Remuneration: The Media Lens - 4As

Much of the valuable media work doesn’t always show up on an invoice.

Ad operations work including trafficking, QA and tagging are among the most nuanced and experience-dependent work in the business, and they are rarely paid for directly. The number of people who touch a client's business goes well beyond the team on the org chart and agencies have long absorbed that cost. AI is a legitimate opportunity to make that work more efficient, but it won't be one-for-one, and it won't make the value behind the team any more visible.

Agencies are also choosing different models.

Principal media, where an agency secures inventory and resells it to clients, is becoming a mainstay: 81% of US B2C marketing executives plan to increase their use of it in 2026 (Forrester, via MediaPost(opens in new tab)). Some agencies are positioned to take on that inventory risk and are compensated for it. Others choose not to.

Both are legitimate choices when clients understand how it supports their goals.

As fragmentation spreads media across more environments and buying methods, the fit for each model will keep shifting. Whatever the model, the standard should be clear disclosure so the client can see the value of what they're paying for.

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