What is not included in a LevelUp Digital retainer?
Ad spend, software licenses, video production beyond included counts, and commercial shoots.
A LevelUp Digital retainer does not include ad spend, software licenses, video production beyond the counts in your tier, commercial shoots, or work outside the written scope. Every one of those is quoted separately and approved before it happens.
Ad spend is not the management fee
This is the single most common misunderstanding in agency pricing. Advertising management is 10% of ad spend with a $1,500 per month minimum. That is what you pay us. The ad spend itself goes to Google, Meta or whichever platform, on your own account and your own card. We never front media and we never mark it up. If you budget $10,000 a month for Google Ads, your real monthly cost is $10,000 to Google plus $1,500 to us.
Software and licenses are yours
HubSpot, your CMS, call tracking, email verification, design tools, stock assets: you own the subscriptions and you keep them if we part ways. We would rather you hold the contracts than be locked into ours. Clean6 Pro, the theme framework we rate as the best on the market, is $997 per site paid directly to Clean6 Pro, not to us.
Creative beyond the included counts
Social tiers include specific numbers of static posts and short form videos: L2 at $3,600 includes 2 videos a month, L3 at $5,000 includes 3, L4 at $10,000 includes one a week. Anything past that count is quoted separately. Shooting a commercial is not part of any retainer at any tier.
Anything outside the written scope
- Additional ad platforms beyond the first: $350 per month each.
- Additional SEO locations: $350 per month each.
- HubSpot work outside a marketing retainer: $195 per hour, training $250 per hour.
- Website builds, custom development and integrations: separate projects, base website $4,500.
Nothing extra gets done without an approval first. See how we handle scope changes and the full rate card.
Related: Does LevelUp Digital offer retainer services?, Do you charge a fee on top of ad spend?, Who creates the social content?