Comparison

Demander or a performance agency

An agency gives you people who plan, buy and report on media, usually for a share of your spend. Demander does the planning, production and optimisation in software, and you approve what it proposes. Both have their place, and many teams combine them.

Reviewed 2 October 2026

Fig. 01 Monthly fees against ad spend up to €25,000: an agency charging 15 percent of spend with a minimum of about €840 (WebFX’s published $975), Growth flat at €890 across the €25,000 it includes, and Performance at €399 up to €5,000, then 4 percent of the spend above. Agency set-up fees are left out.

How agencies charge

Pay-per-click and paid social management is usually priced as a share of ad spend: 10 to 20 percent overall, falling as spend grows. Published benchmarks put it at 20 to 25 percent under $5,000 a month, 15 to 20 percent between $5,000 and $20,000, and 10 to 15 percent between $20,000 and $100,000. Some agencies charge flat fees instead, from about $1,500 to $10,000 a month.

WebFX, one agency that publishes its prices, lists 15 percent of spend between $5,000 and $30,000, a $975 monthly minimum and a $2,250 set-up fee. In Czechia a freelancer starts at about 10,000 Kč a month, a small agency at 15,000 to 30,000 Kč, and agencies take 10 to 20 percent of budgets above 300,000 Kč. Retainers for account-based programmes run from $3,000 to over $30,000 a month.

Fees at €10,000 a month of ad spend

One worked example. €10,000 is about $11,600 at the survey’s rate of €1 to $1.16, which falls in the 15 to 20 percent band.

OptionMonthly feeNotes
Agency at 15 to 20 percent€1,500 to €2,000Benchmark band for $5,000 to $20,000 of spend
WebFX published pricingAbout €1,50015 percent of spend, plus a one-time $2,250 set-up fee
Demander Starter€324€249 plus 1.5 percent of the €5,000 above the included band; three ad platforms
Demander Growth€890Up to €25,000 of managed spend included; every ad platform
Demander Performance€599€399 plus 4 percent of the spend above €5,000; billed monthly

Demander prices are billed annually unless noted, excluding VAT. Ad spend is paid to the platforms in every case. See pricing.

What you get

Performance agencyDemander
Strategy and positioningYes: from the people on your accountPartial: personas, messages and a media plan generated from your site and benchmarks, which you review and correct
Creative productionYes: by designers and copywritersYes: 25+ formats in your brand from one message map, editable by you
Filmed video and photographyYes, where the agency offers itNo: storyboard videos and brand templates; AI images and video optional
Campaigns on Google, Meta and LinkedInYesYes: plus Microsoft, TikTok, Reddit, X and Sklik
Outbound e-mail and LinkedIn messagesDepends on the agencyYes: sequences checked against country rules; LinkedIn first messages prepared for a person to send
Optimisation cadenceDepends on the retainerYes: optimisation hourly, metrics every 30 minutes, within caps
Record of every changeDepends on the agency’s reportingYes: each change has a reason, a gate verdict and an undo in the audit log

Where an agency is the better choice

  1. 01

    Nobody on your side can review and approve

    Demander proposes; a person approves launches, enrolments and social posts by default, and Starter applies nothing without approval. If there is no one to do that, an agency carries the work end to end.

  2. 02

    You need senior strategy or brand work

    Positioning for a new category, a brand platform or a campaign concept built in workshops with your leadership is work for experienced people.

  3. 03

    You need filmed content

    Customer videos, product shoots and event footage need a crew. Demander renders storyboard videos from your brand and copy and does not film.

  4. 04

    You buy channels Demander does not run

    Programmatic display through a DSP, retail media, print, radio or events sit outside the eight ad platforms Demander manages.

  5. 05

    You want one accountable team

    Some companies prefer a named team that owns results and turns up to meetings. That is a fair reason to pay a share of spend.

Using both

One way to split the work is to keep an agency for strategy, brand creative and filmed content, and let Demander run the always-on work: campaigns across platforms, retargeting by stage, outbound, organic posting and budget moves toward pipeline. Seats are unlimited, so agency staff can join your organisation with their own roles; membership covers every workspace in it.

Agencies can also run Demander for several clients on the Agency plan, with a workspace per client and the client’s own ad accounts.

Questions people ask

Is Demander a managed service?

No. It is software: it plans, produces and optimises, and a person on your side approves what its autonomy level does not cover. The team behind it can show you the product in a demo.

Can my agency run Demander for us?

Yes. Invite them into your organisation with a role such as marketer or admin, or they can manage a workspace for you on their own Agency plan. Either way the ad accounts stay yours.

What happens to our campaigns if we cancel?

They keep running in your ad accounts exactly as they are. You keep the period you paid for, then Demander stops changing anything. Campaigns, ads and audiences stay in your accounts.

How does the fee on spend compare?

Every plan includes the first €5,000 of managed spend a month, Growth includes €25,000 and Scale €100,000. Above the band the fee is 1 to 1.5 percent, or 4 percent (2.5 percent above €100,000) on Performance.

See the plan for your own product

Enter the website. In about a minute you get the profile, two personas, the messaging, the funnel and three creatives. Keep the rest by signing up.

Free, no card. Demander reads the public pages, then shows your personas, messages, funnel and first creatives. Sign up to keep the full plan.