Four surveys, four different answers. Here is what each one measured, and what it means for your quote.
Get a Real Number for Your Business →There is no single price list for marketing agencies. There are surveys, and each one measures something different. These are the four we trust enough to quote.
| Source | What it measured | What it found |
|---|---|---|
| SparkToro, State of Digital Agencies 2025 | Average monthly retainer, as reported by agencies | 49% said $1,000 to $5,000. 31% said $5,000 to $10,000. 86% said up to $10,000. |
| Ahrefs, 439 SEO providers | SEO retainers and hourly rates | Agencies average $3,209 a month. Freelancers average $1,348. Average hourly rate is $111. |
| Credo pricing survey (2019) | Agency hourly rates | Agencies average $137.94 an hour. 49.88% do not bill by the hour at all. |
| Clutch, 106,043 companies | Listed rates and reviewed project sizes, worldwide | Most listed agencies charge $25 to $49 an hour. Reviewed projects typically cost $10,000 to $49,999. |
Why do the numbers disagree? Clutch counts agencies all over the world, so low-cost markets pull the hourly rate down. Credo and Ahrefs surveyed providers who answered a poll.
Averages also hide the spread. Ahrefs found the average SEO agency retainer is $3,209, but the most common range is only $500 to $1,000 a month. A few large contracts pull the average up.
A fixed fee each month for an agreed scope of work. It is the most common model. In the SparkToro survey, 85% of agencies said they prefer to work on retainer.
You pay for time. It fits audits and one-off consulting. It is hard to budget, and it rewards slow work.
One price for one deliverable, such as a website, a tracking setup, or an audit. Good when the scope is clear and has an end.
The fee rises with your ad budget or with results. Ask what counts as a result, who counts it, and what happens to the fee when you raise the budget.
Many agencies mix these. A project fee to build, then a marketing agency retainer to run it, is a common pair.
A marketing agency retainer normally covers planning, running the campaigns, and a monthly report. Ask for the list in writing.
These are usually billed on top: the ad spend itself, software and tool fees, and large one-time builds like a new website or a video shoot.
The most common surprise is ad spend. A $3,000 fee with a $5,000 ad budget is an $8,000 month. Ask for both numbers on one page.
The full checklist, with the red flags to watch for, is in how to choose a marketing agency.
Run the math before you sign. Take the fee plus the ad spend. Divide by what one new customer is worth to you.
Say a customer is worth $500 and the fee is $5,000. The agency has to bring ten extra customers a month just to cover its fee, before ad spend. If a customer is worth $20,000, one is enough.
That is why the same agency can be a bargain for one company and a waste for another. Try the numbers in our marketing ROI calculator.
Most agency retainers fall between $1,000 and $10,000 per month. In SparkToro's 2025 survey of digital agencies, 49% reported an average retainer of $1,000 to $5,000 and 31% reported $5,000 to $10,000. Ad spend is extra.
It depends on the survey. Credo found agencies average $137.94 an hour. Ahrefs found SEO agencies average $3,209 a month on retainer. Clutch, which lists agencies worldwide, shows $25 to $49 an hour as the most common listed rate.
Pay what the math supports. Add the fee and the ad spend, then divide by the value of one new customer. If the agency cannot plausibly bring that many customers, the price is too high for your business, whatever the survey average says.
Small engagements sit at the low end of the surveys. Ahrefs found the most common SEO agency retainer is $500 to $1,000 a month, and SparkToro found 49% of agencies average $1,000 to $5,000.
Usually not. The fee pays the agency for its work. The ad spend goes to Google, Meta, or LinkedIn. Ask for both numbers together so you know the full monthly cost.
A retainer is a fixed monthly fee for an agreed scope of work, such as running your search ads and reporting on them. In SparkToro's 2025 survey, 85% of agencies said they prefer to work this way.
It is worth it when the customers it brings are worth more than the fee plus the ad spend. That depends on what a customer is worth to you, so run that math first.
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