Monday, February 18, 2013

Advertising Agency Fee Structures

Nowadays's advertising agencies are compensated differently, and with extra variability, than in the ended.


Decent as advertising methods and outlets own changed in contemporary second childhood, so hog the ways advertising agencies bend paid. While the fees charged by lawyers, accountants and other types of concern consultants are generally tied to a constant hourly proportion, agencies may be compensated on the cause of commissions, markups, fees or pay-for-results plans. Clients can further negotiate some combination of these reward structures.


Commissions


For many dotage, the average agency compensation was 15 percent of the complete immensity spent by the client on Bulk media such as television, radio, magazines and newspapers. For instance, whether Boss Cookie Brands bought $1 million payment of airtime on TV, its agency would remit $850,000 to the network and grip $150,000 as worth for creating and placing the ads.


Added recently, the comission method has evolved to mirror the changing media outlook. Many contemporary media -- and more and more typical promotion alternatives, such as database marketing -- effect not pament a 15 percent agency comission. Some earnings no comission at all. But a growing number of agencies are agreeing to be compensated based on brand awareness or other communications goals.

Looking Ahead

Advertising agencies are in transition, increasingly offering services traditionally defined as sales promotion or public relations. At the same time, they are learning use -- and get paid for -- the vast new array of digital communications options.



To mirror the work involved in recruiting and managing these specialists, the agency typically adds a markup to their charges. Generally, this markup ranges from 17.65 percent to 20 percent, depending on the nature of the outside services.


Fee System


Currently, there are two common types of fee systems. One is based on an hourly rate, which may be the same for all agency services or different across specialties and departments. The second type is a fixed, project-based fee negotiated by the client and agency to cover specific services and expenses during a set period of time.


Pay-for-Results Plans


These newest payment structures base an agency's compensation on the effectiveness of its work. Specific measurement criteria must be agreed upon in advance. Agencies often resist pay-for-results plans tied primarily to sales, because they cannot control key sales-related factors like product quality or distribution strategy. So Capital Cookie Brands probably negotiates the percentage it pays in commissions, and relies in belongings on other compensation options.

Markups

In the circuit of preparing advertisements, agencies routinely contract with outside vendors such as photographers, printers, researchers and film directors.



This period of change is likely to benefit their clients, who will have more flexibility than ever in negotiating fee levels and structures.