Most Australian marketing agencies charge in one of four ways: a monthly retainer, a percentage of ad spend, a project fee or a fixed fee for an agreed scope. For paid media, it is usually 10 to 20 percent of spend, or $1,500 to $3,000 a month for small Google Ads accounts and $3,000 to $8,000 for mid-sized ones.
Those ranges come from our guide to Google Ads management fees. This guide covers the rest: how each model works, what it rewards, what a fee has to earn back, and what to check before you sign. For how we charge, see our fixed-fee pricing.
How much does a marketing agency cost in Australia?
There is no standard price, because agencies sell very different amounts of work. The clearest published benchmark is for managing paid media, where fees follow ad spend or account size. Strategy, SEO, content, creative and websites are usually quoted on scope, so quotes for the same job rarely line up.
| What you are paying for | Typical market range (AUD) |
|---|---|
| Google Ads management, percentage model | 10% to 20% of ad spend, falling as spend rises |
| Google Ads management, small account | $1,500 to $3,000 a month |
| Google Ads management, mid-sized account | $3,000 to $8,000 a month |
| Larger or multi-market accounts | Above the mid-sized range |
Source: general market ranges from our Google Ads agency cost guide, first published 15 June 2026. Not quotes, and not our prices.
Two other costs sit beside the fee. Ad spend goes to Google or Meta on top of it, and production such as creative, video and landing pages is often quoted separately. Ask for all three before you compare quotes.
The four ways agencies charge
Each model pays the agency for something different, and that shapes the work you get:
| Model | What it rewards | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | Keeping the account | Work that thins out once setup is done |
| Percentage of ad spend | Spending more | Fees that rise when you scale, whether or not results do |
| Project fee | Finishing the job | Changes billed on top, and nobody after handover |
| Fixed fee for an agreed scope | Doing the agreed work well | A loose scope that turns it back into a retainer |
Monthly retainer
You pay the same amount each month for ongoing work. It suits work that never really ends, like running ad accounts or SEO, and it makes the cost predictable. The risk is that a retainer buys access rather than output: once setup is done, it can quietly become a fee for a monthly report. Insist on a written list of what happens each month and who does it.
Percentage of ad spend
The fee is a share of your media spend, usually 10 to 20 percent for Google Ads management, with the percentage falling as spend grows. It scales with the account, which feels fair. The problem is the incentive: the agency earns more when you spend more, and less when it cuts a campaign that is not working. Good agencies act against that pull. The model still asks you to trust that they do.
Project fee
One price for a defined job with a start and an end: a website, a tracking rebuild, an audit, a migration. It suits work with a clear finish line. Check what counts as a change, how changes are priced, and what you hold at the end: the files, the logins and the documentation.
Fixed fee for an agreed scope
A set fee for ongoing work, written against a named scope: the channels, the systems, the deliverables, the people and the reporting. On the invoice it looks like a retainer. The difference is that the fee is tied to the scope, not to hours or to your ad spend, so it moves only when the scope moves. It needs a scope written tightly enough that both sides can tell when it has been delivered.
Hourly rates and performance deals
Two variations sit alongside the four. Hourly or daily rates are common for consultants and small one-off jobs. Performance or hybrid deals tie part of the fee to results, usually a base fee plus a bonus. They only work when both sides trust the tracking, because the fee depends on numbers that are easy to argue about.
What agency fees look like at real spend levels
Here is the percentage model at five Australian spend levels. Fees are monthly, in AUD.
| Monthly ad spend | Fee at 10% | Fee at 20% |
|---|---|---|
| $5,000 | $500 | $1,000 |
| $10,000 | $1,000 | $2,000 |
| $20,000 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
| $50,000 | $5,000 | $10,000 |
| $100,000 | $10,000 | $20,000 |
Calculation from the market ranges in our Google Ads agency cost guide (June 2026). Percentages usually fall as spend rises, so the 20% column overstates what large accounts pay.
Compare those with the published flat retainers: about $1,500 to $3,000 a month for a small account and $3,000 to $8,000 for a mid-sized one. Two things follow. At low spend, a percentage fee looks cheaper than a retainer, but it buys fewer hours, because the agency's time costs the same whatever you spend. At high spend, the percentage model pays the agency more for the same work: managing $100,000 a month is rarely ten times the work of managing $10,000.
Turn it around and look at a flat fee as a share of spend. A $3,000 monthly fee is 60 percent of a $5,000 budget, 15 percent of $20,000 and 3 percent of $100,000. Flat fees suit larger budgets. On a small budget, the fee can come close to the media spend itself.
What does an agency fee have to earn back?
At least its own cost in gross profit. Divide the monthly fee by your gross margin to see how much extra revenue the work must bring in each month, over and above what covers the ad spend, just to pay for itself.
| Gross margin | $1,500 monthly fee | $3,000 monthly fee |
|---|---|---|
| 30% | $5,000 | $10,000 |
| 50% | $3,000 | $6,000 |
| 70% | $2,143 | $4,286 |
Calculation, not a benchmark: monthly fee ÷ gross margin = extra monthly revenue needed to cover the fee. The fees are the ends of the published small-account range for Google Ads management. At the top of the mid-sized range, an $8,000 fee needs $16,000 of extra revenue a month at a 50 percent margin.
If the work cannot plausibly add that much revenue, the fee is too big for the account, whoever charges it. It is the test we apply to our own fee on the free call, and we say so when it fails.
What drives an agency's fee?
Scope, more than spend. These are the things that make one quote higher than another for the same channels:
- The number of channels (Google, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok and so on) and campaign types, and how many locations or product lines need campaigns of their own.
- The state of your tracking. A rebuild before launch is real work, and someone pays for it.
- Whether sales or booked jobs flow back from your CRM, and how many systems are involved.
- How much new creative the account needs each month.
- Who does the work: a senior operator, or a junior account manager behind a senior name on the pitch.
- How often you want reporting, and what it reconciles to.
- The contract term and the notice period.
What is a reasonable retainer fee?
For managing Google Ads, about $1,500 to $3,000 a month for a small account and $3,000 to $8,000 for a mid-sized one. Beyond paid media, reasonable means two things: the fee buys named work you can check each month, and the work can plausibly earn the fee back. A retainer with no written scope is not reasonable at any price.
Is it worth it to hire a marketing agency?
It is worth it when you need several channels run every week, nobody in-house has the time or the skills, and the numbers show the work earning more than the fee. It is not worth it when the spend is too small to carry a fee, or when your tracking cannot show what the agency's work returns. Our guide to outsourcing digital marketing compares an agency with a freelancer, a consultant, a fractional CMO and an in-house hire.
What to check before you sign
- Who does the work. Names and seniority, in writing.
- What is in and out. The channels, deliverables and reporting included, and what costs extra.
- Who owns what. Ad accounts, analytics, tag manager and creative should be in your name.
- How the fee moves. What happens to it if your ad spend doubles or halves.
- Setup fees. Each one should map to a named deliverable.
- Term and notice. How long you are committed, and what leaving costs.
- What you keep if you leave. The account history, the documentation and the reasoning behind past decisions.
How Profit Geeks charges
We charge a fixed fee for the agreed scope, quoted in a written proposal after a free 30-minute profit audit, and never a percentage of your ad spend. We do not publish a rate card, because scope varies more than spend does. If your spend is too small for our fee to pay for itself, we tell you on the call. The playbook and the decision log we write while running the account are yours to keep. See how each piece of our work is priced.
Other cost guides
- What a Google Ads click costs in Australia, by service type
- What agencies charge to manage Google Ads, and the red flags to watch
- Facebook and Instagram ads cost by industry
- What SEO costs and how to judge the payback
- What a website costs in Australia
- How to set a marketing budget from margin and customer acquisition cost
When you want a quote for your own business, book the free profit audit. A senior operator looks at your spend, revenue and tracking, and you keep the written findings.
Next step
Want this kind of work in your business?
Engagement intake is capped, senior operators run every account. If your attribution is leaking and your reports have stopped making sense, the next step is a 30-minute call.
