A twelve-month engagement, shaped directly from your questionnaire answers. Below: the scope, the content plan, the breakeven math, and honest comparisons to your alternatives.
Value-based pricing. Start at AED 7,000/mo — a softer entry while we prove the work. Every 3-4 months we review against KPIs. Hit them → pricing steps up. Miss them → pricing stays. You never pay for work that isn't earning its keep, and we never cap our upside when we're genuinely delivering it.
The same scope at every tier. You don't pay separately for content, links, or web dev. Everything is bundled. Scope is web only — your in-house dev team handles the app.
Modeled on your actual unit economics with industry-standard benchmarks, not wishful assumptions. Three scenarios below. We commit to the middle one — TARGET. The BASE floor is what we'd deliver even in a tough year. STRETCH is the upside if execution clicks and the Wingman AI launch goes well.
In our call I estimated cumulative breakeven at Month 14-15. When I re-ran the numbers with conservative industry-standard benchmarks — 9% monthly churn (instead of 7%), blended ARPU AED 213 (instead of 246), and a realistic visit-to-paid conversion of 0.38% — the honest answer shifts to Month 20 cumulative breakeven. Stretch scenario (if execution clicks) still gets to Month 17. I'd rather commit to M20 we will hit than promise M14-15 we might miss. The math below is defensible when your VCs diligence it.
| Scenario | ARPU | Churn | M12 UAE traffic | M12 new paid/mo | Monthly BE | Cumulative BE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base (if gates are missed — pricing stays at AED 7K) | 204 | 10% | 2,500 | 6 | Month 13 | Month 21 |
| Target · our commitment (tiered: 7K→9.5K→11K→12.5K) | 213 | 9% | 3,500 | 11 | Month 14 | Month 20 |
| Stretch (if execution clicks — same tiered pricing) | 224 | 7% | 5,500 | 17 | Month 12 | Month 17 |
Monthly BE = when MRR from SEO-attributed subs exceeds that month's retainer. Cumulative BE = when accumulated MRR has paid back all retainer fees. Target assumes tiered pricing with all gates hit — if gates miss, pricing stays lower (Base row models this).
| Month | Retainer | New Subs | Active Subs | MRR | Net / month | Cumulative Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7,000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -7,000 | -7,000 |
| 3 | 7,000 | 1 | 1 | 213 | -6,787 | -20,787 |
| 4 | 7,000 | 1 | 2 | 407 | -6,593 | -27,380 · Gate 1 review |
| 5 | 9,500 | 2 | 4 | 796 | -8,704 | -36,084 |
| 7 | 9,500 | 4 | 10 | 2,093 | -7,407 | -51,628 · Gate 2 review |
| 9 | 11,000 | 6 | 19 | 3,980 | -7,020 | -66,678 |
| 10 | 11,000 | 7 | 24 | 5,113 | -5,887 | -72,565 · Gate 3 review |
| 11 | 12,500 | 9 | 31 | 6,570 | -5,930 | -78,495 |
| 13 | 12,500 | 13 | 49 | 10,384 | -2,116 | -84,789 |
| 14 | 12,500 | 16 | 60 | 12,824 | +324 | -84,466 · monthly BE |
| 17 | 12,500 | 27 | 109 | 23,268 | +10,768 | -63,818 |
| 20 | 12,500 | 47 | 193 | 41,042 | +28,542 | +1,923 · cumulative BE |
| 22 | 12,500 | 68 | 279 | 59,495 | +46,995 | +85,855 |
| 24 | 12,500 | 98 | 404 | 86,000 | +73,500 | +218,404 |
Every phase has explicit outputs and explicit expected outcomes. If we hit Month 3 or Month 6 without the outcomes, we talk early — not at Month 12.
You're considering (a) continuing with Goldman, (b) hiring in-house, (c) signing with us. Here's the math.
| Capability | Goldman | TheProjectSEO | In-house |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost (AED) | 5,250 | 9,916 | 43K-75K |
| Content velocity | 5-10 pages/wk | 8-10/mo quality | 2-5/wk |
| Named-author E-E-A-T | ❌ AI "Goldman Sarah" | ✅ Real humans | ✅ Real humans |
| Geographic targeting | ❌ 61% non-UAE | ✅ 80%+ UAE | ✅ UAE focused |
| Schema / AEO engineering | ❌ None | ✅ Full stack | ⚠️ Depends on hire |
| LLM citation optimization | ❌ Tracks only | ✅ Engineered | ⚠️ Unlikely in-house |
| Attribution (org → paid sub) | ❌ None | ✅ Full funnel | ✅ If prioritized |
| Reporting cadence | Monthly XLSX | Weekly + live dashboard | Daily (if managed) |
| Proprietary tooling | ❌ | ✅ 8 AI agents + KB | ❌ Build from scratch |
| Web dev bundled | ❌ | ✅ Included | ✅ Separate hire |
| Time to output | Slow iteration | Week 1 delivery | Month 2-3 to ramp |
Not 50 metrics — 12, grouped by what they tell you about the business. The north star stays visible at the top.
Not promises. Contract-grade commitments. If we break them, you can enforce them.
If the first pillar page doesn't feel like your brand voice when it publishes, we rewrite it at our cost — no additional charge.
The primary metric on your dashboard is paid subs attributed to organic — not ranking keywords. If it's zero at Month 4, we're having a hard conversation, not stretching the report.
Any month we publish fewer than 8 pages, we discount the retainer proportionally. Output tied to invoice. You shouldn't pay for work we didn't do.
Next step is binary — respond one of three ways. We move fast on all three.
Sign the contract. Grant access to SEO@theprojectseo.com. Week 1 delivery: zombie URL audit, schema deployment plan, first 3 pillar page briefs, attribution tracking live.
Proposal valid through 19 May 2026. Pricing locked through signing.