Translated from the Japanese original on mureo.jp.
Running search ads yourself takes more time than you expect. Picking keywords, ad copy, bids, exclusions, checking the numbers daily. Continuing that alongside running a business starts to feel unrealistic, and you start looking for someone to run it for you. This article is for people at that stage: an overview of the costs and how to pick a provider.
If you are already with an agency and the fee is what bothers you, Are ad agency management fees too high? breaks down what the fee is made of. That should fit your situation better.
What outsourced ad management gets you
The scope varies by contract, but it divides roughly into three.
Setup. Account structure, keyword and ad copy design, measurement configuration. Laying the foundation before you start.
Day-to-day operations. Adjusting bids and budgets, reviewing and excluding search terms, swapping ad copy. Results are determined by continuing this.
Reporting and proposals. The monthly report and proposals for what to do next. Quality here varies most between providers.
The overall cost picture
Payments split broadly into three: the media spend you pay the platform, a one-time setup fee (often JPY 0 to 100,000), and the monthly management fee. Each provider’s character shows in how the fee is charged.
Rate-based. Paying around 20% of ad spend each month; the most common form. The more you spend on ads, the more the fee. In most cases there is a minimum fee (from tens of thousands to over a hundred thousand yen a month), so smaller budgets carry a heavier effective rate. A JPY 100,000 monthly ad budget against a JPY 50,000 minimum fee is an effective 50%.
Flat. Paying the same amount each month regardless of ad spend. The fee does not jump as you raise budget, so it suits cases where you intend to scale delivery, or where you want costs to be predictable. It also avoids the sense of being overcharged while amounts are small.
Performance-based. Paying according to results such as acquisition volume. It looks risk-free at first glance, but depending on how results are defined and unit prices are set it can also work out expensive, and not many providers offer it.
Whichever the form, you need to verify what is included in the fee before signing. Report production and ad copy creation are sometimes billed separately.
What a rate-based model actually costs varies enormously with the size of the spend. At a 20 percent rate with a fifty-thousand-yen minimum, it lines up like this.
| Monthly ad spend | Rate-based (20%, ¥50k min) | Effective rate | Flat example (¥40k/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ¥100,000 | ¥50,000 | 50% | ¥40,000 |
| ¥200,000 | ¥50,000 | 25% | ¥40,000 |
| ¥300,000 | ¥60,000 | 20% | ¥40,000 |
| ¥500,000 | ¥100,000 | 20% | ¥40,000 |
| ¥1,000,000 | ¥200,000 | 20% | ¥40,000 |
| ¥3,000,000 | ¥600,000 | 20% | ¥40,000 |
The dividing line sits around ¥250,000 of ad spend. Below it the minimum fee takes over and the effective rate jumps; above it the rate applies cleanly and the amount climbs without a ceiling. Whether you are starting small or planning to scale, comparing quoted rates alone will not settle it. Ask for a figure in yen against both your current spend and the spend you expect in six months.
From enquiry to launch
Enquiry to live delivery generally takes two weeks to a month.
- Enquiry and first briefing. You describe the product, the goal, your current ad spend, and the problem you are trying to solve.
- Proposal and quote. An account structure and a cost breakdown come back. Comparing several providers at this stage is normal.
- Contract and account preparation. Create the account in your own company’s name, and grant the agency administrator access.
- Initial build and upload. Keywords, ad copy, conversion tracking.
- Launch. Because automated bidding has a learning phase, results only become readable two weeks to a month after going live.
Requesting quotes, and comparing them
Three quotes is usually enough to get a feel for the market. Lining them up as they arrive will not give you a comparison, though, because providers cut their line items differently.
Before comparing, have these four put on the same footing.
- What the monthly figure covers. Management only, or ad copy and banner production, report production and regular meetings as well? When production is billed separately, a low monthly figure still raises the total.
- What sits inside the setup fee. Account structure, measurement tag installation, an audit of the existing account. How far this goes varies a lot between providers.
- The ad spend assumed. The same rate produces a different monthly figure depending on the spend it was quoted against. Have it recalculated against your number.
- Which platforms are covered. Google Ads only, or Yahoo! JAPAN Ads too? Adding a platform later can become a supplementary charge.
If one quote comes back dramatically cheaper, ask how many accounts a single person carries. When the saving comes out of staffing, small accounts are the ones that get deprioritised.
Types of provider, and what they suit
Full-service agencies. Breadth of platforms and staffing are the strength. They center on large-budget accounts, and it is hard to deny the tendency for small budgets to drop in priority.
Search-specialist agencies. Search expertise is the strength. Fee rates center on around 20%, and you can hand over Google Ads and Yahoo! JAPAN Ads together.
Freelancers. Easier on cost, but highly person-dependent; quality and continuity vary by individual.
AI-run ad management. A new option that has appeared in the last few years. AI runs the routine work — trafficking, checks, adjustments — daily, and people move to supervision. Because there is no payroll structure underneath, it is often offered flat, and small budgets are less likely to get short-changed. Cautions on how to delegate come later.
Five things to verify before choosing
Whichever type of provider, verifying these five before signing reduces later regret. The complaints you hear from advertisers who actually use outsourced management almost all come down to one of them.
- Can you hold permissions on the ad account yourself? Some contracts put the account in the agency’s name, leaving no operational data behind when you cancel. Not letting go of your own ownership and permissions is the rule.
- Is the fee itemized? A quote that bundles media, operations, and production into one line does not tell you what you are paying for. Ask for it broken out.
- Can you see a record of what was done? If the monthly report is only a list of numbers, you cannot tell whether anything is moving or being left alone. Whether they will show you the change log and the reasons is the dividing line.
- Contract lock-in. A long minimum term means you cannot get out if it does not fit.
- Is quality maintained on a small budget? If one person is juggling dozens of accounts, a small budget drops in priority. Ask about staffing, or choose an arrangement that does not scale with budget (flat pricing or AI ad ops).
Cautions when delegating to AI
AI-run ad management is advantageous on cost and workload, but delegate badly and a different cost appears. Delegate without handing over the criteria for judgment and changes based only on the surface of the numbers get executed quickly. Two lines are worth verifying: that changes touching budgets or bids can require approval, and that a record of the changes made remains so you can revert. This is explored further in Is it safe to hand ad ops to Claude Code?.
The mureo tool we build is this AI-run ad management as a product. Pricing is flat rather than a rate on ad spend; AI runs operations daily across platforms from Google Ads to SmartNews, and shows you directly what was spent where and why each judgment was made. Changes to budgets or bids go through human approval, and operations can be reverted. If you are switching from an agency, starting by comparing against your current operations is fine.
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimum ad spend to outsource?
Many providers set a minimum engagement at two to three hundred thousand yen a month. Below that you are either turned away or the minimum fee makes the effective rate heavy. To start at around a hundred thousand, flat pricing or AI-run management is the more realistic search.
Is running it myself cheaper?
At ¥300,000 of monthly spend the fee is around ¥60,000. Doing it yourself costs no fee, but reviewing keywords, adding negatives, rotating ad copy and checking the numbers takes ten to twenty hours a month. Convert that time at your own hourly rate and compare it with the ¥60,000. A comparison at each level of ad spend, and what happens to the account and to automated bidding’s learning when you switch, is in Bringing ad ops in-house.
Is there a minimum contract term?
Three to six months is common. Automated bidding’s learning phase does require some duration, but a one-year lock-in is too long. Check the notice period for cancellation at the same time.
What happens to the account if I leave?
If it was created in your own company’s name, removing the agency’s access leaves the account and its history with you. Accounts created in the agency’s name can be lost entirely, so confirm ownership before signing.
Does performance-based pricing remove the risk?
It depends on how results are defined. Contracting per enquiry pushes effort toward volume regardless of quality. Confirm in the contract wording what counts as a result and how low-quality volume is handled. Few providers offer it in the first place.
What should I take with me when switching agencies?
Administrator access to the account, the conversion tracking setup, and the history of changes plus the negative keyword list. With those three, the next provider does not start from zero. Move whatever can be exported into your own hands while the contract is still running.
Summary
The cost of outsourced ad management has three tiers — media spend, setup fee, monthly management fee — and the fee takes one of three forms: rate-based, flat, or performance-based. If you are starting small, first verify whether there is a minimum fee and what the effective rate is. When choosing a provider, check five things in advance: account permissions, fee itemization, records of changes, contract lock-in, and staffing at small budgets. Verify that much and you can avoid a serious mistake whichever type you pick. A further breakdown of what the fee is made of is in Are ad agency management fees too high?, and reading reports after delegating is in Reading your agency’s ad report. Cautions specific to outsourcing Google Ads — account ownership, auto-applied recommendations, Performance Max — are explored in Outsourcing Google Ads management.