On the surface, shifting from a commission-based compensation to an hourly fee-based approach seemed like an astute move for Advertisers. It was supposed to encourage greater transparency and in theory at least, bring agency fees in line with actual service. That did not exactly happen. Agency operations remained opaque and in too many cases inefficient. But the biggest problem with hourly fees is that they do not separate the sheep from the goats. By agreeing to pay upfront for hours of work, not for ideas, clients often pay equally for a bad idea, as they do for a good idea.