TL;DR
Full-service marketing agencies charge $3,000–$12,000/month, plus a $1,500–$5,000 onboarding fee, a 6-month minimum, and 90–120 days to see leads.
→ See how this applies to your business (free 30-min call)Most US service businesses pay a full-service marketing agency $3,000–$12,000 per month, and about 70% of "near me" searchers land in the $4,000–$7,500/month band. Below that, at $1,500–$2,500/month, you're buying one part-timer's attention, not a team. Above $15,000/month you're usually in enterprise or multi-location territory. Expect a $1,500–$5,000 one-time onboarding fee, a 6-month minimum contract, and 90–120 days before lead volume moves. Ad spend is separate — budget another $2,000–$10,000/month for Google Ads if paid search is part of the plan. A local shop and a national AI-driven agency charge roughly the same; what differs is what's inside the retainer.
What "full service" actually costs, line by line
"Full service" is a marketing term, not a defined scope. Here's what agencies typically charge when you unbundle it, so you can tell whether a $6,000 retainer is fair or padded:
Add the common ones — local SEO, ads management, CRM, reporting — and you land near $4,500/month. That's the honest floor for a real full-service engagement in 2026. Anyone quoting $1,200/month for "everything" is either using offshore labor at $6–$12/hour, spreading one account manager across 40 clients, or both.
Why "near me" pricing is mostly a myth
Searching for an agency "near me" implies local pricing varies. It barely does anymore. A Tampa HVAC company and a Denver roofer get quoted within a few hundred dollars of each other, because the cost driver is labor, and labor is remote.
Where geography *does* move the number:
The real reason to want someone local is a face to yell at when leads dry up. That's a legitimate want. Just know you're paying for proximity, not performance data. If local matters to you, our locations pages break down market-specific dynamics.
The question isn't "what does an agency near me cost." It's "what does one qualified lead cost me, and how many can I actually close?" A $9,000/month retainer that produces 40 booked jobs at a $2,400 average ticket is cheap. A $2,000/month retainer that produces six unqualified form fills is expensive.
The three pricing models, and which one burns clients
Flat retainer ($3,000–$12,000/mo). Predictable, easiest to budget. Risk: the agency's incentive is to minimize hours, not maximize leads. Ask for a monthly deliverables schedule in writing — if they won't commit to "8 blog posts, 12 GBP posts, 2 landing pages," the retainer is a black box.
Percentage of ad spend (10–20%, sometimes with a $1,500–$2,500 floor). Fine at $20k+/month spend. Below $10k/month spend, the percentage doesn't cover real management time, so you get an intern or an automated bid script.
Performance / pay-per-lead ($40–$300 per lead depending on trade). Feels safe. The failure mode: "lead" gets defined loosely, and you pay $85 for someone asking about a service you don't offer 90 miles away. Get the definition in the contract — minimum call duration, service-area match, service-type match — or don't sign it.
Hybrid models (reduced retainer plus a per-booked-job bonus) are the fairest structure for most service businesses, and roughly 1 in 5 agencies will do it if you ask. See our full pricing breakdown for how we structure this.
When hiring a full-service agency is a bad idea
This is the part most agency pages skip, so read it carefully.
Don't hire one if you're under $500K in annual revenue. At $4,500/month you're spending $54,000 a year — over 10% of revenue on marketing fees alone, before ad spend. The math rarely works. Hire a $1,200–$2,500/month specialist for the single channel that already produces your best customers, or do GBP and reviews yourself. It's genuinely free and it's the highest-ROI hour a local service business can spend.
Don't hire one if you can't answer the phone. Roughly 62% of calls to small service businesses go unanswered during business hours, and 78% of buyers hire whoever responds first. If you're missing calls now, an agency doubling your call volume just doubles your waste. Fix intake first — a $200/month answering service or a missed-call text-back automation will outperform a $6,000 retainer.
Don't hire one if you need results in 30 days. SEO and content take 4–9 months to compound. Paid ads can produce leads in 10–14 days but need $3,000–$5,000 in spend just to exit the learning phase with statistically usable data. If you need cash next month, run LSAs yourself and call your last 200 customers.
Don't hire one if your close rate is under 20%. An agency can't fix sales. If you're closing 12% of quotes, the constraint is your pricing, your follow-up, or your estimator — not your lead volume. Doubling leads at a 12% close rate doubles the number of people who tell you no.
Don't hire one if you won't give them access. Agencies that can't get GBP owner access, GA4, Search Console, and CRM data are working blind. This kills more engagements than bad strategy does.
Other failure modes worth naming:
What you should actually pay, by business size
A common benchmark: spend 5–10% of revenue on total marketing (fees plus ad spend) to hold position, 10–15% to grow aggressively. A $1.5M plumbing company growing hard should be at roughly $12,500–$18,750/year... per month it's $12,500 total, with maybe $5,000 in fees and $7,500 in spend.
Run your own numbers before any sales call — our ROI calculator does the cost-per-acquisition math in about two minutes, and it'll tell you fast whether a $6,000 retainer is defensible for your ticket size and close rate.
Questions that expose a bad quote
Ask these on the first call. The answers tell you more than the price does.
The bottom line on price
For a US service business between $750K and $3M in revenue, budget $4,000–$7,500/month in agency fees plus $3,000–$8,000/month in ad spend, a $2,000–$4,000 onboarding fee, and four to six months before you can judge whether it worked. Total first-year commitment: roughly $85,000–$180,000.
If that number makes you flinch, that's useful information — it means the engagement probably isn't sized right for your business yet, and the honest move is to fix intake, raise your close rate, and come back at higher revenue. If it doesn't make you flinch, the next question is which agency, and that's a different evaluation entirely.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a full-service marketing agency cost per month?
Most US service businesses pay $3,000 to $12,000 per month, with roughly 70% landing between $4,000 and $7,500. Retainers under $2,500 typically buy one part-time specialist rather than a team, while budgets above $15,000 usually reflect enterprise or multi-location accounts. Ad spend is billed separately.
Do marketing agencies charge a setup or onboarding fee?
Yes. Most agencies charge a one-time onboarding fee of $1,500 to $5,000 covering discovery, analytics and tracking setup, brand and keyword research, and building the first campaigns. It is usually billed with the first month's retainer. Some agencies waive it in exchange for a longer contract, typically twelve months.
Is a local agency near me cheaper than a national one?
Generally no. Local shops and national or AI-driven agencies quote roughly the same $3,000 to $12,000 range, because pricing tracks labor hours, not zip code. What differs is what sits inside the retainer: headcount, channel coverage, reporting depth, and whether creative, paid media, and SEO are included or billed on top.
Does the monthly retainer include ad spend?
No. Agency retainers cover strategy and labor; media budget is paid to Google, Meta, or the platform directly. Plan on an extra $2,000 to $10,000 per month for Google Ads if paid search is part of the plan. Also expect a six-month minimum contract and 90 to 120 days before lead volume moves.
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