Tech PR Campaign – Project or a Retainer? 

If you’re speaking to an external PR agency partner about a new tech PR campaign, the question of budgets will inevitably arise. We have another post coming soon that looks at actual figures by country, but here, we’re focussing on retainers vs. projects—and unpacking the mechanisms by which you’ll be expected to pay for agency services.

PR is a process, not an event

Retainers are the typical way agencies get paid. You set a monthly budget (or they propose one) – for example, £5k per month – and in return, the agency allocates a team of expert PR professionals to deliver a set amount of work.

Broadly speaking, the bigger the budget, the more PR people, the more hours and the more work can be delivered  –  which is the same in any professional services business.

Of course, you might choose to throw all of your financial resources at a PR team to deliver a single output – a press article on the front page of the Financial Times, so the above is not entirely true in every case.   

You might also opt for a more senior team, with a higher day rate, which means less people and less available hours, but in return for more strategic input and faster work-rate.

 … but….broadly, budget = PR hours. 

In the very early stages of the relationship, it can be tricky to define deliverables precisely, as both sides are learning how to work together. However, over time, expectations and outputs become more aligned, and it gets easier to quantify the value. A Discovery Exercise or Onboarding session can help here. 

PR agencies prefer retainers, because they drive long term results. Toni Sottak, the co-founder of our member agency in the US, Wired Island says: 

“The most important KPI we can align with is being proactive, thoughtful and strategic in ongoing media outreach. This is the key thing we need to do to achieve any type of solid earned media.

Just like in real life, media relationships depend on timing, trust, credibility, and context. Media coverage comes from a confluence of factors: what a company says about itself, what others are saying (investors, customers, analysts), what’s happening in the industry – and just as importantly, what a journalist believes is worth writing about that day. In my 30 years of tech PR campaign management, I’ve seen this proven again and again: consistent, thoughtful engagement builds reputation and influence.”

Toni adds: 

“What PR can offer is positioning: shaping how a company is perceived long-term by the people who matter. That influence might show up in a marquee article – or in a journalist calling for a quote on a deadline, or in being included in a trend piece down the line. Those moments don’t always come on cue, but they come when the foundation is solid.  We just had a reporter contact us about a client we pitched 5 years ago (no joke!). Long-term relationships are essential to making this happen.”  

Rahme Mehmet, founder of TechComms, one of our member agencies for the UK suggests the same constant, long-term contact is also needed for another influencer group, analysts like Gartner and IDC: 

“Maintaining analyst relationships requires ongoing support. We help clients organise events or quarterly updates to keep analysts engaged. These events provide an opportunity to share research, developments, and customer success stories. We ensure analysts have the right information while making sure clients engage meaningfully. Our goal is to create long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.”

By signing a retainer contract, you secure that PR team for a fixed period – 6 months, 12 months, 5 years, even 10. You’re effectively taking that team off the market and committing to a regular monthly payment. And, that is often very necessary. 

Tech PR Campaign Project Fees

By my own definition (feel free to challenge it) projects are anything less than 6 months in duration. When you think about PR – earned media, journalist outreach, influencing key stakeholders – it’s rarely a quick win. As Toni already set out, it can take months to build a relationship with a journalist, especially for a start-up or a lesser-known international brand.

That said, projects do have their place. 

Years ago, I supported IBM’s tech PR campaign at The Championships, Wimbledon. It was a 6-week project and delivered excellent results showcasing some mind-blowing innovations. In my view, it was highly successful because IBM already had a robust, long-term PR campaign running via a retainer to build a media platform. The project supported the retainer. 

Ricardo Schell, founder of Noizze Media, our Collectivist partner in Spain and Portugal, has a similar views:  

“We have one client with whom we run 2-3 campaigns for 1-2 months per year. We always say it would be better to complement those campaigns with some ongoing corporate PR activity to raise brand awareness and grab journalist attention around other stories about the company and not to focus only on product launches.” 

Ricardo makes a second point that projects can often be defined better, which some clients prefer: 

“Project fees can help clients if they have a very specific, limited budget and want a proposal with a very specific scope of work, which doesn’t always happen with a retainer model. With a monthly fee, a client will be given a team and hours to deliver a campaign, but the nature of working with the media means deliverables can change regularly. With a fixed-term project, you might be able to fix more clear deliverables in the timeframe given.” 

Third, project budgets can also be useful to support your outreach at major events. Chris Bignell, CEO of our member agency for the UK, Jargon Group, has talked previously about working with the media at events like Mobile World Congress.

And, Louay Al Samarrai, co-founder of our member agency for the Middle-East, Active Digital Marketing Communications, suggests that a properly allocated PR project budget can also really help to drive creativity into otherwise routine PR campaigns. 

“We love coming up with new ideas. A few years ago, we helped a client display its name across the entire 800-meter height of the Burj Khalifa on New Year’s Eve! As you can imagine, the project results were incredible. But, to display a logo onto the side of the world’s tallest tower, to pull-off this enormously creative idea, requires additional project funding outside of the retainer fee.” 

Payment by Results

“Payment by results” means the agency only gets paid if it delivers agreed outcomes. In my experience, I’ve never seen this work successfully. And, I only include this now because it comes up occasionally!

Why doesn’t it work? Agencies have overheads and would be taking a massive financial risk by working this way. Not because they can’t deliver – far from it – but because the scope of what they deliver is so broad that it’s nearly impossible to define one single metric that captures success across a tech PR campaign.

Should your PR agency be paid for:

• Its knowledge and expertise?
• Its ability to craft flawless, engaging content?
• Its media contacts?
• Its skill in blending earned, paid, shared, and owned strategies?
• The number of published media stories?
• A measurable change in brand awareness?
• Managing your reputation?
• Creating a platform for your sales teams to meet their targets?

Ricardo from Noizze Media rightfully suggests that with earned media campaigns, it’s impossible to guarantee media success, because PRs don’t control the media and this makes a payment by results model impossible: 

“We might commit to closing an interview with a specific journalist, but we can’t guarantee the interview will be published, because we don’t control the journalist.  Also, the success of a media interview is also partly in the hands of the spokesperson. If he or she makes himself clear and interesting, it helps but even then, there may be other newsworthy stories and the journalist will postpone the interview or simply not use the conversation.”

Tech PR campaign payment models 

Whether you choose a retainer or a project-based approach depends on your goals, timelines, and the nature of the work. Retainers offer consistency, deeper collaboration, and long-term impact – making them ideal for sustained PR efforts. 

Projects can be effective for short-term needs or when testing out a new agency relationship. Although, you might find it challenging to have an agency agree to this. 

Ultimately, the best results come when both sides understand the value of the work being done – not just in outputs, but in the strategic thinking, creativity, and relationships that drive long-term reputation and brand success.