Percentage-of-ad-spend is the most common agency pricing model — and the most quietly misaligned. If your agency earns more every time your budget goes up, guess which lever they’ll suggest pulling first when results plateau.
The Incentive Problem Nobody States Out Loud
A 15% management fee on spend means an agency earning $1,500/month wants your budget at $10K, not $6K — regardless of whether $6K was actually converting better per dollar. The fee structure rewards spend, not efficiency.
What Transparent Pricing Actually Looks Like
Flat monthly retainers, scoped to specific deliverables, remove the incentive to inflate spend. When a client asks what their fee covers, the answer should be a specific list of hours, deliverables, and margin — not a vague "management and optimisation."
- Ask what percentage of your total budget goes directly to media platforms.
- Ask what the retainer specifically covers — hours, deliverables, reporting cadence.
- Ask what happens to the fee if you decrease ad spend next month.
- Compare the answer against a flat, scoped alternative before renewing.
See our actual pricing breakdown
Every plan we offer discloses real overhead — no inflated retainers, no vague proposals, no surprise billing.
View transparent pricing plansThis isn’t an argument against paying agencies well for good work — it’s an argument for pricing that rewards the work, not the wallet size.
