What an E-Commerce Agency Actually Costs in Lebanon

Founders in Lebanon get quoted a wildly wide range for e-commerce services — from $500/month freelancers to $15,000/month agencies — and it's rarely clear what the difference actually buys. This is the honest breakdown of what a real senior e-commerce agency in Lebanon costs, what that fee should include, and what you should refuse to pay for.

The three bands

$500–$1,500/month. Freelancer or junior labour. Can be a fit for very early brands (pre-$10k/month revenue) who need someone to keep the ads running. Not a growth partner. Expect execution, not strategy.

$1,500–$3,000/month. Small local agencies or mid-tier freelance stacks. Often a mixed bag — quality varies dramatically by who's actually on the account. Ask directly who does the day-to-day work.

$3,500–$8,000/month. The band that actually moves revenue for founder-led Lebanese brands doing $30k+/month. Senior operator on the account, cross-discipline coverage (paid, CRO, retention), monthly contribution-margin reporting, real strategic direction.

$8,000+/month. Larger regional or international agencies. Makes sense when the business is doing $500k+/month and needs deep vertical specialisation (creative team, analytics team, PR team) beyond what a boutique operator provides.

What a proper retainer should include

At the $3,500–$8,000/month band, the retainer should cover, at a minimum:

• Named senior operator running the account — not an account manager translating for a junior team.
• Paid media across Meta, Google and TikTok as the workflow demands.
• CRO — audit, roadmap, and a real cadence of tests or structural fixes.
• Retention flows: Klaviyo email + WhatsApp automation. See the Klaviyo flows every store should run.
• Analytics tuned to the P&L: contribution margin, blended CAC, payback period. Not just ROAS screenshots.
• Weekly working session with the founder. Monthly business review against real KPIs.

What you should refuse to pay for

Some line items are, politely, dead weight. Refuse to fund:

• An account manager whose only job is to relay questions to the people doing the work.
• "Strategy decks" with no execution plan attached. Strategy is worth nothing without delivery.
• Screenshot reports that summarise what ad platforms already tell you in-app.
• "Brand awareness" campaigns that can't be tied to revenue or margin.
• Ad spend percentages layered on top of the retainer. Choose one billing model.

Media spend, separately

Media spend is on top of retainer, sits in your ad account, and stays on your card. For a Lebanese brand scaling into the GCC, realistic monthly working media is $10k–$50k. Below $10k it's hard to buy meaningful signal on Meta or TikTok. Above $50k you're in enterprise territory where budget efficiency matters more than budget scale.

Creative production

The single most underfunded line item on most Lebanese e-commerce P&Ls. Ad creative decays fast; if your paid team is running the same three assets for four weeks, CPMs are punishing you and you can't see it. Budget for weekly static + video refresh. Some agencies include this in the retainer; some scope it separately. Ask. Under-investing here hurts ad efficiency inside a month.

Project fees separately

Full builds and migrations are quoted independently of retainer:

• Shopify build: from $6,000. Complex or Plus builds scoped separately.
• Migrations (WooCommerce, Salla, Zid → Shopify): scoped by catalogue and content volume.
• Audits (CRO, technical, growth): from $2,500 fixed fee, credited against retainer if the engagement continues.

Payback expectation

A good e-commerce agency in Lebanon should pay for itself in incremental revenue and margin inside 90 days. If it hasn't started to by month four, one of three things is off: the foundation was worse than diagnosed, the agency is not doing the work they signed for, or the brand isn't a fit for paid-media-led growth. Any of those needs a hard conversation, not another quarter of hope.

Where we fit

We sit in the $3,500–$8,000/month band with retainers scoped to founder-led Lebanese and diaspora brands scaling internationally. Full engagement structure lives on e-commerce agency in Lebanon, e-commerce marketing in Lebanon, and e-commerce growth agency.

Frequently asked questions

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