Google, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, managed at cost.
The cluster used by 9 of our 10 largest clients. Healthcare-compliant Google + Meta. LinkedIn-native B2B for industrial buyers. Meta-led acquisition for consumer brands. Ad spend at cost, your Google or Meta invoice is your Google or Meta invoice. We charge for the work, not for being a middleman.
Five paid-media platforms. Different verticals lead with different ones.
Search · Performance Max · Display · YouTube
The dominant intent-driven channel for healthcare (clinic bookings, fertility intake, GP recruitment), trade ecom (Skyreach, Berg), and B2C B2C catalogue brands (Performance Max, Shopping).
Disciplined creative testing · CAPI server-side
The dominant acquisition channel for consumer / B2C brands. Conversion-event optimisation, custom audience iteration, CAPI server-side tracking, AI-accelerated creative variants at the volume the algorithm needs.
The B2B-native account, run properly
The channel most agencies treat as a "sometimes" line and we treat as a flagship for industrial B2B. Personal-profile cadence for senior leaders, Sponsored InMail for procurement-officer outreach, Conversation Ads for capability-statement distribution.
For the right brands, not all of them
We don't push TikTok onto every consumer brand. For the brands where it fits (fashion, lifestyle, made-to-order, founder-led story brands), we run it. For the rest, we steer the budget into channels that actually convert.
Underrated for B2C categories
Discoverability-first, longer purchase consideration cycles. Particularly strong for interiors, gift, lifestyle, beauty, and food-and-beverage categories where the shopper saves before they buy.
Recruitment paid media
For our healthcare groups recruiting GPs and our industrial clients recruiting trades, we run paid media on SEEK, Indeed, and LinkedIn Recruiter as a recruitment-specific channel. Same media-at-cost economics.
Ad spend at cost. Always. Disclosed on every invoice.
What "ad spend at cost" actually means
- Your Meta invoice is your Meta invoice. Same dollar amount Meta charged us, charged on to you, to the cent.
- Your Google Ads invoice is your Google Ads invoice. Pass-through. Audit-able against the Google billing portal.
- Our management fee is a separate, named, percentage-or-flat line item on every Xero invoice.
- No "agency rate card" hidden in CPM uplifts. No commission baked into media buying.
- You can ask for credentials to your own ad accounts at any time. They're your accounts.
Because we want to be retained, not re-pitched.
When media is marked up, the agency's incentive is to spend more. When media is at cost, the agency's incentive is to perform. We picked our incentive structure deliberately twenty years ago and the 47-month average tenure across our top accounts is the result.
The maths is simple, a long-tenured client at a flat management fee is worth more to a retainer-grade agency than a short-tenured client with a 15% media markup. We optimise for the former.
What paid-media looks like for each of our three verticals.
Compliant by default. Patient-first.
Google-led intent. Healthcare-compliant Meta accounts. AHPRA review pipeline on every creative. Multi-location GBP management. Patient-acquisition KPIs, not vanity click metrics.
LinkedIn-led. Capability-distribution focus.
LinkedIn is the lead channel. Personal-profile cadence for senior engineers. Sponsored InMail to procurement officers at tier-1 mining houses. Google for long-tail technical search.
Meta-led. Catalogue-feed integrated.
Meta is the lead channel. Google for intent and Shopping. CAPI server-side. Disciplined creative testing. Performance Max for catalogue. Klaviyo segments fed back into Meta custom audiences.
- Commercials: Growth retainers, typically $8K to $25K/mo + ad spend at cost. Management fees are named lines, agreed up front. Pricing →
- First 30 days: access, audit and strategy lock-in with the senior strategist who runs the account.
- Days 30 to 90: full delivery cadence live, first performance review, scope confirmed against the cap.
- Who delivers: a senior strategist plus the specialist pod for this service. Month to month, no lock-ins.
"The ROI we receive is consistently multiple times higher than we achieved with any other providers and we feel there is a genuine commitment to our business success. I would highly recommend 121 Group for Paid Advertising services."
Want us to look at your ad accounts?
Thirty-minute call. No deck. Bring your Google + Meta + LinkedIn admin and we'll tell you what we'd do differently, and what your incumbent should already be doing.
Book a Discovery