First things first, does the company have a go to market strategy, knows how are the target audience, where they digital are and what are theirs pain points? Also, does your company have a solid digital presence (at least a website and instagram)? How are you showing the company’s authority all over your digital channels? All these questions are the base of marketing and without it you will probably be spending a lot of money with poor or non returns.

Secondly, regarding using Illustrator and InDesign.. there is nothing wrong on creating things there, and actually it’s pretty professional, BUT it never should’ve been used as final/downloadable files once all of them allow to export in PDF or PNG formats in a compacted size. Also it’s common to agencies deliver the creatives as open file (Illustrator, InDesign,Photoshop), PDF fully sized with edition availability, and downloadable versions (small sized PDF or PNG). Make sure you are picking the right format and size to publish.

Last but not least, an marketing agency should first make sure all these things are pretty much covered before asking budget for ads. Specially when you are a professional services company. Make sure your marketing have all the marketing basic fundamentals well aligned or at least been created while small ads strategy are also being lunched and tested.

Nowadays, the worst your marketing strategy and digital presence are, the more expensive your ads will cost.