The Hidden Costs of Using Agencies for Korean Ads

If you’ve tried to run ads in Korea as a foreign company, you probably hit the same wall everyone else does: Kakao and Naver won’t let you in without a local business license, tax ID, bank account, phone number, and an uncanny ability to decipher Korean forms that look like they were designed in 1998.

So what do most companies do? They wave the white flag and hire a Korean marketing agency.

Problem solved, right? Not exactly. Sure, agencies can get your campaigns live—but they come with their own set of headaches: hidden costs, long contracts, and a general “don’t worry about it, we got this” attitude that makes data transparency a myth. Let’s break it down.

Cost #1: The Markup Mirage

Agencies rarely charge you just for media spend. Instead, they layer on management fees, setup fees, “strategy” fees, and sometimes even a mysterious line item that looks suspiciously like “we felt like taking 20% more this month.”

A typical Korean marketing agency cost can be anywhere from 20–40% of your ad spend, just for pressing the buttons on Kakao or Naver dashboards. That’s before you pay for creative, translations, or the privilege of being assigned an account manager who may or may not email you back this week.

It’s like ordering a $10 cocktail and then realizing the “service charge” makes it $18. You’ll drink it anyway, but you’re not happy about it.

Cost #2: The Transparency Black Hole

One of the joys of platforms like Google Ads is the sheer visibility: you see your clicks, impressions, conversions, all in real time. With many Kakao Naver agencies, you don’t get that luxury.

Instead, you get monthly reports in PDF format, often cherry-picked to highlight the good news and quietly ignore the bad. Did your CTR plummet last week? Who knows. Did your agency bid way too high on keywords because they weren’t paying attention? Don’t ask.

The agency line is always: “Trust us, it’s working.” Which is a red flag in any other part of marketing, but somehow considered normal when dealing with local ad agencies.

Cost #3: The Contract Trap

Most Korean agencies love long-term contracts. Six months. Twelve months. Sometimes longer. The idea is simple: once they’ve onboarded you, they don’t want you leaving after two months because you realize the ROI isn’t there.

For a foreign company, that means you’re stuck paying retainers even when you’re not sure your campaigns are pulling their weight. And unlike with self-serve Google Ads, you can’t just pause campaigns with one click. You signed on the dotted line, so you’re in it—like a bad Netflix subscription you forgot to cancel, but way more expensive.

Cost #4: The Language Tax

Even if your agency is competent, you’ll still pay the language tax. That means extra fees for translations, “localization,” and adjustments that may or may not actually be necessary. Want to see the actual ad copy your agency uploaded into Naver Ads? Good luck if you can’t read Korean.

This creates an information imbalance. You’re paying, but you’re not in control. And control is the whole point of digital advertising.

Cost #5: Missed Agility

Digital ads are supposed to be fast. Test three creatives, measure the winner, double down by Friday. But with agencies in Korea, that agility goes out the window. Your requests have to go through account managers, who go through media buyers, who eventually update your ads a week later. By then, the moment is gone.

It’s like trying to play a video game where you press “jump” and your character responds three seconds later.

Why Agencies Aren’t All Bad (But Still Overpriced)

To be fair, agencies do solve one giant problem: they get you access to Kakao Ads and Naver Ads without the nightmare of opening a Korean entity. For some companies, that’s worth the pain.

But let’s be clear: you’re not paying for brilliance, you’re paying for access. They hold the keys, and they know it. That’s why the contracts are long, the fees are high, and the reports are vague.

The Alternative: bAdwords Korea

This is where bAdwords Korea flips the script. Instead of surrendering your budget to an opaque middleman, bAdwords gives you direct, managed access to Kakao and Naver—without requiring you to incorporate in Korea or sign a 12-month deal.

• Transparent dashboards: You see the same data your agency would, in English.

• No 40% markup: Spend goes to ads, not to someone else’s office coffee budget.

• Cancel anytime: Campaign agility like you’re used to on Google or Facebook.

Agencies made sense when there was no other way in. But now, there is.

Final Thoughts

Running ads in Korea through agencies is like booking a flight through a shady travel agent in the ‘90s. Yes, you’ll get there eventually, but you’ll pay too much, you won’t know what’s really happening, and you’ll be locked into a ticket you can’t change.

If you want to run ads in Korea today, the smarter play is finding a bridge that gives you the control and transparency you’re used to—without the bloated fees. That’s what bAdwords Korea is built for.

So before you sign that 12-month contract with a Kakao Naver agency, ask yourself: do you really want to pay a premium just to stay in the dark?