ScaleyGoogle Ads Agency vs Scaley: What You Pay For
I sell both. A good agency still wins on strategy, creative and senior hands. These are the five habits to ask about before you pay.
A good agency wins on strategy, creative and senior hands. Scaley Media Buyer reads the account, read-only. Suite queues each fix until you say yes.
| Feature | An agency | Scaley Suite |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | Depends on the handover | Under 5 minutes |
| Monthly cost | $3-8K retainer at this spend, from our own agency work | $2,199/mo at $50,000 spend |
| Scales with spend | Bounded by the team on your account | The bill follows your ad spend. A $199 base, then 4% on top |
| Can you see the work | Varies by agency | Every change is logged with the reason, and nothing runs without your yes |
| Lock-in | Some ask for a 3-6 month term. Many do not | No contract and no minimum term |
| When the account moves | Depends on the team. One Reddit store owner counted 36 minutes of edits a month | Search terms, SKUs and scaling chances, checked every day |
| Who owns the account | Usually yours. Worth confirming in the contract | Yours, always |
Five Habits That Waste a Retainer
A good agency is worth the invoice. These five habits are what to ask about. The habits, never the category.
- No reporting. A monthly PDF with last month's numbers, so this week's change is invisible.
- Nobody opens the account for days. Negatives go in once a quarter while bad search terms keep spending.
- 36 minutes of edits a month. That is what one store owner on Reddit said they got over six months.
- The salesperson is not the buyer. The people who pitch are not the people who open the account.
- Slow replies. You ask a question and wait a week for an answer, if one comes.
If none of that sounds like your agency, keep them. Scaley can still find wasted terms and dying SKUs underneath. A retainer at this spend runs $3-8K a month, from our own agency work, so it is worth asking what that money still covers.
Pick Scaley If
- You run the account yourself and you need an answer on the search terms, not a monthly PDF
- You want Media Buyer to read the live account, read-only, and name what spent and sold nothing
- The retainer is paying for negatives, budget nudges and a PDF. You want that work off the invoice
- You want to cancel any day, with no notice period
- You want a bill you can read: $99/mo + 1% of total ad spend to read, or $199/mo + 4% of total ad spend when you want each fix queued. Keep a good agency for strategy
Pick a Good Agency If
- You want strategy. A good agency sets the catalog-wide direction and sits in the messy calls
- You want creative, brand positioning, or media planning beyond Google Ads. Scaley stays inside the ad account
- You want senior hands on the account, with the years to see around a corner. Scaley gives you the playbook. The person stays at the agency
- A weekly call with a human is how you like to work. A digest and an approval queue will annoy you
Keep a good agency if you have one. Scaley Media Buyer reads the wasted search terms, read-only. When you outgrow the chat, a good ecommerce Google Ads agency like ZenoX Media takes over. Until then, Suite writes only after you approve each change.
See the Terms That Spent and Sold Nothing
Start Scaley Media Buyer, read-only, and ask which terms spent and sold nothing.
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