How Ad Budget Works at Optima

01

Your money is split into two lines: ad budget and management fee

We do not take our fee out of the ad budget. Budget and fee are billed as two separate lines on the same invoice.

When you top up, the amount you choose, say Rp3,000,000, goes entirely as ad balance into a Google Ads or Meta Ads account created specifically for your business. That account stands on its own under our manager account, not shared with other clients, so its spend, results, and history belong only to you.

Our management fee is 15% of that top-up amount and is billed as a separate line on the same invoice. For a Rp3,000,000 top-up the fee line is Rp450,000. On top of the fee there is 11% VAT (Rp49,500), because the management fee is our taxable revenue. So for one Rp3,000,000 top-up you pay Rp3,499,500, with a breakdown you can read yourself on the invoice: Rp3,000,000 ad budget, Rp450,000 fee, Rp49,500 VAT on the fee.

We chose this form, rather than a fee quietly deducted from inside the budget, so you can always match the numbers on our invoice against the numbers in the platform's reports. If Google's report shows Rp3,000,000 coming in, that really is what you paid for budget, there is no gap to ask about.

02

There are two VATs, and neither is our revenue

VAT on our management fee is remitted by us. VAT on ad spend is collected by Google and Meta themselves from your account balance.

The first VAT was mentioned above: 11% on the management fee, shown on our invoice, remitted by us. The second VAT does not appear on our invoice at all, and it is the one that most often confuses people advertising for the first time: Google and Meta collect 11% VAT on ad spend in Indonesia directly from the ad account balance.

As a result, of the Rp3,000,000 that enters the account, roughly Rp2,702,000 is actually spent on delivery. The rest, roughly Rp298,000, is deducted by the platform as VAT. Google says so on its official help page: all ad sales in Indonesia are subject to 11% VAT, and for prepayments the tax is deducted from the payment. Meta applies the same rate to advertisers with an Indonesian billing address, since 1 September 2020. The exact figure can differ slightly depending on how the platform books tax in that period, so we call it an estimate. What is certain: this deduction is not our fee.

If you have advertised on your own before, you have already experienced this deduction without noticing, it exists in every ad account in Indonesia, whoever manages it. We mention it here so that a weekly report showing Rp2.7 million spent from a Rp3 million top-up does not read as money that went missing.

Google Ads Help: taxes in your country (Indonesia, 11% VAT) · Meta Business Help Center: about VAT in Indonesia

03

What top-up amount makes sense

Minimum Rp1,500,000. We recommend Rp3,000,000, not because the fee is larger, but because below that the ad algorithm does not have enough data to work with.

Ads on Google and Meta are run by algorithms that learn from outcomes: who clicks, who gets in touch, who just passes by. The algorithm needs a certain number of events before it can tell people likely to become customers from those who are not. With daily spend that is too small, that number is never reached, and the ad runs like someone who keeps being woken up before falling properly asleep.

Our working benchmark: daily spend of around Rp100,000, or roughly Rp3,000,000 a month. That is why Rp3,000,000 is marked as the recommended amount. Rp1,500,000 is still accepted as the minimum, enough to start, enough to see whether your ad message draws people in, with the caveat that the learning period will be slower, and we will say so up front, not after the results disappoint.

Top-ups above Rp3,000,000 are of course fine, and the options are open on the Services page. For transactions above Rp10,000,000 we ask you to contact us directly rather than use the payment button on the site, so the plan is discussed before the money moves.

04

The first three months: learning phase, not harvest

Stable results take time. That is the reason for the 3-month minimum per campaign, not to lock you in, but so the campaign has a chance to work.

The first month is usually spent testing: several versions of the ad message, several keyword groups or audiences, to see which get a response. The second month narrows down to what works and switches off what does not. Only in the third month do the numbers start to read as a fair picture rather than coincidence. Judging ads by the first two weeks almost always leads to the wrong conclusion, too optimistic or too pessimistic.

During this period, cost per click and the number of people contacting you will go up and down from day to day. Daily spend varying by around Rp100,000 either way is normal; the platform deliberately spends more on busy days and less on quiet ones, as long as the monthly average is on target. We will not keep changing settings every time a daily figure shifts, because every major change makes the algorithm start learning again from scratch.

That is why we ask for a three-month commitment per campaign. Stopping in the first month means paying the cost of learning without ever reaching the result. If after three months the numbers genuinely do not make sense for your business, we will say so, and stopping is a reasonable decision, not anyone's failure.

05

The campaign goal is written down before the ads go live

Before a single rupiah is spent, we write down with you: what counts as a result, and how we measure it.

"The ads are working" means different things for different businesses. For a workshop, a result is someone calling. For a clinic, someone filling in an appointment form. For a contractor, someone sending a WhatsApp message with a serious question. In the initial interview we write down that definition for your business, what the conversion is, through which channel, and a sensible initial target for the first three months.

That definition is then set up as measurement on your site, so our reports do not stop at click counts. Cheap clicks with nobody getting in touch is a sign something is wrong, and we want to know that in week two, not month three.

Ad creative, headline, image, copy, is produced first and sent to you via Telegram to review and approve before the first campaign goes live. No ad in your business's name goes live without you having seen it.

06

Weekly review: what you receive and what we decide

Every week you receive a short summary. Major changes we ask about; minor changes we make and report.

Once a week we send a summary: how much was spent, how many people got in touch through the agreed channel, the cost per person who got in touch, and what we changed or will change the following week. The summary is short and deliberately free of technical terms, if a number needs explaining, we explain it on the next line, not with a link to the platform dashboard.

Minor changes, switching off keywords that are not working, shifting budget between ads, fixing copy, we make without waiting for approval, because waiting a week for something like that means a week of budget wasted. Major changes, changing the campaign goal, changing the audience entirely, raising the daily budget well above plan, we always ask about first.

The same figures also appear on your client dashboard, updated automatically, so you do not have to wait for the weekly summary to check how much ad balance is left.

07

If the budget runs out, is left over, or you want to stop

Runs out: we tell you before the ads stop. Left over: it becomes credit, not lost. Stopping: let us know 14 days before the next period.

When the ad account balance is close to running out, we let you know a few days before the ads actually stop showing, so there is time to top up again without a gap. If you choose not to top up, the ads stop by themselves once the balance reaches zero, no bills accumulate, because the system is prepaid.

Unused budget, for example because a campaign was stopped early by mutual agreement, does not expire and is not refunded in cash. It becomes credit in your Optima account, usable for the next ad top-up, for the monthly subscription, or for other add-ons. Credit like this only arises from the ads package; other add-ons have no refund mechanism of any kind.

To stop after the first three-month period, just let us know at least 14 days before the next period starts. We wind the campaign down cleanly at the end of the period, send the final report, and any remaining balance follows the credit rule above.

08

Work it out yourself before deciding

Enter the top-up amount you are considering; this calculator uses the same formula as our invoice.

The figures below are exactly what you will see on the invoice for the budget, fee, and VAT-on-fee lines. The last two lines, VAT collected by the platform and the estimated amount that becomes actual delivery, are estimates, because that deduction is made by Google and Meta inside the account, not by us.

09

Start with a free audit, not a top-up

If you already have an ad account, we check what is there first. If not, a short interview decides whether ads are the right step right now.

For a business that has advertised before, our first step is an audit of the existing ad account: account structure, measurement, how budget is being spent, the keywords or audiences in use. We provide this audit free of charge as the entry point, and the findings remain useful even if you decide to manage it yourself.

For a business that has never advertised, we start with a short interview about your business and who you want to reach. Sometimes the honest answer is: ads are not the right step yet, and your site or Google profile needs sorting out first so that people arriving from ads do not simply leave. We will say so if that is the case.

See the Paid Ads Management package on the Services page · Technical details on payment and deactivation