WhatRunsIndiaEvery growing brand hits the same wall. The ads need new creatives every couple of weeks, the founder is designing them at midnight, and someone suggests hiring help. There are three realistic options, and each one costs more than its headline number.
What does a creative agency cost?
Small and mid-sized agencies in India typically charge a monthly retainer for social and performance creatives. For a D2C brand that usually lands somewhere between ₹40,000 and ₹1.5 lakh a month, depending on volume, the agency's reputation and whether strategy is included.
What you get is a team: a designer, someone managing the account, sometimes a copywriter. What you often do not get is speed. Briefs, feedback rounds and approvals mean a new set of creatives can take a week or more. Product photography is usually extra, so the agency is designing around whatever photos you already have.
- Good for: brands that need strategy and brand direction, not just output.
- Watch for: fixed monthly volumes, slow revisions, and photography billed separately.
What does an in-house designer cost?
A capable mid-level graphic designer in a metro typically costs ₹35,000 to ₹70,000 a month in salary, plus a laptop, software subscriptions and management time. A designer can turn work around quickly and learns your brand deeply.
The catch is that a designer makes layouts, not photos. If your raw material is mannequin shots and plain packshots, your designer is limited by those images. You still need shoots, and shoots are the expensive part. Our breakdown of what a catalog photoshoot really costs shows how quickly that adds up.
- Good for: brands producing creative every day across many channels.
- Watch for: the hidden cost of shoots and the single-person bottleneck when they are on leave.
What do AI creative tools cost?
AI tools usually charge per image or through monthly credit plans. For a small brand the monthly spend is typically a fraction of a designer's salary, and the work is done in minutes rather than days. The important difference is that good tools make the photos themselves: on-model shots, lifestyle scenes and finished ads from the product photo you already have.
AI does not replace taste. Someone still has to pick the looks, check every image against the real product and decide what runs. That is a few hours a week of the founder's or marketer's time, not a full-time role.
- Good for: high volume, fast testing and catalogs with many products.
- Watch for: product accuracy. Use a tool that checks results against your product and lets you approve before anything goes live.
How do the three compare for a 20-product brand?
Picture a brand with 20 active products that wants two fresh creatives per product each month, 40 creatives in all.
- Agency: likely ₹60,000 to ₹1 lakh a month, plus a shoot every season. Turnaround is days per batch.
- In-house designer: ₹50,000 or so a month, plus seasonal shoots that can cost ₹1 lakh or more each.
- AI tool: a monthly plan sized to the image count, no shoots needed for most products, with turnaround in minutes.
These are typical ranges, not quotes. Your city, category and quality bar will move them.
Which one should you pick?
Many brands end up with a mix. They use AI for volume (catalog photos, ad variations, sale refreshes) and a designer or agency for brand campaigns and big launches. WhatRunsIndia is built for the volume part: connect your Shopify store, pick a look, and get on-model photos and finished ads for every product, priced in rupees with GST included. See the plans on our pricing section.
FAQ
How much does a creative agency charge per month in India?
For a small D2C brand, monthly retainers for social and ad creatives typically range from about ₹40,000 to ₹1.5 lakh, with photography usually billed separately.
Is it cheaper to hire an in-house designer than an agency?
Often, yes, on salary alone. But a designer cannot replace photo shoots, so add the cost of seasonal shoots before comparing.
Can AI fully replace a designer for ad creatives?
For high-volume product creatives it can do most of the production work. You still need a person to set the brand direction, choose looks and approve every image.