Question
I'm preparing to launch a fantasy sports, rummy, and online gaming app, which is fully built and market-ready.
Instead of traditional paid agency marketing, I'm exploring a performance-driven model:
✅ I want to offer equity to marketing or advertising agencies that agree to run performance campaigns.
✅ They would spend their own ad budget to achieve agreed user acquisition targets.
✅ Once those targets are met, they'd start receiving payment (in addition to equity).
✅ The idea is to reward long-term partners who believe in the potential of the product.
I am looking to build a team for future for below
➡️ SEO
➡️ Influencer Marketing
➡️ Online Advertising, SMM
➡️ Customer Connect - sms, whatsapp, voice, email
My questions are:
Has anyone successfully implemented such a model in India or globally?
Are there agencies in India open to this kind of equity + performance-based deal?
What are the risks or pitfalls I should prepare for (legal, financial, trust-related)?
How should I structure such an agreement to align everyone's incentives?
Long-term, I want to build a collective of such agencies or experts to support other early-stage startups. Is that vision practical?
Would love to hear from those who’ve done performance or equity-based marketing partnerships before.
Answer
Unfortunately this will not work in India or globally and you will end up wasting a lot of time dealing with scammers.
A better option is to take on a partner that will handle all the marketing on a full time basis. The partner should get a salary or a commission on each sale and equity in the 5 to 25% range.
Always best to maintain control over critical functions and marketing is one of them. Best of luck.
