How to resell paid media with a margin

An agency isn’t just reselling campaign hours. It owns the client relationship, sets the strategy and presents the results. To leave room for that work, the execution it delegates needs a clear scope.

The calculation, without a reference fee

Margin (%) = (agency revenue − execution cost) / agency revenue × 100.

This percentage shows what remains as a share of your revenue, not net profit. Your coordination time, client relationship work and other agency costs still come out of it. The ad spend your client pays to the platform is separate from this calculation.

I define what the client is buying

Before calculating anything, I put the channels and accounts, creative deliverables, optimisation frequency and reporting in writing. A Google Ads service shouldn’t quietly expand to include Meta, new pages and unlimited meetings.

• Fees kept separate from ad spend.
• Setup and measurement: what needs configuring before management begins.
• Creative: deliverables and the approval process.
• Reports and meetings: format, main contact and frequency.
• Additional work: how it gets approved and priced.

I distinguish margin from markup

To calculate margin on your fee, I subtract the execution cost from what the agency bills, then divide what remains by that revenue. Dividing it by the freelancer’s cost gives a different number: markup on cost. I wouldn’t use those percentages interchangeably.

I count coordination too

I also review the coordination cost. A shared report template, a consistent way to grant access and one point of contact reduce repeated work. They don’t remove the responsibility to look after each account properly.

What I check before agreeing a proposal

I check that what you promise the client matches what you’re asking me to deliver. That ad spend is separate from fees. And that scope changes don’t get lost in messages without a price or an approval.

If you want to review how your fees fit, we can spend 15 minutes discussing the clients and channels you need. I’ll propose a price after that call, based on your actual scope.

Once the scope is clear, client account management is the simplest way to start. Here is a Google Ads case with a B2B SaaS.