How Much Do Marketing Agencies Charge? 

In order to attract new leads and expand your accounting business online, you’re going to need a strong online presence from every single aspect - whether it’s the design of your brand or website, SEO strategies, social media posting, or even your Google Ads.

Everything has to be in tip-top shape. 

In order to achieve this, many people either try to do it by themselves, whilst balancing a hundred other things, or they outsource to multiple digital marketing agencies, which leaves their ROI pretty weak.

In this article, we’re going to reveal the answer to the $1,000 (or $50,000 in some cases) question, ‘’how much do marketing agencies cost?"

Let’s dive in.

A Walk Through of How Much Marketing Agencies Charge

When it comes to digital marketing, it can be hard to know where to start.

Below, we'll walk through the various marketing agencies you can hire - from design to social media to website development - to give you a better idea of what to expect in terms of cost.

Marketing Agency Cost: Design

Like every type of agency on our list, the cost of a design agency will vary depending on the size of the client or the project, the expertise of the designer, the complexity of work involved, how many iterations are required, and so on.

Remember: design is subjective. You may be happy with a beginner designer from Upwork or opt for a more experienced (and pricey) design firm.

When hiring an experienced design agency, you can expect to pay between $150-$200 per hour for ongoing design work.

Many branding projects will cost around $5,000 to complete.

Tip: New subscription-based design companies can give you a better bang for your buck by providing unlimited designs per month. Our favorites include Superside ($2,000 / month) for expert design and Many Pixels ($550 / month) for a more affordable option. Check them out!

Marketing Agency Cost: Social Media

Many accounting and bookkeeping businesses will hire a social media marketing agency to keep social pages (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest) up to date.

The cost of a social media agency will typically start around $800 per month and grow to $4000 per month, depending on what's required.

Here are the variables that can drive up or down the cost:

• Number of platforms to manage
• Number of posts per week
• Experience of the social media manager
• Content creation - is the content already written? Is it already designed?
• Minutes of engagement

Tip: As a small business, it's rare that you'll need to hire a dedicated social media agency. We recommend finding a full-stack marketing agency who can provide social media among other services, or searching on Upwork for an affordable, reputable freelancer to manage 1 or 2 platforms that you care about most.

Marketing Agency Cost: Website Development  

Website development is one of the most costly marketing agencies you can hire for your accounting firm.

Depending on a few factors, agencies will charge anywhere from $5,000 to over $100,000 for a new accounting website.

CPAs on a low budget may decide to do it themselves through monthly subscription websites like Squarespace or Wix, however, the finished project will never achieve the quality of that done by professionals.

At Markology, we recommend ourselves for your website development company.. of course! However, if opting for another provider, we recommend spending no more than $10,000 on your website.

Look for a website developer who places a strong emphasis on user experience, speed, and SEO - not just design. Remember, the point of your website is to generate more leads for your accounting firm!

Tip: Hiring a web designer can be costly but it's one of those areas we strongly recommend outsourcing. It takes all aspects of the technical hassle out of your head and your hands, and ensures you receive a quality product that will evolve with time.

Marketing Agency Cost: SEO

SEO is a marketing skill that's close to our hearts. When done well, it's essentially free marketing for your accounting or bookkeeping business.

Business owners don't typically opt to try SEO themselves, which is good considering the skill and experience involved in ranking your website above competitors.

SEO is something that can tremendously impact the success of a marketing campaign and grow your business, but it’s also something that requires an expert in order to best thrive in it.

Tip: SEO pricing from digital marketing agencies is all over the place. Whilst some can charge around $500, others pay a huge $5000 per month just to keep traffic driving to their website. Make sure your SEO agency isn't outsourcing any work!

Marketing Agency Cost: Facebook / Google Ads

Google Ads are a go-to marketing technique, and similar to all of the above, you’re going to need marketing experts to handle it for you.

Unfortunately, many marketing agencies charge exorbitant prices for Google & Facebook Ads management, with pricing beginning at $1000/month simply for maintenance.

Tip: Find a full-stack company that includes this in their services. When opting for Google Ads, you're going to end up spending a bit of money. For instance, around $1,500 needs to be spent on Ads alone if you’re hoping to see any sort of real success. Paying a lump sum of money to an agency that only provides this service is unnecessary for what you need as a small business.

What We Recommend

If you’re somebody that only needs one service, i.e Google Ads, which of course we don’t recommend, then using a specialized marketing agency may be the way to go.

However, if you’re a small business that cares about longevity in your results, you’re definitely going to need to take a multi-prong approach to your digital marketing strategy.

Here at Markology, we were once in charge of marketing at top companies that were constantly being price gouged by digital marketing agencies. Seeing this regularly made us think that there definitely had to be a better way - and there is!

With this idea in mind, we designed a subscription model for small businesses that covers website design, SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and paid advertising - all for just one set monthly fee.

Sounds interesting, right? You can learn more about what we do or ask us a question about marketing any time. We're always here to help.

Until next time!