The question always arrives in the same shape, and nearly always too late: after the proposal, when you are negotiating rather than choosing.
It is worth asking earlier, and asking better. Not "what do you charge", but "what is included at that price, and what arrives afterwards".
And it gets asked more every year: per Eurostat, 19.95% of EU enterprises with 10 or more employees used at least one AI technology in 2025.
Which pricing models exist, and who do they suit?
| Model | When it makes sense | What you risk |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | continuous work across channels | paying for months of low output |
| Per project | one clear, finite objective | being alone again after delivery |
| % of ad spend | high, stable ad budgets | spending more being the incentive |
The third is the one most talked about and the one with the most visible conflict: whoever earns a percentage of what you spend has no reason to make you spend less. Not dishonest in itself, and on large budgets it is the simplest formula, but it should be known.
Ask what happens to the fee when spend goes down. The answer tells you everything.
What is actually inside a monthly retainer?
This is where two quotes that look identical hide their differences.
- NOIStrategy and priorities: who decides what happens this month, and on what data
- AIProduction: copy, creative, variants, landing pages. The part AI made cheap
- NOIQuality control: who discards. If nobody does, that explains the low price
- AIMeasurement and reporting: automatic, but somebody has to read it
- NOIThe calls: how many a month, with whom. "When needed" is not an answer
Two €3,000 quotes can contain very different things. In one, a founder writes the strategy; in the other, "strategy" means somebody looks at the numbers on the first of the month.
The lines that appear afterwards
These are not tricks. They are things nobody puts in a quote because nobody knows in advance how much of them you will need.
The ad budget. Never included in the agency fee. If a €2,500 quote does not say so explicitly, ask. Spend is set and billed inside the platform: on Google Ads, for example, you are never charged more than 30.4 times your average daily budget in a billing period (Google Ads Help).
The tools. Email platform, hosting, SEO tools, AI model credits. A few hundred a month, and somebody pays them: you or the agency. Model credits in particular are pay-as-you-go: Anthropic's API price list, for one, is quoted in dollars per million tokens. What we use and what it costs is in the stack.
Physical production. Shoots, crewed video, product photography. An agency working with AI almost never has that in-house, so it gets commissioned out.
Your own time. The most underestimated line of all. Approvals, materials, access, answers: with nobody on your side who replies the same day, the work slows down and you pay anyway.
Why AI makes it cheaper, and where it does not
Production costs less because agents do it: writing ten ad variants does not take ten times writing one. On that line the difference against a traditional agency is real and it shows on the invoice. It is not only our experience: in a 2023 experiment published in Science, with 453 professionals including marketers, ChatGPT cut the time to complete writing tasks by 40%, and quality as rated by independent evaluators rose 18% (MIT News).
Strategy costs the same. Deciding what to try, reading the results, discarding what does not work: those are hours of experienced people, and AI does not compress them. Anyone offering half price on everything is taking it from there, which is exactly the part that should not have been taken.
The full comparison between the two kinds of agency is here.
How do you tell whether an agency's price is fair?
Not from the number, but from three answers.
What happens if it does not work. A serious agency tells you the point at which they stop and you talk, rather than continuing to invoice.
Who actually works on your account. A name, not "the team". When the person who convinced you on the call is not the one doing the work, the price refers to something else.
How long you are tied in. Twelve months with a penalty, on work measured in weeks, is disproportionate. Three or six months are reasonable, because the data needs time to exist.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an AI marketing agency cost?
Indicatively between €2,000 and €6,000 a month for a full-funnel retainer, depending on how much work stays in-house on your side. A single project such as a funnel or a launch campaign runs between €3,000 and €15,000. The ad budget is never included: if a quote does not say so explicitly, ask.
Is it cheaper than a traditional agency?
On production yes, and the difference is real: writing ten variants does not cost ten times writing one. On strategy and quality control no, because those are hours of people and AI does not compress them. Anyone offering half price on everything is cutting exactly there, which is the part not to cut.
What is included in a monthly retainer?
It has to be asked line by line, because two quotes with the same figure can contain very different things: strategy, production, quality control, measurement and number of calls. The useful question is who writes the strategy and who discards weak work, because that is where a low price gets explained.
Retainer, project or percentage of ad spend?
Retainer for continuous work across channels, project for one clear and finite objective, percentage only with high and stable ad budgets. On the third there is a conflict worth holding in mind: whoever earns a percentage of what you spend has no reason to make you spend less.
Is the ad budget included in the price?
No, never, and it is the most common confusion. The agency fee pays for the work; the spend on Meta or Google is yours and gets added. The tools need clarifying the same way (email, hosting, SEO, AI credits), a few hundred a month paid either by you or by the agency.
How long should the contract run?
Three or six months are reasonable, because the data needs time to exist and before that nothing can be judged. Twelve months with a penalty, on work measured in weeks, is disproportionate, and it is worth asking what happens if halfway through it is not working.
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Founder of As Growth, an AI-first growth partner. He runs growth and strategy across partner businesses: OroEtic, Giojello, Equity Plus and others. Apply if you want to work with us.