Agencies avoid publishing prices because they want to quote against your business rather than against a benchmark. So here are the benchmarks.
Two rules before the numbers. First, every figure below is a monthly management and strategy fee. Second, media spend is separate and should be billed to accounts you own, not run through the agency's books. Any agency that insists on holding your ad accounts is building a switching cost, not a service.
The five pricing models, and when each is honest
| Model | Typical shape | Works when | Breaks when | | :-- | :-- | :-- | :-- | | Flat monthly retainer | $2K-$30K/mo | Ongoing programs with defined scope | Scope is undefined and creeps both ways | | Percent of media spend | 10-20% of spend | Spend above roughly $20K/mo | Spend is small, so the fee is too thin to fund real work | | Project or sprint | $5K-$60K one-time | Websites, migrations, audits, tracking builds | Used for SEO or paid media, which need continuity | | Pay per lead | $40-$400 per lead | Commodity lead types you can absorb at volume | Lead definition is vague, or your close rate depends on quality | | Revenue share or performance | Varies | Rare, and only with clean attribution | Attribution is contested, which it usually is |
The percent-of-spend model deserves a specific warning. At $50,000 a month in media, a 15% fee is $7,500 a month, which is reasonable for the workload. At $4,000 a month in media, that same 15% is $600, which funds nobody competent. Small accounts on percentage pricing get neglected by arithmetic, not by malice.
Retainer bands by category
Home services - plumbing, HVAC, roofing, electrical, landscaping, waterproofing. $2,000-$4,000/month for one channel done properly at a single-location shop. $4,000-$8,000/month for a full local program: paid search, LSAs, Google Business Profile, reviews, landing pages, call tracking. $8,000-$15,000/month for multi-location or multi-trade operators. Media floors matter as much as fees: figure $3,000-$5,000/month minimum in a mid-sized metro and $10,000-$30,000 for competitive metros or high-ticket categories.
Dental, med spa, and elective healthcare. $3,000-$6,000/month for a single practice, $6,000-$12,000 for multi-location groups, more when creative production is included. Media typically $3,000-$15,000/month. Cost per new patient, not cost per lead, is the metric that decides whether it is working.
Legal. $3,000-$8,000/month for small firms on local SEO plus a focused paid program. $10,000-$30,000/month mid-size. $30,000-$100,000-plus for competitive-metro personal injury programs with video. Personal injury is its own economy - clicks run $100-$800 in top metros, so underfunded paid search loses on arithmetic. See the personal injury hiring guide for that math.
B2B, SaaS, and MSP. $5,000-$15,000/month is the common band, weighted toward content, demand generation, and sales enablement rather than local search. Sales cycles of six to eighteen months mean judging these programs on pipeline stages, not monthly leads.
Ecommerce. $3,000-$10,000/month in fees, or 10-15% of spend above roughly $50,000/month. Creative production is often the larger real cost, and blended ROAS or contribution margin is the honest scoreboard.
Enterprise and multi-location at scale. $15,000-$60,000-plus per month, at which point compare hard against in-house. Above roughly $20M in revenue the math often favors bringing paid media inside while keeping specialists external. Our in-house versus agency framework walks the cost curve.
What each tier actually buys
- Under $2,000/month. One channel, junior execution, templated reporting. Fine as a starting point if scope is genuinely narrow. Not fine if it is sold as a full program.
- $2,000-$5,000/month. One or two channels run competently, a named account manager, monthly reporting, and modest strategy time. Most local businesses live here and can win here.
- $5,000-$12,000/month. Multi-channel, senior attention, conversion work, real analytics, quarterly strategy. This is where programs start compounding.
- $12,000-$30,000/month. A team rather than a person: specialists per channel, creative production, dedicated strategy, custom reporting.
- Above $30,000/month. Effectively an outsourced department. Should come with named senior staff and executive-level planning.
Signals a price is wrong
Too low. A $1,000 a month "full digital marketing" offer is either offshored template work or a loss leader that will be neglected in 90 days. A $500 a month SEO package cannot fund the hours real SEO takes. In paid media, a fee too small to fund weekly optimization means your budget runs on autopilot.
Too high. Fees above 25-30% of your media spend without unusual scope. Setup fees over roughly $5,000 with no deliverable attached. Mandatory 12-month terms with early termination penalties. Charges for a proprietary platform or website you will lose if you leave.
Structurally wrong regardless of number. Media spend billed through the agency. Website built on a CMS you cannot take with you. Ad accounts under their MCC with no transfer clause. Lead guarantees with no written definition of a qualifying lead.
Budget the whole program, not just the fee
Buyers routinely approve a fee and then underfund the thing the fee manages. The full cost is:
- Agency fee.
- Media spend, usually the larger number in local paid programs.
- Tooling: call tracking, CRM, scheduling, review platform. Typically $100-$600/month.
- Creative and photography, especially in ecommerce and elective healthcare.
- Internal time. Someone on your side must answer calls fast, approve creative, and provide sold-job data. Programs fail here more often than they fail in the ad account.
A useful sanity check across the categories we track: healthy operators spend roughly 6-12% of revenue on total customer acquisition, higher during deliberate growth pushes. If a proposal puts you far outside that band, the question is not the agency's price - it is whether the plan matches the business.
The short version:
- Most retainers land between $2K and $30K a month depending on category and scope. Media is separate.
- Percent-of-spend pricing quietly starves small accounts. Below $20K in media, prefer a flat fee.
- Fees under $2,000 buy one channel, not a program. Be honest about which you are buying.
- Walk away from fees above 25-30% of media, media billed through the agency, or accounts you cannot own.
- Budget media, tooling, creative, and internal time alongside the fee.
- Browse editor-ranked agencies by industry and read the methodology behind the rankings.