A retainer is the natural next step once you have clips that performed. You are selling reliability rather than outcomes, which pays less per breakout clip and considerably more per month.
Price from your own throughput
Work out what an hour of your production is actually worth, then price the volume. If you produce ten finished clips an hour and want the equivalent of £30 an hour, twenty clips a month is two hours of production — but the price should also reflect the judgement, the revisions and the reporting, which are not in that two hours.
- →Twenty clips a month is a common entry retainer.
- →Price per month, not per clip, so the client stops counting.
- →Build in a revision allowance — two per clip is normal — and charge beyond it.
- →Quote turnaround in days from receiving the source, not from the start of the month.
What to put in writing
The volume, the turnaround, what counts as a finished clip, how many revisions are included, who posts it, and what happens to unused volume at the end of a month. Every one of these becomes a dispute if unstated, and the unused-volume question is the one that reliably surprises people.
Ask for the source pipeline
Your throughput depends on receiving material. A retainer that promises twenty clips a month from a client who sends one episode is unfulfillable through no fault of yours. Make the client's supply obligation explicit, and make it clear that missed supply does not roll over indefinitely.
Keep some campaign work
Retainers smooth income and cap it. Keeping a portion of your time on campaign work preserves the upside and, more usefully, keeps you sharp on what actually travels — which is the thing the retainer client is really paying for.
Raise it with evidence
The strongest case for a higher retainer is a clip that performed and the numbers to prove it. Report performance monthly, not delivery, and the conversation about rates becomes much easier.
Build the performance record first.
Pricing guide