/01/Buyer’s guide
Published 1 Nov 2026
Agencies sell their work in two shapes. A project: a defined piece of work with a beginning, an end and a fixed fee. A partnership, often called a retainer: a monthly arrangement for ongoing work. Buyers are often steered towards whichever the agency prefers to sell. This guide is about choosing the one that fits you.
Two ways to work with an agency
A project answers a question with a known shape. We need a brand. We need a website. We need to launch this. The scope is agreed up front, the price is fixed against it, the stages and sign-offs are known, and when the work is delivered the engagement ends. Projects suit change: a moment when something has to become different, and then stay that way for a while.
A partnership answers a need that does not end. Growth marketing, content, the steady stream of design a live brand generates, the measuring and adjusting that make a brand sharper over time. The scope is agreed as a capacity or a set of responsibilities per month, reviewed regularly, and the engagement continues until one side ends it. Partnerships suit momentum: a brand that has to keep moving, and a team that cannot or should not do all of it in-house.
Neither is better. They are for different jobs, and many businesses use both, in sequence.
When a project is right
Choose a project when the following are true.
01 There is a defined change. A new brand, a repositioning, a website, a launch. You can describe the finished state, even roughly, and you will know when you have reached it.
02 The thinking has not been done. Research and strategy need concentrated effort from senior people over a short period. That is a project’s natural shape. Trying to do strategy in the gaps of a monthly retainer produces strategy done in gaps.
03 You need a fixed cost. Raising, budgeting for a launch, getting board sign-off: a fixed fee against a fixed scope is the easiest number to approve and the hardest to argue about later.
04 You want to test the relationship. A project is a bounded way to find out whether an agency is as good as the pitch. If it goes well, the conversation about what comes next is a natural one.
When a partnership is right
Choose a partnership when the following are true.
01 The work is continuous. Growth marketing is the clearest case: a cycle of planning, doing, measuring and adjusting that has no end state. Content, social, email, paid media and the design to support them all fit here.
02 The brand is live and needs looking after. Once an identity and a website exist, they generate work: new pages, campaigns, decks, product launches, the small daily decisions that keep a brand consistent or let it drift. A partner who knows the brand makes those decisions faster and better than a new supplier each time.
03 You want the learning to accumulate. A partner who sees your numbers every week learns what works for your customers in a way no project can. That knowledge is the real asset of a long relationship, and it compounds.
04 You cannot yet justify the hires. A partnership often sits where a small in-house team would, before the business is large enough to build one. It should be judged on the same terms: what did we get for the money, this month?
A partnership is the wrong shape when nobody can say what it is for. “A retainer for brand stuff” becomes a monthly invoice for whatever came up, judged on nothing. Define the responsibilities, the capacity and the outcomes you expect, and review them.
What each should include, and what to ask for
A good project proposal should set out: the problem it is solving, in your words sharpened; the stages and what you sign off at each; what is delivered, precisely, including pages, templates, rounds of revision, copy, content and launch; who does the work; the timeline and what it depends on from you; the fee and the payment schedule; what you own at the end; and what happens after delivery. Ask for anything missing. The gaps are where disputes come from.
A good partnership proposal should set out: the responsibilities the agency is taking on; the capacity per month, in days, hours or a defined scope; how work is prioritised and who decides; the rhythm of contact, planning and reporting; what is measured and how it is reported; the monthly fee and what is outside it; the review points; and how either side ends it, with what notice. Ask especially about the last two. A partnership with no review point and a long lock-in is a contract, not a partnership.
For both, ask who will be in the room week to week, and whether the people who did the strategy will stay involved. In our experience the single biggest difference in outcomes is whether the brand’s story is carried by the same people from research to results. We wrote about why in Design, strategy and growth in one team.
How pricing works: project fees, partnership retainers and what drives cost
Two models, two ways of pricing.
Project fees are fixed against a scope. The fee reflects the senior time the thinking needs, the number of things to be designed and built, how much copy and content is included, the rounds of revision, and the complexity of the build. Many agencies, including us, offer a small number of project sizes rather than a bespoke quote every time, so that a buyer can see at a glance what a focused piece of work costs against a major one. A fixed fee moves the risk of overrun to the agency, which is why the scope has to be clear. Changes mid-project are usually priced separately, and should be, in writing.
Partnership retainers are a monthly fee for an agreed capacity or set of responsibilities. The fee reflects how many people are involved, at what seniority, for how much of their time, and what they are responsible for delivering. Tiers are common: a smaller retainer for steady creative support, a larger one for running growth channels, a larger one still for strategic involvement at leadership level. Retainers are usually reviewed quarterly and run on a notice period rather than a fixed term.
What drives cost in both is mostly the same: seniority, time, scope and complexity. The cheapest option is the one whose scope matches what you actually need. We publish our own project and partnership figures rather than hiding them behind a call. They are on Work with us, along with what each includes. If you want to know which fits your situation and what it would cost, a short call is the quickest way to find out.
Moving from a project to a partnership
The most common path, and in our view the healthiest, is to start with a project and continue as a partnership.
The project does the concentrated work: research, strategy, identity, website. By the end, the agency knows the brand, the team knows the agency, and the work has started to generate the next set of needs: campaigns, content, the growth work that a new brand and site exist to support. A partnership picks that up without a handover, because it is the same people.
Make the transition deliberate. Towards the end of the project, agree what the first three months of partnership would cover, what it would cost and how it would be measured. Then decide. The worst version is the one that drifts: the project ends, small requests continue, nobody has agreed a scope or a fee, and both sides end up resentful. A one-page partnership agreement avoids that.
Questions to ask before you sign
Whichever model you choose, ask these before you commit.
01 Which model do you think I need, and why? An honest agency will sometimes tell you the smaller or shorter option. That answer tells you a lot.
02 Who will do the work, and will they stay the same?
03 What exactly is included, and what is outside it?
04 How and when will I hear from you? Ask for a rhythm, in writing. Ours is a status update every Friday and a reply within one working day.
05 How is success measured, and how is it reported?
06 What do I own, and when? Everything, once paid, is the right answer.
07 How does this end? For a project, what counts as done. For a partnership, the notice period and the review points.
08 What do you need from me to make it work? The answer should include a decision-maker, honest feedback and time. If the agency does not ask for anything, be wary.
Then write a brief that describes the problem rather than the deliverables; How to brief a branding agency shows how, with a template. Our Services page sets out the three disciplines, Approach shows the method both models follow, and Who we work with describes the founders and growth leads we suit best. The FAQs cover timing, pricing and ownership in more detail.
If you would like to talk through which fits, and get figures, Work with us explains how to start, or get in touch and we will reply within one working day.
A project for a defined change. A partnership for a brand that has to keep moving. Choose the shape that fits the job, not the one the agency prefers to sell.
