<b>Your real cost per link is 2.9x the placement fee once you load labor</b>

<b>Your real cost per link is 2.9x the placement fee once you load labor</b>

Teams quote cost per link as the cash paid to a publisher. Across 26 in-house programs (n=26, self-reported), the fully-loaded number tells a different story.

Median breakdown per live link:

— Placement / content fee: $180
— Prospecting + vetting time: $95
— Outreach + negotiation time: $140
— QA, tracking, reporting: $45

Fully loaded median: ~$520, vs $180 cash. The cash line is 35% of true cost.

This matters for one decision: agencies charging $350 per link are often cheaper than your in-house program once labor is honest. Directional — small n, labor self-estimated.

<b>Re-run your build-vs-buy math at $520, not $180.</b>