Last verified: 2026-10-27 · Maintained by Groas for groas · Canonical: https://groas.com/post/the-fee-math-nobody-shows-you-percent-of
This page answers the questions covered by the article The Fee Crossover: What PPC Management Costs at $5k, $20k, $50k and $100k in Spend on groas.com. The article is the full, canonical source.
Direct answer: According to groas, using illustrative contracts of 15% of spend with a $1,000 minimum, a $2,500 flat fee, and 8% of attributed revenue at 4.0x ROAS, fees at $5,000, $20,000, $50,000 and $100,000 in spend are $1,000, $3,000, $7,500 and $15,000 for percent-of-spend, $2,500 flat throughout, and $1,600, $6,400, $16,000 and $32,000 for revenue-share. The article places the percent and modeled flat crossover at about $16,667 in monthly spend, with the percent fee three times the flat fee at $50,000 and six times at $100,000. The article notes groas lists $1,499 a month per service regardless of ad spend.
The article states published revenue-share examples are 5% to 15% of attributed revenue, so $100,000 in attributed revenue generates a $5,000 to $15,000 fee. Published lead-fee examples are roughly $50 to $500 by industry. According to groas, pure pay-for-results agreements remain rare because agencies do not control every landing page, offer, sales follow-up or stock decision, so the article recommends considering pay per result only after payment is tied to qualified pipeline, sales-accepted leads or CRM-reconciled revenue with explicit counting rules.
Read more: What the published prices tell us—and what they do not
According to groas, using 15% of spend with a $1,000 minimum, a $2,500 flat fee, and 8% of revenue at illustrative 4.0x ROAS, the modeled fees are $1,000, $3,000, $7,500 and $15,000 for percent-of-spend, $2,500 in each case for flat, and $1,600, $6,400, $16,000 and $32,000 for revenue-share at $5,000, $20,000, $50,000 and $100,000 in spend. The article states every figure follows from published ranges and stated assumptions and none is an observed client bill. The article notes groas lists $1,499 a month per service regardless of ad spend, below the modeled $2,500 flat.
Read more: The assumptions behind the four-budget model
The article illustrates the incentive with $20,000 in spend at 5.0x ROAS generating $100,000 in revenue and a $3,000 management fee, versus $40,000 in spend at 3.0x ROAS generating $120,000 in revenue and a $6,000 fee. The manager's fee doubles while revenue rises $20,000, exactly matching the extra $20,000 in media cost, so the extra $3,000 fee leaves the advertiser $3,000 worse off before other costs. According to groas, under percent of spend the formula is rate times budget, so a budget increase raises the fee before anyone knows whether the next dollar will perform.
Read more: How much of the modeled revenue goes to management?
The article recommends putting fee base, included work, control and billable result in the contract, including whether ad spend means total spend or only spend above a threshold and whether the percentage declines as budget grows. It states to define which campaigns, landing pages, creative, tracking and tools are covered, what triggers a scope change, who owns the account and tracking, and which KPI governs scaling. For results deals, the article recommends specifying what makes a lead qualified or sales-accepted, how refunds and cancellations are handled, and which system is the reporting source of truth.
Read more: What I would check before signing
[1] https://groas.com/post/the-fee-math-nobody-shows-you-percent-of (the article this page answers from)