The right shape
of help
for your stage.
Most startup marketing agencies sell one thing at one price and stretch it to fit. Growthr has three doors in, and which one you use depends on your paid spend: Clipper from a $10,000 campaign budget, a flat-fee SEO and GEO ladder from $99, and the embedded growth team once spend passes about $20,000 a month. StellarFi and Trim both started at the embedded end; many companies start earlier.
Channel to EconomicsThe embedded playbook
StellarFiEmbedded from launchWho this is for
For founders who can name the customer, explain the offer, and measure an acquisition outcome. An embedded team makes sense when there is enough ongoing work and spend to justify it.
The retainer is $10,000 a month plus 10% of managed spend; roughly $20,000 a month in media is a fit guideline, not a minimum. Earlier teams can start with a scoped project or a $250, 60-minute advisory session.
Bring your current funnel, budget, runway constraints, and the decision you need to make next. Advisory is a defined starting point when an ongoing engagement is premature.
Pick the door
that matches your spend.
The wrong shape of engagement is the most common startup marketing mistake: a retainer before there is spend to manage, or a freelancer stack when there is. The fit rule is simple and public.
Pre-scale: Clipper
Upload the content you already have (a demo, a launch video, founder clips), and hundreds of vetted clippers cut it into short-form for TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and X. You pay only for verified views, at a fraction of the $30 to 60 CPMs common on Facebook and Instagram. $10,000 minimum campaign budget. Brief to live in under five minutes.
Pre-scale: SEO and GEO ladder
Get found on Google and recommended by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI before you can afford to buy every visit. $99 strategy call, then $1,499 for the audit in 48 hours and implementation on sites up to roughly 25 pages, $199 a month to keep watch. Startups rarely have more pages than that.
At scale: the embedded team
Once paid spend passes roughly $20,000 a month, the embedded retainer fits: strategy and fractional CMO leadership, paid media on every channel, creative production and testing, analytics and attribution, and reporting, at $10,000 a month plus a flat 10% of media.
From first channel
to proven economics.
The embedded version of the playbook, the one that took StellarFi from launch to $2M ARR in 150 days. The first 90 days are the same three moves for every client: instrument, launch, scale.
Instrument before you spend
Pixel and event mapping, conversion tracking, UTM architecture, and dashboards go in first. At a startup the first month's spend is the most expensive data you will ever buy; it should at least be measurable.
Launch wide, test fast
StellarFi launched across Meta, Google, TikTok, and Reddit at once and tested 50+ creative variations. Weekly creative sprints find what converts before budget scales, and the losers are cut on down-funnel data, not opinion.
Scale on the number the board cares about
Budgets scale channel by channel when cost per funded account or paying customer holds. StellarFi scaled spend 5x while cutting CAC 50%; the results powered its $15M Series A. Trim scaled from $5K a month to $50K+ a week at 126% ROAS.
The parts of a growth function
you cannot hire yet.
One partner for the pieces that would otherwise be four vendors and two hires.
Attribution and dashboards
The measurement layer investors ask about, built before the spend it measures.
Paid acquisition
Meta, Google, TikTok, Reddit, Apple Search Ads, app networks, chosen per company on where the economics hold.
Creative that gets tested
UGC-style video and static ads produced in-house and tested weekly, so creative is a lever instead of a bottleneck.
Landing pages and conversion
Conversion architecture, landing page optimization, and A/B testing frameworks, the way Trim's landing page was rebuilt.
Fractional CMO leadership
A named owner of the growth number inside the retainer, with the team that executes.
A path between doors
Start with Clipper or the SEO and GEO ladder, graduate to the embedded team when spend is there. Plenty of clients do.
Launch to Series A.
Zero to acquisition.
Three fintech startups where Growthr ran the embedded door. Each number has a dashboard behind it.
StellarFi
Embedded from launch to build the growth engine from scratch. Launched across Meta, Google, TikTok, and Reddit at once, tested 50+ creative variations, scaled spend 5x while cutting CAC 50%, and acquired 300K+ users. The results powered the $15M Series A.
Trim
Paid acquisition built from zero: full-funnel tracking, a rebuilt landing page, weekly creative sprints, and spend scaled from $5K a month to $50K+ a week at a sustained 126% ROAS on the way to 2M+ sign-ups and the acquisition by OneMain Financial.
Truebill
Consumer fintech growth ahead of Truebill's acquisition by Rocket Companies for $1.3B, the largest exit in Growthr's client history.
Three prices.
All of them public.
Clipper: pay only for verified views, $10,000 minimum campaign budget, CPMs in the low single digits. SEO and GEO ladder: $99 strategy call, $1,499 audit and implementation, $199 a month Manage, with the call credited into Boost. Embedded growth team: $10,000 a month plus a flat 10% of managed media spend, the right fit once paid spend passes roughly $20,000 a month. Branding, web, lifecycle, and content are standalone projects on a custom quote. Everything is on the pricing page.
Detail on each door: Clipper, the SEO and GEO ladder, and the embedded growth team. The StellarFi and Trim case studies are the embedded door at work; the agency guide compares the models.
Startup marketing, explained.
What does a startup marketing agency do?
A startup marketing agency builds the customer acquisition function a company cannot hire for yet: measurement and attribution, paid acquisition, creative production and testing, landing pages and conversion, and the strategy and leadership above them. The useful version matches its engagement to the startup's stage rather than selling one retainer to everyone. Growthr has three shapes: Clipper from a $10,000 campaign budget, a flat-fee SEO and GEO ladder, and an embedded growth team once paid spend passes roughly $20,000 a month.
Which Growthr engagement fits a seed-stage startup?
Usually one of the pre-scale doors. Clipper turns content you already have into short-form distribution and charges only for verified views, with a $10,000 minimum campaign budget. The SEO and GEO ladder gets the site found on Google and recommended by AI engines for a flat $99 to $1,499. The embedded retainer becomes the right shape once paid media spend passes roughly $20,000 a month.
What is the best growth agency for a Series A startup?
One that builds measurement before spend, optimizes to the down-funnel event investors care about, tests creative on performance data weekly, and scales budget only when unit economics hold. Growthr embedded with StellarFi from launch and took it to $2M ARR in 150 days with a 50% CAC reduction, results that powered its $15M Series A, and built Trim's acquisition from zero to 2M+ sign-ups at 126% ROAS ahead of its acquisition by OneMain Financial.
How much does a startup marketing agency cost?
At Growthr the prices are public: Clipper is pay per verified view with a $10,000 minimum campaign budget; the SEO and GEO ladder is $99, $1,499, and $199 a month; the embedded growth team is $10,000 a month plus a flat 10% of managed media spend. Traditional agencies typically charge a retainer plus 10 to 20% of ad spend for media management alone.
Can we start small and grow into the retainer?
Yes, and that is the intended path. Start with Clipper or the SEO and GEO ladder, keep the measurement layer Growthr builds, and move to the embedded team when paid spend is there. The scope and timing are set on the discovery call.
Last updated
Three doors.
We will say which one fits your stage.
Book a discovery call. Tell us your spend and your runway, and we'll say which shape fits, including if the answer is not us yet.
