It is the first question almost every founder asks us, and the honest answer is that it depends on what you are buying. A marketing agency in Miami can mean a freelancer running your Instagram or a full team running your brand, your ads, your website and your CRM. The price follows the scope.
The three ways agencies charge
Most agencies bill in one of three ways. A monthly retainer covers ongoing work like social media, paid media management or SEO. A project fee covers work with a finish line, like a rebrand or a new website. And some agencies tie part of their fee to performance, such as a percentage of ad spend or a fee per booked appointment.
Retainers suit work that compounds over time. Projects suit work you only need once. Performance fees sound safe, but read the fine print: you want the agency rewarded for revenue, not just for clicks or leads that never buy.
Ad spend is a separate line
If you run paid media on Meta, Google or TikTok, the money you pay the platforms is not the agency’s fee. Budget for both. A common mistake is spending so much on the agency that there is nothing left to put in front of customers, or the reverse: a large ad budget with no one making new creative to spend it on.
The cheapest agency is the one whose work pays for itself. Ask every agency how they will prove that.
What changes the price
The number of channels, how much content you need each month, whether you need a strategy built from scratch, and how fast you want to move. A brand launching from zero needs more up front than a brand that already sells and wants to scale one channel.
Questions to ask before you sign
Who will actually do the work? How do you report results, and do those numbers reconcile to our revenue? What happens in the first thirty days? Can we see results for a business like ours? Is there a minimum term? A good agency answers all five without hesitating.
If you want a straight answer for your brand, our four-question quiz sends back the first moves we would make and what they would take.
