How we charge
How we bill clients: monthly retainer or revenue share
We work on two models, and which one we pick isn't about our preference — it's about how your sales actually happen. A fixed retainer is a predictable monthly fee for running your campaigns and access to our technology. Revenue share is an agreed cut of the revenue we help you generate: a lower cost at the start, a higher one once things begin to work.
The short version: revenue share makes sense when the product is digital, margins are high, and sales close online in a way that can be clearly attributed to the campaign. A retainer makes sense when you sell across many channels, your margins are thin, or you're already big enough that a cut of revenue would simply cost you more than an invoice.
We set the actual rate — the retainer amount or the revenue-share percentage — after looking at your numbers: product price, margin, current acquisition cost and sales volume. We don't publish a single price list, because the same percentage at two different margins means two completely different deals: in one it's fair, in the other it eats your entire profit.
Written by Grzegorz Świerad, founder of Subida AI.
What's the difference between a retainer and revenue share?
The scope of work and access to our technology are identical in both models. What changes is who carries the risk and what the invoice looks like.
Fixed retainer
Revenue share
What you pay
Fixed retainer: A fixed monthly fee, regardless of how sales go.
Revenue share: An agreed share of the revenue we helped generate.
Who carries the risk of a weak month
Fixed retainer: You. The cost is the same no matter how much you sold.
Revenue share: Both of us. Our fee drops along with your revenue.
Cost predictability
Fixed retainer: Full: you know in advance what you'll pay every month.
Revenue share: Variable: the cost rises with sales and falls when they slow down.
A strong month
Fixed retainer: You pay the same — the whole upside stays with you.
Revenue share: You pay more, because you earned more.
What it needs to get started
Fixed retainer: An agreed media budget and clear KPIs.
Revenue share: Clean attribution and ongoing access to your sales data.
Where it works best
Fixed retainer: Multichannel sales, thin margins, long buying cycles, lots of work that won't turn into sales this month.
Revenue share: Digital products, high margins, sales closed online in a single checkout.
What stays the same
Fixed retainer: You pay the media budget directly to Meta and Google, from your own account.
Revenue share: You pay the media budget directly to Meta and Google, from your own account.
When is a fixed retainer the better choice? / When is revenue share the better choice?
When is a fixed retainer the better choice?
You sell through several channels at once — online store, phone, partners, offline. There's no honest way to say which dollar came from the campaign.
Your unit margin is thin. Every percentage point of revenue you give away is then a point of actual profit, not of surplus.
You need a predictable line in your annual budget and would rather know the number upfront, even if you pay relatively more in a good month.
A big part of the work won't produce sales this month: rebuilding the funnel, a new page, fixing tracking, migrating from a previous agency.
You're a large, established seller. At your volume, a share of revenue would be worth more than the work itself — and you'd notice that yourself by month three.
When is revenue share the better choice?
The product is digital: a course, an ebook, a subscription, an app. Producing one more unit costs close to nothing, so the margin can comfortably absorb a revenue share.
Sales close online, in one checkout, with a clear trail in the data. The billing base is then beyond dispute.
You're launching or scaling and prefer a lower fixed cost, accepting that you'll pay more if it works.
You want the other side to have the same interest as you. Under revenue share there's nothing in it for us in delivering traffic or reach — only in delivering orders.
You already have your first sales. Revenue share is a model for scaling something that works, not a way to fund finding out whether the market wants your product at all.
When revenue share works for neither side
This is the part that usually doesn't make it onto a sales page, so we'll put it here. Revenue share sounds like a zero-risk model for the client, but there are situations where it's simply a bad idea — sometimes for us, more often for you.
Low unit margin
When most of the price is cost of goods or fulfilment, a share calculated on revenue can swallow the whole margin. You'd be paying out of money you never made. In that case the fair model is a retainer, or a share of margin rather than revenue.
Sales that can't be attributed
If people buy over the phone, at an event, through referrals or months after seeing an ad, any billing base will be disputed. A model where you argue every month about what counts ends badly, whatever the rate.
Large, established baseline sales
A brand that sells on the strength of its name earns revenue without any ads. Paying a share of all of it means paying for results nobody delivered. You can fix that with a baseline cut-off — billing only on growth above the baseline — but at scale a retainer is simply cheaper and less contentious.
High returns and cancellations
Sales that come back aren't revenue. When returns are high and spread over time, billing has to be corrected constantly, and every invoice turns into a reconstruction of previous months.
Too little scale
Below a certain volume, a share of revenue doesn't cover the cost of running the campaigns on our side. We work best from around $2,500 a month in ad spend; smaller budgets can be launched too, but a retainer is usually fairer then — otherwise we're funding the learning phase on your account and looking for ways to make it back.
A product with no sales yet
Revenue share isn't a loan. If nobody has bought yet, you don't know whether the problem is the ads or the offer — and a model where both sides only earn after a sale adds pressure exactly where you need calm validation.
How do we calculate the revenue-share base?
Six things we agree on before launch — not after the first disputed month.
1. We define which sales count
We agree upfront which transactions are included: specific products, specific checkouts, specific channels. It goes into the contract before the first campaign goes live.
2. We calculate on net revenue
The base is net revenue, excluding VAT and sales tax. Tax was never your money and shouldn't be the basis of anyone's fee.
3. We subtract refunds, cancellations and chargebacks
We bill on the sales that stuck. A refund filed after a period closes is corrected in the next settlement.
4. We settle monthly
Once a month, based on one agreed data source: your sales dashboard or payment processor — not the ad platform. Ads Manager reports attributed conversions; we bill on money that actually arrived.
5. We agree on an attribution window
We set upfront how long a sale counts as coming from the campaign, and what happens with sales to customers acquired before we started working together. Without that one definition, revenue share has no base — only interpretation.
6. We put in writing what happens when we stop working together
We agree upfront whether, and for how long, we bill on sales to customers acquired during the engagement. Leaving this for later is the most common reason a good partnership ends badly.
Who handles what
This split is the same in both models.
On our side
Campaign strategy, running your Meta and Google ad accounts, and ongoing optimisation.
Creative production — images, video, copy — and testing it on the fly.
Setting up and maintaining tracking: pixel, Conversions API, event consistency.
Work on the funnel and sales page wherever we're the faster pair of hands.
Reporting that shows where every number came from.
On your side
The media budget. In both models you pay Meta and Google directly, from your own account.
The product, customer service and order fulfilment.
Access to sales data — without it, revenue share has no base.
Decisions about pricing, the offer and product positioning.
Ownership: ad accounts, customer data and intellectual property stay with you.
What happens with refunds?
A refund is subtracted from the billing base. If it lands in the same period, it never enters the calculation at all. If it lands later, it adjusts the next settlement — we don't issue retroactive corrections to closed months, because that turns a partnership into bookkeeping.
There's a practical point here too. A model where we earn on sales that get refunded would reward aggressive messaging and promises that can't be kept. Subtracting refunds removes that conflict of interest before it appears.
How we get started
- 01
A call and a look at your data
Price, margin, current acquisition cost, volume, and how tracking works today. Without those numbers, a conversation about billing models is a conversation about nothing.
- 02
Choosing a model and writing down the rules
We recommend a retainer or revenue share and explain why. If neither makes sense at your scale, we say so plainly — we work best from around $2,500 a month in ad spend.
- 03
Launch and the first 60 days
The first signals usually show up within 7–14 days, and a measurable impact on CPA and ROAS typically after about 60 days. Only then is there something real to discuss about scaling the budget.
Common questions about billing
Let's see which model costs you less
Show us your product price, margin and sales volume. We'll come back with a recommendation: retainer, revenue share, or an honest "at this scale, neither makes sense". That last answer comes up more often than sales pages would have you believe.
Book a free consultation