The five fee models
- Flat monthly retainer. A fixed management fee, independent of ad spend or hours worked. Predictable for both sides, and doesn't create an incentive to inflate your ad spend. The most common model in Malaysia — see our pricing guide for real per-service ranges.
- Percentage of ad spend. Commonly 15–20% of whatever you spend that month. Scales the agency's fee — and in theory their resourcing — with account size and complexity, but can create a structural incentive to grow spend regardless of whether it's efficient. Better suited to larger, more complex accounts than small ones.
- Project-based. A one-time, scope-defined fee for work with a clear start and end — website builds, a single campaign launch, a brand refresh. Not applicable to ongoing management, which needs a recurring model instead.
- Hourly. Rare outside consulting-style engagements or very small, ad-hoc scopes — most ongoing marketing work doesn't map cleanly to billable hours, and hourly billing gives neither side a clear picture of monthly cost.
- Performance-based. A base fee plus a bonus tied to a specific, contractually-defined outcome. Rare as a starting structure since it requires a level of trust and data-sharing most new relationships haven't built yet — more common as a renegotiated structure after 6–12 months of proven results.
Which model fits which business
A new account with an unproven budget benefits most from a flat retainer — cost certainty while the account is still being optimised. A large, established account with meaningful ad spend can reasonably consider percentage-of-spend, since the agency's resourcing genuinely does need to scale with account complexity at that size. One-off work (a website, a single campaign build) should always be project-based, not forced into a monthly retainer it doesn't fit. Performance-based pricing is worth discussing once a relationship has enough track record for both sides to trust the outcome definition.
Where retainer and percentage-of-spend cross over
Modelled from data/pricing.php's own flat-fee and percentage-of-spend ranges — see the methodology below, not an observed figure. Using our own published bands (RM1,500–5,000/month flat, or 15–20% of spend) as an illustration: at a 17.5% mid-point rate, percentage-of-spend becomes cheaper than a RM3,000/month flat retainer once monthly ad spend drops below roughly RM17,100, and more expensive above it. This crossover point moves with whichever specific rate and retainer figure a real quote uses — it is a worked example of the mechanics, not a prediction of what any given account will pay.
Methodology — reproduce this yourself
Crossover ad-spend = flat retainer ÷ percentage rate. Inputs: flat retainer RM3,000/month (mid-point of our own published RM1,500–5,000 band, data/pricing.php, as of 2026-07) and percentage rate 17.5% (mid-point of our own published 15–20% band, same source). RM3,000 ÷ 0.175 ≈ RM17,143, rounded to RM17,100. Swap in any agency's actual retainer figure and rate to get that agency's real crossover point — this is a formula, not a fixed number.
Where shakalakaa sits
We run flat monthly retainers in the RM3,000–5,000/month band, with ad spend billed separately and owned by you — the floor at which an account gets genuine ongoing optimisation rather than set-and-forget maintenance. Current published rates are always at fees.shakalakaa.com. See our guide to choosing an agency for the questions to ask before signing with anyone, us included.