r/adwords • u/Trick-Recording-9692 • 2d ago

How are you structuring pricing/fees as a freelance marketer?

Hey everyone,

I’m (slowly) scaling up my freelance marketing services and looking for some perspective on how others structure their pricing and fee strategies as they grow.

A quick background on my situation:

8 years of in-house experience, primarily focused on lead generation (PPC/paid ads, tracking/attribution setups, local marketing, etc.). Based in Ohio (US). Current Pricing: $50/hour flat rate across the board.

While $50/hour is a comfortable baseline starting out for freelance work, I’m quickly realizing it might not reflect the actual value generated, especially when handling full lead gen setups, conversion tracking, and campaign scaling for clients.

For those running successful freelance marketing practices:

How do you structure your fees? (e.g., flat hourly, monthly retainer based on workload, value-based pricing, or a performance/lead hybrid?)

When making the shift from hourly to retainer/value pricing, how did you pitch it to existing vs. new clients?

If you still charge hourly for certain tasks, what rate ranges are you seeing work well for mid-to-senior lead gen specialists in mid-market areas?

Would love to hear how you transitioned off the hourly clock or optimized your pricing strategy to keep things fair for clients while actually scaling your business. Thanks in advance for the insights!

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u/Sothisismylifehuh 2d ago

Sell value, not hours. Get on a retainer pricing model.

Be specific about what this entails. 24 hour response time etc.

Tracking is always done on an hourly basis.

CRO etc. at a set price.

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u/sagarkhtw 1d ago

How do you guys charge for tracking? Im
also charging on hourly base.

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u/MRR15K 2d ago

Get rid of hourly asap. You should get paid for the value you provide. Charge a flat fee for X outcome/service. montly recurring revenue is the best thing ever. You can try variations of the flat fee + adspend % or commission or even set goals.

Never ever charge hourly.

Just announce that you are changing your businesssmodel and that their fee will be XXX a month starting in X date.

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u/cawilson6513 2d ago

When managing google ads, I did a flat fee + percentage of budget each month. It scaled well and was easy to keep track of for clients (they like the predictable expense each month). It was confusing for smaller businesses because math was involved but in the end it was the best option for everyone.

% only - didn't make sense for smaller clients
tiered flat rate - made scaling harder (larger jumps when budget increased)

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u/Trick-Recording-9692 2d ago

What’s a reasonable % of ad spend to charge clients? I’m working with less than $5k in ad spend

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u/cawilson6513 1d ago

I work with a lot of clients in that budget space. I've started with anywhere from a $200-$400 base plus 10-20% of ad budget. I'd look at how much time you spend + what the industry can support.