Is It Out of Scope? — SEO & marketing
Is creating video content for social ads out of scope for a SEO / marketing project?
Yes. Paid social advertising is a different marketing channel and discipline from organic search — an SEO retainer doesn't extend to it even though both fall under a client's broader marketing umbrella.
Paid social and organic search are both "marketing," which sometimes leads clients to treat their SEO contact as the person for any marketing need, including a channel with a completely different mechanism (paid placement vs. organic ranking) and a completely different creative requirement (video production vs. content and technical optimization).
Is it out of scope?
Yes. Video production for paid social is both a different channel and a different discipline from SEO, and the retainer doesn't cover it under any reasonable framing.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Exclusions clause→ — The retainer covers organic search work — paid social video production is excluded as a different channel and discipline entirely.
Example contract wording
Example contract wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
This is outside our retainer — paid social video production is a different channel and skill set from organic SEO. I'd recommend a specialist in paid social creative or a video editor for this piece; happy to make sure your organic and paid efforts stay aligned on messaging.
How MarginFlow flags it
MarginFlow flags video production requests outside_scope on SEO contracts with high confidence, since paid social and organic search share no deliverables in common — the explanation notes the channel distinction plainly for the account manager.