Key facts
- A percentage-of-spend fee rises with the ad budget, so the agency earns more when you spend more; SearchPod's version is 10% of the monthly ad budget with a $600 CAD minimum, which means the floor, not the percentage, sets the fee below a $6,000 budget.
- A flat retainer stays the same whatever the spend or the output, which makes it easy to budget and hard to judge, since the question of what the retainer actually buys each month has to be answered in the scope.
- Per-deliverable pricing attaches a price to a unit of work, such as a page, a landing page or a campaign build; SearchPod's SEO is priced this way at $50 CAD per page from ten pages a month, and its websites are one-time packages from $1,500 to $20,000+.
- Performance fees, per lead or per booked job, put the agency's income on the result, but they also give the agency a reason to count generously, so the definition of a lead and who verifies it decide whether the model is fair.
- Ad spend is separate from every fee model: the money paid to Google or Meta is billed by the platform, and an agency that marks up spend or runs it through its own account has added a hidden fee to whichever model it quotes.
The five fee shapes and what each one rewards
Percentage of spend: the fee is a share of the ad budget. It rewards the agency for growing the budget, which is good when growth is working and a conflict when it is not. A floor protects the agency on small accounts; SearchPod's is $600 CAD a month, and above a $6,000 budget the 10% rate takes over.
Flat retainer: one monthly number for a described scope. It rewards stability and is the easiest to budget, but the scope document does all the work; a retainer with a vague scope buys whatever the agency decides to do that month.
Per deliverable: a price per page, per campaign build, per landing page or per site. It rewards output you can count and makes the invoice self-explanatory. SearchPod prices SEO this way, $50 CAD per page from ten pages a month, and websites as one-time packages.
Hourly: a rate times the hours logged. It rewards time, not results, and is most common for audits, fixes and consulting. Performance: a fee per lead, per booked job or a share of revenue. It rewards results, if the result is defined tightly and verified by someone other than the agency.
Where the hidden costs sit in each model
The same total can look cheap or expensive depending on what sits outside the quoted fee. Percentage models hide cost when the agency also marks up the spend or bills a setup fee; ask whether the percentage is on the budget you set and whether every dollar reaches the platform. Retainers hide cost in scope creep and in what is excluded: landing pages, tracking fixes and reporting often turn out to be extra.
Per-deliverable models hide cost in the definition of the unit. A page can be 300 words of filler or a researched service page with tracking and schema; the price only means something once the unit is defined. Hourly models hide cost in the estimate: the hours are real, the cap often is not. Performance models hide cost in the counting. A lead that is a spam form, a wrong number or a duplicate still costs you if the contract counts it.
Setup fees, contract terms and ownership sit under every model. A twelve-month term turns any fee into a much larger commitment, and an ad account or website that stays with the agency is a cost you pay the day you leave.
How to compare quotes that use different models
Put every quote on the same page with four lines: the fee in a normal month at the ad budget you actually plan to run, the setup fee, what is included and excluded in writing, and the contract term with the exit rule. Then add a fifth line: who owns the website, the ad account, the analytics and the data.
For a percentage quote, calculate the fee at your real budget and check whether a minimum applies. For a retainer, divide the monthly number by the deliverables listed to see what each one costs. For per-deliverable pricing, multiply the unit price by the monthly volume you need. For performance pricing, ask for the exact definition of a billable result and who disputes it.
SearchPod's numbers for that comparison are public: Google Ads management at 10% of the ad budget with a $600 CAD minimum and no markup on spend, SEO at $50 CAD per page from ten pages, websites from $1,500 to $20,000+ one time, $0 setup, month to month, and a 30-day guarantee on the first month. The terms live at /pricing/terms.
Which model fits which situation
A business spending a few thousand a month on ads is usually best served by a percentage with a floor or a small flat fee, because both are cheap to understand and easy to leave. A business that mainly needs pages, a site or a fixed set of builds does better with per-deliverable pricing, where the invoice matches the output. A business with a large, steady program and an in-house lead often prefers a retainer with a detailed scope.
Performance fees fit when leads can be verified by a third party, such as call recordings and a CRM the business controls, and when the agency has no way to inflate the count. They fit badly when the agency also controls the tracking. Hourly fits audits and fixes, not ongoing growth.
Whatever the model, the questions that decide whether it is fair are the same: what does a normal month cost, what is excluded, how long am I committed, and what do I keep when I leave.
Related questions
It is fair when the percentage applies to a budget you set, nothing is marked up, and there is a floor that keeps small accounts viable. It becomes unfair when the agency also earns on spend or pushes budget growth that is not producing jobs. SearchPod's is 10% of the budget with a $600 CAD minimum and no markup.
Whatever the scope document says, and nothing else. A good retainer lists the channels managed, the deliverables per month, the reporting, the meeting cadence and the exclusions. If the scope is a paragraph, the retainer buys whatever the agency chooses to do.
They can be when a lead or a booked job is defined in writing and verified in tools you control, such as call recordings and your own CRM. They are a poor idea when the agency controls the tracking, because the count then belongs to the party being paid on it.
Because the platform bills it. Google Ads and Meta charge the advertiser directly for clicks and impressions, and the agency's fee is for managing that spend. If a quote bundles spend and fee into one number, ask for the split; you cannot compare agencies without it.
Google Ads management at 10% of the monthly ad budget with a $600 CAD minimum and no markup on spend; SEO at $50 CAD per page from ten pages a month; websites as one-time packages from $1,500 to $20,000+; $0 setup; month to month; a 30-day guarantee on the first month. Details and terms are at /pricing and /pricing/terms.
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