The Next-Gen Brand Lab
Choosing an agency
Is a marketing agency cheaper than a channel partner?
Last updated 2026-09-09
They are different instruments and the comparison only works per booking. A channel partner typically takes 1–3% of unit value and is paid on a closed sale, so the cost is high per unit but carries no upfront risk. Performance marketing costs money before anything sells but is far cheaper per booking once the funnel works. On a ₹1 crore unit, a 2% commission is ₹2,00,000; at a ₹400 cost per lead and 100 leads per booking, media is roughly ₹40,000 plus fee.
The honest version of that comparison
The arithmetic above is real but incomplete, and any agency quoting only that half is selling you something. The channel partner brings a buyer who is already qualified, already accompanied, and often already decided — that is a genuinely different product from a form fill, and it is why the commission is what it is.
The fair comparison is total cost per booking including your own sales team's time, and on that basis most developers should be running both. Partners for reach into buyer networks you cannot address directly; performance for demand you can create, measure and own.
Where the two arrangements conflict
On attribution, always. If a partner introduces a buyer who first saw your Meta ad, both channels will claim the booking and one of them will be paid twice. Decide the attribution rule in writing before the launch, not during the first dispute — typically a documented introduction window, with a first-touch record from the CRM as the tiebreak.
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