Flat fee vs percentage of ad spend — which is better?

A flat fee aligns your agency's incentives with performance; a percentage of spend aligns them with your budget. Under percentage pricing, the agency earns more when you spend more — even if the extra spend is wasted. Under flat pricing, the only way the relationship grows is if the results justify it.

Percentage pricing can make sense for very large accounts where scope truly scales with spend. For most small and mid-size businesses, it quietly punishes growth: every budget increase triggers a fee increase, and reporting tends to emphasize spend deployed rather than revenue produced.

AdStack prices management as a flat monthly fee by spend tier, so you know the cost before you scale and the incentive stays on outcomes.