What was signed
The retainer covers two always-on campaigns, a monthly lifecycle send, and one report. Media is pass-through. March spend on the ad account was $14,200. That number is not the agency’s fee, and it is not margin.
On 12 March the client wrote, “Can you spin a page for the drop?” Nobody opened the scope. The page shipped on the 20th. Eleven hours, plus copy. At the studio rate that is $2,200. It lived in Slack.
What finance sent
On the 31st the invoice was the retainer. Media and the page were a thread. The client asked what they had paid for and got a screenshot of the ad account plus a round number. $14,200 and $6,500 had become one conversation.
That $2,200 sits in the band most agencies already lose. In an April 2025 survey of 273 US agency leaders, 57% said unbilled scope costs $1,000 to $5,000 a month. 78% rarely or only sometimes charge for it.
The same month, on one job
It is one account. Finance holds the retainer: the monthly amount, the hours, the start, and the end. Client 360 holds the renewal. March is the job. The statement of work is the signed scope. Media spend is a billable expense. The fee is a signed line. They do not share a cell.
The launch page is a $2,200 change order. AI Agent can draft it from the job. It does not send it. An owner hits Approve, then the client signs with a typed name on a link. The signed PDF sits next to the statement of work. The invoice is drafted from leftover signed work, billable time on the rate card, and approved expenses. In this month that is $6,500, $2,200, and $14,200. WIP keeps the page visible until that invoice goes out.
The client does not get a seat. They open a PIN link: the statement of work, the signed change order, the invoice, and a service ticket if they need one. If they call, a known contact hears that client’s projects. An unknown caller hears the services marked sayable, and the published price. The line does not dial out, and it does not send paper.
Margin risk snapshot · March
Three numbers. One of them never got a line.
The dollars are a worked example. The survey figures next to them are not. $2,200 is inside the monthly leak most agency leaders already report.
What the job contained
One month
- Retainer · paid and lifecycle$6,500
Signed
- Launch page$2,200
Not on the invoice
- Media, pass-through$14,200
Expense, not the fee
Sent$6,500
Left off$2,200
Fee if the page is signed$8,700
$8,700 is the fee plus the page. Media stays $14,200 beside them. Bars are scaled to $14,200.
If March repeats
$26,400
left off in a year, from one client’s page.
- Share of a $1.96M book
- 1.3%
- Of a 13% after-tax profit
- ~10%
- Agencies in this leak band
- 57%
Marketing agencies averaged 13% after-tax net margin in 2025, about $255,000 on $1.96 million. One quiet page, every month, is about a tenth of that profit.
Where $2,200 sits
Share of agencies, by monthly amount left off the invoice
- $1,000–$5,000 a month · This page57%
- More than $5,000 a month30%
78% rarely or only sometimes charge for out-of-scope work. 1% bill all of it.
Primary pricing model
One answer per agency. A retainer is common. It is rarely the only price.
- Productized or subscription28.2%
- Hourly28.2%
- Project25.3%
- Fixed monthly retainer9.9%
- Performance or commission6.2%
- Value or outcomes2.2%
Sources
- Ignition. 2025 Agency Pricing & Cash Flow Report · 22 May 2025
- Promethean Research. How Profitable are Digital Agencies? · 2025
Unbilled work and primary pricing: Ignition, April 2025, 273 US agency leaders. Margin and the ~$255,000 profit: Promethean Research, 2025, marketing agencies. $26,400, 1.3%, and ~10% are arithmetic on those figures. The dollars are an example.
Before and after
Turn the agency leak into an operating workflow.
The research above shows the financial risk. The product workflow is deliberately simple: connect the deal to delivery, watch utilization and budget while the work is live, approve the change, sign it, and invoice it.
Before
A deal is won in CRM, then delivery rebuilds the project plan by hand.
With Blinkdots
The proposal becomes a live job with scope, staffing, rates, and invoice rules attached.
Before
Over-servicing is invisible until utilization and budget reports are reviewed later.
With Blinkdots
Billable time, WIP, and scope risk stay visible while the work is still moving.
Before
Extra requests land in chat, meetings, or tickets and become invoice-day arguments.
With Blinkdots
AI drafts the change, an owner approves it, and the client signs before it becomes a line.
Rollout
Start with one active job, not a migration project.
- 01Import accounts, contacts, services, and rates.
- 02Start with one won deal or active job and its signed scope.
- 03Connect Slack, Teams, Jira, or Zapier only where the team already works.
- 04Approve the first change order and watch the invoice draft from the job record.
Seats and the voice line are on the pricing page. Clients are not seats. Book a demo to see the job on one record.
Questions
- Can a $6,500 retainer and a one-off landing page live on the same client?
- Yes. One account. The retainer is the monthly record. The statement of work is the signed scope. The page is a change order on that job, then its own line. In the example, that line is $2,200.
- How do we keep the $14,200 media spend off the agency fee?
- Media is a billable expense on the job. The fee is leftover signed work and billable time, priced from the rate card. The invoice drafts both, and they stay separate. Clients do not pay inside Blinkdots. Finance records the payment.
- Do clients need a login to see the invoice or sign the extra page?
- No. They open a public link with a PIN: the statement of work, signed change orders, invoices, and service tickets. They sign a change order on its own link. They never get an account.
- Does the agency have to run this from Slack?
- No. Slack or Teams can draft a change from a thread. Jira can open a ticket when a change order is signed. The job, the change order, and the invoice live in Blinkdots. An owner still approves anything that leaves the studio.
