Pricing

Your digital marketing pricing guide

How much does digital marketing cost?

Investing in digital marketing is a good idea if you want your business to stay competitive in the digital age. As with any big business decision, it makes sense to consider all the costs involved before diving in.

Digital marketing encompasses a wide range of services: search engine optimization, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, social media management, web design, and more. Realistically, digital marketing pricing can range anywhere from $50 to $100,000 per month based on the services and strategies you choose. We know, we know — that’s a huge range.

Just like any big business expense, with digital marketing, you often get what you pay for. But you shouldn’t have to drain your savings to benefit from top-tier marketing strategies. If you want to make the most of your marketing budget, understand exactly what factors into digital marketing pricing and how that reflects in your ROI.

In this guide, we’ll break down the ins and outs of digital marketing pricing to help you make an informed investment decision for your business. When you’re ready to get specific, contact Connective for a quote tailored to your business needs.

Understanding the cost of digital marketing

You’ve probably heard that digital marketing is an important strategy for modern businesses. But if you’re like many business owners, you don’t know exactly what this elusive “digital marketing” entails and why it should cost your business thousands of dollars a month.

Digital marketing includes countless strategies that engage your audience on digital platforms — where they’re already choosing to spend their time. Showing up on Google search results, social media, email, and relevant websites helps you capture leads and convert them into sales at a much faster rate than simply letting them find your business the old-fashioned way.

And oh, yeah — if your business doesn’t invest in digital marketing, potential customers will find your competitors instead of you 9 times out of 10.

Through strategies like SEO, PPC, social media, and email campaigns, you can reach more potential customers and land more sales. But what causes these strategies to vary so much in price?

What drives the cost of digital marketing?

Digital marketing pricing depends on a range of factors, such as:

• Scope of the service
• Complexity of the strategy
• Your business’s goals

If your business already has a solid digital presence and not many competitors, you probably won’t need to pay much for monthly marketing services.

But if you’re in an oversaturated market with competitors that solidly fill the top five internet search results for all related terms, you’ll probably need more complex strategies to make your mark.

Costs also depend on which services you purchase and how a business structures its pricing model. For example, SEO alone costs $1,500 to $5,000 per month on average. Paying à la carte for all the services you need may be more expensive than choosing a business with comprehensive service packages.

Digital marketing isn’t a quick and easy process. When you invest in this service, a team of professionals spends countless hours on and pours in-depth expertise into your business’s success and visibility. In other words, it’s worth the investment.

Key factors influencing digital marketing costs

By this point in our guide, you’ve probably realized there’s no definitive answer to “How much does digital marketing cost?” Many elements impact your costs, even aside from simply how a business structures its pricing. Here’s a breakdown to help you:

1. Business-specific factors

One of the major goals of digital marketing is to help you stand out among competitors. So, the industry you’re in makes a huge difference in how much you’ll need to pay to rise to the top.

For example, a small local bakery may have a harder time making its voice heard than an e-commerce giant. Yet the local bakery also won’t have as many direct competitors or need to stand out in such a saturated market.

The size of your market also makes a difference. Are you targeting customers locally, nationally, or internationally? The answer affects how challenging SEO and PPC are for your business’s visibility. Do you need to rank highly for Google searches in your city, or in the entire world?

Finally, your business size affects digital marketing pricing. Startups may pay more to create a solid online presence from the ground up. Major enterprises already have brand awareness and need to focus their marketing efforts on more specialized strategies. They also need to increase their marketing budgets relative to their business size.

2. Service-specific factors

Digital marketing services can take many forms, and the exact services you purchase impact costs.

• Scope of work: While paying for bundled services could decrease the cost per service, a comprehensive package may not be worth your money if you only need a standalone service, like SEO.
• Timeline: Some strategies (like PPC) produce faster results than other strategies (like SEO). The amount of time a marketer must spend on your services also affects costs.
• Type of business: Whether you hire a solo freelancer, a digital marketing agency, or an in-house marketing staff significantly affects costs — and the amount of labor you receive in turn.
• Professional expertise: This is where the old adage “You get what you pay for” really comes in. You’ll pay more for professional expertise and years of experience, but you’ll see those costs shine through the quality, personalization, and success of your services.

Average digital marketing costs

With all of that said, you’re probably ready to hear some actual numbers. These average ranges can help you narrow down exactly how much you’ll pay for digital marketing services.

Digital marketing pricing models

So, how do marketers calculate the costs of their services? Digital marketing agencies use an array of pricing models. The right one for you depends on your business needs, budget, and goals.

1. Hourly pricing

Some marketers charge an hourly rate for specific services, often ranging between $80 and $200 per hour. While this may initially sound affordable, it may prove the most expensive pricing model, depending on your business needs. Consider that SEO takes several hours of work each week, spanning anywhere from three to six months.

Hourly pricing is best for short-term projects or specific tasks. If you currently have no digital marketing presence, paying hourly for services probably won’t be sustainable for your business. But if you just need a business to revamp your web design, paying hourly rates may make sense.

2. Flat project-based pricing

If you need a few one-time campaigns to get your digital marketing strategy off the ground, flat project-based fees may be the most affordable option. In this case, a marketer will charge a flat rate for an entire project, like launching a website or creating a month-long email campaign.

With flat-rate pricing, you can test out a company’s services before committing to an ongoing partnership. But remember: Many digital marketing strategies need ongoing adjustments to continue attracting customers to your business. One-time campaigns won’t do much for your business in the long run.

3. Monthly retainers

If you want a digital marketing agency to take care of you long-term, you’ll likely pay a monthly retainer. This rate covers ongoing services and usually starts at around $1,000 per month.

Digital marketers may charge different monthly retainers depending on what services are included. But when you pay a monthly retainer, you can expect the marketer to spend as much time as necessary on your strategies each month to deliver worthwhile results.

4. Performance-based pricing

If you want to focus on achieving specific goals with your marketing strategies, like acquiring X number of leads or landing X sales each month, look for performance-based pricing. This pricing model includes fees tied to achieving measurable outcomes.

A marketer will charge you a specific rate and continue shaping your campaign until you meet pre-established goals. From there, you can reassess your strategy and set fresh goals with a new price attached to them.

5. Packaged pricing

The most straightforward pricing model is packaged pricing, which bundles several strategies into one clearly priced package. This model lets you anticipate your costs from month to month and provides a hands-off approach. Packages often cover all the services you need for a full-fledged marketing campaign.

The cost of a digital marketing package can range between $1,000 to $20,000 depending on the services included and the complexity of the strategy.

What do digital marketing services include?

When you consider digital marketing pricing, what exactly are you paying for? Any digital marketing agency that knows its stuff will offer the following services — and recommend a package that includes all of them. These core services are all vital to your business’s online presence and ability to convert leads.

• SEO: Optimizing your website and other online platforms to rank highly in search results. Services include on-page, off-page, and technical optimization, which each signal to Google to display your website near the top of search results.
• PPC advertising: Creating paid search and display campaigns that get your business in front of the right people. These ads follow a pay-per-click strategy, meaning you only pay when someone clicks on them.
• Content marketing: Blogs, whitepapers, and infographics that boost your authority in the eyes of your audience and improve your SEO. Google prefers websites that post regularly and keep content up to date.
• Social media: Organic and paid strategies that engage your audience on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms. Social media is huge for fostering loyalty among customers.
• Email marketing: Sending professional marketing emails to specific segments of your target audience. Email marketing is a long-term strategy that includes campaign creation, segmentation, and automation.
• Web design: Creating a beautiful, user-friendly website that shows off your business’s unique selling points and convinces users to act. Web design can range from basic websites to complex e-commerce solutions.

Why invest in digital marketing?

If your main takeaway from this article is that “digital marketing is pricy,” hear us out. Digital marketing can cost your business thousands of dollars a month. But a good digital marketing strategy will deliver an excellent return on investment, gaining you back much more than you spend.

Revenue growth

The goal of digital marketing is to bring more customers to your door. More customers equals higher revenue for your business.

Certain strategies, like PPC and SEO, can significantly boost your revenue. These campaigns:

• Position your business in front of people who are already looking for your type of services
• Paint your business as a respectable and trustworthy option
• Expand your reach into untapped markets

All of these benefits lead to more customers paying for your services. By hiring a professional marketer to carry out these services for you, you can refine your marketing spend so that you only pay for the most effective strategies. You won’t waste any time or money in the process.

Brand awareness

Potential customers need to know about your brand before they can decide to hire you. One of the major goals of digital marketing is raising brand awareness, or introducing your business to more and more people.

In the old days, when only one of each business existed in a town, brand awareness wasn’t necessary. Every citizen knew where to go for medical services, clothes, and repair jobs because there was only one option.

Today, you likely have several competitors within a few miles of your business, let alone within your entire service area. It’s a fact that without digital marketing, most people won’t even know your business exists.

In this sense, digital marketing isn’t just a good idea for your business. It’s a necessity if you want to reach customers who have no other means of finding out about your company. If digital marketing pricing intimidates you, keep in mind that without it, your business will struggle to attract any new customers.

Market expansion

Brand awareness goes hand in hand with market expansion. Right now, only a select number of people know about your business. If you don’t have a digital marketing strategy, those people probably found your business through one of these methods:

• Drove past your location and saw the sign
• Received a recommendation from a friend or family member
• Found you in a brochure or mailer
• Saw your trucks driving around the local community

These methods can only reach so many people — and you’ve most likely already reached the majority of them.

If your revenue is stagnant, you need to expand your market to people who have never heard of your business. This involves creating a wide-reaching online presence that people stumble upon when they search for businesses in your industry.

Have you ever heard the proverb “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”? This isn’t necessarily true for digital marketing. You can lead people to your website and other online platforms with digital marketing, then convince them to hire you with tailored strategies.

The right marketing campaigns let you reach untapped audiences and significantly expand your target market.

Competitiveness

If nothing else, digital marketing helps you stay competitive in your niche. It prevents you from continually losing business to competitors who do have digital marketing strategies in place. You’ll start ranking above competitors in search engines, appearing before them in ad spots, and becoming even more well known in the community than them.

FAQs on digital marketing

How much should I budget for digital marketing?

You should budget anywhere between $2,000 and $20,000 per month for digital marketing, depending on your goals.

What’s the difference between packaged and custom pricing?

Packaged pricing includes set services, while custom pricing tailors services to your specific needs.

Is digital marketing worth the cost?

Digital marketing is well worth the cost. It provides measurable ROI and helps you achieve long-term business goals.

Conclusion: Investing in digital marketing

Now you know all the factors impacting digital marketing pricing and an estimate of how much you’ll pay for each type of service. Understanding your potential costs can help you accurately budget for digital marketing and anticipate how it will affect your bottom line.

While some companies offer packaged pricing, it’s best to look for a marketer who can tailor strategies and pricing according to your needs. Personalized services will maximize your ROI.

Want an even better idea of your business’s digital marketing pricing? Contact Connective today to discuss your digital marketing goals and receive a custom quote.