
Is the Ad Manager complicated? No, quite the opposite. It is deliberately lean and simpler than the ad interfaces of Google or Meta. Anyone who has already run online ads is immediately at home, and newcomers get up to speed quickly thanks to the clean interface. Support is available for getting started, including with creative production.
When is an agency still worth it? With very large budgets that involve negotiation, when you want ongoing strategic support, or when you want to outsource marketing entirely. For focused streaming campaigns with a clear budget, the Ad Manager is usually the more efficient path.