Deep diveProve it worked · 5 min read · 2 November 2026
What a marketing
agency costs.
There's no standard price: agency fees in Australia are quoted job by job, and even government buyers on the NSW advertising scheme ask each supplier for its rate card. What you can control is how you compare. Split every quote into ad spend, management fee and one-off work. Ask which fee model it uses and who it rewards. Then compare it with the real cost of a hire: a digital marketing specialist averages $80,000 to $95,000 on SEEK before 12% super, leave, tools and your time.
Written by Dan Picken, a marketer who checks the sources. Last checked 2 November 2026.Why there's no
price list.
Search for agency prices and you'll find bands like 'from $1,500 a month'. They're each agency's own numbers, for their own idea of the work. No independent Australian survey of agency fees came up in my research, so I'm not going to quote one.
Even government buys this way. The NSW Government's Advertising and Digital Communications Services Scheme, which runs to April 2028, has no published rates: buyers request each supplier's scheme rate card, and need one quote for work up to $150,000 and three above it.
I don't publish prices on this site either. So rather than a number, here's how to work out whether a quote is fair for what it covers.
Three costs,
not one.
A quote for 'Google Ads management' or 'social media ads' usually hides three different costs. Pull them apart before you compare anything.
Ad spend is what Google, Meta or LinkedIn charge for the ads. It goes to the platform whoever runs the account. Google's policy for partners requires them to report Google's exact costs separately from their own fees, and to disclose those fees in writing.
The management fee is the work: planning, building, testing, reporting. One-off work is everything that happens once, like tracking setup, a landing page or an audit. A low monthly fee with a large setup charge can cost more over a year than a higher fee with none.
Ad spend, management, one-off work. If a quote doesn't split them, ask it to.
Five fee models,
and who each one rewards.
How a fee is worked out changes what the agency is paid to care about. None of these is wrong. Each one pulls in a direction, and it helps to know which.
| Model | How it usually works | It rewards | Ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | A fixed fee for an agreed scope of work each month. | Steady work. Can drift into doing the same things every month. | What exactly is in scope, and what happens when you want something else? |
| Hourly | You pay for the hours used, at an agreed rate. | Time spent, not results. Good for small or unpredictable jobs. | How are hours tracked, and will I see them? |
| Project | A fixed price for a defined piece of work. | Finishing the job. Changes cost extra. | What counts as a change, and how is it priced? |
| % of ad spend | The fee is a share of what you spend on ads. | Spending more. Not always wrong, but the pull is upward. | Would you tell me to spend less if that was the right answer? |
| Pay per lead or sale | You pay for each result delivered. | Volume of leads, which isn't always quality. | Who decides what counts as a lead, and who owns the ad account? |
In-house or
outsourced?
The usual comparison is a monthly fee against a salary, which flatters the hire. A salary isn't the cost of a person.
A digital marketing specialist averages $80,000 to $95,000 according to SEEK, based on the salary ranges employers put in its job ads (some include super, some don't). For context, the ABS put median full-time earnings at $1,741 a week in August 2025.
On top of the salary sits super, now 12% since 1 July 2025. Then leave: the National Employment Standards give full-time staff 4 weeks' annual leave and 10 days' personal leave a year, plus public holidays, all paid. Then the software they need, their training, and your time managing them.
Put your own numbers in below. It works out the yearly cost and the cost per productive hour, which is the figure to hold against any outside quote.
The salary starts at the middle of SEEK's range for a digital marketing specialist. The zeros are yours to fill in: put in real quotes for tools and training.
What the hire really costs a year
-
Per productive hour
-
What the maths
doesn't show.
Cost isn't the only test. A good in-house marketer knows your business in a way an outsider takes months to learn, is there for the small daily jobs, and builds knowledge that stays with you.
Outside help usually wins on range and on hours. One person rarely covers search, paid social, tracking and design equally well, and most small businesses don't need 38 hours a week of any one of those.
A common middle path: one person in-house who owns the marketing, with specialists brought in for the technical parts. Whichever you pick, keep the accounts in your business's name.
Cheap quote,
dear quote.
When two quotes are far apart, the gap is usually in what's left out, not in the hourly rate. The cheap one often has no strategy time, reports clicks instead of enquiries, or hands the work to someone you never speak to.
The dear one should be able to show you where the extra goes: research before the build, testing every month, tracking that ties ads to sales. If it can't, it's just dearer.
And sometimes the honest answer is to spend less on management altogether. If the offer is weak or the website can't take an enquiry, no agency fee fixes that. Start there.
Your turn
A marketer on an $87,500 salary works a standard full-time year. Which of these is NOT part of what they really cost you?
Super and leave are costs of employing someone. The ad spend goes to Google or Meta whoever runs the ads, so it belongs in neither the salary nor an agency's fee.
In my experience
The pattern I see most often in accounts that change hands isn't a fee that's too high. It's an invoice nobody can read: ad spend and management rolled into one number, so the business can't tell what the work cost or whether the ads paid. The second is a monthly report full of activity, posts made and hours logged, with no line for enquiries or sales. Both are easy to fix before you sign: ask for the three costs separately, and ask what number the report will lead with.
What to do
this week.
Get two or three quotes
For the same scope, in writing.
Split each one
Ad spend, management fee and one-off work, as separate lines.
Name the fee model
Retainer, hourly, project, % of spend or per lead, and ask the question in the table.
Price the hire
Run the calculator with real numbers for tools, training and your time.
Compare on hours you need
Not on the hourly rate alone.
Questions
people ask.
How much does a digital marketing agency charge per month in Australia?
There's no standard rate. Fees are quoted to the scope of work, and no independent Australian survey of agency fees is published. Ask for ad spend, the management fee and any one-off work as separate lines so you can compare quotes fairly.
Is it cheaper to hire a marketer or use an agency?
It depends on the hours you need. A digital marketing specialist averages $80,000 to $95,000 on SEEK, before 12% super, paid leave, tools and management time. If you need fewer than full-time hours, outside help is often cheaper. The calculator on this page works out the hourly figure.
What is a marketing retainer?
A fixed monthly fee for an agreed scope of work. Ask exactly what's in scope, and what happens when you need something outside it.
Do agencies charge a percentage of ad spend?
Some do. It means the fee rises when your spend rises, so ask whether they'd recommend spending less if that was the right call.
Does the management fee include the ad spend?
It shouldn't be hidden inside it. Google requires its partners to report Google's exact costs separately from their fees. Ask for the same split on Meta and LinkedIn.
What changed
- First published. Every source checked on the day.
Keep going
Want me to check
yours?
Takes a minute. Audits come back within 1 to 2 business days. For anything else, I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
What happens next
- 1I'll ask for read-only access, or just your website for a search audit.
- 2I go through it and write up the 3 biggest fixes.
- 3A 20-minute call to walk you through it. No pitch unless you ask.