How much to pay for ad management: what makes up the price

In Astana you will come across roughly three agency payment models. Each has its own logic and its own catches.

Flat fee

You pay the same amount each month regardless of budget. That is how we do it: management from $1,000, the combined plan with analytics from $2,500.

Plus: you know what it will cost. The agency has no reason to inflate your budget to earn more.

Minus: on a small project, the fee can “eat” a noticeable part of the budget.

A percentage of the ad budget

The agency takes a share of what you spend on advertising, for example 10 or 15 percent. A made-up example: a budget of a million tenge at ten percent, and the agency gets a hundred thousand.

Plus: cheaper on small budgets.

Minus: the agency has a financial reason to raise the budget, even when cutting it would be more effective. Not all of them, but many. If the budget grows and sales do not, that is a signal to look into it.

Payment for results

You pay for a lead, a sale or a percentage of revenue. It sounds ideal, which is why many people feel it is the only honest option.

But you need to understand how the “result” is defined. If it is a lead, the agency benefits from bringing any leads. If it is a sale, you need a shared CRM and trust in the numbers on both sides. In practice, pure “payment for results” is rarer than agency ads suggest. More often it is a hybrid: a small fixed fee plus a bonus for reaching a goal.

What to look at besides the model

What is included. Setup, management, creatives, analytics, reports, revisions. Check what is covered by the base price and what is charged separately.

Minimum term. Advertising needs time for the systems to learn. A one-month contract with a promise of results in two weeks is either an illusion or a risk.

Who owns the account. The ad account should be in your name, not the agency’s.

Our take

The price of management only means something next to what you get for it. A $300 rate with three specialist hours a week and a $1,000 rate with analytics and a sales report are different services, even though they share a name.

Tell us your task, and we will suggest the model that suits you.

More about the service: Advertising and marketing in Astana