Ad spend shown apart from your fee
Your management fee and creative in the price table; the client's media budget beside it as their own estimate, outside every total.
- 5/5 on G2
- 4.2 on Capterra
- Building QuoteCloud since 2013
Agencies use QuoteCloud to separate their own fees from the client's ad spend: the management fee and creative as price-table lines, and the media budget as a labelled estimate in its own block or section, outside the totals. The client pays the ad platforms directly; QuoteCloud doesn't connect to ad platforms or collect spend.
A fictional agency's launch campaign for Pellwood Pilates, splitting into two paths. A solid path leads to the agency's fees in the proposal: $7,128.00 including tax for strategy, ad creative, six weeks of management and a landing page, with the 50% deposit of $3,564.00 paid via PayPal. A dashed path leads to the studio's ad spend estimate: $5,400 over six weeks, $3,600 on social ads and $1,800 on search ads, paid by Pellwood Pilates to the platforms and not in any total.
Your fee and their media budget, never added together
On a retainer with paid media, a year of ad spend can be close to a year of your fees. Kinroy's sample retainer shows why they sit apart on the page.
12-month growth retainer for Kinroy Outdoor Co. · AD-R-2207 · sample figures, ex tax, over 12 months
-
Management and channel fees$8,530 a month × 12
$102,360
Your work: paid media management at its tier, plus SEO, social, email and content.
- Who pays whom
- Kinroy pays Ambergrove
- In QuoteCloud
- Repeating charges in the price table; month one paid on signing
-
Set-upOnboarding, once
$1,800
Onboarding, including ad account access and tracking set-up.
- Who pays whom
- Kinroy pays Ambergrove, once
- In QuoteCloud
- A one-off row, paid on signing
-
Media budget$6,000 a month × 12, estimate
$72,000
What Kinroy expects to spend on search and social ads. Their estimate, their cards, their platforms.
- Who pays whom
- Kinroy pays the ad platforms
- In QuoteCloud
- A dashed content block, outside every total
Sample figures from a fictional agency, ex tax, over 12 months. QuoteCloud doesn't connect to ad platforms, collect ad spend or pull analytics.
A campaign proposal with the budget beside it
Pellwood's launch has two money stories. Ambergrove's fees (set-up, six ads, six weeks of management and a landing page) are price-table lines with tax and a 50% deposit. Nadia's ad spend sits underneath in a dashed block that says, in the agency's words, that it isn't part of the fee.
Tick the video ad pack and only the fees change. The $5,400 never moves into the total, so the deposit is 50% of what Nadia pays Ambergrove, not of the media budget.
- Fees as price-table lines with a deposit on signing
- Ad spend as a content block, split by platform type
- Wording saved once in the library, so every proposal says it the same way
Price tables and payments: Essentials and up
Brand, website & campaign project proposalsOur fees
| Item | Qty | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campaign | $6,480 | ||
Strategy, audiences and tracking set-upDone before launch
|
1 | $1,400 | $1,400.00 |
Ad creativeStatic and carousel ads
|
6 ads | $280 | $1,680.00 |
Campaign managementDaily checks, weekly report and call
|
6 weeks | $300 | $1,800.00 |
Launch landing pageCopy and build on your website
|
1 page | $1,600 | $1,600.00 |
| Add-ons Tick to add | |||
| 1 | $1,280 | $1,280.00 | |
- Subtotal
- $6,480.00
- Tax (10%)
- $648.00
- Total
- $7,128.00
- Plus, monthly
- $0.00/mo
- Deposit on signing (50%)
- $3,564.00
Your ad spend (estimate)
Not in our fees$5,400 over six weeks ·Paid by you directly to the ad platforms
- Social ads$3,600
- Search ads$1,800
Ad spend is your estimate of what the client will pay the ad platforms directly. It isn't part of your fee, isn't in the totals and isn't collected through the proposal. QuoteCloud doesn't connect to ad platforms or pull analytics.
Flat fee, a share of spend, or both
However you price paid media management, the proposal shows the fee as your line and the spend as theirs. Move the estimate to see how each model's line reads.
-
Flat feeOne monthly fee for the tier, whatever the spend within its ceiling
Paid media management · GrowthYour price-table line$1,600/mo
Ad spend (their estimate)Paid to the platforms · not in the total$6,000/mo
Simplest for the client to budget. The tier states the spend it covers, so a bigger budget means a higher tier.
-
Share of spend15% of the estimated spend, $950 a month minimum
Paid media management · 15% of estimateYour price-table line$950/mo
Ad spend (their estimate)Paid to the platforms · not in the total$6,000/mo
Your team types the figure from the client's estimate, or sends it in as a price-table row through the API or Zapier. Nothing reads live spend.
-
Base plus a share$900 a month, plus 10% of spend above $5,000
Paid media management · base + 10% above $5kYour price-table line$1,000/mo
Ad spend (their estimate)Paid to the platforms · not in the total$6,000/mo
Covers the fixed work of running accounts, and scales with bigger budgets. Write the rule in the line's note so the client can check the sum.
A worked example on this page with a fictional agency's rates. In QuoteCloud the fee is a price-table line your team sets; QuoteCloud doesn't calculate it from ad platform data, and the ad spend is never collected through the proposal. Media buying and insertion orders belong to advertising agencies.
Keep fees and media budgets apart in every proposal
14 days free, no credit card. Save your ad spend wording as a library block on day one.
Each paid tier says how much spend it covers
Ambergrove's paid media tiers manage up to $5,000, $15,000 or $40,000 of monthly ad spend. The tier's block says so, and the spend block underneath checks Kinroy's $6,000 estimate against the Growth ceiling.
If a client's budget grows past the ceiling, the conversation is a higher tier in a revised proposal, not a surprise invoice.
- Spend ceiling written into each tier
- The client's estimate shown against it
- A change of tier goes into a revised proposal
Paid media managementPaid search & social · three tiers
Locked library block-
Foundation
$950/mo + tax
- Management of up to $5,000 monthly ad spend
- 1 search and 1 social campaign
Ad spend managed: up to $5,000/mo
-
Growth In AD-R-2207
$1,600/mo + tax
- Management of up to $15,000 monthly ad spend
- Creative refresh every month
Ad spend managed: up to $15,000/mo
-
Momentum
$2,500/mo + tax
- Management of up to $40,000 monthly ad spend
- Weekly optimisation and testing
Ad spend managed: up to $40,000/mo
Ad spend (your estimate)
Not in our fees$6,000/mo ·Paid by you directly to the ad platforms
- Search ads$3,500/mo
- Social ads$2,500/mo
Your paid media tier covers managing up to $15,000 a month.
Ad spend is your estimate of what the client will pay the ad platforms directly. It isn't part of your fee, isn't in the totals and isn't collected through the proposal. QuoteCloud doesn't connect to ad platforms or pull analytics.
Ad spend and fee questions, answered
How should ad spend appear in a marketing proposal?
As the client's own estimate, in its own block or section, outside your totals. Put your management fee and creative in the price table. Say in plain words that the client pays the ad platforms directly and that the budget isn't part of your fee.
Can QuoteCloud collect ad spend from the client?
No. The payment on signing covers what the client pays your agency, such as a deposit or the first month. Ad spend is paid by the client to the ad platforms. QuoteCloud doesn't hold, forward or reconcile it.
Does QuoteCloud connect to ad platforms or analytics tools?
No. QuoteCloud has no ad platform or analytics integration and doesn't report on campaigns. Spend figures in a proposal are typed by your team or sent in through the API or Zapier as data when the proposal is created.
Can we charge a percentage of ad spend as our fee?
Yes, as your own calculation. Work out the fee from the client's estimate and enter it as a price-table line, with the rule in the line's note, or add the row through the API or Zapier. QuoteCloud doesn't read live spend.
Is the deposit worked out on the ad spend too?
No. The deposit or payment on signing is a percentage or fixed amount of the price table, which holds only your fees. Because the ad spend sits outside the totals, it never changes what the client pays you on signing.
More for marketing agencies
Every page of the QuoteCloud marketing services microsite.
-
Retainer proposals & scope tiersSEO, social, paid, email and content as good, better and best tiers, with add-ons the client ticks and monthly fees shown in the agreement.Explore
-
SEO, social, paid, email & content scopesWhat each channel includes at each tier, written once as reusable scope blocks and dropped into every proposal.Explore
-
Brand, website & campaign project proposalsRebrands, website content and launch campaigns as phases with a Gantt, a moodboard and a deposit on signing.Explore
- Case studies, team bios & AI-drafted summariesCase studies, bios and your method as library blocks, and an executive summary the AI Co-Worker helps draft for you to accept.
- Scope of work, deliverables & revision roundsDeliverables, revision rounds and what's out of scope as locked terms, and changes as a revised version the client signs.
- Onboarding questionnaires & client briefsThe brand questionnaire inside the proposal, so the brief arrives with the signature instead of three weeks later.
- Sign-off & the first payment on signingThe marketing lead and finance each sign, and the onboarding fee or first month is paid on signing through Stripe or PayPal.
- Retainer renewals & annual reviewsExpiry dates you see coming, the annual review as a revised proposal, and renewal offers bulk-sent to retainer clients.
- CRM & integrations for agenciesPipedrive direct, HubSpot through Zapier, Make and the API, and Xero or QuickBooks for the invoices you send.
- Marketing proposal templatesReal QuoteCloud templates for agency, SEO, social media, digital marketing, PR, copywriting and logo design proposals.
- QuoteCloud implementation for agenciesYour proposal converted, channel tiers in the catalogue, case studies in the library and the team trained.
- FAQAnswers to the questions agencies, studios, PR firms and freelancers ask most.
Your fee, clearly yours
Free for 14 days. No credit card required.