Pricing is one of the questions we're asked most often, and one of the least clearly answered in this market. Most agencies don't publish rates, so clients end up gathering scattered proposals and comparing things that aren't comparable. This article lays out the picture.
The four pricing models
1. Flat management fee
A fixed monthly amount for managing your accounts, regardless of how much you spend.
Advantages: clear and easy to plan around. It gives the agency no incentive to inflate your spend. Drawbacks: on a very small account the fixed fee can be a large share of your budget. On a very large one, the agency may need to renegotiate.
This is the most common model in the Saudi market, and it's the one behind our packages for accounts up to SAR 150,000 in monthly spend.
2. Percentage of ad spend
The agency takes a cut — typically 10–20% — of your media budget.
Advantages: scales automatically with account size, and makes sense for large accounts that genuinely need a bigger team. Drawbacks: a plain conflict of interest — the agency earns more the more you spend, even when spending less would be smarter. If you choose this model, insist on a clear cap and a review mechanism.
3. Flat fee plus a percentage above a threshold
The hybrid: a fixed fee covering the core work, with a percentage that only begins once spend passes a defined level.
In our view this is the fairest model for larger accounts, because it acknowledges that managing SAR 300,000 a month takes a bigger team than SAR 30,000 — without creating an incentive to overspend on small accounts.
4. Performance-based pricing
The agency takes a share of sales, or a fee per lead.
It sounds ideal for the client, but it's fraught in practice: attribution is hard to pin down, the agency is pulled toward quick wins over long-term building, and disputes about whether a sale "belongs" to the campaign are near-inevitable. We rarely recommend it.
Realistic ranges in the Saudi market
These figures come from competing proposals we see and from what clients tell us about previous engagements. All in Saudi riyals per month, excluding VAT:
| Service level | Management fee range | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancer | 1,500 – 3,000 | One channel, limited attention, no creative production |
| Small agency | 3,000 – 7,000 | One or two channels, monthly reporting, basic creative |
| Mid-size agency | 7,000 – 15,000 | Several channels, advanced tracking, regular content production |
| Large agency | 15,000 – 40,000+ | Dedicated team, deep analysis, extensive production |
How to tell if you're overpaying
The absolute number means nothing on its own. The working rule: management fees shouldn't exceed about 20% of your ad spend under normal circumstances.
If you spend SAR 20,000 a month on media and pay SAR 8,000 in fees, that's 40% — hard to justify unless the service includes intensive creative production.
The reverse also holds: if you spend SAR 200,000 a month and pay only SAR 3,000, your account almost certainly isn't getting the hours it needs.
Five questions to ask before signing
- Whose name is the ad account in? The only correct answer is yours. Any other arrangement means your data is being held.
- How many clients does one account manager handle? Above fifteen means very little time for you.
- Is reporting live or monthly? A live dashboard beats an end-of-month deck considerably.
- What's the contract length and exit clause? An annual contract with a termination penalty is a warning sign.
- Who implements tracking, and when? If the answer is "later" or "that's on the client", expect problems. Tracking underpins everything and should precede the first riyal of spend.
What the fee actually buys
The fee isn't for "running ads". The real hours go into:
- Keyword, audience and competitor research
- Campaign architecture and tracking setup
- Creative production, copywriting and testing
- Weekly optimisation: pruning, pausing, scaling
- Reporting, analysis and meetings
An agency charging SAR 1,000 a month cannot cover that list. Not because they're incompetent — because the arithmetic doesn't allow it.
The bottom line
Look for transparency before price. An agency that explains how its fees are calculated, gives you an account in your own name, and opens its reporting to you is worth more than a cheaper one that hides the detail. If you'd like to see a model written out in full, our pricing page shows every package in detail without you having to request a proposal.