Growth
2026-10-24 · 7 min read
Sapun Lamichhane
Founder & CEO of Arcetis
A marketing retainer is an ongoing monthly agreement for a defined scope of recurring work - distinct from a one-off project like building a website, and distinct from ad-hoc work billed hourly as needed. You are paying for continuous management of a channel or set of channels, with the understanding that marketing generally performs better as a sustained effort than as a series of disconnected one-time pushes.
“A retainer without a reporting cadence is not a service agreement - it is a subscription to hoping something is happening.”
A fair retainer should specify, in writing, what gets delivered each month - a set number of social posts, a defined scope of ad account management, a certain amount of content or SEO work - rather than a vague promise to "handle your marketing." It should include a regular reporting cadence, typically monthly, that shows what was done and what resulted from it, not just activity metrics with no connection to business outcomes.
It should also include some strategy time, not just execution - a retainer that is purely posting content or running ads with no periodic review of whether the overall approach is working is missing the part that actually justifies paying an agency instead of a cheaper execution-only freelancer.
For a single channel - say, social media management alone - realistic retainers run roughly NPR 15,000 to 60,000 a month depending on scope and posting frequency. SEO retainers typically start around NPR 30,000 a month. Multi-channel retainers covering several services together typically run NPR 30,000 to 80,000 or more. Engagements below roughly NPR 20,000 a month tend to be too thin to include meaningful strategy time on top of basic execution - below that level, you are usually paying for activity, not judgment.
In every case, remember that ad spend - the money actually paid to Google or Meta for clicks and impressions - is a separate line item from the management fee, never included within it.
Vague scope is the biggest one - if a proposal does not specify deliverables in concrete terms, you have no real way to know if you are getting what you are paying for, or any basis to raise it if you are not. No reporting, or reporting that only shows vanity metrics like reach and impressions with no connection to actual inquiries or sales, is another.
Be cautious of long lock-in contracts with no reasonable exit, and be very skeptical of any guarantee of specific rankings or results - no legitimate agency can honestly guarantee a Google ranking position or a fixed number of leads, because too much depends on factors outside any agency's control.
Ask exactly what is included each month, in specific, countable terms. Ask what the reporting will look like and ask to see a sample. Ask what happens if results are not meeting expectations after a reasonable period - is there a review point, or are you locked in regardless. A good agency will answer all of this clearly and without defensiveness; vague or evasive answers at the proposal stage tend to predict vague or evasive answers once you are already paying monthly.
Arcetis structures engagements from around NPR 20,000 a month, scoped specifically to what a given business actually needs rather than a one-size-fits-all package, because the right retainer size depends entirely on the business, not on a fixed template. Whatever agency you choose, insist on the specifics in writing before the first payment, not after.
Not necessarily, but it is worth scrutinizing what is actually included. A cheaper retainer that is honest about a narrower scope - fewer posts, one channel only - can be a perfectly fair deal. A cheaper retainer that promises the same broad scope as a more expensive one is the version worth being suspicious of.
Most channels need at least two to three months before you have enough data to judge performance fairly, since the first month is often partly setup and testing. Be wary of any contract that locks you in far beyond that without a review point to reassess.
At minimum, what was delivered that month, how the key channels performed, and - critically - what that performance meant in terms of actual inquiries or sales, not just reach and impressions. If a report cannot connect activity to business outcomes, ask why.