Retainer ranges, project pricing and media commissions for 2026, plus the checklist that tells you whether a quote is complete. Every figure on this page is dated and carries its own caveat, because that is how we'd want to be quoted.
All-in: content production, a KOC seeding test and a first ad test on Juguang (聚光), the ads platform. The band comes from practitioner budgets for overseas consumer brands, and it moves with volume. Treat it as a planning frame, not a quote.
Agency fees are one slice of that number. Media, creators and production take the rest, which is why the checklist further down matters more than any headline rate.
A fixed monthly fee for a defined scope: account operations, campaign management, reporting. The market default for ongoing work. Read the scope line harder than the fee line; a cheap retainer with vague scope costs more by month three.
One price for one outcome: account verification, store opening, a launch campaign. Fits setup work with a clear end state. Ask who runs the account on day 31, because handover is where project pricing hides its gaps.
A percentage of ad spend. Cross-border brands typically pay 8 to 12% of spend; domestic-only accounts sit closer to 5 to 10%, and the gap pays for language and compliance overhead. Confirm the exact split in your agency agreement.
Our take: most real engagements blend two models, a retainer for operations plus a commission on media. Pure commission tilts the incentive toward spending more, not performing better.
Four line items make up most quotes. The ranges below are the market as of August 2026, each with the caveat that travels with it. Creator fees sit outside the stack but drive most budgets, so their table follows.
| Line item | Range | Travels with it |
|---|---|---|
| Agency service fee, cross-border | 8 to 12% of ad spend | Covers language and compliance overhead; confirm the split in your agency agreement |
| Agency service fee, domestic-only | 5 to 10% of ad spend | Same basis, less overhead |
| Pugongying (蒲公英) platform fee | Flat 10% per collaboration, before tax | Charged by the platform on declared (报备 baobei) creator deals, paid by the brand; not an agency line |
| Juguang first-recharge floor | Around 5,000 RMB at platform level; agency cross-border packages often 10,000 to 20,000 RMB | A floor, not a deposit; ad accounts carry none. Per current policy and your agency agreement |
| Tier (Chinese market terms) | Followers | Image-text note |
|---|---|---|
| KOC / tail (尾部) | 1,000 to 50,000 | 500 to 3,000 RMB |
| Waist (腰部) | 50,000 to 500,000 | 3,000 to 30,000 RMB |
| Head (头部) | 500,000+ | from 30,000 RMB |
Reference ranges aggregated from MCN rate cards and third-party pricing observations, 2026 H1: the conservative practitioner band. Video runs about 1.5x image-text in the tail band, and super-head accounts reach six figures. Data, vertical and timing move prices a lot, and hot verticals push the top end. One label to read carefully: "KOC" is a market term for the 1,000 to 50,000 follower band, not a platform tier; Pugongying's entry floor is 1,000 followers with a professional account.
Five variables explain most of the spread between quotes.
Cross-border or domestic. Contracts, remittance and compliance work sit on every cross-border engagement, and the 8 to 12% band prices exactly that overhead.
Creator mix. The tier table above spans two orders of magnitude. One head creator can cost more than an entire KOC test wave, so the mix decision is the budget decision.
Scope of operations. Account running, content production volume, live commerce support: each adds hours, and hours are what retainers price.
Category. Some verticals face review gates or whitelisting (报白), which means more document work before anything spends.
Starting point. A verified account with a claimed brand profile (品牌认领) starts cheaper than a brand at zero. Setup is real work and honest quotes price it visibly.
The comparison tool this page exists for. Use it on our quote too.
Media spend and service fee on separate lines. A flat all-in number hides the margin, and usually hides the platform fees with it.
Platform fees named: the 10% Pugongying fee, plus its separate 5% content-heating service fee where amplification is in scope. Heating spend gets its own line rather than disappearing into "management".
A written baobei compliance stance. An agency relaxed about undeclared deals is gambling with your account.
Who actually operates Juguang and Pugongying. If campaigns are subcontracted, you are paying two margins.
Reporting you can read: spend, results by objective and in-app search visibility, in plain English.
Exit terms: who keeps the account, the content and the data when the engagement ends.
We don't publish a price list, and the reason is boring: scope moves the number more than any rate card. A public price would overcharge a narrow scope or underprice cross-border complexity, so we quote per scope instead.
Every quote is itemized against the checklist above: media spend, platform fees and our service fee on separate lines. We keep the first scope small enough to prove itself before you scale it.
If a quote you're comparing arrives as one flat number, ask for the split. How an agency answers that request tells you most of what you need to know.
Get an itemized quoteAbout these figures. Verified August 2026. Ranges aggregate platform notices, MCN rate cards and practitioner budget data; platform standards shift faster than annual content, so treat every band as dated. Deposits and floors appear only as ranges: confirm current values against the merchant investment handbook (招商手册) and your agency agreement before you commit budget.
For cross-border brands, agency service fees typically run 8 to 12% of ad spend; domestic-only accounts sit closer to 5 to 10%. Confirm the exact split in your agency agreement. Retainers and project fees vary with scope, so the itemization checklist tells you more than the headline rate.
Plan around 50,000 to 150,000 RMB all-in for the first six months: content production, a KOC seeding test and an ad test. The band comes from practitioner budgets and moves with volume, so treat it as a starting range rather than a quote.
No. Pugongying charges a flat 10% service fee (before tax) on declared creator collaborations. Juguang ad accounts also carry a first-recharge floor: around 5,000 RMB at platform level, often 10,000 to 20,000 RMB in agency cross-border packages. Both sit outside the agency service fee, per current policy and your agency agreement.
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