What was in the package
Twelve posts. A weekday community window. $3,200. Launch week was $2,400 of work. The creator was $900, and that is an expense, not the fee. Hours went into a timer. The fee stayed the package.
By the time someone rebuilt the month, the weekend was over and the client thought the launch was included.
The month the client cannot see
$2,400 is inside the $1,000 to $5,000 a month that 57% of agencies leave unbilled. 78% rarely or only sometimes charge for it. If a launch like this lands every month, that is $28,800 a year, about 11% of a typical marketing agency’s after-tax profit.
Agency leaders most often named communication and transparency as the way they keep a client — 46% — and the typical relationship lasts 2 to 5 years. A launch that is not a line is the month that transparency fails.
A launch with a signed line
The package is the retainer on the account. The launch is a $2,400 change order, signed before the week is treated as part of the package. The creator stays a $900 billable expense, not the fee. The invoice is drafted from the signed $3,200, the signed $2,400, and that expense.
Drafts wait for Approve. Voice Agent answers inbound calls. It does not dial out, and it does not send paper. Organic, the launch, and the creator hang off one account. An engagement can group the jobs. The invoice stays on the job.
Margin risk snapshot
Twelve posts were the package. The launch was not.
The package is $3,200 for twelve posts and a weekday community window. Launch week was extra. The creator was an expense. The invoice was the package. The dollars are a worked example.
What the job contained
One month
- Package · 12 posts$3,200
Signed
- Launch week$2,400
Not in the package
- Creator$900
Expense, not the fee
Sent$3,200
Left off$2,400
Fee if the launch is signed$5,600
Bars are scaled to the $3,200 package. The creator stays $900 beside the fee.
If launch week repeats
$28,800
left off in a year, from one unsigned launch a month.
- Share of a $1.96M book
- 1.5%
- Of a 13% after-tax profit
- ~11%
- Leaders who keep clients by being clear
- 46%
Agency leaders most often named communication and transparency as the way they keep a client, and the typical relationship lasts 2 to 5 years. A launch that is not a line is the month that transparency fails.
Where $2,400 sits
Share of agencies, by monthly amount left off the invoice
- $1,000–$5,000 a month · This launch57%
- More than $5,000 a month30%
78% rarely or only sometimes charge for out-of-scope work. The survey includes social media agencies.
Sources
- Ignition. 2025 Agency Pricing & Cash Flow Report · 22 May 2025
- AgencyAnalytics. 2024 Marketing Agency Benchmarks Report · 25 Sep 2024
- Promethean Research. How Profitable are Digital Agencies? · 2025
Unbilled bands: Ignition, April 2025, 273 US agency leaders, including social. Retention: AgencyAnalytics, 2024 Marketing Agency Benchmarks, 251 agencies. Marketing-agency margin: Promethean Research, 2025. $28,800, 1.5%, and ~11% are arithmetic. 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
- How do we bill a launch on top of a twelve-post package?
- The retainer remains the monthly record, and the statement of work remains the signed scope. In the example the launch is a $2,400 change order. The invoice is drafted from that signed line, the retainer, and any approved expense.
- Can a creator fee and community hours sit on the same client?
- Yes. In the example the creator is a $900 expense. A creator who can log in is a member. A creator who is only paid as an expense is an expense on the job.
- Will the studio message the client on its own over a weekend?
- No. Drafts and emails wait until an owner hits Approve. Voice Agent answers inbound calls. It does not dial out, and it does not send paper.
