It’s fun to look at a marketing agency’s site and find the prices… nowhere.
We get the frustration. You just want to know how much marketing costs but it says, “Please call for a consultation and pricing”.
The average cost of marketing services, anything from $900 to $20,000, doesn’t help clear up much either.
It's difficult to find a single average number for the cost of marketing services. So many factors (like type of marketing, location, and experience) affect the price, even so, after some detailed research, we came up with an average range for the prices of different marketing agency types.
Key Takeaway:
Several factors influence the cost of marketing services, including the size, location, and experience of an agency. Different types of marketing agencies have unique pricing models, but it can be hard to find a quote online.
On average, you can expect to pay between $900 to $20,000 a month for your marketing services. B2B companies should reserve 2-5% of their revenue for marketing, and B2C companies should allocate 6-14%.
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Table of Contents
- Factors That Impact the Cost of Marketing Services
- Marketing Agency Pricing List
- How Much Does a PPC Marketing Agency Cost?
- What Does a Branding Marketing Agency Cost?
- What Does a Content Marketing Agency Cost?
- How Much Does a Growth Marketing Agency Cost?
- How Much Does an Affiliate Marketing Agency Cost?
- How Much Does an SEO Agency Cost?
- How Much Does a Linkbuilding Agency Cost?
- How Much Does an Email Marketing Agency Cost?
- How Much Does a Social Media Marketing Agency Cost?
- How Much Does an Influencer Marketing Agency Cost?
- How Much Does a Digital PR Agency Cost?
- How Much Does an eCommerce Marketing Agency Cost?
- How Much Does an Experiential Marketing Agency Cost?
- How Much Does a CRO Agency Cost?
- How Much Does a SaaS Agency Cost?
- How Much Does a Graphic Design Agency Cost?
- How Much Does a Web Design Agency Cost?
- Conclusion: Marketing Services Can Be Expensive, But Worth It
- Frequently Asked Questions
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An added benefit of our relationships is that we always try to negotiate exclusive discounts for our visitors.
Factors That Impact the Cost of Marketing Services
You’re going to notice that we’ve listed quite a large range of prices for these. That’s because… there is quite a large range of prices for digital marketing agencies.
There are dozens of factors that affect the pricing for these marketing agencies, including:
- Size
- Location
- Size of the client’s company
- Scope of work
- Number of services offered
- Level of experience
- Industry expertise
- Time required for the project
- …and more
Marketing Agency Pricing List
Here’s a breakdown of marketing agency prices based on the type of marketing:
How Much Does a PPC Marketing Agency Cost?
Paid ads or PPC marketing agencies typically cost small-to-medium-sized businesses $9,000 to $20,000 per month. That estimate is based on a monthly minimum of $1,500 and a percentage of the total cost of ad spend (or around $3 per click.)
Since this type of advertising is based on total ad spend, the pricing can differ drastically.
Typical PPC Pricing Models
PPC agencies typically charge a percentage of the total ad spend as their fee, usually 15% to 30%.
PPC Agency Pricing Range
- Range: $3.5K to $35K + Percent of Ad Spend
- Average Retainer: $8K
The average retainer is important for agencies to properly set up, strategize, and manage your campaign.
The most successful ad agencies comprise of a hybrid of retainer + percent of ad spend because as your ad spends increase, the amount of work and effort needed to maximize your revenue increases.
What Does a Branding Marketing Agency Cost?
Branding strategy services cost $150 to $300 on an hourly pricing model or $5,000 to $100,000 per project.
Typical Brand Marketing Pricing Models
Branding strategy agencies often charge an hourly rate or per project.
Branding Agency Pricing Range
- Range: $7.5K – $150K
- Average Retainer: $15K
Branding comprises of a logo, color palette, typography, imagery, brand guidelines, iconography, patterns and textures, stationery, photography style, stationery, and more…
You need to know how important these elements are to you in presenting your differentiators and acquiring new customers to your clients. This can help you better determine how much to spend.
What Does a Content Marketing Agency Cost?
Content marketing agencies cost between $2,500 and $30,000 per month.
Typical Content Marketing Pricing Models
Content marketing agencies often charge a monthly retainer fee for their services.
Content Marketing Agency Pricing Range
- Range:$2.3K – $30K
- Average Retainer: $5K/month
How Much Does a Growth Marketing Agency Cost?
Growth marketing agencies have a full-service approach to helping clients grow their businesses and typically charge between $50 to $500 hourly, depending on the agency size and the number of services.
Since the services can vary greatly with these agencies, it’s hard to find an exact average.
Typical Growth Marketing Pricing Models
Growth marketing agencies typically charge an hourly rate based on the size of the job and how many services they offer.
Growth Marketing Agency Pricing Range
- Range: $3.5K – $28K
- Average Retainer: $10K/month
A good example Growth marketing agency retainer is Brenton Way – the agency would put together an average retainer based on a client's short & long-term goals.
For example, consider a beauty product that is trying to expand into the U.S. market.
The team will plan stages of the marketing expansion from pre-marketing of each channel, analysis, strategy, creative, and execution of all of the marketing efforts which will typically require multiple team members involved.
- Check out our guide on how to hire a growth marketer and popular trends in growth marketing
How Much Does an Affiliate Marketing Agency Cost?
Affiliate marketing agencies charge based on a percentage, with projects starting at $5,000.
Typical Affiliate Marketing Pricing Models
Affiliate agencies charge a percentage of the money made on affiliate partnerships, usually between 5% and 30%.
Affiliate Marketing Agency Pricing Range
Affiliate agencies charge between $5,000 and $20,000 per project/month.
How Much Does an SEO Agency Cost?
Most SEO agencies charge a monthly retainer of $8,000 to $25,500 or $75 to $200 per hour.
Typical SEO Pricing Models
SEO agencies typically use a monthly retainer pricing model for SEO services.
SEO Agency Pricing Range
- Range: $1K – $40K
- Average Retainer: $7.5K/month
A use case for an average retainer is an Ecommerce company that is looking to build rankings for long-tailed keywords in their vertical.
SEO agencies' pricing depends on how technical their work is and how strategic they are able to build your SEO campaigns across your entire website. SEO has gotten harder and backlinks are much harder to capture.
How Much Does a Linkbuilding Agency Cost?
Link-building agencies usually charge for a minimum number of links, and the subsequent per-link price is affected by the quality of each link.
Typically, they will charge $50 to $1,500 per link. They offer packages that include a certain number of minimum links for a set price.
Typical Linkbuilding Pricing Models
Most link-building agencies charge for a minimum number of links and then charge a certain price per link that is affected by the quality of the links based on the DR of the website.
Linkbuilding Agency Pricing Range
A single link landed by a link-building agency can cost anywhere from $50 to $1,500, or between $5,000 to $20,000 per month for a package containing 5-20 links.
How Much Does an Email Marketing Agency Cost?
Email marketing agencies charge anywhere from $500 to $13,000 based on a monthly retainer model.
Typical Email Marketing Pricing Models
Email marketing agencies usually charge a monthly retainer for their services.
Email Marketing Agency Pricing Range
- Range: $1K – $50K
- Average Retainer: $7K/month
The average retailer for Email marketing would focus on setting up 2-3 monthly email marketing funnels, and 2-3 email marketing campaigns that are focused on specific events related to the business.
How Much Does a Social Media Marketing Agency Cost?
Social media agencies cost $750 to $40,000 monthly as a retainer fee.
Typical Social Media Pricing Models
Social media marketing agencies, who have experience in platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, usually charge a monthly retainer fee, while some charge per project or hourly.
Social Media Agency Pricing Range
- Range: $1K – $100K
- Average Retainer: $9K/month
Social media pricing can range from a simple $1k/mo for a social media manager to create lite graphics and copy to over $40k/mo for more strategic, unique, and goal-oriented social campaigns.
Depending on how important social media is in your marketing mix and the type of industry you’re in is what you can use as a rule-of-thumb on your budget.
How Much Does an Influencer Marketing Agency Cost?
Influencer agencies charge around $1,000 to $18,000 based on a flat monthly fee, commission, or a combination of the two.
Some charge per post and based on the size of the influencer’s platform, with micro-influencers costing $100 per post and mega influencers with over a million subscribers charging upwards of $10,000 per post.
Typical Influencer Marketing Pricing Models
Influencer agencies often charge using a flat monthly fee or a commission model. Some agencies charge a combination of a base monthly fee and an additional performance-based commission.
Influencer Marketing Agency Pricing Range
- Range: $5K – $250K
- Average Retainer: $14K/month
Influencer marketing is the art of finding influencers across social channels and helping them promote your brand. Smaller influencers termed Micro Influencers typically charge around $500 per promotional post to $5,000 and influencers with a bigger following can charge upwards of $500,000 for promotional content.
Influencers can be a profitable channel and the best recommendation is to hone in on influencers that cater specifically to your target audience and customer avatar.
How Much Does a Digital PR Agency Cost?
Digital PR agencies typically offer a price based on the overall campaign that includes the number of deliverables the client signs up for, and these costs start at $1,000 per project.
Some instead use a monthly retainer model, which costs $5,000 to $90,000 per month.
There are largely successful companies in both the U.S. and the U.K., U.K. companies are generally less expensive than those based in the U.S., though they deliver the same results.
Typical Digital PR Pricing Models
Digital PR agencies typically charge by campaign and have a minimum number of deliverables that the client signs up for. Some do opt for a monthly retainer model instead.
Digital PR Agency Pricing Range
- Range: $5K -$100K
- Average Retainer: $12K/month
Digital PR services can get pretty costly especially when you work with digital magazines and publications. With Digital PR you are mainly paying for the connections that the PR agency has in place.
Getting placed into major publications like Forbes are major opportunities for certain brands so the best way is to understand the types of features you are looking for and how much you value those.
How Much Does an eCommerce Marketing Agency Cost?
eCommerce marketing agencies typically charge based on a monthly fee of around $2,000.
Typical eCommerce Marketing Pricing Models
eCommerce marketing agencies usually charge based on a monthly fee model, though some opt for a per project or hourly rate.
eCommerce Marketing Agency Pricing Range
It’s recommended that eCommerce businesses spend between 10% to 12% of their monthly revenue in marketing. On average, eCommerce agencies cost between $2,500 and $12,000 per month.
- Range: $8K – $50K + Percent of Ad Spend
- Average Retainer: $14K/month
There are different formats of how Ecommerce agencies can charge. Certain agencies opt for a lower upfront retainer and offer the percentages of total ad spend. This might be better for Ecommerce brands that are already established and have an in-house marketing team that can think critically and are just looking for performance through ads.
The more stable option is working with agencies that have a higher retainer upfront to manage all of your marketing efforts, plan out the strategy, and help execute the marketing and charge a lower percent of ad spend to make sure there are enough resources to manage the ads that scale.
How Much Does an Experiential Marketing Agency Cost?
Experiential agencies typically charge between $3,000 and $250,000 per event.
Typical Experiential Marketing Pricing Models
Experiential marketing agencies charge per event.
Experiential Marketing Agency Pricing Range
Events curated by experiential marketing agencies cost anywhere from $3,000 to upwards of $250,000, depending on size.
Experiential marketing can be a small booth-style event that you hold at a coworking space to an upscale marketing event where you invite celebrities & influencers to attend a museum or a mall.
How Much Does a CRO Agency Cost?
Conversion optimization (CRO) agencies charge a fixed fee or FTE (full-time equivalent) price based on hours worked, and this ranges from $250 to $300 per hour, or around $16,000 per month.
Typical CRO Pricing Models
Conversion optimization, or CRO, agencies charge either a fixed fee based on the whole project or an FTE charge based on how many hours the team works on the project.
CRO Agency Pricing Range
- Range: $4K – $30K
- Average Retainer: $6K/month
How Much Does a SaaS Agency Cost?
SaaS agencies can charge anywhere from $100 to $250 per hour or $1,000 to $25,000 per month.
Typical SaaS Marketing Pricing Models
Most SaaS agencies charge a flat monthly fee or set hourly rate for services.
SaaS Agency Pricing Range
- Range: $5K – $20K
- Average Retainer: $10K/month
How Much Does a Graphic Design Agency Cost?
Graphic design agencies' cost:
- Per hour: $65-$200
- Monthly Retainer: $500-$10,000
- Project:$300 for something like a logo design.
There are also unlimited graphic design agencies that offer an unlimited number of different types of graphic designs for one set monthly rate, usually somewhere between $300 and $600 per month ($399 on average). These are usually a great deal if you need more than a few digital graphic designs done each month
Typical Graphic Design Pricing Models
Graphic design agencies often use a monthly fee pricing model, but some work for an hourly rate or per project. Check out our post for a full breakdown of graphic design service pricing info.
Unlimited graphic design agencies offer an unlimited number of designs for one low monthly fee, which can save businesses a lot of money when compared to an hourly or project-based fee.
Graphic Design Agency Pricing Range
- Range: $1K – $25K
- Average Retainer: $6K/month
A strong graphic design agency will make your brand stand out from the monotonous content that is out there. If you’re looking to help build a stronger brand presence then we recommend choosing agencies that have a foundation in building modern creatives within the average retainer.
How Much Does a Web Design Agency Cost?
Web design agencies often charge per project around $1,000 to $150,000 per project or per month.
Typical Web Design Pricing Models
Many web design agencies charge per project for a site design, while some opt for a monthly retainer fee instead.
Web Design Agency Pricing Range
- Range: $4K – $150K
- Average Retainer: $10K (one time)
Web design consists of multiple factors: Design, technical, automation, conversion, branding, development, retargeting, and marketing… plus more.
Web design projects for e-commerce will typically be higher than a project for a local dentist because of these factors.
Conclusion: Marketing Services Can Be Expensive, But Worth It
Marketing agency prices can be a bit elusive, but I hope we’ve cleared up the basics so you have a better idea of what to expect.
Remember that location, agency expertise, type of marketing, and many other factors will influence the price. Evaluate your business needs and budget to determine which type of marketing agency you need and how much you’re willing to pay.
Choosing the right agency, while balancing cost and quality, is key to driving growth and enhancing brand visibility!
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We partnered up with Growth Virality, who provided the list of agency pricing info from vetted agencies in their network.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much of my budget should be dedicated to marketing?
B2B businesses should spend around 2% to 5% of their revenue, while B2C should dedicate anywhere from 6% to 14% of revenue.
How much should I spend a month on marketing?
You should spend 2 to 14% of your revenue per month on marketing.
What is an agency fee?
An agency fee is how much an agency charges for deliverables based on their services.
Why is it so hard to find marketing agency pricing?
It’s hard to find marketing agency pricing because each agency offers different customizable services, and each client has different needs.
What is a typical marketing agency fee?
Marketing agency costs range anywhere from $900 to $20,000 per month on average, depending on the type of agency.
How does marketing agency pricing work?
Marketing agency pricing is based on different types of models (hourly, retainer, etc) and depends on the services offered or performance outcomes.
How much do I charge for my marketing services?
If you’re a marketing agency, you could charge anywhere from $50 to $200 per hour.
Is it worth it to hire a marketing agency?
It’s definitely worth it to hire a marketing agency as they have the expertise and experience to level up your marketing efforts and often yield a high ROI.