Scope, Pricing
and Terms
Every engagement with 505 Research is defined in writing and priced before any work begins. This page outlines the four standard engagement structures, the process by which scope and price are determined, the factors that most affect cost, typical price ranges, and the terms that apply once work is delivered.
The Four Engagement Structures
Each of the three practice areas, paid acquisition, content, and sales and forecasting, can be engaged under any of the following structures. The structures differ in scope and duration rather than in method.
Diagnostic
A defined review of the existing marketing and sales system and the results it is currently producing. The output is a written findings document and a ranked list of the issues with the greatest financial impact. A diagnostic is a complete engagement in itself and carries no obligation to proceed further.
Fixed price, scoped from a written brief and one working session. Delivered as a findings document together with the underlying figures.
Implementation
A single component built to a working state, rather than specified in a document. Common examples include a CRM rebuild, a conversion tracking and attribution setup, or a lead routing and qualification workflow.
Fixed price, defined at the outset by a written acceptance test describing what the component must do when complete. Delivered in working order, with the documentation required to maintain it.
Build
The complete system for one practice area, fully documented, and operated thereafter by the client’s own team or by 505 Research. That choice can be changed at any point. Each section of the documentation closes with a checklist that can be verified by someone who has not read the section.
Fixed price, with scope agreed in writing before work begins. Revisions are included so that the team inheriting the system can adapt it to their use.
Continued support
A monthly arrangement for maintaining a delivered system. It covers the review of results against the thresholds agreed during the build, revision of those thresholds when the underlying figures change, adjustments required by platform policy and pricing changes, and troubleshooting when a component fails.
Month to month, with no minimum term and no notice period. Arranged separately after delivery and never required as a condition of it.
How Scope Is Determined
Scope is not estimated from a description of the work. It is derived from the figures that govern the work, which is why the process begins by requesting them.
- Initial Questionnaire: A short set of questions completed before the first conversation, covering client value, current client acquisition channels, and what has previously been attempted.
- Working Session: A single session to establish whether those figures exist or must be reconstructed as part of the engagement.
- Written Scope: A document stating what is included, what it produces, what is deliberately excluded, and the delivery date.
- Fixed Price: A price set against that scope and agreed before work begins. Changes to scope are re-quoted rather than absorbed, so that both parties always know what is owed.
What Determines the Price
Two engagements with the same title can differ significantly in cost. Four factors account for most of the variation, listed in approximate order of importance.
- Scope of the System: A single component, such as a tracking setup, a CRM rebuild, or a set of landing pages, compared with a full practice area built end to end.
- Condition of Existing Data: A firm with reliable historical figures is quoted differently from one where conversion rates, client value, and source attribution must be reconstructed first. Reconstruction is common and is priced as work.
- Timeline: A deadline that requires work to be sequenced around it, or specialists to be booked ahead of normal lead time, costs more than the same scope without one.
- Handover or Ongoing Operation: A system handed to the client’s team is one price. A system then operated by 505 Research adds the monthly arrangement described above.
The size of the advertising budget is deliberately excluded from this list. Price is set against the work performed and never as a percentage of media spend, which removes any incentive to recommend spending beyond what the figures support.
Typical Cost Ranges
Every engagement is quoted individually. There is no template and no price list, and the first conversation is free of charge. The table below is provided so that the general scale of an engagement is clear before contact is made. It shows common configurations, but the work is not limited to them. A website rebuild, a video series, a booking widget, or a single design decision can each be scoped and priced on the same terms. There is no minimum engagement size.
| Client Profile | Scope of Work | Typical Range |
|---|---|---|
| A solo practice with a functioning website but no conversion tracking or follow-up process | One acquisition channel, built and handed over: the advertising, the landing page, the tracking, and the follow-up sequence. | $3,000 to $6,000 |
| A small firm with several people in sales roles and historical figures that must be reconstructed | The complete system, built, launched, and handed to the client’s team, with the measurement standard documented before any spend begins. | $7,500 to $12,000 |
| A single defined deliverable, such as a website rebuild, a video series, a CRM setup, or a booking widget | Scoped and priced as an individual component, on the same terms as the engagements above. | From the low thousands |
| An established firm with an existing media budget that requires the system to be built and then operated | The complete system, built and launched, then operated on a month-to-month basis. | $15,000 and up to build, then $2,500 to $5,000 a month |
None of the figures above constitutes a quotation. The price for a specific engagement is determined during the first conversation and set against its written scope.
Terms
- Structure
- Fixed price, agreed in writing before work begins
- Built and run
- Month to month once the system is operational
- Billing
- Neither hourly nor subscription-based
- Payment
- Invoiced at signing, before work begins. Larger builds are invoiced in milestones tied to deliverables. Continued support is billed monthly in advance
- Revisions
- Included, so that the client’s team can adapt the system to its use
- Delivery
- A documented system, operated by the client’s team or by 505 Research
- Ownership
- Retained by the client, with or without further involvement
- Media and platform costs
- Paid by the client directly to the platform
- Continued support
- Month to month, scoped and priced separately
- Confidentiality
- Mutual, and in place before any figures are shared
- Delivered by
- Marco Tripalo, directly
Ownership After Handover
Each engagement delivers a document and, where implementation is involved, a working component. Both are the property of the client. All accounts, data, and tooling are held in the client’s own name throughout the engagement, so there is nothing to transfer at its conclusion and nothing that ceases to function when it ends. The documentation is written so that it can be maintained by a team that was not involved in producing it.
Common questions about ownership, the handling of advertising budgets, and related matters are addressed on the questions page.
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