Most UK digital marketing agencies quote on request, so the most reliable numbers come from the agencies that publish their prices. Among those, SEO retainers run from £185 to £1,967 per month and PPC management starts at £145 to £1,200 per month, before you pay for any ads. This guide shows what those published prices buy, how agencies structure their fees, and where extra costs appear once you sign.
Our best AI marketing tools for UK businesses guide compares the software you can run in-house instead.
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UK agencies usually quote fees excluding VAT. If the agency is VAT-registered, expect 20% VAT on top, which VAT-registered businesses can usually reclaim.
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- Ad spend always sits on top of the fee - £445 a month of management with £5,000 of Google Ads is a £5,445 monthly bill before VAT
- Published PPC management starts at £145 to £1,200 a month - nine UK agencies list fees, and most step the fee up with your ad spend rather than taking a cut of it
- Published SEO retainers run £185 to £1,967 a month - local packages sit at the bottom, and full retainers from agencies that list prices start around £1,000
- None of the 9 published PPC price lists charges a straight percentage of spend - one adds 2% to 3% only on spend above £20,000 a month
- Most published plans roll monthly - notice runs 30 or 31 days at most agencies that list terms, though some ask for a three-month first term
How Much Does Digital Marketing Cost in the UK?
UK agencies that publish prices charge £185 to £1,967 a month for SEO and £145 to £1,200 a month for entry-level PPC management, with ad spend paid separately and larger accounts quoted individually.
Those ranges come from agencies’ own pricing pages, not surveys or estimates, so treat them as a floor rather than an average. Agencies that publish prices tend to target smaller businesses, and most larger agencies quote every client individually. Content and social media retainers are rarely published at all.
| Service | Published Monthly Price | What You Get |
|---|---|---|
| SEO | £185 to £1,967 | Local packages at the low end; technical work, content and link building in full retainers |
| PPC Management | £145 to £1,200 (entry tier) | Campaign setup, bid management, testing and reporting (ad spend extra) |
| Content Marketing | Usually quoted; one published retainer £2,967 | Strategy, articles, landing pages and distribution |
| Social Media (Organic) | Usually quoted individually | Content creation, scheduling, community management and analytics |
| Hourly Consulting | Rarely published; one PPC specialist lists £90/hr + VAT | Audits, strategy sessions and specialist advice |
How UK Agencies Structure Their Fees
Most UK agencies charge a monthly retainer. In PPC, the published retainers are usually flat fees that step up with your ad spend, while percentage-of-spend, hourly and project fees are less common.
Tiered flat fee. This is how most agencies that publish PPC prices charge. DPOM, for example, lists £145 a month for ad spend up to £500, £295 up to £2,500, £445 up to £7,500 and £695 up to £15,000. Search Hog runs a similar ladder from £275 to £660 a month for spend up to £6,000. You know the fee in advance, and it only rises when you move up a spend band.
Percentage of ad spend. Some agencies take a share of your budget instead of a flat fee. None of the nine published PPC price lists we checked works this way outright. PPC Vibe comes closest, adding 3% of spend above £20,000 a month on its £1,600 plan and 2% above £50,000 on its £2,500 plan. If an agency quotes a percentage, ask what it means at your spend in pounds and compare that with a tiered fee.
Monthly retainer for SEO and content. SEO is almost always a fixed monthly fee for an agreed scope. Published examples include DPOM at £185 for local SEO, Terrier from £1,250, and Whitehat SEO from £1,967, with Whitehat’s content-led retainer from £2,967.
Hourly and project fees. These suit audits, one-off campaigns and specialist advice. Few agencies publish an hourly rate; One PPC lists £90 an hour plus VAT for a set number of hours each month. Project fees for a website rebuild or a launch campaign are quoted per brief.
Published PPC Management Prices
Nine UK agencies publish PPC management fees. Their entry tiers run from £145 to £1,200 a month, and their top published tiers reach £1,500 to £2,500 a month for the largest ad budgets.
| Agency | Published Monthly Fee | Ad Spend Covered | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| DPOM | £145, £295, £445, £695 | Up to £500, £2,500, £7,500, £15,000 | No long-term contract, 31 days’ notice |
| PPC Ads | £250, £450 | Up to £2,000; £2,000 to £5,000 | Rolling, no setup fee on standard accounts |
| Search Hog | £275 to £660 | Up to £1,000 to £6,000 | Rolling 30 days; one-off setup fee in most cases |
| Riverforge | £350, £650, from £1,200 + VAT | About £2,000; about £10,000; £10,000+ | Rolling monthly |
| One PPC | £360, £450, £720 | Under £3,000; under £5,000; no limit | Rolling month to month |
| ALT Agency | From £650 + VAT | Not stated | Usually three-month plans |
| The Nexclick | From £750 | Not stated | Not stated |
| Whitehat SEO | From £780 + VAT | Not stated | 30-day rolling |
| PPC Vibe | £1,200, £1,600, £2,500 | Up to about £10,000; £10,000 to £50,000; £50,000+ | Three-month first term, then 30-day rolling |
Prices are each agency’s published starting fee as of October 2026. Where the page does not say, assume VAT is added. PPC Geeks, a Google Premier Partner, does not publish a management fee and quotes after a free audit. Premier Partner status puts an agency in the top 3% of participating Google Partners in its country, a ranking Google reassesses every year.
Published SEO Retainer Prices
Four UK agencies publish SEO prices: from £185 a month for a local package to £1,967 a month for a full retainer, all excluding VAT.
| Agency | Published Monthly Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| DPOM | £185 local, £335 national, £585 e-commerce | One-off £195 setup |
| Targeted SEO | £1,000 to £1,500 suggested minimum | Bespoke scope, plus VAT |
| Terrier | From £1,250 | No minimum term, 60 days’ notice |
| Whitehat SEO | From £1,967 (content-led from £2,967) | 30-day rolling |
The gap between £185 and £1,967 is mostly scope. A local package covers a single location and a short keyword list. A full retainer adds technical audits, content production and link building across a national market. ClickSlice, which we cover in our best digital marketing agencies guide, does not publish prices and quotes after a discovery call.
Be wary of anyone promising national rankings for a local-package price. Meaningful SEO takes sustained work, and cheap providers sometimes rely on low-quality links that can harm your rankings.
What Each Budget Buys
A few hundred pounds a month buys one well-run channel; adding channels means paying for each one separately, so multi-channel work at published prices quickly moves into four figures a month.
Under £500 a Month: One Channel, Done Properly
At this level you are buying a single service. Published options include local SEO from £185 a month or entry-level PPC management from £145 to £360 a month for small ad budgets. Expect monthly reporting, a modest keyword set and limited content. This suits sole traders and local businesses testing one channel before committing more.
£500 to £2,000 a Month: A Full Retainer or Two Channels
Here you can afford a full SEO retainer from around £1,000 a month, or pair a mid-tier PPC plan (£445 to £720 a month at published prices) with local SEO. Higher tiers usually add a dedicated account manager, more frequent optimisation and landing-page testing. Full-service agencies such as Odyssey New Media in Birmingham do not publish prices and quote per brief.
£2,000+ a Month: Multi-Channel and Specialist Work
Multi-channel programmes, content-led SEO and managed outreach sit here, and most are quoted individually. Whitehat’s content-led SEO retainer starts at £2,967 a month. For B2B pipeline building, Sopro runs fully managed outreach from around £3,000 a month. See our B2B lead generation agencies comparison for the wider field.
Service-by-Service Cost Breakdown
SEO and PPC are the only services with widely published prices; content and social media retainers are almost always quoted per brief.
SEO
Published SEO runs from £185 to £1,967 a month. Retainers typically include technical audits, on-page optimisation, keyword strategy, link building and reporting. Lower-priced packages concentrate on fixing technical issues and local visibility, while full retainers add content written to target specific searches. Expect results to build over several months rather than weeks.
PPC Management
Published PPC management starts at £145 to £1,200 a month and covers campaign setup, keyword research, ad copy, bid management, testing and reporting. The fee is separate from your ad spend, which you pay to Google or Microsoft directly. Our SEO vs PPC guide explains how to split a budget between the two.
Content Marketing
Content retainers cover strategy, articles, landing pages, case studies and newsletters. Few agencies publish a price; Whitehat’s content-led retainer starts at £2,967 a month. Ask for a fixed number of pieces per month and the word count of each, so quotes can be compared like for like.
Social Media Management
Organic social management covers planning, design, scheduling, community management and analytics. Prices are quoted per brief and depend on the number of platforms and posts. Paid social follows the PPC model: a management fee plus your ad budget. Our Facebook advertising costs guide compares published agency fees for Meta ads.
Hidden Costs to Watch For
The main extras are ad spend billed on top of management fees, one-off setup fees, notice periods and minimum terms, and tools or content charged outside the retainer.
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Agency proposals do not always show the full monthly cost. Check each of these before you sign:
- Ad spend on top of the fee. PPC and paid social fees never include the media budget. At DPOM’s published £445 tier, £5,000 of monthly Google Ads spend makes a £5,445 monthly bill before VAT. Make sure proposals separate the two.
- Setup fees. Practice varies. DPOM charges a one-off £195 to set up SEO and no PPC setup fee unless a new account or conversion tracking has to be built; PPC Ads charges none on standard accounts; Search Hog says a one-off setup fee applies in most cases. Always ask for the figure in writing.
- Minimum terms and notice. Most agencies that publish terms roll monthly, with 30 or 31 days’ notice. Others differ: PPC Vibe asks for a three-month first term, ALT Agency usually works in three-month plans, and Terrier requires 60 days’ notice. Ask what happens if results fall short.
- Third-party tools. Some agencies pass on the cost of tools such as Semrush, Ahrefs or HubSpot. Check whether they are included.
- Extra content and revisions. Retainers usually include a fixed number of articles or ad creatives. More pieces, rush work and heavy revisions often cost extra.
- Reporting and analytics. Standard reporting should be included. Custom dashboards, Google Analytics 4 setup or attribution work may be billed separately.
Ask for an itemised proposal that separates the management fee from ad spend, lists every setup cost, and states the notice period. The cheapest monthly fee is not always the lowest total cost once extras are added.
How to Save on Digital Marketing Costs
Start with one channel, choose a fee structure that does not rise with your spend, bundle services where an agency offers a discount, and keep simple tasks in-house.
Start lean, then scale. Put a small budget into one channel that drives revenue rather than spreading it across five. E-commerce businesses often start with PPC; local service businesses often start with SEO. Add channels once the first delivers consistent results.
Prefer fees that do not grow with spend. A tiered flat fee only rises when you move up a spend band. A percentage fee rises with every pound you spend, even when results do not.
Bundle where it is offered. Some agencies discount combined services. DPOM, for example, says clients on a bundle of two or more services pay up to 30% less than buying them separately. Ask whether your shortlist offers the same.
Use the first term to negotiate. If an agency wants a three-month first term, ask for waived setup fees or a lower first-quarter rate in return.
Keep simple work in-house. Handle routine social posts or basic articles yourself and outsource specialist work such as technical SEO, PPC management or conversion optimisation. Our AI marketing tools guide covers software that makes in-house work faster.
Distrust prices far below the published floor. If a “full-service” package costs less than a single published local-SEO plan, ask exactly what work is done each month. Poor SEO can damage your rankings and badly run PPC wastes ad spend.
Compare Digital Marketing Quotes
Comparing quotes from several agencies is the fastest way to find a fair price for your business. Use the form below to receive free, no-obligation proposals from UK providers.
Published prices show the floor, but your quote will depend on your industry, goals, ad spend and current website. A tailored proposal will be more accurate than any general range.
For help choosing an agency, see our guide to the best digital marketing agencies for UK SMEs.
Last updated: October 2026. Agency prices checked against each agency’s own published pricing page.
