A low management fee is the easiest thing to compare between agencies, and the least useful one. The real cost of a low-effort Meta Ads setup shows up somewhere else entirely: in wasted ad spend, in creative that never gets properly tested, and in reporting that tells you what happened without ever explaining why.
Where the money actually leaks
- Audiences left broad and static long after the data says they should be refined
- Creative that runs unchanged for weeks because testing takes effort the retainer doesn't cover
- Retargeting and lookalike audiences that were set up once and never revisited
- Reporting that shows spend and revenue but never connects the two to a specific decision
What a properly run retainer looks for instead
Ongoing performance marketing should behave like a system that improves itself over time: audience research that gets sharper, creative that gets tested and iterated rather than just run, and reporting tied to ROAS decisions your team can actually act on, not just a monthly PDF.
The management fee difference between a discount setup and a properly run one is usually smaller than the difference in wasted ad spend over the same three months. It's worth evaluating an agency on the system they run, not the number on the invoice.