How Much to Charge as a Freelance Media Buyer
The minimum-price math for freelance media buyers and PPC freelancers — and how to serve more clients without selling more hours.
“How much should I charge?” is one of the first questions anyone asks when they start managing ad accounts on their own. The usual answer — “it depends” — is true, but it doesn't help anyone send a first proposal. This article walks through a simple calculation to find your minimum price, what that price should cover, and why selling only hours puts a ceiling on what a freelance media buyer can earn.
Why hourly billing caps a freelancer
If you sell hours, you hit a physical limit: the day has the same hours for everyone. Every new client means another ad account to watch, another report to build and more messages to answer. At some point, taking the next client means working nights or doing worse work for the clients you already have.
There is a second, less visible problem: early prices stick. People who sign their first contracts very cheaply “to build a portfolio” later find it hard to raise an existing client's fee. That's why the math belongs before the first proposal, not after.
The minimum-price math, step by step
Your minimum price is the amount below which a client costs more than they pay. Four questions get you there:
- How much you need to take home each month.
- What it costs to work: tools, accountant, taxes, internet, equipment and a reserve for slow months.
- How many hours a month are actually billable. Prospecting, learning and meetings that don't turn into contracts take time too, and nobody pays for them directly.
- How many hours each client takes per month: account routine, reporting, meetings and support.
| Item | Example value |
|---|---|
| What you want to take home per month | $3,000 |
| Cost of working (tools, accountant, taxes, reserve) | $750 |
| Total the month has to cover | $3,750 |
| Billable hours per month | 100 hours |
| Minimum hourly price ($3,750 ÷ 100) | $37.50 |
| Hours one client takes per month | 12 hours |
| Minimum price per client ($37.50 × 12) | $450 per month |
The table is only an example to show the math — your costs, your market and your niche change everything. What matters is the method: with it, you know which proposal loses money before you send it.
What goes into the price besides hours
The client's ad budget is not your revenue. The money that goes to Google or Meta belongs to the client and comes out of their card. Mixing both in one invoice confuses the client and makes you responsible for money that isn't yours.
Onboarding is separate work. Setting up conversion tracking, cleaning up the account, building the first campaigns and checking that the website records leads takes more work in month one than in the months after. Many freelancers bill this step separately, once.
Reporting and support take hours. If the client expects a weekly call and fast replies, that has to be in the hours-per-client figure.
Common beginner mistakes
- Charging only a percentage of ad spend, with no minimum. A small-budget client takes the same routine work and pays almost nothing.
- Promising a number of sales. Ads bring the lead; the client's team closes the sale. Promise what depends on you: a well-run account and correct measurement.
- Starting without conversion tracking. Without knowing which calls and messages came from ads, you can't show results — or improve the campaign.
- Taking any client. A client whose budget can't sustain the campaign will expect results the budget can't buy.
How to deliver more than the hours you sell
The way out of the hourly ceiling is to separate what only you can do from routine. Understanding the client's business, writing the proposal, discussing results and keeping the relationship are your job. The account's daily routine — adding keywords that brought conversions, adding negatives for searches unrelated to the client's service, pausing keywords with no conversion for 30 days — is repetitive and can be automated.
That's the model of the AutoAgency Partner Program: you own the client, the proposal and the price; the platform's AI agents run the day-to-day operation; you pay the list price minus your partner discount and the difference is your margin. If you'd rather not manage anyone, you can just refer and earn a commission. The details for people working solo are on the freelance media buyer page.
A checklist for your next proposal
- Work out your minimum price per client before quoting anything.
- Keep the client's ad budget apart from your fee.
- Bill onboarding separately and agree on what support includes.
- Promise what depends on you, and track conversions from day one.
- Take the repetitive routine out of your hours so more clients fit in the same month.
This article is by Carlos de Oliveira, founder of AutoAgency.