What should you pay a performance marketing agency?
Fee models, typical ranges by ad spend, what should be included, and the contract terms worth insisting on before you sign anything.
Short answer
Expect a fixed monthly retainer plus a performance component, typically totalling 8–15% of ad spend at €10,000–50,000 per month, plus a one-time setup fee for tracking. Insist on owning the ad accounts, month-to-month terms after any initial period, and published measurement definitions.
Key takeaways
- Pure percentage-of-spend rewards spending more; pure fixed fee ignores results. A hybrid aligns both.
- Setup fees for tracking and Conversions API work are normal and worth paying for properly.
- You should own every ad account, pixel and data source — no exceptions.
- Creative production is often separate; confirm what is included before comparing quotes.
- Month-to-month terms after a fair runway are a reasonable ask; 12-month lock-ins rarely are.
The three fee models
Fixed retainer: predictable, simple, but the agency earns the same whether you grow or stagnate. Percentage of spend: scales with the account, but creates an incentive to increase budget rather than efficiency. Performance-based: aligned, though attribution disputes can get messy.
The hybrid — a modest fixed fee that covers the work plus a performance component tied to spend or attributed sales — is the model that survives contact with reality in most accounts.
| Model | Predictable | Aligned | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed retainer | Yes | Weak | Coasting |
| % of ad spend | Partly | Medium | Spend inflation |
| % of revenue | No | Strong | Attribution disputes |
| Fixed + performance | Yes | Strong | Requires clear metrics |
What the total should look like
Across Northern Europe, total agency cost typically lands between 8% and 15% of ad spend for accounts in the €10,000–50,000 monthly range, falling as a percentage as spend grows. Below €5,000 monthly spend, the fixed component necessarily dominates because the work does not shrink proportionally.
Our own model is a fixed monthly fee plus a performance component: brand awareness at €419 per month plus 5% of spend, lead generation at €539 plus 8%, and eCommerce at €659 plus 10% of spend over €1,000 and 6% above €25,000 — or 7% of attributed sales up to €20,000 and 4.5% above, whichever suits the account. Swedish clients are billed in SEK from 4,595 kr, 5,995 kr and 7,345 kr respectively.
Setup fees are legitimate
Proper tracking implementation — server-side conversions, deduplicated event IDs, Consent Mode v2, click ID capture, account restructure — is real engineering work that happens once and determines everything afterwards.
A one-time setup fee from €250 per social platform and €450 for Google Ads is a fair price for work that routinely uncovers 20–40% of wasted spend. Be far more suspicious of an agency that skips it than of one that charges for it.
What should be included
Compare quotes on scope, not headline price. Two retainers that look 40% apart often cover entirely different work.
- Strategy, media buying and daily optimisation across the agreed channels
- Tracking implementation, maintenance and monthly verification
- Creative testing and iteration (production may be separate — confirm)
- Reporting with stated attribution windows and data sources
- A named senior specialist reachable by email, phone and WhatsApp
Terms worth insisting on
You own the ad accounts, the pixels, the audiences and the historical data — the agency works inside your accounts, not its own. Anything else means switching agencies destroys years of learning.
Ask for month-to-month terms after a fair initial runway. Ninety days is a reasonable minimum for a method to show results; a twelve-month lock-in mostly protects the agency.
FAQ
Should the agency run ads from its own account?
No. Everything should be built and managed inside accounts you own, so you keep the campaign history, audiences, pixel data and learnings if the relationship ends. This is non-negotiable.
Is a performance-based-only fee a good idea?
It sounds appealing but usually produces arguments about attribution and pushes the agency toward short-term harvesting. A fixed fee plus a performance component keeps the incentives aligned without making every month a measurement dispute.
How long before I can judge a new agency?
Around 90 days. Weeks one to four go to fixing measurement and testing creative, five to eight to building demand, and nine to sixteen to scaling winners. Expect clear directional signal by day 60 and a substantive verdict by day 90–120.
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