Agencies and freelancers price the brief in front of them. A full-time marketer through Rekruuto starts at $1,800 a month, the same published starting price as most roles, and works inside your Klaviyo account. You still pay Klaviyo separately.
The people who do this work day to day sit under the marketing assistant role. What the craft looks like, without the pricing argument, is in how a Klaviyo specialist helps. This piece stays on how you engage them.
How much do Klaviyo agencies charge per month?
Agencies usually charge a monthly retainer, a project fee for a flow build, or a mix. Some add a percentage of ad spend or of attributed revenue. Ask for the split in writing: strategy, build, sending, and reporting. Keep the Klaviyo login in your company.
Ask the agency to split the quote into four lines: strategy hours, build hours, campaign operations, and reporting. A single “account management” number is hard to compare with a salary or with a freelancer. Ask what happens in a month when you send no campaigns. If the retainer stays the same, you are paying for availability. That can be worth it. It should be a choice, not a surprise.
Also ask whose Klaviyo login the work lives in. It should be yours. A agency that builds inside an account you cannot export is not a vendor. It is a lock-in.
Klaviyo’s own bill is separate. It is priced by the profile count and the plan you choose, and it changes. Check your Klaviyo invoice. Do not add a blog’s memory of Klaviyo’s price to the agency’s fee and call it a total.
How much does a Klaviyo freelancer cost?
Again, there is no range here, because the rates on directories and marketplaces are not a census. A freelancer might charge by the hour, by the flow, or by a small monthly pack of campaigns. Ask three people to price the same written list.
The list should be boring and specific. For example: rebuild the welcome flow, send eight campaigns this month, fix the segment that defines a first-time buyer, and send a Monday report of revenue Klaviyo attributes to email. If the three quotes are far apart, the briefs were not the same. Do not average them into a “market rate”.
A freelancer is a good buy for a build with an end, or for a few campaigns a month. They are a weak buy when email is a daily operating system and the only person who knows the segments is offline. The same pattern is in freelance assistant vs managed service. Email has more ways to break quietly, because a wrong segment still “sends”.
When does a dedicated full-time specialist make sense?
A dedicated person makes sense when email and SMS are a weekly operating rhythm, not a project, and you want one person who only works on your account.
Most Rekruuto full-time roles start at $1,800 a month. A marketing assistant at that starting price can own the execution: building flows you have agreed, loading campaigns, keeping segments tidy, and pulling the report from Klaviyo. They are not a fractional chief marketing officer, and the role page does not claim a separate Klaviyo price. If the work is heavier than one assistant, say so on the call. Premium roles can cost more. Get the number in writing rather than assuming $1,800 covers a senior strategist.
Use a full-time seat when at least two of these are true. You send more than a couple of campaigns a month. Flows break or go stale and nobody notices. You are tired of re-explaining the brand every time a freelancer changes. You want tests run, not just a calendar filled.
Do not hire full-time to avoid learning the basics yourself. Someone on your side still has to approve offers, unsubscribes complaints, and the revenue number you will not outsource your judgment on.
The articles gathered under the Klaviyo specialist topic go further on skills. Use them for the craft. Use this page for the contract.
What should a Klaviyo specialist own?
They should own the running system: flows, the campaign calendar, segments, list health, and a report you can read. Strategy can sit with you or with an agency. Execution has to sit with a named person.
Here is the monthly inventory, so you can see which model usually covers which line. Your contract can say otherwise.
| Monthly job | Agency retainer | Freelancer | Full-time marketing assistant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome, browse, checkout, and post-purchase flows kept healthy | Often in scope if the retainer says so | Good as a project | Yes, as ongoing work |
| Campaign calendar and sends | Often shared with you | A few sends, then they stop | Yes |
| Segments and exclusions | Usually at setup | Easy to skip after handover | Yes, if you review them |
| Deliverability and list cleaning | Sometimes an add-on | Rarely | Yes, with your approval on suppressions |
| Reporting from Klaviyo | A deck | A sheet, if you ask | A Monday note in your format |
| Offer and brand decisions | They may propose | They wait for you | They wait for you |
| Klaviyo’s own subscription | You pay Klaviyo | You pay Klaviyo | You pay Klaviyo |
| What you pay for the person | Agency’s own proposal | Freelancer’s own quote | Most roles from $1,800 a month |
If a cell says “if the retainer says so”, open the retainer. Verbal scope is how email accounts go quiet.
Can you combine an agency for strategy with a dedicated specialist for execution?
Yes. That is often the cleanest split for a store that has outgrown a freelancer and is not ready to invent strategy alone.
Let the agency set the offer calendar, the test plan, and the occasional rebuild of a flow. Let the full-time person build, send, watch the numbers, and keep the segments from rotting. You approve anything that promises a discount or emails the whole list. Write down which of them is allowed to press send.
The money test is yours to fill. Do not borrow a benchmark.
- Email-attributed revenue last month, copied from your Klaviyo account, not from a blog.
- Cost of the agency invoice last month.
- Cost of the freelancer or the $1,800 starting seat, whichever you pay.
- Klaviyo’s own invoice.
- Your hours approving sends, priced at whatever an hour of your time is worth to you.
- Total cost divided by email-attributed revenue, if you want a ratio.
Klaviyo’s attribution is a setting in your account. It is not cash in the bank. If you change the attribution window, the ratio moves and the business has not. Use the same window every month. If the ratio is a vanity figure for your store, ignore it and watch the absolute revenue and the absolute cost instead.
A specialist who only executes will not fix a weak product or a dead list. An agency that only strategises will not notice a broken checkout flow on a Tuesday. The combination works when each side has a written job and you still read the Monday numbers.
What to settle in the first month
Write these down in week one, whoever you hired. The account stays in your company name, with the specialist as a user. You name the person allowed to press send, and the offers that still need your yes. You pick one attribution window in Klaviyo and you do not change it mid-month. You agree a Monday note: sends, revenue Klaviyo attributes to email, unsubscribes, and any flow that did not fire. You list the flows that already exist so nobody rebuilds the welcome series by accident.
That note is also how you judge the trial. A week is enough to see whether they can open your account, find a broken flow, and explain it without a deck. It is not enough to judge a quarter of revenue. Do not ask the trial to prove a growth rate. Ask it to prove they can operate.
Frequently asked questions
What do Klaviyo agencies charge?
Agencies usually charge a monthly retainer, a project fee, or a mix, sometimes with a percentage of ad spend or attributed revenue. Ask for a quote split into strategy, build, sending, and reporting, and keep the Klaviyo login in your company.
What do freelancers charge?
Their own rate, by the hour, the flow, or the month. Price the same written list with three people. Do not average random directory figures into a market rate.
Is a Rekruuto Klaviyo specialist $1,800?
A marketing assistant who can run Klaviyo day to day starts at $1,800 a month, the same published starting price as most full-time roles. Confirm the seat on the role page. You still pay Klaviyo’s own plan.
Who should be allowed to press send?
A named person, under rules you wrote. You should still approve discounts and emails to the whole list.
Can an agency and a full-time person work together?
Yes. Let the agency set tests and the occasional rebuild. Let the full-time person operate the account every week. You keep the login and the attribution window stable.
Get matched with your hire
If the inventory table has more ticks in the full-time column than you can cover yourself, get matched with your hire and look at the marketing assistant role. The 1-week trial with replacement or refund is the right way to see whether they can run your Klaviyo account, not a generic inbox.