Paid media for DTC catalogues

Ecommerce PPC Agency Billed Per Creative, Not Per channel

Stop paying more every time you add a channel or raise a budget. Catalogue-scale ad production across Meta, Google and TikTok, with a strategist on the account.

First batch in days. No contract, no forced demo.

30M+ Ads Created For 30K+ Happy Customers

4.75/5 120 Countries
The short answer

What Does Ecommerce PPC Agency Execution Actually Do?

Ecommerce PPC agencies manage ad spend, bidding and product feeds. Quickads produces the creative for a catalogue at scale.

In one paragraph

An ecommerce PPC agency buys and manages paid traffic for an online store — typically paid search and shopping on Google, paid social on Meta and TikTok, and sometimes retail media. The work is account structure, feeds, bidding, budget allocation and reporting.

What it is usually not is a production line for the ads themselves. In Credo's survey-based model of an agency deal, the setup fee is scoped as “research, auditing, initial ad copy” and the ongoing fee is $1,000 to $2,000 a month for one channel, plus $500 to $750 for each additional one. The price tracks channels and spend. It does not track how many products you sell.

Quickads sits on the creative side of that line and prices it that way. Catalogue-scale production across Meta, Google and TikTok, billed per creative rather than per channel, on a 5 to 7 day turnaround, with a strategist deciding what is worth making.

If you are

A DTC store with a handful of hero SKUs and a media buyer who is already good, and the thing you keep running out of is finished creative.

Then

Us, probably
Buy the production, keep the buyer. A retainer priced per channel does not solve a creative shortage.

If you are

Running Google Shopping, search, programmatic and social with no one owning the feed or the measurement, and the ads themselves are fine.

Then

Hire the agency. Feed hygiene, bidding and cross-channel measurement are exactly what the retainer model is built around, and we do not sell them as a standalone.

Retainer figures come from Credo's published survey, not from us. We sell a competing service, so read our interpretation as interested and check the sources.

The retainer model

What An Ecommerce PPC Agency Retainer Really Costs

Compare a flat monthly retainer against a share of spend, and see which lines move with what.

Quickads figures in the first data column are ours; agency figures in the second are from Credo's published survey of marketing providers and its model of a PPC engagement.
What you are buyingQuickadsAn ecommerce PPC retainer
Fee for the first channelNot priced by channel at all$1,000 to $2,000 a month
Each additional channelNo adder$500 to $750 a month extra
A share of your ad spendNone15 per cent above $10,000 a month
Setup fee, and what it coversNone$1,000 to $2,500, scoped as “research, auditing, initial ad copy”
Retainer minimumNo minimum, no annual prepay50.97 per cent set a minimum of $1,000 to $3,000 a month
Minimum termNo lock-in30.52 per cent require 6 to 12 months; 26.3 per cent require none
Hourly rate, where billed hourlyNot billed hourly85 per cent bill $50 to $200 an hour
What the fee grows withCreatives and formats you ask forChannels managed and media spend
Cost at scale

Calculate Monthly Ecommerce PPC Agency Costs At Scale

Set traditional retainer expenses beside per-creative billing. See what changes as your spend and your catalogue grow.

Quickads figures in the first data column are ours; retainer figures are Credo's, and the share-of-spend rows are our arithmetic on Credo's figure rather than a quoted total.
What you are comparingQuickadsUnder Credo's published model
Emerging DTC, $10,000 a month in mediaBilled per creative. No channel adder, no share of media$1,000 to $2,000 a month for one channel, plus $1,000 to $1,500 for two more
Scaling DTC, $30,000 a month in mediaSame unit price. Nothing changes because spend roseThe above, plus 15 per cent of the $20,000 above the threshold, which is $3,000 a month
High-volume DTC, $100,000 a month in mediaSame unit priceThe above, plus 15 per cent of the $90,000 above the threshold, which is $13,500 a month
Setup, onceNone$1,000 to $2,500, scoped as “research, auditing, initial ad copy”
What the fee grows withCreatives and formats you ask forChannels managed and media spend

Credo found 11.8 per cent of social ads providers bill a percentage of spend and 51.8 per cent bill a flat fee.

Scored against nine requirements

Rating Nine Essential DTC Brand Advertising Needs

Nine buyer-side requirements scored across creative output, channel coverage, spend-linked fees and measurement setup. We average 4.6 out of 5 across the nine; a multi-channel retainer averages 2.4.

4.6

Quickads

Average of nine scores

versus
2.4

A multi-channel retainer

Average of nine scores

Quickads A multi-channel PPC retainer
Finished assets you can ship5.03.0Cost that does not scale per channel5.01.5Catalogue and SKU coverage5.01.5Creative cadence you control4.52.0Video and creator depth4.52.0Commitment you can exit4.51.0Brand fit without heavy editing4.53.0Media buying and bidding craft4.04.0Cross-channel measurement setup4.04.0012345Score out of 5

Our nine scores total 41.0 against 22.0, giving 4.6 and 2.4 as the plain averages. They are editorial judgements, and the two tied rows are deliberate.

Where the model strains

Why Catalogue Scale Breaks Traditional Per-Channel Pricing

Adding hundreds of SKUs should not inflate an agency fee. It usually does not, and that is the problem.

The unit mismatch

Priced by channel, needed by SKU

Credo's model adds $500 to $750 a month per extra channel. Adding four hundred products adds nothing to the fee, and nothing to the output.

Credo, Digital Marketing Industry Pricing Survey, PPC chapter

The setup mismatch

Copy written once

The setup fee covers “research, auditing, initial ad copy.” A catalogue that turns over seasonally needs copy repeatedly, not once.

Credo, Digital Marketing Industry Pricing Survey, PPC chapter

The category mismatch

Feeds are not creative

A clean product feed gets a SKU eligible to be shown. It does not decide the hook, the format or the framing that makes it worth showing.

The scale of the auction

Millions of candidates

Meta describes its retrieval stage as selecting “from tens of millions of ad candidates into a few thousand relevant ad candidates.”

Meta engineering, on its Andromeda retrieval system

Three channels, under Credo's own model

  1. First channel, a month $1,000–$2,000
  2. Two more channels, a month $1,000–$1,500
  3. Setup, once $1,000–$2,500
  4. Extra creative that buys None

Add a channel and the fee moves. Add four hundred products and it does not. The price is indexed to the wrong thing for a catalogue business.

The first three rows are Credo's published figures; adding the second and third channel together is our arithmetic, not a quoted total.

The difference, both ways

Why Quickads Suits A Catalogue Better Than A Retainer

Faster batches, no channel adder and no share of media. The honest other side of it sits in the right-hand column.

Where we are different
  • Speed on a brief. An agreed brief comes back as finished assets across the catalogue inside 5 to 7 days. Credo notes a retainer's creative sits on a schedule and costs more “depending on the speed of testing and creative needed”.Credo, Facebook chapter
  • No channel adder. One engagement covers creative for Meta, Google and TikTok placements. Credo's model adds $500 to $750 a month for each channel beyond the first.Credo, PPC chapter
  • Triage, not a hero-product habit. A strategist decides which SKUs earn bespoke creative and which share a template built from your catalogue data.
  • Intelligence in front of the brief. Computer-vision models trained on more than 32 million ads read what is running in your category, and a strategist signs off every asset.
Where a retainer still wins
  • Several channels under one agreement. Credo's $500 to $750 per-channel adder is a published acknowledgement that a retainer spans search, shopping, social and more, under one contact and one invoice.Credo, PPC chapter
  • Bidding is its own discipline. Credo describes PPC as bidding strategy and copywriting, and treats the creative department as a separate requirement. The buying craft is what the retainer is organised around.Credo, Facebook chapter
  • Cheaper than hiring at mid spend. Credo's arithmetic puts the agency route at roughly $33,000 a year against an average United States PPC manager salary of $72,844.Credo, citing Indeed salary data
  • Feeds, tracking and attribution. Product feed hygiene, conversion tracking and cross-channel measurement are retainer work. We do not sell them separately and would not pretend otherwise.
Three ways to buy

Choosing The Right DTC Media Buying Model

Compare an in-house hire, a traditional PPC retainer and a creative production partner. Find which one your actual bottleneck needs.

Quickads figures are ours and retainer and salary figures are Credo's, which cites Indeed for the salary; no retainer turnaround is published, and two rows go against us.
RequirementQuickadsA PPC retainerAn in-house hire
What it costsBilled per creative, quoted on a call$1,000 to $2,000 a month per channel, plus share of spend$72,844 average United States PPC manager salary
Who produces the creativeUs, with a strategist signing offIncluded at the agency's cadenceWhoever you hired, alongside everything else
Turnaround on a brief5 to 7 daysNot publishedDepends on their queue
Channels boughtPaid socialSearch, shopping, social and moreWhatever one person can hold
Product feed and tracking setupNot what we sellYesYes
Minimum termNone30.52 per cent require 6 to 12 monthsEmployment
Ramp timeDaysWeeksMonths, plus recruiting

By Credo's own arithmetic the retainer is the cheaper of the other two at mid spend, around $33,000 a year against that $72,844 salary.

One chain, five links

Where The Weeks Go Between Multiple Agency Vendors

Three vendors means three briefing cycles across strategy, production and campaign management. The handoffs are where the time goes.

CreativeintelligenceCreativestrategyCreativeproductionInfluencerat scaleCampaignmanagementA MULTI-CHANNEL PPC RETAINERNoPartlyPartlyNoYesQUICKADSYesYesYesYesYesRetainer coverage is our reading of Credo's published model of a PPC engagement. Illustrative, not a quote.

Send Us One Catalogue

Point us at your store and one live ad account. We will come back with a read of your category and a first batch of creative built from your own products.

Choosing well

Ask These Six Questions Before Signing Any Agency Contract

Six questions that separate a good fit from an expensive one. Ask them of us too.

“How many new creatives does this include, and over what period?”

The answer is often a cadence rather than a count. Get the cadence in writing, and get the price of exceeding it, because Credo notes creative costs more “depending on the speed of testing and creative needed.”

“What happens to the fee when I add a channel?”

Under Credo's model, $500 to $750 a month for each one. Worth knowing before you decide whether TikTok is a test or a budget line.

“What happens to the fee when I add four hundred products?”

Usually nothing — which sounds good until you realise nothing changes on the output side either.

“Who is actually on my account, and what do they do?”

Ask for the named person and the specific decision they own. A strategist who chooses angles is a different role from an account manager who relays them.

“What is the minimum term, and what do I keep if I leave?”

Credo found 30.52 per cent of PPC providers require 6 to 12 months, while 26.3 per cent require nothing. Both exist, so the lock-in is negotiable more often than it looks.

“Is any part of this priced against my media budget?”

Credo's model adds 15 per cent of spend above $10,000 a month. Our own billing is per creative rather than a share of media, which is a difference in what the provider is paid to grow.

How an engagement runs

How Product Feeds Become Finished Ad Assets

Connect the store feed. Live SKU data becomes finished static and video creative within days.

01 · CATALOGUE

Category and catalogue

Computer-vision models trained on more than 32 million ads read what is running in your category alongside your own product data, so the first conversation is about specific SKUs rather than a general audit.

02 · PRIORITISE

Which products, which angles

Not every SKU deserves a hero asset. A strategist picks the products and the angles worth producing, and says which ones can share a template.

03 · PRODUCE

Five to seven days, per batch

Static, motion and video assets sized for Meta, Google and TikTok placements, delivered finished and named. A strategist signs off every asset.

04 · ITERATE

Next brief, informed

We launch and manage the campaigns, or hand the batch to your buyers. Either way the next brief starts from what happened to the last one.

Line by line

Detailed Feature Comparison: Quickads Versus Agency Retainers

Line-by-line capability across creative scale, channel fees, paid social management and product feed maintenance.

Marks in the Quickads column are ours; marks in the retainer column are our reading of Credo's published model and of what full-service scope commonly covers.
RequirementQuickadsA multi-channel PPC retainer
Creative produced at catalogue scaleYesNo
Cost that does not rise per channelYesNo
A category read across your catalogue's competitorsYesNo
Video and creator formats in the same briefYesNo
No share of your media budgetYesPartly
Campaign management on paid socialYesYes
Google Shopping, search and programmatic buyingPartlyYes
Product feed hygiene and tracking setupNoYes
Cross-channel attribution and reportingNoYes

The bottom three rows go against us, and the row above them is a tie.

Ecommerce PPC agency FAQ

Ecommerce PPC Agency FAQs: Eleven Buyer Questions

Quick answers on pricing models, channel coverage, production speed and contract flexibility.

What does an ecommerce PPC agency do?

It buys and manages paid traffic for an online store, usually across Google search and shopping, Meta and TikTok. The scope is account structure, product feeds, bidding, budget allocation and reporting — the buying side rather than the production side.

How much does an ecommerce PPC agency cost?

In Credo's survey-based model, $1,000 to $2,000 a month for the first channel, $500 to $750 for each additional channel, a setup fee of $1,000 to $2,500 and 15 per cent of media spend above $10,000 a month. Quickads bills per creative rather than per channel or as a share of spend, and quotes on a call because the figure depends on format mix and volume.

Do PPC agencies really charge per channel?

Commonly, yes. Credo's published model of a typical agency deal adds $500 to $750 a month for each channel beyond the first. That is a fair way to price management time, and a poor proxy for how much creative a catalogue needs.

Which channels does Quickads cover for an ecommerce brand?

Creative for Meta, Google and TikTok placements, plus campaign management on paid social if you want the account run rather than just fed. Product feed hygiene, Google Shopping bid management and cross-channel attribution are not what we sell, and a retainer is the better buy for those.

How does this work for a store with hundreds of SKUs?

A strategist decides which products earn bespoke creative and which can share a template built from your catalogue data. That triage is the actual work, because producing eight hundred equally weighted assets is as unhelpful as producing eight.

Is there a minimum contract?

No. No minimum term and no annual prepay, and the first batch arrives before you commit. For market context, Credo found 30.52 per cent of PPC providers require 6 to 12 months while 26.3 per cent require no minimum at all.

Is an agency cheaper than hiring someone in-house?

At mid spend levels, usually yes, and that is Credo's finding rather than ours. Its arithmetic puts the agency route at around $33,000 a year against an average United States PPC manager salary of $72,844. Who produces the creative is a separate question that neither option settles.

How did you arrive at the scores on this page?

They are our editorial judgements, not measurements. Nine buyer-side requirements, each scored out of five from the point of view of a team whose constraint is creative output, then averaged. 41.0 divided by nine gives 4.6, and 22.0 divided by nine gives 2.4. We scored the retainer level with us on media buying and on measurement because those are genuinely its strengths.

Why choose Quickads over a traditional PPC agency?

For creative output, because the unit we bill is the creative rather than the channel or a share of your media. Credo's model of a retainer adds $500 to $750 a month per extra channel and 15 per cent of spend above $10,000 a month, and its creative sits on the agency's schedule. For bidding, feeds and cross-channel measurement, a retainer is the better buy and we say so above.

Can Quickads replace our agency or media buyer?

It can, for paid social. We run campaign management as well as creative, so the account can sit with us end to end. Plenty of brands keep the buyer they have and use us only for the creative half, which is the more common arrangement.

How does per-creative pricing work for a DTC brand?

You pay for the assets you ask for, not for the channels you run or a percentage of your media. Credo's published model charges 15 per cent of spend above $10,000 a month and $500 to $750 per additional channel; neither of those moves when your catalogue grows, and neither is how we bill.

Before the next retainer renews

Test Creative Production Before Renewing Your Retainer

Keep the buyer you have, or scale with us. Send one product feed and get a batch of finished assets back.