Mobile game marketing agency pricing is hard to compare because almost nobody publishes it. Most agencies ask you to book a call first, and the quote you get depends on your spend, your genre and how much work you want them to take on. That is not a trick. It is how the work is scoped. But it does mean you need to know what the common pricing models are, what each one rewards, and which questions expose the gaps before you sign.

We will not give you price lists here. Any number we printed would be wrong for your game. What we can give you is the structure behind the quotes, so you can read one with confidence. If you are still deciding whether to hire at all, start with our comparison of a UA consultant versus going in-house.

The four pricing models you will meet

Most proposals are a version of one of these.

A retainer. You pay a fixed monthly fee for a defined scope of work. This is the most common model. The fee usually reflects how senior the team is, how many networks they run, how much reporting you get and how much creative direction is included. A retainer is predictable, which studios like. The risk is that the fee does not move with the effort, so the scope document matters a great deal.

A share of media spend. The agency takes a percentage of what you spend with the ad networks. It scales automatically as you grow, and it can suit larger publishers with steady budgets. The downside is the incentive: the agency earns more when you spend more, whether or not that spend is paying back. For a small studio it can also be poor value in the early months, when spend is low and the learning is high.

A flat fee for a project. Audits, tracking setup, a creative sprint or a launch plan are often priced as one-off pieces of work. This is a sensible way to test a working relationship before committing to a long retainer.

A hybrid with a performance element. A base fee plus a bonus tied to a target such as ROAS or a scaling milestone. It sounds ideal, and sometimes it is. In practice, pure pay-for-results deals are rare, because attribution is messy and both sides can argue about what counted. If a bonus is on the table, the definitions are the contract.

What is usually included and what is not

This is where quotes differ most, and where surprises come from.

Your media spend is normally paid directly to the ad networks and sits outside the agency fee. That is how it should be: you want to see the money go from your account to the network. Be wary of any setup where you cannot see the spend yourself.

Beyond that, scope varies. Ask for a written list, and check each of these items:

  • Which networks and which platforms (Android, iOS or both) are covered. At minimum you should expect named coverage of channels such as Applovin, Google Ads, Mintegral and Unity if those are in the plan.
  • Who builds and iterates the creatives, and how many new concepts a month are included. Creative production is often priced separately.
  • Which tools you pay for. Attribution and analytics tools are frequently a separate cost, paid by you or passed through.
  • How reporting works: how often, in what format, and whether you get access to the dashboards or only a summary.
  • Who the day-to-day contact is, and whether senior people stay involved after the sales process.

If a proposal is vague on any of these, ask for it in writing. A vague retainer is where gaps in creative, reporting and testing tend to hide.

Minimum spend, contract length and exit terms

Many agencies set a minimum monthly media budget. Ask whether it is a hard commitment or a guideline, and what happens if your spend dips during a slow quarter or a soft launch. Our guide to planning a UA budget can help you work out a realistic spend before you talk to anyone.

Then look at the term. A fixed commitment of many months with no review point is a risk when you have not yet seen the work. A shorter first period with clear review dates, agreed KPIs and an easy exit is a fairer way to start. Good agencies are comfortable with that, because they expect the numbers to speak for them.

Ask what happens to your data and accounts at the end. The ad accounts, creative files and attribution history should belong to you, and you should know how handover works if you leave.

Red flags in a proposal

Some signals are worth taking seriously.

  • Guaranteed installs or a promised low cost per install before anyone has seen your game. Cheap installs are easy to buy and often come from players who never spend or watch ads. What matters is payback, not the headline price. Our post on what a good ROAS looks like explains why.
  • A fee that only grows with your spend, with no link to results. That is not always wrong, but you should know the incentive.
  • Vague success metrics. If nobody can say how ROAS, lifetime value and payback will be measured, especially on iOS, the bonus or the target is meaningless.
  • No clear answer on who does the work. Senior names in the pitch and junior staff in the account is a familiar pattern.
  • Secrecy about networks or methods. You do not need every detail, but you should understand the plan.

Questions to ask before you sign

Bring these to every call. They make quotes comparable.

  1. What exactly is in the monthly fee, and what costs extra?
  2. How is the fee calculated, and what happens to it if spend doubles or halves?
  3. What is the minimum spend, and is it a commitment?
  4. Who owns the ad accounts, the creatives and the data?
  5. How are success and payback measured, and who signs off on the numbers?
  6. How many creative concepts do you test each month, and who makes them?
  7. What does the first 90 days look like, and what would make you stop or change the plan?
  8. How do we leave, and how long does handover take?

For a wider look at what to check in a partner beyond price, see our guide to how to choose a UA agency for mobile games.

Cheapest is rarely the point

It is tempting to pick the lowest fee. But the fee is a small part of the real cost. The larger number is your media budget, and a team that wastes even a modest share of it will cost far more than the difference between two retainers. A better question than “what does it cost?” is “what do we get for it, and how will we know it is working?”

That is also why we run UA on the same structure we describe to studios: clear phases, clear targets and reporting you can check against your own numbers. Our three-phase scaling roadmap shows how scope and spend usually change as a game moves from testing to scale, which is a good lens for judging whether a proposal fits your stage.

Summary

Marketing agency pricing for mobile games comes down to a few models: retainer, share of spend, flat project fee, or a hybrid. None is best in all cases. A retainer suits predictable work, a share of spend suits large and steady budgets, and a project fee is a low-risk way to start. Whatever you choose, get the scope in writing, define success before work begins, keep ownership of your accounts and data, and favour a short first term with a review point. Price matters, but clarity matters more.