How Much Should I Charge for Digital Marketing? A Practical Pricing Framework

If you are asking how much should I charge for digital marketing, you are already ahead of many people. The biggest pricing mistakes come from charging for tasks instead of outcomes. Clients do not buy “posts” or “ads.” They buy growth, leads, sales, and momentum.

This guide helps you price your work in a way that stays profitable, scales, and makes sense to clients.

Step 1: Choose the right pricing model

Model A: Monthly retainer

Best for: ongoing marketing execution

• Ads management
• SEO and content publishing
• Social media management plus reporting

Retainers work because marketing improves through iterations. Weekly learning cycles create results.

Model B: Project pricing

Best for: defined scope deliverables

• Website redesign or landing page build
• Brand identity system
• Analytics and tracking setup

Project pricing is clean when scope is fixed and expectations are written clearly.

Model C: Performance-based

Best for: situations where tracking is perfect and you control the funnel

Use carefully. If the client has weak follow-up, poor sales process, or bad conversion pages, performance pricing becomes risky.

Step 2: Calculate your baseline cost

Your baseline is not just your hours. It includes:

• Tooling and software costs
• Admin time, meetings, reporting
• Creative production time
• Opportunity cost of not taking other clients

Step 3: Add a risk and complexity premium

Charge more when:

• The offer is unclear and needs positioning work
• Tracking is missing and needs setup
• The client wants multiple channels at once
• Creative volume is high (weekly refresh, video, UGC)

Step 4: Package your service into tiers

Instead of selling random tasks, sell tiers with outcomes and cadence.

Tier 1: Foundation

• Tracking setup and core reporting
• One channel execution (search or social)
• Basic creative testing

Tier 2: Growth

• Multi-channel execution (search plus social)
• Weekly optimization cycles
• Regular creative refresh and new hooks

Tier 3: Scale

• Full funnel strategy plus CRO improvements
• Creative production pipeline
• More testing velocity and faster iteration

How to explain value so clients say yes

Replace task language with outcome language:

• Instead of “manage ads,” say “reduce cost per lead through weekly testing.”
• Instead of “post content,” say “build consistent visibility and create demand.”
• Instead of “reporting,” say “decisions that improve performance each week.”

Example: Social media pricing done right

Real social media management includes strategy, content planning, community engagement, paid amplification, and analytics. If you price only “posting,” you will undercharge and burn out.

Contact us: If you tell me your niche, your deliverables, and your weekly time commitment, I can generate a tiered pricing menu you can publish on your site.