I bet you came here looking for a price, right? I’m going to have to disappoint you – there are no simple, direct answers. Digital marketing has a lot of components to it, and within each of them, there are many possibilities. However, what I can do is discuss what goes into a quote for digital marketing services.
It’s important to remember that for many digital marketing services, you are paying two entities. One would be an agency like us. We’ll set up and run your campaign. But depending on your campaign, you may also be paying the platform you advertise on, such as Facebook, Twitter, Bing, or Google.
A lot of factors go into pricing digital marketing packages. It all starts with your goals. Your costs are going to depend on what you’re trying to do. You may be after sales right off the bat. But sometimes, it’s worth building brand awareness first. Or you might want to grow your mailing list so you can have more contacts.
Your industry is also important. When you’re buying advertising space from some platform, you’re not paying a flat fee. Instead, it works like an auction. And that auction is based on people competing in the same vertical as you.
Agency Costs
If you hire an agency like Coolhunters GT, you pay them for the work they do to set up and run your ads. We – and most agencies, we think – will try to explain all that’s involved, but here’s a basic summary:
First, there’s research. We have to understand your industry, your business, and your competition, too. That’s an important step in auditing where you’re at so we can get you where you want to go.
Your agency will be paying for the services they use to make the research possible. We may buy or subscribe to tools that make information available to us.
From there, we have to analyze the information, pull out what’s important for your goals, and analyze it so we cannot develop a plan. The plan derives from your goals and your current assets. It could mean improving on what you have or starting some new things. Maybe – and you might not like to hear this – it might mean a recommendation to blow something up and start fresh.
Of course, creating content, both written and visual, is key. What you publish, whether on your main web pages, your blog, your social media, or elsewhere, has to be engaging. It should provoke the desired result, whether that’s a click, a “like”, a comment, or a share.
Content takes on the “voice” of your business. Some companies want to be formal, and others want to be fun. Some have a great sense of humor while others play it straight. We work with you to create that voice and stick to it.
That content has to be planned, too. We’ll create an editorial campaign that has a rhyme and reason to it. There should be a flow to it that respects the season, the upcoming holidays, your promotions, and the story you want to tell about your about. All that gets planned out for months at a time! That’s why digital marketers hate last-minute requests to publish something right away – it interrupts the whole flow and story that’s being told. Sure, emergencies arise, but we want to create something that’s as compelling as any great work of literature or a fantastic film.
Of course, even our own editorial calendar isn’t fixed in stone. We have to stay alert to what’s going on in the world around us. Trends change. What people are talking about changes too. And you’ll receive both compliments and complaints online. Your agency will help you handle those in a gracious manner.
And then there’s more data. Trust us, there’s lots of data. For instance, just one of the various spreadsheets that Facebook has 113 columns of data. And that’s not even getting into the level of a post-by-post analysis. But it’s important to look at all of that to see what works best with your particular audience. It also helps you save money as we can redirect our efforts to what works and limit what doesn’t.
Platform Costs
That covers the basics of what your agency charges. But there may also be charges for advertising on a particular platform. Not every campaign involves “paid advertising” – SEO, for instance, never does. Social media campaigns only sometimes do.
But there are also “paid ads” on search engines and social media campaigns. Here, “paid” means what goes to the platform – Google, Facebook, Pinterest, Bing, etc. Again, what you pay them depends on your industry, your competition, and the results you want.
There aren’t usually flat rates for any of this. Instead, they work like auctions. The more others are bidding for the slot, the more you’ll have to bid. There are other factors, too, but that’s the most basic way to understand it.
Let’s use Google Ads on search pages as an example. You pay per click on your ad. But the cost of a click can range from pennies to hundreds of dollars – it all depends on the competition. If no one else is bidding on the same keywords, you might pay pennies. On the other hand, if you want to bid on “car accident lawyer moreno valley”, you could be paying nearly $600 per click! And that’s a click, not necessarily a conversion. But it must be worth it since the bidding remains high year after year.
So it’s important to know how much you can afford to spend on your advertising and how many sales you want to make. If it costs you $5 per click, and 10% of your clicks lead to sales, then it cost you $50 in advertising to make that sale. Is that worth it? It depends on what you’re selling and what your margin is, of course.
Social media marketing works on similar principles. Your agency will help you define an audience that has a potential interest in your product or service. But the actual cost depends on how much competition there is.
This part of your costs goes right to the big platforms. Depending on your agency, you may pay the agency and they pay the platform. In others, you pay directly but the agency has access to the account to make adjustments to the campaign.
Some agencies charge a fixed rate while others charge a percentage of your ad spend. Of course, for lower ad spends, there is often a minimum so that they can still make enough to survive.
What About Websites?
Website design and development have similar issues – your needs are not like anyone else’s, so your pricing will be different as well.
There are recurring costs, like hosting and domain names. These are from third parties. Other costs are one-time outlays.
The cost for development depends on the size and features of your site. A simple one-page site that presents information and has a contact form will be relatively inexpensive. On the other hand, a large social media site requires a lot more programming.
Prices are determined based on what you need, not on some generic template that doesn’t fit you. Every project is a custom project, even when it has some common elements.
Totaling It Up
There you have a (very) basic summary of all that goes into running your digital marketing campaigns. Costs can vary widely because of the size of your campaign, the frequency of publishing content, and the technicality of the topic.
A campaign should be customized for your needs, and that means the price is customized, too. On our site, we don’t publish prices and don’t usually give out prices until we’ve had a chance to talk to you and make recommendations for a campaign. We think that’s fairer to all involved – we don’t want to intimidate you if our packages would be more than what you need. And we don’t want to hit you with sticker shock once we learn what you do need.
Conclusion
I’m sorry I can’t give you more specific answers – but I believe that your project should be as unique as your business. We’d be glad to talk with you to get a better idea of what you need. From there we can develop a quote that covers all you need, and only what you need. And if it’s something beyond what we do, we have plenty of reputable contacts to help you get it done!