Engagement model

The mechanics of staying covert.

How partnership actually works — from first pitch through ongoing delivery — including the questions that matter most: pricing, brand handling, contracts, and how partnerships end.

Four phases. Each one quiet.

i.
Pre-engagement
Before client signs

Pitch support, packaged.

Most partner relationships start before either of us has a contract. You bring us a prospect; we help you pitch them as if you already had a digital department. We've shipped this kit hundreds of times.

  • Mutual NDA signed before any prospect specifics are shared.
  • Pitch-ready scope language for each service lane your prospect needs.
  • Sanitized case studies and dashboards (no client identifiers) you can include in proposals.
  • Pricing benchmarks so you can quote with confidence on margin.
  • Optional senior strategist on the pitch call as your team — full prep on the prospect, your positioning, and the play.
ii.
Onboarding
5 business days

Five days, signed to active.

Once you sign with the client, we move fast. Standard ramp from contract to active delivery is 5 business days — sometimes less if the campaign window is tight.

  • Internal kickoff (your team + ours) within 48 hours of signed agreement.
  • Account access provisioning across ad platforms, GA4, CMS, CRM, and reporting tools — all under your domain and your client's accounts.
  • Reporting templates branded to your agency, dashboards built and shared.
  • Communication plan: which Slack channel, which standing meeting, what cadence. Always inside your workspace, never ours.
  • First deliverable in motion before week one closes.
iii.
Steady-state
Monthly cadence

How a typical month runs.

Once we're live, partnerships settle into a predictable rhythm. Your account lead and our practice leads operate as one team — they just happen to sit in different Slack workspaces.

  • Weekly internal standup (your team + ours) — 30 minutes max.
  • Monthly client recap drafted by us, edited and shipped by you under your brand.
  • Quarterly business review prep — slides, numbers, recommendations — handed to you for client presentation.
  • Always-on Slack support for ad-hoc requests, prospect questions, and pitch help.
  • Practice-lead 1:1s available monthly for deep-dives on strategy or platform changes.
iv.
Off-ramp
30-day standard

Quiet exits, fully documented.

Most partnerships run for years. Some don't, and that's fine — the model only works if both sides can leave cleanly. Termination is 30 days standard; we hand off everything.

  • 30-day written notice from either side. No long-tail commitments past that.
  • Full documentation handoff: SOPs, playbooks, naming conventions, audience structures, tagging.
  • All ad accounts, CMS, CRM, and reporting access transferred to your team or client team — your choice.
  • Optional 30-day transition support if you're hiring in-house or moving to a new partner.
  • Mutual NDA survives the engagement. End clients never learn we were involved.

What's yours and what's ours.

In short: everything client-facing is yours. Everything operational is ours. There is no co-branding, no "powered by," no signature trail.

+ Your brand on

  • All deliverables (dashboards, reports, audits, decks)
  • All client communication (email, Slack, calls)
  • All proposals and pitch materials
  • All landing pages, websites, creative
  • Account ownership and admin rights
  • Strategy and recommendations memos
  • Quarterly business review presentations
  • Contracts, invoices, billing

− Our brand on

  • Internal Slack and project tools
  • Internal SOPs and operating playbooks
  • Vendor/platform partnership badges (when private)
  • Recruiting and team-building materials
  • This website (we still need to find new partners somehow)

CovAgency vs. your other options.

CovAgency
In-house hire
Freelancers
Offshore shop
Senior practitioners
Standard
If you can afford one
Hit or miss
Rare
Time to ramp
5 days
60–90 days hiring + ramp
1–2 weeks
2–4 weeks
White-label by default
Yes (NDA standard)
Yes (employed by you)
Sometimes
Sometimes
Multi-discipline coverage
All 6 lanes
One person, one lane
One person per lane (×6)
Volume over depth
Fixed cost vs variable
Variable (per client)
Fixed payroll
Variable but unstable
Often retainer minimums
Pitch support included
Yes
If they have time
No
No
Off-ramp commitment
30 days, clean
Severance + risk
Variable
Often locked-in

Three ways to buy our time.

We share what we cost so you can price your retainer confidently. Specific numbers live behind the partner call — but here's the structure.

Per project

Project-based

$5K — $50K / scope

Best for one-off work: audits, campaign launches, website builds, migrations. Fixed scope, fixed fee.

  • Defined scope and deliverables
  • Fixed fee, milestone billing
  • Mutual NDA included
  • 30-day delivery typical
Larger partners

Allocated bench

$15K — $60K / month

For agencies with 5+ digital clients. We dedicate a partial team — paid media, SEO, lifecycle hours allocated against your full book.

  • Named senior practitioners
  • Fixed monthly hours, flexible across clients
  • Quarterly true-ups
  • Volume-discounted vs per-client

All numbers are illustrative ranges. Actual pricing depends on scope, complexity, and bench utilization — discussed and locked before any contract is signed.

The boring parts that actually matter.

/ NDA

Mutual NDA, signed first.

Before we share specifics about our other partners, before you share specifics about your prospects. Standard mutual NDA, 3-year term, survives the engagement.

/ MSA

Master Services Agreement.

Once you decide to engage, we sign an MSA covering payment terms, IP, confidentiality, and termination. Statements of Work sit underneath for each engagement.

/ IP

You own the work product.

Everything we deliver — creative, copy, code, dashboards, audiences — is owned by you and assignable to your end client. We retain rights only to underlying tools and SOPs we built before the engagement.

/ NON-COMPETE

Vertical exclusivity, on request.

We don't sign general non-competes. We will commit to vertical + geo exclusivity on a case-by-case basis when it makes business sense for both sides.

/ TERMINATION

30 days, no penalties.

Either side, with 30 days written notice. No termination fees. Full handoff of accounts, documentation, and access included as part of the off-ramp.

/ CLIENT POACHING

Anti-poach in writing.

We will not solicit your clients during the engagement or for 24 months after. We've never done it. We never plan to. The contract says so anyway.

Want the specifics?

Pricing, sample contracts, and references are all available behind a partner call. 30 minutes, no slides, no obligation.

Schedule a partner call →