There's an uncomfortable truth about how most digital marketing agencies make money — and once you understand it, you'll never look at a media proposal the same way again.
Most agencies charge a percentage of your media spend. Typically somewhere between 10% and 20%. On the surface this sounds reasonable: the more you spend, the more work there is to manage. But follow the incentive all the way through and a problem emerges.
If an agency earns 15% of whatever you spend on Google and Meta, they make more money when you spend more. Not when you get better results. When you spend more.
The incentive that nobody talks about
Think about what that means in practice. When your agency recommends increasing your monthly budget, is that because the data genuinely supports it — or because it increases their fee? When they suggest adding a new channel, is that because it fits your customer journey — or because it widens the pool of spend they take a cut from? When a campaign is underperforming, are they having the hard conversation with you, or quietly letting it run because switching it off reduces their income?
We're not saying agencies are dishonest. Most of them aren't. But the structure creates a conflict of interest that quietly shapes every recommendation they make, whether they realise it or not. The agency and the media platform are pulling in the same direction — more spend — and the client is sitting on the other side of the table, alone.
The agency and the media platform are both incentivised by more spend. The client is on the other side of the table, alone.
The table analogy
When Jam Today sits down with a media company — whether that's a Google rep, a Meta account manager, or a programmatic platform — we are sitting on the same side of the table as you.
That means when a Google rep tells us you should be spending more on Performance Max, we push back and ask for the attribution data. When Meta says your reach campaign is building brand awareness, we ask what it's actually doing to revenue. We are not incentivised to agree with them. We don't make more money if you spend more. So we don't.
This changes everything about the conversation.
The difference in alignment
What "flat fee" actually means for you
At Jam Today, we charge a flat fee for our work. That fee doesn't change based on how much you spend on media. If we recommend reducing your budget because the data says so, we tell you — even though it costs us nothing to stay quiet and costs you money every week we don't.
This also means our conversations with media reps are different. We're not trying to maintain a good relationship with Google because they're the source of 15% of everything. We're trying to get you the best outcome. Sometimes that means agreeing with their recommendations. Often it means challenging them.
The question to ask any agency
If you're currently working with an agency, or evaluating one, ask them a simple question: how do you get paid?
If the answer involves a percentage of spend, ask the follow-up: what happens to your fee if we reduce the budget next quarter?
Their answer will tell you a lot about whose side of the table they're really sitting on.
Want to see this in practice?
Book a free strategy call. We'll look at your current account, tell you honestly what we find, and explain how we'd approach it differently.
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