What is Digital marketing services pricing per month?
Hey everyone,
I've been running my small business for about 3 years now and I'm finally at a point where I want to take digital marketing seriously. Up until now I've been doing everything myself — some Google Ads here, posting on social media there, basic SEO when I have time. Honestly, it's been hit or miss.
I've started getting quotes from a few agencies and freelancers and the pricing is all over the place. Some are quoting $500/month, others are throwing out numbers like $5,000+. I'm trying to figure out what's actually reasonable.
A few things I'm hoping to learn from this community:
- What are you currently paying per month for digital marketing services? (SEO, PPC, social, whatever mix you're running)
- What's included in that price? Like, is it just management fees or does it include ad spend? Is content creation part of it or extra?
- Are you working with an agency, freelancer, or in-house person? Curious how the pricing differs.
- Looking back, was it worth it? Did you see actual ROI or did you feel like you were paying for activity rather than results?
- Any red flags I should watch out for? I've already had one agency promise me "guaranteed #1 rankings" which felt sketchy, but I'm not sure what else to look for.
For context — I run a service-based business doing around $400K/year in revenue. Mostly B2C, local customers but also some online sales. I'm willing to invest if it actually moves the needle, but I don't want to set fire to money either.
Appreciate any honest feedback. Not looking for agencies to DM me, just trying to learn from people who've been through this.
Thanks!