Published 3 October 2026.
Our performance marketing fee is the higher of 15% of your monthly media spend or ₹50,000 + GST a month. The rate falls to 10% from ₹10,00,000 of monthly media and to 8% from ₹20,00,000. The fee is charged on top of the media spend, and media runs through your own ad accounts.
That rule has a consequence most buyers do not see until they run the numbers. On a small budget the fee is a large share of the media, and on a bigger one it settles at 15%, then steps down to 10% and 8%. This post shows the arithmetic, what the fee covers, what it does not, and the three numbers to agree before you spend a rupee. We are an agency, so the rule is ours, published on our performance marketing agency page.
What the fee looks like at different budgets
The ₹50,000 minimum applies until 15% of your media passes it. That happens at ₹3,33,333 a month of media, because 15% of ₹3,33,333 is ₹50,000. Below that point you pay the minimum. Above it you pay 15% of the whole budget, up to ₹10,00,000. From ₹10,00,000 the rate on the whole budget is 10%, and from ₹20,00,000 it is 8%.
The table below is arithmetic from our published rule, not a client report. Every fee is plus GST and is charged on top of the media.
| Monthly media spend | Rate on the whole budget | Fee you pay | Fee as a share of media |
|---|---|---|---|
| ₹1,00,000 | 15% is ₹15,000, so the minimum applies | ₹50,000 | 50% |
| ₹2,00,000 | 15% is ₹30,000, so the minimum applies | ₹50,000 | 25% |
| ₹3,33,333 | 15% | ₹50,000 | 15% |
| ₹5,00,000 | 15% | ₹75,000 | 15% |
| ₹8,00,000 | 15% | ₹1,20,000 | 15% |
| ₹10,00,000 | 10% | ₹1,00,000 | 10% |
| ₹15,00,000 | 10% | ₹1,50,000 | 10% |
| ₹20,00,000 | 8% | ₹1,60,000 | 8% |
The last column is the one to look at. At ₹2,00,000 of media, the fee is 25% of it. That is the price of having a strategist, a media buyer and an analyst on your account, and you should decide whether your budget justifies a team at that ratio.
What the fee includes
The fee covers strategy, media buying, audience research, campaign setup, daily optimisation, conversion tracking and analytics, weekly performance reviews and an always-on dashboard. You do not get a separate bill for the weekly review or the dashboard.
Media spend is separate. It runs through your own ad accounts, so the money goes from you to the platform, and you can see every rupee in the account.
What is billed separately
Creative and production are billed on actuals. That covers statics, motion, UGC-style videos and landing pages, all priced separately from the management fee. We keep them apart so you can see what each part costs, and so you can buy creative somewhere else if you prefer.
If you need video ads, our UGC video service is ₹8,000 a video in bulk. Ask for creative to be quoted before the campaign starts. The UGC cost guide covers what drives that price.
The media floor, and why a retainer can cost more than the ads
We suggest ₹50,000 to ₹1,00,000 a month of media as a floor. Below that, in our experience, most Indian categories do not produce enough conversions for the platforms to learn from.
The fee arithmetic makes a second point. At ₹50,000 of media, our minimum fee of ₹50,000 equals the media itself. The fee only falls to half of the media once you spend ₹1,00,000 a month. So if your budget sits at the low end, a freelancer or an in-house hire may cost you less than a retainer, and we would rather you knew that before signing.
Three numbers to agree before you spend
The first is the most you can pay for a qualified lead. Work it back from a sale. If one qualified lead in ten becomes a customer, the most you can pay for a qualified lead is a tenth of what a customer is worth to you in margin. Both inputs are yours to supply, not ours to guess.
The second is break-even ROAS, which for ecommerce is 1 divided by your contribution margin. At a 40% margin it is 2.5x. At 25% it is 4x. Any ROAS target quoted before someone asks about your margin is a sales line.
The third is who decides what counts as a qualified lead. If the agency defines it, form fills from students and job seekers count. If your sales team defines it, the number is lower and more honest. Write the definition down, and send the status back to the ad platforms so they learn from it.
Our post on what to judge a performance marketing agency on goes further into these numbers, and the one on conversion rate optimisation for ecommerce covers what happens after the click.
One illustrative month
The sample report on our performance marketing page is an illustration, not a client account. It shows ₹3,00,000 of media producing 1,200 leads at ₹250 each. Of those, 216 qualified, so the cost per qualified lead is ₹1,389.
Split by channel, search spent ₹1,80,000 for 600 leads at ₹300, and 144 qualified, which is ₹1,250 per qualified lead. Paid social spent ₹1,20,000 for 600 leads at ₹200, and 72 qualified, which is ₹1,667 per qualified lead.
Paid social looked cheaper per lead and cost more per qualified lead. A report that stops at cost per lead sends budget to the wrong channel.
The same page has an ecommerce illustration, again not a client account: ₹3,00,000 of media, 500 attributed orders, ₹9,00,000 of attributed revenue, a platform ROAS of 3.0x. At a 40% contribution margin that revenue leaves ₹3,60,000 against ₹3,00,000 of media, so ₹60,000 before fees. At 25% it leaves ₹2,25,000, which is ₹75,000 short. Same ROAS, opposite outcome.
Real results and where they come from
Omaxe Hi Street in Lucknow cost ₹350 per lead on more than ₹25 lakh of spend over two months. At that spend the average was over ₹12,50,000 a month, which sits in the 10% band of the table. Omaxe Chowk in Chandni Chowk cost ₹200 per lead on about ₹40 lakh. Over 15% of the leads qualified, and 2% of the qualified leads bought or leased. Both figures are on our performance marketing page.
Same developer, and Hi Street cost 75% more per lead, with a different project and a different city. A benchmark from another project, even your own, rarely carries over.
Fund Abroad, an education loan platform, averaged ₹170.75 per lead on ₹3,13,838 of media and 1,838 leads. The qualified-lead ratio rose from 5% to 15%, and the cost per qualified lead fell 67%. The Fund Abroad case study has the breakdown, from Meta Ads Manager.
One ad on that account, rebuilt around a single 48-hour promise, took cost per lead from ₹457.93 to ₹97.56. We describe it in how one ad redesign cut cost per lead by 79%, and it is a before-and-after from a live account, not a controlled test.
We cannot predict your cost per lead before we have looked at your offer, your landing page and your funnel. Anyone who quotes one before that is guessing, and the two Omaxe projects show how far apart the answers can be.
Questions to ask any agency about its fee
A percentage fee has a built-in tension. The agency earns more when your budget grows, whether or not the growth is paying back. That is true of ours too, and it is the reason to agree the numbers above before the budget goes up, not after.
Ask what the minimum fee is, because a percentage that looks small can sit on top of a floor that is not. Ask what happens above your budget, and whether there is a cap or a custom proposal. Ask whether creative, landing pages and tracking setup are inside the fee or billed on top, and ask for a rough creative quote before you sign. Ask whose name is on the ad accounts, since you want them in yours, so you keep the history if you move on.
Then ask what the weekly report will show. If it stops at clicks and cost per lead, the fee is paying for activity. If it carries cost per qualified lead or ROAS against your margin, it is paying for something you can act on. Our performance marketing page shows the format we use.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does performance marketing cost in India?
With us, a management fee that is the higher of 15% of monthly media or ₹50,000 + GST a month, falling to 10% from ₹10,00,000 and 8% from ₹20,00,000 of media. The fee is charged on top of the media spend, and creative and production are billed on actuals.
What percentage of ad spend do performance marketing agencies charge?
Ours is 15% of monthly media, with a minimum fee of ₹50,000 + GST. The percentage applies from ₹3,33,333 of media a month, and the rate falls to 10% from ₹10,00,000 and 8% from ₹20,00,000. Below ₹3,33,333 you pay the minimum, which is a larger share of your spend.
What is the minimum ad budget to start performance marketing?
We suggest ₹50,000 to ₹1,00,000 a month of media as a floor. Below that, most Indian categories do not produce enough conversions for ad platforms to learn from, and a retainer will cost more than the ads.
Is creative included in the management fee?
No. Statics, motion, UGC-style videos and landing pages are billed separately on actuals. Our UGC videos are ₹8,000 each in bulk.
Does the agency pay for the ads?
No. Media spend runs through your own ad accounts and you pay the platforms directly. Our fee covers the work of managing it.
What is a good cost per lead?
It depends on what a qualified lead is worth to you. Our Omaxe projects cost ₹350 and ₹200 per lead, which shows how much it varies by project. We cannot give you a target number before looking at your offer and funnel.
How do I know if my ads are profitable?
Compare your ROAS with break-even ROAS, which is 1 divided by contribution margin. At 40% margin that is 2.5x, and at 25% it is 4x. For lead businesses, compare cost per qualified lead with what a customer is worth to you.
References
- DigiStreet Media, Performance marketing agency, published fee rule, sample report and Omaxe results, as stated on the page on 3 October 2026.
- DigiStreet Media case studies: Fund Abroad performance marketing, figures from Meta Ads Manager, and one ad redesign cut cost per lead 79%.
