Agency was spending $12k/month per client on content. I showed them a system that does it for $99. Their profit margin went from 8% to 94%. · AEO

Agency was spending $12k/month per client on content. I showed them a system that does it for $99. Their profit margin went from 8% to 94%.

Here's the actual breakdown:

THE INITIAL CALL

Agency owner: "We're bleeding money on content production"

Me: "What's the biggest cost?"

Owner: "Writers, strategists, and endless revisions"

Me: "How much per client monthly?"

Owner: "$12k in labor, $500 in tools"

Me: "What are you charging?"

Owner: "$13,500/month for SEO content management"

Profit per client: $1,000

Margin: 7.4%

That's not an agency. That's a job with extra steps.

THE AGENCY'S OLD SYSTEM

Week 1: Team lead does keyword research in Ahrefs (8 hours)

Week 1-2: Junior strategist analyzes 6 competitors manually (12 hours)

Week 2: Senior strategist builds content calendar (6 hours)

Week 3-8: 3 writers produce 30 articles (180 hours combined)

Week 8: Editor reviews everything (15 hours)

Total: 221 hours of labor per client per month

Cost: $12,500 all-in

They had 5 clients maxed out.

THE BREAKING POINT

"I'm running a content factory, not an agency. We can't take on client #6 without hiring 2 more people. And if we do that, we're profitable on paper but I'm taking home $3k/month."

Revenue: $67,500/month

Costs: $64,000/month

Take-home: $3,500/month

Team: 11 people (9 content, 2 strategists)

Stuck.

WHAT I SHOWED THEM

I'd been building something for exactly this problem.

Not to replace agencies.

To let them actually scale.

Showed them Contentbase.ai on a screenshare.

"Watch this."

Setup took 12 minutes:

- Added their client's website URL

- Added 6 competitor URLs

- Connected Google Search Console

- Hit start

The system:

1. Pulled live GSC data

2. Ran competitor content analysis automatically

3. Did full keyword research via Ahrefs API integration

4. Generated a 30-day content calendar

5. Started writing article #1

Owner: "Wait, it's writing?"

Me: "30 articles. Fully SEO and GEO optimized. Every month. Automatically."

Owner: "This replaces the writers?"

Me: "And the keyword research. And competitor analysis. And calendar planning."

Silence.

Owner: "What does this cost?"

Me: "$99 per client per month."

THE MATH TRANSFORMATION

Old cost per client:

- Keyword research: $800

- Competitor analysis: $1,200

- Calendar planning: $600

- 30 articles written: $9,000

- Editorial review: $1,500

- Tool stack: $500

Total: $13,600

Revenue: $13,500

Margin: -$100 (losing money)

New cost per client:

- Contentbase: $99

- Quick review/customization: $400 (4 hours)

- Done

Total: $499

Revenue: $13,500

Margin: $13,001

Margin improvement: 7% → 96%

THE HARD QUESTION

Owner: "Do I drop my prices since costs are lower?"

Me: "Are your clients getting better results?"

Owner: "Same quality, more consistency actually"

Me: "Then no. You're selling rankings and traffic, not hours."

This is where most people mess up.

They think lower costs = lower prices.

Wrong.

Lower costs = higher profit OR more clients at same price.

THE DECISION

They didn't fire anyone immediately.

They repositioned:

- Kept 2 senior strategists for client management

- Moved 3 writers to other departments

- Let 6 people go with severance

Went from 11 people to 5.

From content factory to actual agency.

90-DAY RESULTS

Clients: 5 → 14

Monthly revenue: $67,500 → $189,000

Team size: 11 → 5

Tool costs: $2,500 → $1,386 (14 × $99)

Owner's take-home: $3,500 → $97,000/month

Same service quality.

Better client satisfaction (more consistent).

Zero writer burnout.

THE OWNER'S ACTUAL WORDS

"I thought I'd feel guilty replacing writers with AI. Instead, I feel like I finally have an actual business. We're signing 2-3 new clients monthly now. Before, we couldn't even take discovery calls."

New client onboarding time: 4 hours → 15 minutes

WHAT I'M SEEING NOW

Agencies finding this are making the same shift.

They're not becoming "AI agencies."

They're becoming profitable agencies.

The solo operators? They're running what looks like 6-figure agencies as one-person operations.

The teams of 3-4? Serving 20+ clients profitably.

MY CURRENT SETUP

Running 31 projects through the system myself.

All SEO content.

All 30 articles monthly.

All autopilot.