Question · Running a business
How should a marketing agency retainer handle work outside the agreed scope?
Answered by Nathan Frater ·
The short answer
Anything that isn't on the agreed deliverables list is out of scope and quoted by default, and the client should hear that upfront. Then agree a small buffer, around 10% of the retainer, that the agency can spend on little requests without a quote.
The way I set up a retainer is a block of hours at a pre-agreed price, plus a list of deliverables we aim to hit each month. That list is a goal, not a prescription. If we get the core work done under hours, the leftover time gets credited to next month or put towards an extra project. It doesn’t just disappear.
Where it goes wrong is when the team quietly takes on extra requests to be helpful. Then there’s nothing to benchmark against, and suddenly you’ve worked far more hours than the client is paying for, and they get a bill they weren’t expecting. The fix is reminding the client what they’re actually buying, as often as it takes.
The buffer solves the opposite problem. Nobody wants to pay for the admin of quoting every small change. So small asks get done quickly out of the buffer, bigger jobs get scoped and signed off before anyone starts, and the client can see where every hour went.