If you are pricing an agency to run Meta or Google for an ecommerce brand, the quotes will range from $1,000 a month to more than $25,000. Every proposal will call itself full service. The spread is real. Here is what the money buys at each level, how the four pricing models work, and the one fee structure that tells you the agency is going to let you down.
What you are paying for
Media buying is the smallest part of the job now. The platforms automate most of the bidding and targeting that agencies used to charge for. What is left is the work that decides whether the account grows.
Strategy: what the account is for, what efficiency it needs to hit at your margins, and which customers it should be buying. Creative strategy: what to say, to whom, in what format, and why. Creative production: the volume of statics, video and UGC an account needs to keep learning, which on Meta is the whole game. Testing: launching new ads on a cadence and reading the early signals, instead of launching once a month and waiting for the report. Measurement: pixel, server-side events, conversion tracking in Google, and a blended number like MER (marketing efficiency ratio, total revenue divided by total ad spend) so the account is judged on store revenue rather than platform ROAS. Landing pages and offers, when they are in scope. Reporting against your Shopify numbers.
That is seven jobs. A quote that covers “campaign management and optimization” is pricing two of them. Hold the list next to every proposal, because the ranges below are mostly a measure of how many of the seven are included.
The four ways ads agencies charge
The model matters more than the number, because it decides what the agency is motivated to do with your spend.
| Model | Published 2026 range | Who it fits | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of ad spend | 10% to 20% of monthly spend, usually with a minimum fee; large advertisers negotiate to 10% to 12% | Accounts whose workload really does grow with spend | Make sure creative volume grows with the fee, not just the hours spent in the ad account |
| Flat monthly retainer | $1,500 to $10,000 a month for one channel, $2,500 and up once creative is included; $10,000 to $25,000+ for multi-channel at $100K+ spend | Brands that want a fixed number and a defined scope | Scope drift. Get the creative count, channels and testing cadence in writing |
| Hybrid | A base of $1,500 to $2,500 plus 5% to 10% of spend, or a base plus 5% to 8% above a threshold | Growing accounts where spend will change a lot | The base covers the agency’s floor; check what the variable part buys you |
| Performance based | A base fee plus bonuses tied to cost per acquisition or revenue; published guides give no standard rate | Almost nobody in ecommerce | Paid on platform ROAS, which the agency can move by widening attribution windows |
Percentage of spend gets a bad name it does not entirely deserve. The work on a $200K a month account is more than the work on a $20K account, and a fee that scales with it is honest as long as the creative output scales too. The problem is never the model. The problem is an agency that collects 15% and produces four new ads a month.
Hourly sits outside the table. Published consulting rates run $75 to $250 an hour, with Clutch putting most US agencies at $100 to $149. Hourly is for an audit or a second opinion, not for running an account.
What the fee looks like at each spend level
Agencies price paid media by spend because spend is the best proxy for workload. Published 2026 planning ranges stack up like this. Spending $1,000 to $5,000 a month, expect a fee of $500 to $2,000, and expect most real agencies to turn the account down. Spending $5,000 to $25,000, the fee runs $1,500 to $5,000. Spending $25,000 to $100,000, it runs $4,000 to $12,000. Above $100,000 a month, $10,000 to $25,000 and up, and at that level the fee is usually a negotiated percentage.
Below about $3,000 to $5,000 in monthly spend a full retainer rarely pays for itself. The fee is a large share of the spend and the account does not generate enough data to learn from. That is freelancer or do-it-yourself territory, and a good agency will say so on the first call.
What actually moves the price
Inside every tier the drivers are the same, and two brands at the same spend can be quoted $5,000 and $12,000 with both quotes being right.
Creative volume is the biggest one. An account that needs twenty new ads a month costs more to run than one that needs four, because the strategist, the designer and the editor all scale with it. Published guides budget $500 to $2,000 a month for creative on top of the fee, which is a fraction of what a DTC brand at scale actually produces. Channel count is next: Meta alone, Meta and Google, or Meta, Google and TikTok run as one program. Then catalog complexity, since a Shopping feed and a Performance Max structure for 5,000 SKUs is a different job from a brand with one hero product. Then landing pages and offers, if the agency is building them. Then measurement, if the tracking has to be rebuilt before anyone can trust a number.
Ask every agency to show you how each of those five changes their price. If the answer is a flat percentage no matter what, the creative is not in the fee.
The fee that signals a bad agency
A management fee with no creative in scope is the clearest warning sign in paid social pricing. The proposal reads well: audience strategy, bid management, daily optimization, weekly reporting. None of it matters if the ads are the same four that launched in March.
The pattern that follows is predictable. New ads go live once a month on the agency’s billing cycle, nobody reads the first few days of results, and the losers spend as much as the winners for thirty days. The account plateaus, costs rise, and the monthly report shows a platform ROAS that looks fine because the attribution window is doing the work.
When we took over Google Ads for Speed Cube Shop, efficiency improved 25% while revenue from Google rose 30%. Both numbers moved because the structure, the creative and the measurement were rebuilt together, not because someone adjusted bids. Either number alone can be gamed. Cutting spend improves efficiency. Raising spend grows revenue. An agency should be judged on the pair. If this sounds like your current agency, our guide to how to choose an ecommerce marketing agency covers the other red flags and the questions that expose them.
Agency, freelancer or in-house
A freelance media buyer costs $1,000 to $2,500 a month and makes sense under about $5,000 in monthly spend, as long as you can supply the creative. A senior in-house buyer is one salary for one skill, and you still need a creative strategist, a designer and an editor behind them. An agency fee of $5,000 to $12,000 at $25,000 to $100,000 in spend buys all four roles for less than two hires. Above a few hundred thousand a month, brands often run an in-house lead with an agency underneath, which works as long as one of them owns the number.
Five questions to ask before you sign
How many new ads will you produce each month, and is that inside the fee? Who makes them? What do you report against, platform ROAS or my store revenue and MER? What is the minimum fee, and what happens to it if I cut spend for a quarter? Who owns the ad accounts, the pixel and the creative files? You do, in your business manager, or walk.
How we price it
We quote a flat monthly retainer scoped to the account and set on the first call. The number moves with ad spend, how much creative we produce each month, and how many channels we run, so two brands at the same spend can land in different places. Creative is always inside the fee, because on Meta it is most of the work. Senior people only, a cap on how many brands we take, and reporting that lives in your accounts and reconciles to Shopify.
Questions people ask
How much does a Facebook ads agency charge per month?
Published 2026 ranges run from about $1,000 a month for basic campaign management to $25,000 and up for multi-channel programs at $100,000 or more in monthly spend. The most common structures are 10% to 20% of ad spend with a minimum fee, or a flat retainer of $1,500 to $10,000 a month, $2,500 and up once creative is included. Creative is often extra, so ask whether it is inside the fee.
What percentage of ad spend do agencies charge?
Ten to twenty percent of monthly ad spend is the published norm, sliding toward 10% to 12% for large advertisers. Most agencies attach a minimum fee, because below about $3,000 in monthly spend a percentage does not cover the work. The percentage itself is not the problem. The question is whether creative volume rises with the fee or stays at four ads a month.
Is percentage of spend or a flat fee better?
A flat fee is better when your spend is stable and you want a defined scope. A percentage is fair when spend will grow and the agency's workload, especially creative production, grows with it. A hybrid of a base plus a smaller percentage is common for accounts in between. Whichever you choose, get the monthly creative count, channels and testing cadence in writing.
Do ads agencies charge a setup fee?
Many do. Published setup and onboarding fees run $500 to $3,000, and a full account rebuild with new tracking and structure runs $1,500 to $5,000. Some agencies fold the setup into the first month or two of the retainer. Ask what the setup fee buys, in deliverables, and who owns the accounts and pixel afterward.
How much does PPC management cost for Google Ads?
Published 2026 planning ranges tie the fee to spend. At $1,000 to $5,000 in monthly spend, $500 to $2,000 a month. At $5,000 to $25,000, $1,500 to $5,000. At $25,000 to $100,000, $4,000 to $12,000. Above $100,000, $10,000 to $25,000 and up. Shopping feeds, Performance Max and large catalogs push the fee toward the top of each range.
Meta ads agency for ecommerce brands
Strategy, creative, testing, scaling and the weekly read on whether the money is working.
See how we run itIf you are comparing proposals right now, line them up against the seven jobs and the five questions above before you compare the numbers. Our paid social and paid search pages cover what we build and who it is for. If you want the first call to be about your account instead of a deck, book it and bring 90 days of spend and revenue. If you are pricing email at the same time, email marketing agency pricing covers that side the same way.
