03 — Approach

How we work.

The shape of an engagement depends on the brand, the scope, and the question being asked. Below is roughly how the work moves when we run a typical engagement. The detail varies; the rhythm tends not to.

i — Starting points

How engagements start.

Most first conversations start with an email to hello@lumenridgemedia.com or an introduction from someone we've worked with before. The first useful step is usually a 30-minute call where we want to understand four things: what the brand is, what the question or problem actually is, what's been tried so far, and what success would look like.

If there's a fit, we send a written scope proposal within a week of that call. It covers what we'd do, in what order, on what timeline, for what fee. We don't send slide decks. The proposal is a document. If you sign off, we start. If you don't, we part ways amicably and you've got our written take on the situation either way.

We don't do extensive sales processes. If a brand needs multiple stakeholders aligned over weeks of presentations to greenlight an engagement, we're probably not the right size of practice for that brand.

ii — Phases

The engagement shape.

Most engagements move through four phases. Audit and Strategy work as a standalone Audit engagement and are sometimes commissioned that way. Build and Optimize phases follow on Project and Retainer engagements.

Week 1

Discovery

Weeks 2–3

Strategy

Weeks 4–8

Build

Ongoing

Optimize

Phase 1 / Discovery (Week 1)

We get account access across the relevant systems: ad platforms, analytics, Shopify (or whatever the storefront is), customer support tools, the data warehouse if there is one. We pull data on actual performance, not reported performance, and we have working conversations with the team to understand the operational context.

Phase 2 / Strategy (Weeks 2 to 3)

We synthesize what we've found into a prioritized opportunity list. Not every observation makes the list. We focus on the things where action would matter most. We put together a roadmap with sequencing, scope, and rough sizing. This becomes the working plan for the rest of the engagement.

Phase 3 / Build (Weeks 4 to 8)

This is where the work happens. The specifics depend on the engagement: creative iteration cycles, account restructures, storefront rebuilds, ops transitions. We hold a weekly working session and share progress notes async. The first reporting cycle hits at the end of this phase, comparing what's changed to the baseline we established in Discovery.

Phase 4 / Optimize (Ongoing)

For retainer engagements, the work continues past the initial build phase. We focus on the areas with the highest remaining leverage, run further iteration cycles, and over time produce a knowledge-transfer document so the brand can take more of the work in-house if and when that makes sense.

iii — Pricing

How we price.

We price by engagement type, not by hour or by retainer-with-no-scope.

Audits

Flat fee, paid half on start and half on delivery.

Projects

Flat fee for a defined scope, paid in three installments across the engagement.

Retainers

Monthly fee with a three-month minimum. The fee scales with scope, not with brand size or with the number of platforms in play.

We're happy to discuss specific numbers on a call. We don't publish them publicly because the right fee depends on actual scope, and we'd rather have that conversation in context than have you anchor on a wrong number.

iv — Boundaries

What we say no to.

We turn down most of the engagements that come our way. The honest reason is that the work we do well depends on attention and context, and we don't have unlimited supply of either. Some specific cases where we'll say no:

Brands where the right answer is to spend less on growth and more on product. We'll tell you that, and we won't take the engagement.
Engagements where success depends on stretching ethical lines. Aggressive attribution claims, misleading creative, dark patterns in checkout. We don't work on those.
Brands looking for someone to validate a strategy they've already committed to. We're more useful when we can push back, and engagements that don't allow that don't go well.
Categories we have no relevant operating context in. There are plenty of niches where what we know doesn't apply, and we'll refer to someone better-suited.
Engagements where the brand wants a single agency to handle everything end-to-end. We're a small practice and we work with brands that already have a marketing or growth lead in place, or have an in-house team we're augmenting.

If any of these describe your situation, we appreciate you reading this far. There's a good chance we know someone who's a better fit.