Pricing
Digital marketing agency pricing, explained
Two businesses asking for “SEO” rarely need the same work, so we do not publish a price list for agency work. These guides show what drives the price of each service, so you can judge any quote, ours included.
In this section
What an agency fee pays for
An agency fee buys three things: people’s time, the tools they work with, and sometimes media, meaning the ad spend that goes on to Google or Meta. Time is most of it. Strategy, writing, design, development, campaign management and reporting are all hours, and a quote is a promise about how those hours will be spent.
That is why two quotes for “SEO” or “a website” can sit far apart and both be fair. One covers a plugin setup and a monthly ranking report. The other covers rewriting your service pages, fixing the site, earning links and tying each visit to a booked appointment. Compare what each one delivers before you compare totals.
Agency work has no price list for the same reason. The one exception is software: our booking forms have published plans, priced per seat. For everything else we send a fixed quote after a first call, priced on the work your business needs, and the quote says how results will be judged: booked appointments, qualified leads and revenue by source.
Retainer, project or setup plus monthly: which model fits
| Model | How it works | Fits best |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | A set fee each month for an agreed, ongoing scope of work | Work that builds over time: SEO, GEO, ad management, social media |
| Fixed project | One price for a defined deliverable, with a start and an end | Websites, audits, site migrations, CRM setup, a tracking rebuild |
| Setup plus monthly | A one-off fee for the build (accounts, tracking, pages), then a monthly fee to run it | Ads, local SEO and lead handling, where the first weeks carry most of the build |
| Performance-based | Part or all of the fee depends on an agreed result, such as qualified leads or booked appointments | Accounts with clean tracking and a written definition of a qualified lead |
| Hourly or day rate | Time billed as it is used | Advice, training and reviews of an in-house team’s work |
What a fair quote contains
Whatever the service, a quote you can hold an agency to has these lines in it.
- The scope as deliverables and quantities: pages, campaigns, posts, locations, languages
- Setup work on its own line, apart from the monthly fee
- Ad spend and software subscriptions shown apart from the agency fee
- What you must supply: approvals, photos, product details, access, a contact who answers
- The results reported each month, and how a lead or a booking is counted
- Your ad accounts, analytics, Google Business Profile and domain kept in your name
- The minimum term, the notice period and what you keep when you leave
- What is excluded, so nothing comes back later as an extra
How to compare two quotes
Rewrite both as the same list: monthly deliverables, setup work, what you must supply, what gets reported, who owns the accounts. The gaps show quickly. A cheaper quote often leaves out the copywriting, the tracking or the landing pages, and you end up paying for them later, separately.
Then ask each agency for a sample monthly report. If it shows rankings, impressions and clicks but no leads, calls or bookings, that is what you will receive every month. A report should let you see what you paid and what came back.
The guides below take one service at a time, starting with SEO, PPC management and websites. Each lists the factors that move the price, the usual pricing models, and the red flags in offers that look too good.
Frequently asked questions
Why doesn’t Napexy publish its prices?
Because one service name covers very different amounts of work. A single-location clinic and a developer selling flats in three cities both ask for “SEO” and need different things. A fixed quote after a first call charges you for the work you need and nothing else.
Is the quote really fixed?
Yes. The price covers the scope written in the quote. If you later add a location, a language or a channel, that becomes a new line, agreed before the work starts.
Should our ad spend go through the agency?
We recommend paying the platforms directly, from ad accounts in your name. You see every charge, and you keep the account and its history if you ever change agency. Our PPC pricing guide covers the fee side.
What should we prepare before asking for a quote?
Your website address, the services and cities you want to grow, the languages you sell in, and how enquiries reach you today. Read access to Search Console, analytics or your ad accounts lets us quote more precisely. You can send it all through the proposal form.
Is performance-based pricing better?
It can be, when tracking is clean and both sides agree in writing what counts as a qualified lead or a booking. Without that, it pushes an agency toward cheap leads that hit the count and never buy. Our page on how we report results shows what we measure.
Last updated · By the Napexy team
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