White-label SEO pricing for agencies and how to protect your margin

You pay a fixed wholesale partner rate for each service, you set the retail price, and the difference is your margin. This page explains how to build a retainer, price by outcome instead of hours, and work out your margin with a simple formula. It publishes no rates. Those come on your strategy call.

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Partner pricing, explained

How wholesale partner pricing works, and how to turn it into margin

White-label partner pricing is a model in which an agency pays EliteLeadGrow a fixed wholesale partner rate for each service it resells, sets its own retail price for the client, and keeps the difference as margin. The rate is known before the quote goes out, so the agency can price a retainer with its costs already fixed.

How wholesale partner pricing works, and how to turn it into margin

SourceYour website
White-label partner pricing is a model in which an agency pays EliteLeadGrow a fixed wholesale partner rate for each service it resells, sets its own retail price for the client, and keeps the difference as margin.

How does white-label partner pricing work?

You pay a fixed wholesale partner rate for each service, you choose the retail price, and the difference is your margin. The retail price is yours to set.

Fixed rates make forecasting simple. The cost side of every quote is known before you send it, so the risk and the reward sit on the sell side: what you charge, how you package it and how many clients you win.

This site does not publish the rates themselves. They are shared on your strategy call, so you can plan your margin before you commit to anything.

How should you build a retainer from partner-rate services?

Start from the client's problem, then choose a shape. Three shapes cover most agencies, and the right one depends on how much your client already knows about what they need.

Whichever you choose, add up the partner rates of every service inside it first. That sum is your floor. Everything above it, less your own costs, is what the retainer is worth to you.

  • Bundled retainer: one monthly price covering the stack, such as technical SEO, content, GEO and reporting. Simple to sell and easy to renew, but harder to unpick when a client wants to drop one piece.
  • Tiered packages: two or three levels, each adding services. Clients choose, and upgrades become a natural conversation. It needs clear boundaries between tiers.
  • Audit plus smaller monthly plan: a one-off audit and clean-up, then a lighter plan that maintains and extends the work. It suits clients who want proof before a commitment.

Should you price by hours or by the value of the outcome?

Price by the value of the outcome. Hours reward slow work and invite the client to audit your timesheet. Outcome pricing starts from what a new customer, lead or call is worth to the client, and asks what share of that value your retainer deserves.

You need three things from the client: what an average new customer is worth over time, how many enquiries it takes to win one, and how many enquiries search currently sends. With those, you can say what a realistic improvement is worth without promising one.

A decision rule helps. If the client could not say what a customer is worth, price the audit first, and let the baseline give the conversation numbers to work with.

Should you price by hours or by the value of the outcome?

SourceYour website
Price by the value of the outcome.

How do you calculate your margin?

Margin per client is R minus P, and monthly margin is C times that. R is your retail price, P is the partner rate for the services in the plan, and C is the number of clients. The table adds the variables most agencies forget, namely their own costs.

The margin calculator on the agencies page does the same arithmetic with sliders for clients, retail price and partner rate. Use it to test a quote before you send it. Its partner rate slider is an example only. Your real rate is shared on your strategy call.

  1. Margin per client
  2. Monthly margin
  3. Margin after your costs
  4. Break-even clients
  5. Margin share
Margin variables and formulas
Symbol or termWhat it meansFormulaHow to read it
RYour retail price per client, per monthSet by youWhat the client pays you
PPartner rate for the services in that client's planSum of the rates for each service in the planWhat you pay us; add every service in the bundle
CNumber of active clients on the planCounted by youYour volume
Margin per clientWhat you keep from one client before your own costsR - PIf it is zero or negative, the price is wrong
Monthly marginTotal margin across clients on the planC x (R - P)Grows in a straight line with clients
HYour own cost to serve one client: account management, calls, your toolsEstimated by youThe cost most quotes leave out
Margin after your costsWhat one client adds to your agencyR - P - HThe number that pays your team
FFixed costs of running this line of workEstimated by youCosts that exist even with no clients
Break-even clientsClients needed to cover FF / (R - P - H), rounded upValid only while R - P - H is positive
Margin shareHow much of each retail unit you keep(R - P) / RA ratio for comparing packages, not a promise

What does the margin math look like in a worked example?

The examples use placeholder variables, not real prices. R is retail, P is partner rate, C is clients. Swap in your own figures once you have your rates.

In each case, check the result against H, your own cost to serve one client. If R - P is smaller than H, each new client costs you money to serve, however good the margin looks on paper.

  • Bundled retainer: P_bundle = P_tech + P_content + P_reporting. Margin per client = R_bundle - P_bundle. Monthly margin = C_bundle x (R_bundle - P_bundle).
  • Tiered packages: monthly margin = C_a x (R_a - P_a) + C_b x (R_b - P_b). A client who moves from A to B changes your margin by (R_b - P_b) - (R_a - P_a). An upgrade only helps when that gap is positive.
  • Audit plus monthly plan: month one margin = (R_audit - P_audit) + (R_plan - P_plan). Every later month = (R_plan - P_plan).
  • Adding clients: adding k clients adds k x (R - P) to monthly margin, minus the extra H and any step up in F.

What is in a partner rate, and what costs extra?

The partner rate pays for delivery of the service you resell, with reporting, logins and emails branded as yours. It does not pay for your side of the relationship. Agree in writing what counts as in scope, because volume-based items are where quotes drift.

The table separates cost areas by who carries them. Treat the last row as a list of questions for the call, not as a claim about the answers.

Your page
Crawled
Indexed
Retrieved
Quoted
Who carries each cost area
Cost areaCarried byNotes
Delivery of the service you resellPartner rateScope is described on each service page
Branded reports, logins and emailsPartner rateWhite-label on every surface
Selling, proposals and account managementYouPart of H in the formula
Your own tools and project softwareYouPart of H or F
Services outside the partner stack, such as paid advertisingNot in the rateAsk whether and how they can be added
Volume items, such as pages, locations or placementsConfirm on the callAsk whether they sit in the rate or are priced separately

What should you ask about pricing on the strategy call?

Ask for the rate of every service you plan to sell, and for what each rate includes. Then ask what is not included. Write the answers down, because they set your floor on every quote.

The list below covers the points that most often change a retainer's margin. Bring your intended packages so the answers apply to real quotes.

  • The partner rate for each service you plan to sell, and what each one includes
  • Whether volume items such as pages, locations or placements are inside the rate
  • How a client who adds or drops a service changes your costs
  • Whether the rate changes as your client count grows
  • Any setup fee, minimum or commitment, stated in writing
  • How and when you are invoiced, relative to when your client pays you

What should you ask about pricing on the strategy call?

SourceYour website
Ask for the rate of every service you plan to sell, and for what each rate includes.

How to price your first retainer

  1. List the services the client needs

    Start from the client's problem, not from your menu.

  2. Add the partner rates

    Sum the rate for every service in the plan. That is P, your floor.

  3. Estimate the value to the client

    Use what a new customer is worth to them and what search sends now.

  4. Set R above P plus your costs

    Check that R - P - H is positive before you quote.

  5. Test it in the calculator

    Try more and fewer clients to see how margin moves.

  6. Confirm scope in writing

    State what is in the retainer and what is priced separately.

Questions

Pricing questions

This site does not publish partner rates. You pay a fixed wholesale rate for each service, and the rates are shared on your strategy call. That lets you see your costs and plan your margin before you commit to anything.

Yes. You set the retail price. Your margin is the retail price minus the partner rate, so the work is choosing a price that reflects the value of the outcome and covers your own costs of serving the client. Pricing by outcome, not by hours, usually gives you more room.

Partner rates are fixed per service, which is what lets you quote with confidence before the work starts. Whether anything about a rate changes with volume is a question for the strategy call. This site does not state it either way.

This site does not state either one, so ask on the strategy call and get the answer in writing. Knowing about a setup fee or minimum before you plan your first quotes matters more than any single rate. Ask how invoicing works relative to when your client pays you, too.

Use the formula: margin per client is R - P, and monthly margin is C x (R - P). The margin calculator on the agencies page applies it with sliders. The rate slider there is an example, so confirm your real rates on the strategy call first.

That is your decision, and outcome pricing makes it largely unnecessary. A client buying a result is not buying your cost. If a client insists on seeing cost, treat it as a sign the retainer was priced by hours rather than by value.

Price the audit as its own line, with its own partner rate and its own margin. Then offer a smaller monthly plan as the follow-on. Many clients will want the fix list acted on, and the audit makes that conversation concrete.

Change the scope before you change the price. Dropping a service lowers your partner cost as well, so margin per client holds. A discount without a scope change comes straight out of R - P, and may take it below H.

Keep reading

Get the numbers

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Book a short call and we will share the rate for each service you plan to sell, plus what each one includes, so you can price with real figures.

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