How much does a marketing agency cost? What a remodeler actually pays
The monthly fee is one line on the bill. Price the agency by the appointment, then by the job.
Most agencies charge a small business $1,000 to $5,000 a month before ad spend. Add setup, ads and the minimum term, and the real price is what one booked appointment and one signed job cost.
One owner cut through every proposal he got with one question: “How many appointments are you going to get in $3,000?” This page shows you how to answer it for any quote.
Itai BenistyFounder, Smarter Contractor7 min read
$1,000 to $5,000
a month, the usual small-business retainer before ad spend (ROI Amplified guide)
$2,500 to over $10,000
a month, what one contractor marketing specialist quotes (Blue Corona)
6 months
the minimum term on one agency's published price list, plus a setup fee (Reach Marketing Pro)
The whole bill
The fee is one line. Here’s the whole bill.
Agency pricing pages quote the monthly fee. A remodeler pays for five more things.
What a remodeler actually pays for
- Agency fee
- $1,000 to $5,000 a month for most small businesses, in one guide's range
- Setup or onboarding
- $800 to $2,500, paid once, from one cost guide and one agency's price list
- Ad spend
- Paid to Meta or Google, not the agency. One price list sets minimums of $1,500 a month for search and $750 for social
- Ad management
- Often 10 to 20% of ad spend when it isn't in the retainer
- Minimum term
- Six months on one published price list, with a discount for twelve
- Whoever answers the leads
- Your evenings, or a setter's wages, if the agency's job stops at leads
One real price list, added up
- $2,900 a month for the 6-month minimum
- $17,400
- One-time onboarding and audit
- $1,500 to $2,500
- Locked in before you can walk away
- $18,900 to $19,900
That isn’t a knock on them. They’re one of the few agencies that publish their prices at all. It just shows the six months are the real price, not the monthly fee.
Price it by the outcome
Price any quote by the appointment, then by the kitchen.
Three lines of math turn any proposal into a number you can compare.
The math, for any quote
- 1
Cost per appointment
(Agency fee + ad spend) ÷ booked appointments
- 2
Cost per signed job
Cost per appointment × the appointments it takes to sign one
- 3
Your marketing share
Cost per signed job ÷ your average project
Our numbers on pay per appointment, through the same math
$300 to $400 per booked appointment, all in
Our $150 fee plus $150 to $250 in ad spend, on pay per appointment
$1,200 to $1,600 per signed job
Four appointments at $300 to $400. About 1 in 4 qualified appointments signs on our accounts
About 2 to 3% of the project
$1,200 to $1,600 against a $58,000 average project at a scaled account of ours
Ask every agency for its numbers in the same shape. One that can’t tell you what a booked appointment costs on its other accounts is pricing clicks, not results.
We charge three ways, and they’re side by side in pay per lead vs pay per appointment.
Not on the invoice
A cheap lead nobody calls back is the most expensive lead you’ll buy.
One owner told us he put $5,000 into his last lead company and got 36 leads. Thirty of them never answered the phone.
The invoice said about $140 a lead. The real number was about $830 for each conversation he actually had, before a single appointment was booked.
Leads that wait until evening mostly go quiet. With a 30-second reply and a form that qualifies, 50 to 70% of leads book a qualified appointment on our accounts, which is why reply speed belongs in the price. More in speed to lead for contractors.
36 leads for $5,000
“He focuses on actually getting qualified appointments on the calendar rather than just sending us a bunch of leads. There's no overpromising or BS. Everything he promised us, he's delivered on.”
The gap
Why one retainer is $500 and another is $5,000.
Same word on the invoice, a very different amount of work behind it.
At one end you get a template campaign and a monthly report. At the other you get a team that tests new ads every week and answers for the results. A team in the US costs more than one overseas.
A retainer agency is safe no matter what happens to you. You get what you pay for, so make sure a real team sits behind the invoice, and price it per job like everything else.
Monthly SEO prices, one survey
Want us to add up what your marketing really costs per job?
We’ll look at your leads, your cost per appointment and your follow-up, and tell you straight what we’d change.
Budget
Budget for 90 days, and judge it per job.
The first month is the slowest one. Plan three months of fee and ads from cash you already have.
About 3%
of revenue on marketing at the biggest full-service remodelers (Remodeling 550, 2018 data)
6.3%
average net profit margin for remodelers in 2024 (NAHB study)
Put those two side by side and you see why the per-job number matters. Every point of revenue you spend on marketing is a real slice of a thin margin, so a quote that can’t tell you its cost per signed job is a guess.
Straight answers
The questions contractors ask about agency pricing.
How much does a marketing agency cost per month?
Most charge a small business $1,000 to $5,000 a month before ad spend, and one contractor specialist quotes $2,500 to over $10,000. Setup fees and minimum terms come on top.
Is ad spend included in an agency's fee?
Usually not. Ad spend is paid to Meta or Google, and agencies often charge 10 to 20% of it to manage it when that isn't part of the retainer.
Do marketing agencies charge a setup fee?
Many do. One cost guide and one agency's published price list put it at $800 to $2,500, paid once before the monthly work starts.
How long are marketing agency contracts?
Six months is a common minimum on retainer price lists, often with a discount for twelve. Ask for a test period before you sign a long one.
How much should a remodeler spend on marketing?
The biggest full-service remodelers average about 3% of revenue. A sharper test is what a signed job costs you as a share of your average project.
What should a booked appointment cost?
On our pay-per-appointment model it works out to about $300 to $400 all in: our $150 fee plus the $150 to $250 in ad spend a booked appointment usually takes.
Founder, Smarter Contractor. Runs the ads, the qualifying and the booking for kitchen and bath remodelers, one per market.
See your numbers first
Price us the same way. Per appointment, then per job.
Answer a few quick questions and I’ll tell you whether your market is open and what a full calendar of qualified homeowners looks like for your business. No setup fees, and you test the system before you pay for anything.
Read next: what a remodeling lead should cost in 2026.
What type of jobs are you looking to book more of?
Sources
Every outside number on this page, in the order it appears. Checked 9 October 2026. Price lists are agencies’ own, guide ranges are estimates, and the remodeler figures are industry studies.
- ROI Amplified, digital marketing agency cost guide (Aug 2025): small-business retainers, PPC management 10 to 20% of ad spend, setup $800 to $2,000
- Blue Corona, contractor marketing services: “from $2,500 to over $10,000 per month”
- Reach Marketing Pro, published plans and pricing: $2,900 a month and up, $1,500 to $2,500 onboarding, six-month minimum, ad budget minimums
- Ahrefs, SEO pricing survey of 439 providers (updated 2026)
- Journal of Light Construction on the 2018 Remodeling 550: full-service firms average about 3% of revenue on marketing
- Scotsman Guide on NAHB's 2026 Remodelers' Cost of Doing Business Study: 6.3% average net margin, fiscal 2024