How to Choose a Marketing Agency

Most founders hire their first marketing agency when the work outgrows the person doing it, and that person is often the founder. By then you have usually run some channels yourself, worked with a freelancer or two, and decided you want one team to own a set of results.

This guide covers what agencies cost at your size, what usually sits outside the retainer, and the seven questions I would ask on a first call. It is written from our side of those calls, so read it with that in mind.

How agencies price their work

Agencies that work with Shopify brands tend to price in one of four ways, and many combine them. The pricing model matters as much as the headline number, because it decides how your cost changes as the store grows.

• Monthly retainer. A retainer is a fixed fee for a defined scope each month. Your cost is predictable, and the scope document is what you are paying for.
• Percentage of ad spend. This is common for paid media and is often paired with a monthly minimum. A range we often see is 10 to 20 percent of spend, so ask how the fee changes at the budgets you plan to reach.
• Project fee. A project fee is a fixed price for a defined piece of work, such as a site rebuild, a brand identity, or a set of Klaviyo flows. It ends when the work is delivered.
• Performance or hybrid. This pairs a lower base fee with a bonus tied to a result, such as revenue or new customers. Agree on exactly how the result is measured, and in which platform, before you sign.

What the numbers look like at your size

These ranges come from the proposals founders show us and the conversations we have, not from survey data. For a store doing $1M to $5M a year, a single-channel retainer, such as paid media or email alone, commonly runs about $3,000 to $8,000 a month.

A multi-channel or full-service engagement commonly runs about $10,000 to $25,000 a month. Freelancers often price lower for a single channel, and in that setup you become the person who connects the channels.

At the higher end of these ranges, the fee usually buys more senior strategy time, more creative production, or more channels. Most price differences are scope differences, so compare scopes line by line before you compare totals.

For reference, our retainers start at $4,500 a month for paid media, $5,000 for email and SMS, $5,000 for SEO and AI search, and $7,500 for content. The full system runs $15,000 to $20,000 a month, and all of it is published on our pricing page.

The number to hold any retainer against

A retainer is a fixed cost, so the useful question is how much contribution margin it needs to produce to cover itself. Contribution margin is what an order leaves after product cost, shipping, payment fees, and discounts.

If your average order leaves $30 in contribution margin, a $6,000 retainer needs about 200 additional orders a month to break even, and that is before any ad spend. Run that math for your store before the first call, because it tells you what size of result to ask about.

What usually sits outside the retainer

The retainer covers the agency's time on an agreed scope. Several costs sit beside it, and they are easy to miss when you compare proposals. Ask about each one on the first call, so you know the full monthly total before you sign.

• Ad spend. Your media budget goes to Meta, Google, or TikTok, either on your own card or invoiced through the agency. It is almost always separate from the fee.
• Software. Klaviyo, review apps, SEO tools, reporting dashboards, and design tools are usually billed to you at your own plan level. Klaviyo pricing rises with list size, so that cost grows as your email program grows.
• Creative production. Photo and video shoots, models, locations, and product shipped for content are commonly billed per project. The same goes for UGC creators, meaning people paid to film your product the way a customer would.
• Influencer and creator fees. Paid partnerships are usually budgeted separately from the retainer, in the same way as ad spend.
• Development. Theme changes, new page templates, and app setup often sit outside a marketing retainer unless web work is named in the scope.
• Setup fees. Some agencies charge a one-time fee in the first month for audits, tracking setup, and account builds.
• Overages. Extra revision rounds, rush turnarounds, and deliverables beyond the monthly count are commonly billed hourly or per item.

None of these are a problem when they are written down. Ask for a line-by-line list of what the retainer includes, what it excludes, and how excluded work is priced. Then add your software and media costs to get your real monthly total.

How to compare proposals side by side

Put every proposal in one sheet with the same rows: monthly fee, ad spend, software, production, setup, contract length, and the specific deliverables each month.

The deliverables row does the most work. Twelve social posts, four email campaigns, and two new flows a month is a list you can check against at the end of each month. When a proposal describes ongoing optimization instead, ask what that looks like in a typical month.

Look at who appears in the proposal as well. A named strategist and named specialists tell you who you will work with. A team description tells you the structure. Either is fine, as long as you ask the first question in the next section.

Seven questions to ask on the first call

These seven cover what founders tell us they wish they had asked before signing. Ask all seven and write down the answers, because those answers become the terms you hold the relationship to.

1. Who will do the work each week, and will I meet them before I sign?

The person on the sales call and the people doing the work are often different, and that is normal at any size. What you want are their names, their roles, and how much of their week your account gets. Ask to meet the strategist who will run your account before you sign.

2. What exactly is in scope each month?

Ask for the monthly deliverables as a list you could check off. Then ask what happens when you need something outside that list, how it is priced, and who approves it. A clear answer here heads off billing surprises later.

3. What will the first 90 days look like?

Most engagements start with an audit and a setup period before the work shows up in revenue. Ask what happens in months one, two, and three, and when you should expect a change in the numbers you care about. A timeline with named milestones gives you something to check against at day 30.

Four more questions about results and ownership

4. Which number will you report on, and where does it come from?

Ad platforms, Klaviyo, and Google Analytics each count conversions their own way, and their totals rarely match your Shopify revenue. Ask which source the agency treats as the source of truth and how they reconcile the others.

A strong answer names a number you already track in Shopify, such as revenue, new customers, or MER, meaning total revenue divided by total marketing spend. It also explains how the platform numbers relate to that figure.

5. Who owns the accounts, the data, and the creative?

Ask whose name the ad accounts, the Klaviyo account, and the Google Analytics property sit under. The answer you want is that everything is built in accounts you own, with the agency added as a user, so nothing needs transferring if you part ways.

Ask the same about creative files, raw footage, and design source files, and get the answer in the contract.

6. What are the contract terms, and how does it end?

Ask about the minimum term, the notice period, and what happens to work in progress at the end. A common structure is an initial term of three to six months, then month-to-month with 30 days' notice. Ask for the exit process in writing, including who removes access and in what order.

7. Can I talk to a client at a similar size?

Ask for one or two references from stores in your revenue range, ideally in a similar category. On that call, ask what the first three months were like, how problems were raised, and what they would change. Those answers tell you how the working relationship runs day to day.

What else to notice on the call

You learn as much from the questions an agency asks you as from its answers. Notice whether they ask about your margins, your repeat purchase rate, and what you have already tried before they describe what they would do.

Notice whether they tell you what is outside their scope, or what they would hold off on for a store your size. A clear no on a first call shows you where the edges of the work are.

Finally, check whether you understood every term they used. If something was unclear, ask them to explain it in plain language. How they answer is a good preview of how the monthly reports will read.

What to do this week

Work out your contribution margin per order and divide a typical retainer by it. That tells you how many additional orders a month an agency needs to produce before it covers its own fee.

Build a comparison sheet with the rows from this guide, and send each agency the same seven questions in writing before the call. You will get answers you can compare directly.

Then ask each one for a line-by-line list of what its retainer excludes, and add those costs to your total.

If you are early in that process, our free growth plan is a low-commitment first conversation: we build a six-month plan for your store from the outside, with no logins, and walk you through it on a call, whether or not you work with us after. You can see how we scope the work on our services page, and Klaviyo Flows: What to Build First shows how we explain the work before anyone signs.