Why do agencies charge for setup and onboarding?

ONBOARDING

To understand why agencies charge for onboarding, you must first understand what it is. In a nutshell - it is the initial collection of information and assets needed for the marketing agency to be successful on behalf of the client. Things like:

• Billing information

• Short term & long term goals

• Key contacts and stakeholders

• Marketing workflow

• Team introductions

• Research

SETUP

Depending on the scope of work involved - that is, number of campaigns, ad groups, ads, unique offers, ad spend budget, etc…it can be a lot of work to properly set up an account with campaigns that are ready to launch. Typical tasks performed in an account set-up:

• Asset organization

• Ad copy creation and/or approval

• Ad creative creation and/or approval

• Ad creation and approval

• Audience setup

• Traffic segmentation

• Campaign structure setup

• Tracking pixel validation

• Bid strategy setup & Budget allocation

And this is all before the campaign can launch! Many items must be set up, checked, and double-checked for accuracy before the campaign can safely see the light of day and begin showing ads to potential buyers.

Taking on a new client can be a costly and time-consuming undertaking for a marketing agency, and it is why it is the industry standard to charge a setup fee. The fee will vary from agency to agency, based on a number of factors including the size of the account being onboarded, the desirability and/or capacity of the agency in question, and the value created by the setup.

Have questions about how we do on-boarding?