Pricing Detail
Paid Ads Pricing: Management Fees, Ad Spend and Pod Retainers
Understand how paid advertising management is scoped around channels, media budget, campaign complexity, tracking, creative needs, and optimisation.
Two separate costs: management and media
Every paid campaign has two costs, and it helps to keep them apart:
- Ad spend (media). What you pay Google, Meta or LinkedIn for clicks and impressions. It is billed by the platform to your own account. Our pricing page states that we add zero markup to media spend.
- Management. What you pay us, as a flat monthly fee, to plan, build, run, track and improve campaigns.
Because ad spend goes straight to the platform, you keep ownership of the account and its history, whoever manages it.
Our management fee
Paid search and social management is part of the Full-Funnel Scale Pod at $950 per month, a monthly retainer. The pod covers Google Ads and Meta or LinkedIn campaign management, conversion tracking with GA4 and Meta Conversions API, landing page and conversion work, and the SEO and AI search work from the Starter pod.
Agencies that want campaign execution under their own brand can ask about the White-Label Agency Pod, which has Custom Pricing based on the client blocks you need.
See pricing and pods for the full comparison.
Monthly and one-time fees at a glance
- Full-Funnel Scale Pod: $950 per month (monthly retainer)
- White-Label Agency Pod: Custom Pricing (for partner agencies)
- Sprint Diagnostics & Audits: one-time fixed fee, quoted before work starts
- Free first website audit: free (PageSpeed audit, broken-link check and Lighthouse report)
- Ad spend: not included in any fee; paid by you directly to Google, Meta or LinkedIn
GBP, EUR, INR and AUD prices for the pods are listed on our pricing page.
What changes the scope
Number of platforms. Running Google Search only is lighter than running Google, Meta and LinkedIn together, each with its own creative and audiences.
Campaign complexity. Many products, locations or languages mean more campaigns, more ad groups and more landing pages to keep aligned.
Tracking readiness. If conversions aren't recorded reliably, the first weeks go on fixing tracking, because bidding depends on it.
Creative needs. Meta and LinkedIn depend heavily on fresh creative. Whether you supply it or we produce it changes the workload.
Approvals and rules. Regulated categories such as healthcare, finance and legal services need policy checks and slower approvals.
Setting the ad budget
The management fee doesn't tell you what to spend on media. Work backwards from the leads you need and a realistic cost per lead with our paid ads budget estimator. For local context, see Meta ads management costs in India.
If you already run ads and aren't sure they're working, a paid media audit is often the best first step. The full service is described on paid ads services.
Questions worth asking any agency
Whoever you hire, these questions make paid ads pricing easier to compare:
- Is the fee flat, or a percentage of spend that rises as budget grows?
- Is any markup added to media spend?
- Will the ad accounts and their data stay in your name?
- How are conversions defined, and who checks they are real enquiries?
- What happens to the account if you stop working together?
Frequently asked questions
Is the management fee a percentage of ad spend?
No. It is a flat monthly pod retainer, so our fee doesn't rise just because you spend more.
Who owns the ad accounts?
You do. Media is billed to your account by the platform.
Is there a minimum ad budget?
It depends on your market and goals. We'll advise on a realistic budget during scoping.
Is tracking set-up included?
Conversion tracking with GA4 and Meta Conversions API is part of the Full-Funnel Scale Pod.
Can you take over existing campaigns?
Yes. We usually start by auditing the account before changing anything.
Get a paid ads quote
Tell us which platforms you use, your monthly ad budget and your goals. Call 7877637475, email sales@imagineinkmarketing.com, or visit Hanging Gardens, Jaisinghpura Road, Bhankrota, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302026.
Next step
Get scope based on the current situation.
Share the website, priorities, constraints, timeline, and the work your internal team can own.
To evaluate retainer, project, and pay-per-lead structures, see our breakdown of B2B lead generation pricing models.