How does a contest budget split between ad spend and agency fee?
Into two lines that are paid to different parties and never mixed. Ad spend goes to the advertising platform. The fee goes to the agency for the work.
| Line | Paid to | What it covers | Who sets the limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ad spend | The advertising platforms | Impressions and clicks bought in their own ad systems | You, as a daily or total cap |
| Agency fee | CoinMarketing Pro | Rules check, plan, audiences, creative, launch, management, daily reports | The agreed scope in the written quote |
| Creator fees, if used | The creators | Posts or videos by people with their own audience, disclosed as paid | Agreed with each creator in advance |
Why the separation matters
You can see the spend on the platform's own dashboard, and you can compare it with our report. We do not hide ad spend inside the fee, and we do not move your budget between platforms without telling you. If a platform changes what an ad costs to show, only the spend line moves.
The third line appears only when you add influencer and creator outreach. Without it, the budget is two lines, and that is the way most entrants start.
What drives the ad budget up or down?
Six inputs do most of the work, and you can read all of them off the contest page before you ask anyone for a quote.
| Input | Pushes the budget up when | Brings it down when |
|---|---|---|
| Audience size | You need a broad public, such as a whole country | Your supporters are a town, a club or a profession |
| Competition for the audience | Many advertisers want the same people | The niche is quiet |
| Countries and languages | Each additional market needs its own creative | One country, one language |
| Voting steps | The vote needs an email, login or phone code, so more people drop out | Voting is a single click |
| Campaign length | The window is long and reminders must be paced | The window is short and focused |
| Number of platforms | Several channels each need a learning period | One or two channels get the whole budget |
Spend to learn first
The first days of a campaign buy information: which angle earns clicks, which audience completes the vote. A budget that is too thin to learn from produces numbers nobody can read. For this reason we rarely recommend more than three platforms at once, and we agree on the spend ceiling before launch. How the plan is built is covered in paid promotion of contest entries.
What sets the agency fee?
Scope and speed. The fee pays for people's time, so it follows how much work the campaign needs and how soon.
Things that raise the scope
- A complex rules check, for example a jury stage, a wallet vote or minors involved.
- The number of platforms managed.
- The number of creative pieces: static posts, short video, banners and the message that asks for the vote, from the creative and copy service.
- Outreach to communities, lists or messengers, with consent, from community, email and messenger outreach.
- Depth of reporting: a daily summary is standard, while extra breakdowns by country or audience take more time.
What speed does
A near deadline compresses setup, approval and learning into fewer days, and it needs people available at short notice. Telling us the date at the start lets us plan the work evenly.
What the fee does not include
Ad spend, creator fees, paid stock material, and any tool you ask us to buy for you. Each of these appears as its own line in the quote, so the fee never turns into a bundle you cannot read.
How is a price range built before you commit?
From the facts of your contest, in three scenarios, and then narrowed to one. We build it from what you tell us and what the rules allow, so it can be re-checked line by line.
| Scenario | What it contains | Fits when |
|---|---|---|
| Lean | One or two platforms, a few ad angles, daily report | The audience is small and local, voting is simple |
| Standard | Up to three platforms, creative tests, reminders, daily report | The audience is broad or voting has several steps |
| Full | The standard set plus creators or outreach and extra creative | The field is crowded or the audience is hard to reach |
How the range narrows
- We read your rules and voting steps, which fixes what is allowed.
- We estimate the audience and the competition for it.
- We pick the scenario that matches your goal and deadline.
- We write the quote with ad spend and fee on separate lines, and mark any projection as a projection.
The result is a range you can approve or walk away from. Nothing starts until the written quote is confirmed. If you want to see the sequence of a campaign before choosing, read the methodology.
What should you bring to the thirty-minute strategy call?
A filled-in sheet. It makes the call about decisions, not about collecting facts, and most of the answers are on the contest page.
Contest and deadline (with time zone):
Voting steps a supporter must complete:
Who should vote (city, profession, hobby, language):
Where those people already spend time:
Material I have (photos, clips, copy):
Ad spend ceiling I am comfortable with:
Reserve held for the last days (yes / no):
Who approves creative, and how quickly:
Anything the rules forbid:
The ceiling is your number. We do not ask you to name a figure in advance, and we do not suggest one before we have seen the rules. We tell you what each scenario can reasonably cover.
The rules and risk check fills in the voting steps and the forbidden items, and the 7, 14 and 30 day calendar helps you decide how long the campaign should run. Request the call through the WhatsApp starter at the bottom of this page.
Which budget decisions should you keep for yourself?
Five, and none of them needs expert knowledge.
- Set a cap. Choose a total and a daily ceiling before launch, and put them in writing. Platforms charge for what is delivered up to the cap you set.
- Keep the pace even. Steady daily spend suits contests that run for weeks. Bursts leave quiet days between them.
- Hold a reserve for the last days. Reminders to people who have already seen your entry tend to be the cheapest reach of the campaign, so a part of the budget should still be available when the deadline approaches.
- Decide what to pause. Agree up front that an ad that earns clicks but no completed votes gets paused, however good it looks.
- Do not chase the leaderboard with spend. A rival's jump is not a reason to double the budget. Review the data on a fixed day, and approve any change in writing.
We record every change to the plan and the budget, so that the report at the end matches what was agreed. If your pace changes, say so before the next daily report, not after.
How do you tell whether the budget is working?
Read the chain from reach to completed votes, and look for the link that breaks.
- Reach and clicks. If few people see or click the ad, the audience or the message is wrong.
- Visits to the voting page. If clicks arrive but the entry does not move, the page or the first screen is the problem.
- Completed votes. Where the voting page allows tracking, we link visits to completed votes. Where it does not, we say so and use the entry counter you can see yourself.
- Drop-off at a step. When people start the vote and do not finish, the fix is in the reminder wording, not in the budget.
What we do with the reading
We pause ads that do not earn their spend, move budget to those that do, and adjust the message to the step where supporters leave. Projections are labelled as projections.
Two things sit outside any budget: how the organizer applies its own rules, and the ad review each platform performs before an ad can run. A delay there is a scheduling matter we report, never a reason to overspend.
Start with the free contest analysis, and we return a quote you can approve or decline.
How it works
- Collect the contest factsGather the link, rules, deadline, voting steps and the people who should vote.
- Check the rulesDecide what outside promotion is allowed before any budget is discussed.
- Choose a scenarioPick lean, standard or full based on audience, voting friction and time left.
- Hold the strategy callWalk through the worksheet and set your cap, pacing and reserve.
- Approve the written quoteAd spend and fee appear as separate lines, and work starts only after you confirm.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I spend on a contest campaign?
There is no single right amount. It depends on the audience you need, the countries and languages, the number of voting steps, the length of the campaign and how many platforms you use. We give a range after the free analysis and confirm a written quote before work starts, so you decide with the facts in front of you.
Is the ad spend included in your fee?
No. Ad spend is paid to the advertising platform and agreed with you as a daily or total cap. Our fee covers planning, creative, management and reporting. They appear on separate lines, so you can check each against the platform dashboard and our daily report.
Can I start small and increase the budget later?
Yes, and it is often the sensible route. A small first period shows which message and which audience complete the vote, and you raise spend on what works. The caution is that a budget too thin to teach anything gives noisy numbers, so we agree on the minimum needed to learn before launch.
How soon will I know whether the budget is working?
The first signals, such as reach and clicks, appear within the first days, and we report them daily. A judgement about completed votes takes longer, because supporters often vote after a reminder. We say clearly what is a trend and what is still too early to tell.
Do creator posts cost extra?
Yes. A creator's fee is a separate line, agreed with each creator in advance, and the posts are disclosed as paid. Many entrants begin without creators and add them after the first period of ads if the rules allow. The influencer outreach service explains how we match creators to a contest.
What happens to budget I do not spend?
Ad platforms charge for what they deliver, up to the cap you set, so the cap is a ceiling and not a bill. If the campaign ends early, or you pause it, spending stops. Our fee follows the agreed scope in the quote, which we revisit if the scope changes.
Will a bigger budget get my entry a better place?
Not by itself. More budget buys more attention, but the result depends on the other entrants, the voters and the contest's rules. We promise the agreed work and honest reporting, and we advise against spending more just because the leaderboard moved.
Free starters on WhatsApp
Pick one. It opens a prepared message so we know what you need.
Replies usually arrive within 10-30 minutes in working hours (Mon-Fri 09:00-21:00 GMT+3). We do not share your contest details.
Tell us about your contest
Answer four quick questions and we reply with a plan and the next step. The free contest analysis comes first, and any quote is confirmed in writing before work starts.
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