Digital Marketing Agency Pricing

Unfortunately, in this industry, it’s not as easy as just displaying just one price. If you ask 10 digital marketing agencies for their prices, you’ll probably get 10 completely different responses. 

Due to a number of factors, digital marketing agency's pricing can fluctuate depending on several factors, which we’ll explain later in this post.

How much marketing agencies charge

You’ll often find that on most agencies' websites, they’re very reluctant to share their prices and that’s understandable, but to give you a rough idea of prices by service,  Statista has outlined the following.

It’s important to note that these figures are averages and will fluctuate by agency, service, project etc.

But from this research, you can see that on average, the cheapest service by day rate is SEO, with an average price of £394.75. On the other end of the scale are content marketing and PPC, each with an average price of £725 per day!

If you’re wanting to focus on monthly retainer prices, you’ll see that paid social media tends to be the cheapest at £578.50 per month. Coming in at the other end is PPC. An average monthly PPC retainer will cost you £1040.90.

For one-off projects, prices can be a little different. Ranging from just £266 for paid social media, all the way up to £5452.30 for website projects.

The factors that can influence the pricing of digital marketing

We’re aware that budgets can vary, and so can prices, and as we mentioned earlier, there are a number of factors that can influence how much marketing agencies charge. We’ve explained the main factors influencing these fluctuations below.

Agency rate

Like with any business, prices vary per service provider. Many digital marketing agencies will charge different rates depending on various factors, including location, experience, and specialisms.

Project/ task complexity

As we mentioned earlier, projects vary and therefore pricing has to be adapted to suit. Some projects may include the same services but on a completely different scale and they’re therefore priced accordingly. 

For example, company A wants to run a PPC campaign promoting their one product line. Company B also wants a PPC campaign, but they want to promote 150 product lines. Obviously, they’re both PPC campaigns but require a different amount of setup and management so will incur different costs.

Packages of services

Some agencies package up services when applicable. The table further up this post shows the average price of digital marketing by service but doesn’t account for a combination of more than one service.

For example, if your company is looking for social media management, PPC and SEO, it’s likely the agency you approach will provide you with a package, usually cheaper than the individual services combined.

Timeline

If your project has a fast turnaround, often as this means that agencies will have to rearrange their current workload, they’ll usually charge a little extra. However, on the other hand, if you’re in no rush, it may get you some discount.

Budgets

Budgets can influence the prices that you’re paying to your digital marketing agency. This is especially true with a service like PPC. If the digital marketing agency you choose charges a percentage of your spending, obviously prices will fluctuate with different budgets.

Digital marketing agency pricing models

Usually, digital marketing agencies will use a specific pricing model for each of their services, but this could fluctuate per client, service or project. Some examples of these pricing models are: 

1. Hourly rates - an agency charges a set fee per hour. However, although you’ll get an estimate, there’s no guarantee on how many hours a project will take.
   

2. Flat fees - a project-based pricing model that provides you with an overall price for your project from start to completion - no surprises.
   
   Retainers - covering monthly work on a recurring basis. This is usually paid upfront for the work.
   

3. Results-based pricing - this pricing model is becoming pretty popular with measurable services. The more an agency returns, the more you pay them.
   

4. Custom pricing - if you’re getting something completely custom, it may require custom pricing.

Digital marketing services pricing

We've been exploring the pricing of each separate digital marketing channel and the factors that can affect these costs, so make sure you check out the rest of our digital marketing blog to find out more. Here, you can find out how much PPC management costs, how much SEO costs and how much a website costs, to help you get an idea of the price you should be paying for digital marketing services.

Should you hire an agency?

If you're reading this article, you must be, at the very least, considering hiring a digital marketing agency, and that's a great position to be in.

Digital marketing agencies are experts in their field and have years of experience under their belts. But we’ll be honest, not everyone can benefit from their services. We’ve written a handy post that covers this subject: “Should I hire a digital marketing agency?”