Most numbers on what agencies charge are estimates, and agencies write a lot of them. We wanted to see the actual prices. On 7 November 2026 we read the prices US and UK businesses publish on their own websites for four services, and kept only figures we could trace back to the page.
- The median entry price for Facebook and Instagram ads management is $600 a month in the US and £413 in the UK.
- For Google Ads it's $500 and £500. For SEO it's $799 and £300.
- A website build starts at a median of $1,499 in the US and £495 in the UK.
- 56% of these prices are "from" prices or ranges, so treat them as a floor, not a quote.
- 63% of monthly prices say nothing about a contract term. Ask before you sign.
- 85% of ad management prices are flat fees. Only 3 of 93 are a percentage of spend alone.
Entry prices by service
Each business counts once per service, at the lowest price it publishes. The median is the middle price: half are below it and half above. The middle half is the range holding the central 50% of prices.
| US | Median entry price | Prices |
|---|---|---|
| Facebook ads | $600 a month Middle half $497-$1,000 | 17 |
| Google Ads | $500 a month Middle half $499-$800 | 21 |
| SEO | $799 a month Middle half $450-$1,400 | 27 |
| Website | $1,499 one-off Middle half $599-$2,500 | 21 |
| UK | Median entry price | Prices |
|---|---|---|
| Facebook ads | £413 a month Middle half £300-£662 | 22 |
| Google Ads | £500 a month Middle half £295-£950 | 33 |
| SEO | £300 a month Middle half £200-£500 | 38 |
| Website | £495 one-off Middle half £299-£700 | 39 |
Prices as published, not converted between currencies. Facebook ads includes Instagram. Monthly fees exclude ad spend. Website prices are one-off builds. Checked 7 November 2026. The US Facebook figure rests on 17 prices, so treat it as a rough guide.
Why an entry price isn't your price
129 of the 232 prices are "from" prices or ranges. The first number on a price list can come with limits, such as a cap on ad spend, a set number of ads, or only a few keywords or pages. A growing account moves up a tier.
The UK has enough multi-tier price lists to show the distance. Among UK businesses with more than one priced tier, the median top tier was £825 a month for SEO (24 businesses) and £1,500 for a website (29 businesses). Across all UK prices, the entry medians were £300 and £495.
Two outside sources land close to these figures. Our US SEO median of $799 sits inside $501-$1,000, the most common band in Ahrefs' survey of 439 providers, though that survey's average is $2,917, which shows how far the top of the market pulls above entry prices. In the UK, Whito's June 2026 review of 24 PPC fees from nine providers found a median of £470, with the middle half between £280 and £829. Ours is £500, with the middle half at £295-£950. Whito counted every published fee and we counted each business's lowest, so the two measure slightly different things.
The US and UK gap isn't even
We didn't convert currencies, but the comparison is still telling. For SEO, £300 and $799 would only match if a pound bought about $2.66. For a website, £495 and $1,499 would need about $3.03. Ads management sits much closer: £500 and $500 for Google Ads, £413 and $600 for Facebook ads.
Prices alone can't tell us why. One likely factor is who turned up: our UK searches found many small local providers selling low-cost SEO and brochure sites. So treat this as a difference between these samples, not proof that the same work costs less in the UK.
Most ad fees on price lists are flat
Of 93 published prices for ad management, 79 are flat fees, including fees that step up with ad spend. 11 are hybrids: a base fee plus a percentage, or whichever is greater. Only 3 are a percentage of ad spend alone. Where a rate was stated (11 prices), it ran from 5% to 20%, with a median of 15%.
Don't read that as "most agencies charge flat fees." A fee that depends on your spend is harder to print, so agencies that charge a percentage may be less likely to publish a price at all. For how the models compare at three budgets, see flat fee vs percentage of ad spend.
What price pages leave out
Contract terms. 99 of the 158 monthly prices (63%) don't mention a term on the page we read. 46 (29%) say there's no contract or that it rolls monthly. 13 (8%) state a minimum: 1 at two months, 5 at three, 4 at six and 3 at twelve. Silence doesn't mean there's no contract. If you're already stuck in one, here's how to get out of a marketing agency contract.
Setup fees. In the US, 11 of 38 ad management prices list a setup charge, from $300 to $3,500. In the UK, 6 of 55 do, from £45 to £499. None of the 65 SEO prices lists one, and 6 say there isn't one. A page that doesn't mention a setup fee may still charge one.
Minimum ad spend. Only 6 of 93 ad management prices list a minimum ad budget. An agency can still move you to another tier, or turn you away, once it sees your budget.
VAT. 96 of 140 UK prices don't say whether VAT is included. 36 say it's extra and 8 include it. At 20%, a £500 fee becomes £600 unless you can reclaim it, so ask.
Websites sold monthly. 14 businesses sell sites only as a monthly plan: 6 in the US at $49-$497 a month, and 8 in the UK at £25-£100. We left them out of the one-off medians.
How to use these numbers
Use them to sanity-check a quote, not to predict one.
- Ask what the entry tier caps: ad spend, ads, keywords or pages.
- Get the term, notice period, setup fee and VAT in writing.
- Compare a year's total cost, not the monthly number.
- Ask who does the work, and who owns the accounts.
To work through your own numbers, use the fee calculator in flat fee vs percentage of ad spend or the budget calculator in how much to spend on marketing.
How we did this
Finding pages. We searched for pricing pages in 8 US cities (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Denver, Seattle and Miami) and 8 UK cities (London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Bristol, Cardiff and Newcastle), one search per service in each city, plus some general searches. The first pass found too few Facebook ads prices, so we searched 8 more cities in each country, added other phrasing, and checked sites already in the sample for Facebook ads pricing. UK searches were mostly limited to .uk domains.
Reading pages. On 7 November 2026 we tried 813 URLs across 501 sites and read 669. The other 144 blocked automated readers, no longer existed or returned errors, so they aren't counted. We followed each site's robots.txt rules.
What counts. A price had to be the business's own, for a client, for that service, with a number on the page. We left out estimates of what agencies "typically charge", prices that include ad spend, bundles covering several services at one price, reseller rates, hedged wording such as "from around", and sites whose own pages disagree. A site had to show a US or UK address or phone number. Sister sites sharing a phone number or postcode count once per service.
That gave 301 candidate prices. We dropped 52 because we couldn't confirm the location, 7 as sister sites and 10 for other checks, leaving 232 prices from 182 businesses. We publish totals only and don't name the agencies.
Checking. AI models did the first read of each page. Software then checked every price against the saved copy of the page, word for word. A second AI review read every contract and setup fee claim, every price taken from a roundup-style page, and a random sample of 40 prices against the page, and corrected or removed what didn't hold up. We didn't contact the agencies, so these are list prices, not confirmed invoices.
What this can't tell you
- Only businesses that publish prices are here. Agencies that quote on request, which likely includes many larger ones, aren't. So this doesn't show what share of agencies publish prices, or what the whole market charges.
- It's a search sample, not a random one. City searches favor local providers, and our search tool is US-based, so UK results may differ from what a UK searcher sees.
- Facebook ads has the smallest samples, and it got extra searching. The US figure rests on 17 prices.
- A listed price isn't proof of what clients pay. Pages can be out of date, and two plans at the same price can be very different work.
- A US or UK address or phone number doesn't prove where the work gets done.
Our interest
NCMborz sells all four of these services, so read this with that in mind. We left ourselves out of the sample. Our monthly services run $500-$2,000 and website builds start at $1,200, both on our pricing page.
Data and citation
Download the summary table (CSV). To cite this study: NCMborz, "What marketing agencies charge: published prices from 182 US and UK businesses", checked 7 November 2026, https://ncmborz.com/blog/marketing-agency-price-study.html. We plan to check these prices again around May 2027 and will update this page with the new date.
Questions people ask
How much do marketing agencies charge per month?
In our November 2026 check of published prices, the median entry price in the US was $600 for Facebook and Instagram ads, $500 for Google Ads and $799 for SEO. In the UK it was £413, £500 and £300. These are the lowest prices businesses publish, so a growing account usually pays more.
How much does Facebook ads management cost?
The median published entry price was $600 a month in the US, with the middle half between $497 and $1,000, based on 17 prices. In the UK it was £413, with the middle half between £300 and £662, based on 22 prices. Ad spend is extra.
How much does Google Ads management cost?
The median published entry price was $500 a month in the US and £500 in the UK, from 21 and 33 prices. Ad spend is extra.
How much does SEO cost per month?
The median published entry price was $799 a month in the US and £300 in the UK, from 27 and 38 prices. Expect to pay more for competitive markets or a larger site.
How much does an agency charge to build a small business website?
The median published entry price for a one-off build was $1,499 in the US and £495 in the UK, from 21 and 39 prices. These entry prices usually cover the smallest site a business sells.
Do marketing agencies require a contract?
Often the price page doesn't say. Of 158 monthly prices, 99 didn't mention a term, 46 said there was no contract or that it rolled monthly, and 13 stated a minimum term. Ask for the term and notice period in writing before you sign.
Do agencies charge a percentage of ad spend?
Some do, but few publish it. Of 93 published ad management prices, 79 were flat fees, 11 combined a fee with a percentage, and 3 were a percentage alone. Agencies that charge a percentage may be less likely to publish a price at all, so this doesn't show what most agencies charge.
Want a number for your business? Book a strategy call. You'll leave with a price and the first things we'd fix, whether or not you hire us.
