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App Marketing Agency or In House: Who Makes Your Video Ads

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10xvid team
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7 min read

An app marketing agency buys your ads, makes them, or both. App Masters publishes $1,000 to $5,000 a month, and The Social Outline starts at £1,500. The ad spend is paid to the platforms on top. Some agencies take an app only above $20,000 to $50,000 a month in ad spend. Those are the agencies' own pages, read on 26 October 2026.1234

App marketing agency

In short

  • Agency fees: a flat fee, a share of spend (SuperScale Media: 8%) or a price a video (Admiral Media: €363 to €500).156
  • Ad spend asked: from £3,000 a month at The Social Outline to $50,000+ for RocketShip HQ's fully managed service.13
  • In house: a US graphic designer's median pay is $62,960 a year; an animator's, $102,030.78
  • Freelancers: Upwork puts one short-form social video ad at $1,000 to $2,000.9
  • The video ads: not always in the fee. Read the plan's list before you sign.

What does an app marketing agency do?

Three jobs, in some mix. It buys media, called user acquisition (UA), on Meta, TikTok, Google, Apple Ads and other networks. It makes the ads, called creative. And some run app store optimization (ASO), the work on your store page.

Not every agency does all three. The Social Outline makes the creative and runs Meta ads.1 SuperScale Media runs UA for mobile games and bills the creative separately.5 Admiral Media does UA, creative and ASO.1011

What does an app marketing agency cost?

Here is what the agencies that publish a number say on their own pages:

AgencyPublished priceWhat it coversAd spend it asks for
The Social OutlineFrom £1,500 a month up to £20k of spend; from £3,250 up to £75k1Creative strategy, creative production, Meta campaigns, monthly reporting1At least £3,000 a month1
App Masters$1,000 to $5,000 a month; Enterprise is custom2Store work from $1,000; ad management from $3,000; video creatives in the $5,000 plan2Business plans "for budgets up to $100k/month"2
SuperScale Media8% of managed spend5Setup, UA, reporting and scaling for games; creative billed separately5Not stated
Admiral MediaFee quoted after an account review; video ads from €10,000 for 20116UA on Meta, TikTok, Google, Apple Ads, Snapchat and Moloco10No fixed minimum; ideal clients US$50,000+ a month10
RocketShip HQNot publishedCreative, UA, or advice to your own team3$50,000+ fully managed; $20k+ for creative34
What app marketing agencies publish: The Social Outline from £1,500 a month, App Masters $1,000 to $5,000, SuperScale Media 8% of spend, Admiral Media €500 a video, RocketShip HQ asks $50,000+ in ad spend, Apptamin and Moburst a quote form
Each agency's own page, read on 26 October 2026. The ad spend is paid to the platforms on top of every fee.

Others publish no price. Apptamin's pricing page is a form that promises "solutions, quotes, and timelines tailored to you", and Moburst's form asks your monthly budget.1213

How the fee is set matters too. The Social Outline charges a flat fee, because a share of spend "rewards an agency for spending more of your money".1

Are video ads included in the fee?

Sometimes. Read the plan's list:

  • App Masters: the $3,000 Growth plan lists "Facebook Ads Management (Video Ads NOT Included)". The $5,000 Scale plan lists "Video Creatives".2
  • SuperScale Media: "Creative production is billed separately."5
  • Admiral Media: video ads by the batch. 20 for €10,000, 40 for €16,000, 80 for €29,000: from €500 down to €363 a video.6
  • The Social Outline: creative production is in every tier, but "We do not sell a fixed number of ads".1

So ask two things before you sign: how many video ads a month the fee buys, and in which sizes.

How much ad spend do agencies ask for?

More than many apps spend. The fee comes on top:

  • The Social Outline: "We work with a £3,000 minimum monthly ad spend." Below that, it says, an account "simply cannot produce a reliable read on a creative test".1
  • RocketShip HQ: "$50,000+ per month in ad spend for fully managed services". For its creative service, ideally "$20k+ per month at a bare minimum".34
  • Admiral Media: no fixed minimum, but its ideal clients "invest US$50,000 or more per month in paid media".10

What does an in-house team cost?

Pay alone, at the US medians for May 2025, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:7814

  • A graphic designer: $62,960 a year, $30.27 an hour.
  • A special effects artist or animator: $102,030 a year.
  • An advertising, promotions or marketing manager: $165,780 a year.

A designer at the median costs about $5,250 a month before anything else. One person can make the ads; someone still has to buy the media.

What do freelancers charge?

Upwork's own tables, read on 26 October 2026:

  • A short-form social video ad: $1,000 to $2,000 a project; a standard commercial, $2,000 to $4,500.9
  • A motion graphics designer: $18 to $35 an hour; a product demo video, $2,500 to $7,000.15

A freelancer makes the ad you brief. The testing and the next round are still yours.

Agency, in house or a tool: how do you choose?

By what you need done each week:

Four ways to get video ads for an app: an agency from £1,500 a month plus ad spend, in house at $62,960 a year for a graphic designer, a freelancer at $1,000 to $2,000 an ad on Upwork, and 10xvid at $79 a month for about 30 video ads
Published prices and pay, read on 26 October 2026. The agency and the tool are monthly; the in-house figure is a year's pay.
  1. You need the media bought and read: an agency, or a UA hire. Check its minimum spend against yours.
  2. You need more ads to test each week: the ads are the part you can make without either. A tool or a freelancer covers it.
  3. You need the store page fixed: an ASO plan, such as App Masters' from $1,000 a month.2
  4. Check the exit: The Social Outline asks three months, then 30 days' notice. App Masters is month to month.12

Where 10xvid fits

10xvid, motion graphics ads for apps, makes the ads, not the media buying. Paste your App Store link or website into the chat. It reads the site and draws video ads from your real app screens, in 9:16, 1:1 and 16:9.16 Your agency or your own team runs them.

Recorded in the app: the link goes into the chat, and the agent starts reading the site.
An ad 10xvid made for Perla, an app made by 10xvid's founder: 9:16, from the app's own screens. It plays muted here.

Solo is about 30 video ads a month for $79.17 The first ad is free, with no card: make your first ad. For what goes into the first second of each one, see video ad hooks.

Questions about app marketing agencies

How much does an app marketing agency charge?

App Masters publishes $1,000 to $5,000 a month and The Social Outline from £1,500. SuperScale Media takes 8% of ad spend. The ad spend comes on top.125

Do app marketing agencies make the video ads?

Many do, in the fee or billed apart. App Masters lists video creatives in its $5,000 plan; SuperScale Media bills creative separately.25

What is the minimum ad spend for an app marketing agency?

From £3,000 a month at The Social Outline to $50,000+ for RocketShip HQ's fully managed service.13

Is in house cheaper than an agency?

Not always. A US graphic designer's median pay is about $5,250 a month, above every App Masters plan, and that person does not also buy the media.7

  1. The Social Outline, "Pricing" (thesocialoutline.com/pricing), read on 26 October 2026. ↩
  2. App Masters, "Pricing" (appmasters.com/pricing), read on 26 October 2026. ↩
  3. RocketShip HQ (rocketshiphq.com), read on 26 October 2026. ↩
  4. RocketShip HQ, creative strategy and production (rocketshiphq.com/creative-strategy-production), read on 26 October 2026. ↩
  5. SuperScale, "Pricing" (superscale.com/pricing), read on 26 October 2026. ↩
  6. Admiral Media, "AI Creative Factory" (admiral.media/ai-creative-factory), read on 26 October 2026. ↩
  7. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Graphic Designers" (bls.gov/ooh/arts-and-design/graphic-designers.htm), May 2025 pay. bls.gov refused our reader, so it was read on 26 October 2026 in the Internet Archive's copy of 13 October 2026. ↩
  8. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Special Effects Artists and Animators" (bls.gov/ooh/arts-and-design/multimedia-artists-and-animators.htm), May 2025 pay, read on 26 October 2026 in the Internet Archive's copy of 14 October 2026. ↩
  9. Upwork, video advertising freelancers (upwork.com/hire/video-advertising-freelancers), read on 26 October 2026. ↩
  10. Admiral Media, mobile app user acquisition (admiral.media/mobile-app-user-acquisition-marketing-agency), read on 26 October 2026. ↩
  11. Admiral Media, "Engagement and pricing" (admiral.media/engagement-and-pricing), read on 26 October 2026. ↩
  12. Apptamin, "Get pricing" (apptamin.com/get-pricing), read on 26 October 2026. ↩
  13. Moburst (moburst.com), read on 26 October 2026. ↩
  14. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Advertising, Promotions, and Marketing Managers" (bls.gov/ooh/management/advertising-promotions-and-marketing-managers.htm), May 2025 pay, read on 26 October 2026 in the Internet Archive's copy of 13 October 2026. ↩
  15. Upwork, motion graphics designers (upwork.com/hire/motion-graphics-designer), read on 26 October 2026. ↩
  16. 10xvid.com/engine, read on 26 October 2026. ↩
  17. 10xvid.com/pricing, read on 26 October 2026. ↩

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