Ask ten agencies what they cost and eight will tell you to book a call. Here is the actual market, and then the honest arithmetic behind our own three tiers, so you can hold us to the same standard we suggest you hold everyone else to.
The market in one picture
Why Minimum is $750
Minimum buys two structured 60 minute sessions with a senior strategist each month plus async access between them. Senior growth consultants in London and Dubai bill $1,000 to $2,000 for a single day. Two sessions, summaries and a direct line for $750 prices below one consulting day on purpose. It is the tier we lose money on so that the advice, not the invoice, starts the relationship.
Why Standard is $12,500
Standard is the whole funnel: multi channel paid acquisition, the CRM and automation infrastructure underneath it, tracking and reporting, and sales training included. Here is what it replaces.
| Bought separately | Typical monthly cost |
|---|---|
| Multi channel paid media retainer | $5,000 to $8,000 |
| CRM, automation and booking infrastructure retainer | $2,000 to $3,500 |
| Tracking, attribution and reporting | $1,500 to $3,000 |
| Sales training programme | $5,000 |
| Total across three or four vendors, none accountable for the whole | $13,500 to $19,500 |
Standard enters the full funnel band at its floor, under one roof, with one report and one accountable partner. The in-house comparison is harsher still: a media buyer, a designer, an automation admin and an analyst run $16,000 to $25,000 a month in salaries before software, and none of them trains your sales team.
Why Bespoke has no sticker price
Bespoke is a growth department: website, CRM, automations, Meta and Google ads, calling and booking systems, reporting, a full digital team and a full sales team that takes the calls. Building that in-house is five to eight hires and $40,000 to $70,000 a month fully loaded. Enterprise agency retainers in the major markets run $25,000 to $75,000 and still hand the closing back to you. We price Bespoke by application because part of the fee is structured around shared upside, and that only works when we have seen your numbers. If the economics do not work for you, we say so in the first call.
The three questions that reveal a bad retainer
First, ask where your ad accounts live. If the answer is anywhere other than accounts you own, walk. Second, ask what happens to a lead in the first sixty seconds after it arrives. If there is no answer involving automation, the retainer is paying for traffic that leaks. Third, ask what percentage of your ad spend the agency takes as a management fee. Undisclosed spend percentages are the most common hidden cost in the industry.
Why we publish our pricing
Publishing pricing filters the conversations we have, shortens them, and forces us to justify every tier in writing, which is what this article is. The numbers are on our pricing page and we are comfortable being measured against them.
Sam Howard, PhD, is the founder of Howard Lee, a growth company for premium service brands operating across London, Dubai, Bangkok and New York.