"Custom pricing, book a call." You already know what that call ends with.
A number with no context, and you still won't know if it's fair. Here's what agencies actually charge, broken down by structure, so you walk into that call already knowing what's normal.
Flat monthly fee: $500–2,500/month.
Most common under $10K/month ad spend. Predictable, easy to budget against, but the number alone tells you nothing. A $500/month fee with 3 creatives and no landing page work is a different deal than $500/month with 10 creatives, funnel setup, and weekly reporting.
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Percentage of ad spend: 10–20%.
Common above $10K/month. Scales with your growth, and with the agency's incentive to keep your spend climbing, not necessarily your efficiency. Worth asking directly how they handle that tension.
Hourly or project-based: for one-time work.
Makes sense if you need a campaign built correctly once, then you'll run it yourself. Rarely used for ongoing management.
Read the proposal line by line.
A good proposal answers six things in plain words. If one is missing, ask for it in writing:
- Scope: which platforms, how many campaigns, how many new ads per month.
- Setup: whether there is a one-time fee, and what it covers.
- Reporting: how often, in what format, and whether it includes a call.
- Ownership: who owns the ad account, the Pixel, and the creative files.
- Term: month to month, or locked in for longer.
- Exit: what you get back if you leave.
Setup fees and minimum terms are fine. Surprises are not.
A one-time setup fee can be fair, since tracking, account structure, and the first creatives take real work. A long lock-in with no review date is where people get stuck. Month to month, or a short first term with a clear review, gives both sides a reason to do good work.
Also ask whether there is a minimum ad spend. Some agencies will not take an account below a certain budget because the fee does not make sense against it. That is an honest answer, and better than being signed and ignored.
The red flag that costs you the most: no mention of creative production.
Targeting and budget matter, but stale, repetitive ad creative burns a budget faster than bad targeting ever will. If creative refresh isn't explicitly in the deliverables list, ask what's not included, because something usually is.
"Creative included" should come with a number.
Ask how many new images, videos, and copy variants are produced each month, and how often old ads get replaced. When people see the same ad again and again, results fall. A quote that says "creative included" with no count can mean one banner.
Performance-based pricing sounds great until you read what counts.
Some agencies charge per lead or take a share of sales. That can work when the result is easy to measure and both sides agree on the definition up front. What counts as a lead? Who decides whether a sale came from the ads? Without clear answers you get disputes. Get the definitions in writing before you agree.
A report should answer three questions.
What did we spend, what did we get, and what changes next. A report full of impressions and reach usually means the person is reporting what is easy, not what matters.
Put two quotes side by side before you decide.
Make a simple table: monthly fee, setup fee, ad spend assumed, new ads per month, reporting, term, and ownership. The cheaper quote is often the one with the shortest list. Where the lines do not match, ask each agency to fill in the blanks. It takes ten minutes and can save months.
Four things move the price.
- Ad spend: more budget means more to manage and more to report on.
- Platforms: Meta only is a different job than Meta, Google, and TikTok together.
- Creative volume: ten new ads a month cost more to produce than three.
- Strategy time: calls and planning take hours that a basic plan leaves out.
Why the cheapest quote is rarely the cheapest.
A very low fee that needs you to supply every image, write every ad, and chase the report costs you hours, and hours are money. Count your own time before you compare numbers.
What to ask about a fee that sounds too low:
- What is not included?
- Who writes the ads, and who makes the images or video?
- Who builds or fixes the landing page?
- What happens when I need changes?
"So what should I actually expect to pay?"
For most businesses under $10K/month ad spend: a flat fee in the $500–1,500 range that explicitly lists creative volume, reporting cadence, and what happens if month one underperforms. Anything vaguer than that is a quote, not a plan.
Our packages list every deliverable before you sign.
Creative count, reporting cadence, and what changes if the first 30 days don't hit target. No "custom pricing" black box.