It depends on scope, and in ecommerce the scope varies more than in almost any other category of agency. At Evestar, retainers run from $3,000 to $20,000 a month depending on the work involved, and any agency that quotes a single number before it knows your scope is quoting a different job to the one you are buying.
Start with what is actually in the engagement, because that is what the number is really measuring:
Two agencies can quote the same monthly fee for engagements that share almost nothing. So before you compare prices, get each agency to tell you exactly what is included, and what would be billed on top. Then decide which pricing model suits the stage your brand is at, because that choice matters more than the headline figure.
Monthly retainer range
Scaled to scope. Ad spend is separate in every case, paid by the brand directly to the platform.
We use all four pricing models below and build the commercial structure around the brand rather than the other way round. Which model fits depends on your stage, and the sections that follow explain what each one rewards.
What it got right: simple to quote and simple to forecast, and in an era of cheap media and fat margins it was close enough to fair.
What to watch: the model pays the agency more when you spend more, and ties it to nothing else. There is no ROI target inside it, so if profitability is not being watched closely the incentive to keep spending can dig a very large hole. That is why it no longer fits ecommerce, where brands run thinner margins and need a partner accountable to efficiency rather than volume.
What it gets right: it decouples the agency’s revenue from your spend, which removes the incentive problem above. It is predictable for budgeting and forces an honest scope conversation up front.
What to watch: the scope is limited and should be clearly defined. Know precisely what is included before you sign. If more scope is needed later, an extra channel, more creative, or Amazon and TikTok Shop management, the fee has to be adjusted, and that conversation should happen openly rather than through quality quietly declining.
A reduced base retainer that covers the cost of the team, plus a performance component tied to an agreed metric, usually incremental revenue, incremental profit or spend above an agreed baseline. Around 80% of Evestar clients are on it. It puts real money on the outcome for both sides, and it is the model most likely to make an agency say no to a bad idea, because a bad idea now costs the agency too.
What to watch: the definition of the metric, and the baseline. Agree in writing which revenue counts, how returns and cancellations are treated, what attribution model settles disagreements, and how the baseline is set and when it resets.
A fixed price for a defined piece of work with a defined end: a Shopify build, a creative production sprint, a CRO test programme, an audit. This works well when a brand knows what it needs and can define the deliverable precisely. Nobody should be paying a monthly retainer for a website that shipped in March.
What to watch: timelines. Write the timeline into the agreement alongside the deliverable, and agree what happens after delivery, because most marketing projects produce an asset that needs ongoing management once the project closes.
Meet the people who will actually run your account before you sign. Ask to meet the leader of the engagement and the team members who will execute the key functions, whether that is media buying, creative, retention or marketplaces. Not just the person on the sales call, the people doing the work. This is a partnership, and the good ones last for years, so if an agency is reluctant to put its team in front of you before a contract is signed, treat that as information.
The second question: ask what the agency would need to see in the first ninety days to conclude the engagement is not working, and what it would do about it. An agency that has a clear answer has thought about failure. An agency that has never considered the question will not recognise failure when it arrives.
It depends on scope: how many channels are managed, whether creative production is included, whether email, SMS, Amazon and TikTok Shop are in the engagement, and how senior the assigned team is. Any number quoted without that scope attached is meaningless. Ask each agency to break its fee into team time, creative production and channel management, and compare those components rather than the totals.
Evestar retainers run from $3,000 to $20,000 per month depending on scope of work. We offer all four pricing models and structure each engagement around the brand’s stage and needs. Around 80% of our clients are on base fee plus performance, about 15% are project based, and about 5% are on a percentage of media spend.
Base fee plus performance. The base covers the cost of the team doing the work, and the performance component means we earn more only when the brand does. It keeps both sides pointed at the same outcome, and it makes it easy for us to recommend spending less when spending less is the right call.
For most ecommerce brands, no. A percentage of spend rewards the agency for spending more and ties it to no efficiency target, which is a poor fit for brands running thin margins. A flat retainer removes that incentive but requires a tightly written scope. We support the percentage model for the small number of clients it suits, but we rarely recommend it.
Our smallest retainer is $3,000 per month. At that level the engagement is deliberately narrow, usually a single channel with a clearly defined scope. As channels, creative production, retention or marketplace management are added, the fee moves up the range toward $20,000.
No. Media budget is paid by the brand directly to the platform, so the agency fee sits on top of it. Confirm this with any agency you speak to, and confirm who holds the ad account. You should own it.
Tell us which channels you run and where you are trying to get to, and we will walk you through scope and pricing. No obligation.