What should a marketing retainer include?
Short answerA good marketing retainer lists in writing what you get each month as numbers, who does the work, how results are measured in enquiries, how ad spend is billed, who owns the accounts and content, the minimum term and notice period, and what is not included. If you cannot tell from the document what you will receive in a given month, it is too vague.
Key points
- Every deliverable should be written as something you can count, not as ongoing activity.
- Ad spend should be visible and separate from the management fee, ideally billed to your own account or passed through at cost.
- You should own every account, file and page the retainer produces.
- A short minimum term followed by monthly notice is a fair balance for ads and SEO, which need a few months to show a trend.
A retainer is a promise of ongoing work for a monthly fee, and the value of that promise depends entirely on how it is written. Two proposals at the same price can contain very different amounts of work, and the difference is often hidden in phrases like "ongoing optimisation" and "strategic support". This guide sets out what should be in writing, what is typical for each kind of service, and the terms that should make you pause.
What is a marketing retainer?
A marketing retainer is an agreement where you pay a supplier a fixed monthly fee for an agreed set of ongoing work. It is common for SEO, paid ads management, content writing, social media and website care, all of which need regular attention rather than a single project.
Retainers suit work that compounds. A new page this month helps next month's rankings; an ads campaign improves as it learns which audiences and messages produce enquiries. One-off jobs, such as a new website or an audit, are usually better priced as fixed projects.
What should every retainer include in writing?
Whatever the service, a well-written retainer covers these points:
- Deliverables as numbers. For example, two new pages a month, one landing page a month, ads managed on two platforms, a monthly report and a monthly call.
- Who does the work. A named person or role, and who you contact.
- How success is measured. Enquiries and cost per enquiry first, with rankings and traffic as supporting measures.
- Reporting. How often, in what form, and what it covers. One plain-language report a month is enough for most businesses.
- Response times. How quickly you can expect a reply, and how urgent issues are handled.
- Ad spend. How it is billed, and whether any markup or percentage is charged on it.
- Ownership. That you own your domain, website, content, ad accounts, Google Business Profile, Google Search Console and analytics.
- Term and notice. The minimum term, the notice period and what happens on exit.
- Exclusions. What is not included and how extra work is priced.
If you cannot tell from the document what you will receive in a given month, the retainer is too vague to hold anyone to.
What is typically included for each service?
| Service | What a retainer commonly covers | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| SEO | Technical fixes, new or improved pages, local listings, reputation work, monthly reporting | How many pages a month, who writes them, and how links and mentions are earned |
| Paid ads | Campaign setup, audiences, creative direction, regular optimisation, reporting on cost per enquiry | Which platforms, how often campaigns are reviewed, who makes the creative |
| Website care | Updates, security, backups, speed, small changes, sometimes landing pages | How many hours or changes a month, and response times for faults |
| Content | Articles, guides, case studies, email | Word counts or numbers of pieces, research and approval process |
| AI search visibility | Checks of what ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews say about you, fixes to facts and listings | Whether it is separate from SEO or part of it, since much of the work overlaps |
For AI search, be wary of paying separately for work that a good SEO retainer already covers. The guide to GEO vs SEO explains the overlap.
Should you pay for hours or for deliverables?
There are three common models, and each has a trade-off.
- Hours. You buy a block of time each month. Flexible, but hard to check, and it rewards slow work. If you choose this, ask for a monthly record of what the hours were spent on.
- Deliverables. You buy a defined output, such as two pages and one campaign. Easy to check, but it can reward quantity over quality, so agree quality standards too.
- Results. You pay per lead or per ranking. It sounds safe, but the definition of a result decides everything. Rankings for phrases nobody buys from are easy to deliver and worth little.
Many good retainers combine the first two: a defined set of deliverables, plus a small allowance of hours for the unexpected, such as a fault on the website or a request from a partner. That keeps the core work checkable while leaving room for real life.
For most smaller businesses, a deliverables-based retainer with enquiries as the main measure is the easiest to understand and judge.
How should ad spend be handled?
Ad spend is the money paid to Google, Meta or TikTok for your ads. The retainer fee is what you pay the supplier to manage them. Keep the two separate.
- Best: the ad account is in your business's name, and the platform charges your card directly. You see every penny.
- Acceptable: the supplier pays the platform and passes the cost through at cost, with the platform's invoices available to you.
- Ask questions: spend is bundled into one figure with the management fee, so you cannot see what reached the platform.
Some agencies price management as a percentage of spend rather than a flat fee. That is a legitimate model, but notice that it rewards the agency for spending more, not for bringing enquiries more cheaply. Whichever model you choose, judge it by cost per enquiry; the guide to what a lead should cost helps you set a target.
What minimum term is reasonable?
Ads and SEO both need a few months before results show a real trend. Ads campaigns need time to learn and be refined; SEO changes take months to work through Google's results, as explained in how long SEO takes. So a minimum term of around three months is fair to both sides.
After that, monthly notice is common and reasonable. Be cautious about twelve-month commitments with no break clause, especially with a supplier you have not worked with before. A supplier confident in its work rarely needs to lock you in for long.
What should not be in a retainer?
- Deliverables described only as activity: "ongoing optimisation", "continuous improvement", "strategic support".
- Accounts, content or the website owned by the supplier rather than by you.
- Guaranteed rankings. Google's own guidance on hiring an SEO says no one can guarantee a top ranking.
- Hidden or unclear markup on ad spend.
- Long lock-ins with large exit fees.
- No named person, or a promise of senior attention that never appears in the scope.
- Reporting without enquiries in it.
If your current retainer has several of these, read the signs your marketing agency isn't working before renewing.
What does a retainer cost, and what does a clear one look like?
Prices vary with the number of services, the volume of work, the competition in your market and the seniority of the people involved. For a smaller business, a single-service retainer for SEO or ads management often starts somewhere around $1,000 to $2,000 a month, and multi-service retainers from larger agencies can run well into five figures. A fractional marketing director, who directs the work rather than doing it, is usually a separate fee; see fractional CMO for a small business.
As one published example of a retainer written as numbers, M/AFZAL's Growth Partner is $2,500 a month with a 3-month minimum, then month to month. It covers ads on up to two of Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, two new SEO pages or articles a month, a monthly AI visibility check, website care, and one plain-language monthly report, with ad spend billed separately at cost and no markup. Whatever you buy, from whoever, ask for that level of specificity.
Comparing a retainer against separate suppliers, or a freelancer against an agency? The guide to choosing who runs your marketing sets out the options side by side.
Straight answers.
The follow-up questions owners ask most.
- Is a marketing retainer better than paying per project?
- It depends on the work. One-off jobs such as a new website or an audit suit a fixed project price. Work that compounds over time, such as SEO, ads management and content, usually suits a retainer.
- Can I change what is in my retainer partway through?
- Usually, with notice. A good retainer says how scope can move up or down and how much notice either side needs, so changes do not turn into disputes.
- What happens to unused hours in an hours-based retainer?
- Contracts differ: some roll unused hours into the next month, many do not. Ask before you sign, and ask for a monthly record of how hours were used.
- Should the retainer include strategy calls?
- Yes. A regular call, often monthly, where the person doing the work explains results and next steps, is one of the most valuable parts of a retainer.