The short answer
A paid media agency gives you a team of people who plan, build and optimize your campaigns for a monthly fee, usually tied to your ad spend. Baker is a paid media agent: it does the work of the whole paid channel itself, around the clock, and a person on your team approves everything before it goes live.
Choose an agency if you want to hand the channel off and have someone else own it. Choose Baker if you want the work done around the clock, for a price that does not grow with your ad spend, and you have someone who can review it each week.
Baker vs an agency at a glance
| Paid media agency | Baker | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Usually 10% to 20% of monthly ad spend, or a retainer, often with a minimum and a setup fee | Plans from $500 a month, sized by credits, whatever you spend on ads |
| Cost when spend grows | Rises with spend | Stays the same unless you want more work done |
| Campaigns | Yes | Yes, on Google, Meta, LinkedIn, YouTube, X and ChatGPT Ads |
| Creatives (images, video, UGC) | Often limited or billed as extra | Included, including video and UGC with AI avatars |
| Landing pages and forms | Often a separate project | Included, with A/B tests |
| Tracking real sales from the CRM | Varies by agency | Included: it connects to your CRM or store and reports sales back to the ad platforms |
| Working hours | Business hours, shared across clients | Around the clock |
| Who decides what goes live | The agency, with your sign-off where agreed | Always a person on your team |
| Contract | Many require 6 to 12 months | Monthly plans can be cancelled at any time |
| Strategy and accountability | A senior person owns the account | You own the decisions; Baker prepares and explains the work |
| SEO, organic social, PR | Many agencies offer them | Not covered: Baker does paid media only |
Agency columns describe common practice, from the sources below. Ask any agency exactly what its quote includes.
What an agency costs
Agencies price in three ways: a percentage of ad spend, a flat retainer, or a base fee plus a percentage.
- Percentage of spend. AgencyAnalytics describes 10% to 20% of monthly ad spend as the industry norm (AgencyAnalytics, July 2025).
- Minimums and setup. In Credo’s survey of PPC firms, 50.97% had a monthly minimum of $1,000 to $3,000. The most common structure was a base of $1,000 to $2,000 a month for one channel, $500 to $750 for each extra channel and a setup fee of $1,000 to $2,500 (Credo, updated June 2022).
- Contract length. 30.52% of the firms in Credo’s survey require 6 to 12 months.
- A published price list. WebFX charges $750 a month for accounts spending up to $5,000, and the greater of $975 or 15% of spend between $5,000 and $30,000 (WebFX, checked October 2026).
- In Spain, a 2026 price guide puts small agencies at 750 to 1,500 euros a month, mid-sized ones at 1,500 to 3,000 and large ones at 3,000 to 5,000 or more (Lionel Z, May 2026).
At $20,000 a month of ad spend, 10% to 20% is $2,000 to $4,000 a month in fees. At $100,000, it is $10,000 to $20,000. Our cost breakdown of agency, in-house and AI agent has the full table by spend level.
What Baker costs
- Plans from $500 a month, up to $3,000, sized by credits. Every plan has every feature and every channel; the bigger the plan, the cheaper each credit.
- No percentage of ad spend. Your budget stays in your own ad accounts.
- One company included. Each extra company (a brand with its own website, ad accounts and Knowledge) adds $100 a month.
- Monthly plans can be cancelled at any time. A yearly plan costs ten months and gives you the whole year’s credits on day one.
Your plan depends on how much work you want each month, not on spend. An account that needs a lot of new video needs a bigger plan than one that mostly needs optimizing. See pricing.
When an agency is the better choice
- Nobody on your side can review the work. Baker prepares everything, but a person on your team decides what goes live. If no one has that time, an agency that owns the account fits better. For a few companies, Baker’s own team runs Baker for them instead: see Done for you.
- You want one partner for more than paid media. If you need SEO, organic social or PR from the same people, an agency can cover them. Baker does not.
- You are buying judgment and accountability. A senior strategist who has seen hundreds of accounts, joins your planning and answers for the results is worth paying for, especially in a market new to you.
- Your spend is small and steady. On a small account with little change, a low agency retainer can cost less than you would gain from faster work.
When Baker is the better choice
- Your spend is growing. An agency fee grows with spend. Baker’s price does not.
- You want the whole channel, not only the campaigns. Baker makes the ads, builds the landing pages and forms, runs the campaigns and connects your CRM, so it optimizes for real sales rather than clicks or form fills. That matters most for lead-gen businesses such as education, B2B software, insurance and home services, where a cheap lead is often a bad one.
- You want speed. Baker watches the accounts around the clock, so a tired ad or a broken tracking setup gets noticed the same day, and new versions of your ads can be ready in hours.
- You want to stay in control. Nothing goes live until someone on your team approves it, and you can see what each change was and why.
- You buy several channels. Meta, Google, LinkedIn, YouTube, X and ChatGPT Ads are in every plan.
You can also have both
Baker is not only for in-house teams. Agencies run their clients’ paid media on Baker: Baker does the work and the agency’s people review it, so one team can take on more clients. If you are an agency, see Baker for agencies. If you already work with an agency you trust, ask whether it would run your account on Baker.
How to decide
Answer four questions:
- Who on your team can review and approve work every week? If nobody, choose an agency.
- How much do you spend, and is it growing? The higher the spend, the more a percentage fee costs compared with a fixed plan.
- What do you need besides campaigns? If creatives and landing pages are your bottleneck, an agency that bills them as projects will cost more than the fee suggests.
- What else do you need? SEO or organic social point to an agency, or a separate partner for them.
If you are still weighing a hire instead, read Baker vs an in-house media buyer. If you are comparing software, read Baker vs AI ad tools and our guide to the best AI paid media tools.
Every company starts with a call. Book a call or see pricing.