How Much Does Performance Marketing Cost in India?
In short: Performance marketing has two costs: your ad spend, which goes straight to the platform, and the agency fee for managing it. At Socioshoot the management fee is ₹10,000 a month per platform for up to ₹1 lakh of monthly ad spend, plus ₹5,000 for each additional ₹1 lakh, plus 18% GST.
The two costs you will pay
Every paid media plan has two separate costs, and mixing them up is the most common budgeting mistake.
- Ad spend. The money Meta, Google or LinkedIn charges for showing your ads. You pay this directly to the platform.
- Management fee. What the agency charges to plan, set up, run, test and report on the campaigns.
How agencies usually charge
Agencies in India price management in a few ways. Each has trade-offs.
- Flat monthly fee. Simple and predictable, but the fee may not match how much work a larger account needs.
- Percentage of ad spend. The fee grows as you spend more. It can create an incentive to push spend up.
- Per-platform fee with spend slabs. The fee depends on how many platforms you run and how big each one is. This is the model we use.
Socioshoot's fee, explained
We charge ₹10,000 a month per platform for up to ₹1 lakh of monthly ad spend on that platform. Each additional ₹1 lakh of spend adds ₹5,000. A partial slab counts as a full slab. GST at 18% is added on top.
| Monthly ad spend | Platforms | Management fee | With 18% GST |
|---|---|---|---|
| ₹1 lakh | Meta | ₹10,000 | ₹11,800 |
| ₹1.8 lakh | Meta | ₹15,000 | ₹17,700 |
| ₹3 lakh | Meta | ₹20,000 | ₹23,600 |
| ₹1 lakh each | Meta and Google | ₹20,000 | ₹23,600 |
| ₹5 lakh | Meta | ₹30,000 | ₹35,400 |
Your ad budget is separate and is paid to the platform. You can work out your own number with the fee calculator.
What the fee covers
- Account and tracking setup, including pixels and conversion events
- Campaign structure, audiences and testing plans
- Creative direction for the ads
- Ongoing optimisation, budget calls and reporting
- Same-day replies on active accounts
What no honest agency can promise
Nobody can responsibly guarantee a return on ad spend before testing your product, price and website. We commit to the process and the effort, and we tell you before you pay us if your product or site is not ready for advertising.
How to choose a starting budget
Start with what you can afford to test for at least a few weeks. A campaign needs enough spend to gather meaningful data, so very small budgets can make results look worse than they are. Share your numbers with us and we will tell you honestly what makes sense.