We do not publish prices. The investment in a brand has too many variables, and a figure for a single deliverable or an itemized list would be inaccurate. It would not reflect your goals, and it would set a false expectation, or a ceiling. What we can publish is how the figure gets made. Every engagement starts with the Diagnostic, and the Diagnostic ends with a written scope and one figure for it. That figure takes one of three shapes.
Three shapes an engagement takes
A defined build. Work with a finish line: a brand identity, a website, a positioning engagement. You approve one figure for one scope, and the engagement ends when the scope is delivered.
A monthly partnership. Continuing work at one of three levels: Technical, Digital and Brand Marketing. Each level includes the one below it, and the level sets the monthly investment.
A system, built and then run. The Agentic Marketing System and the Pipeline Activation System are installed once and operated from then on. You invest in the build, then a smaller monthly amount to run and supervise it.
The problem decides the shape. A dated brand or a site that does not convert needs a build. When the strategy works and the execution is thin, a partnership fits. A system makes sense when marketing has to run every week and a marketing hire is not on the table.
What sets the figure
Five things move the number, roughly in this order.
- The outcome, stated as a number. “More leads” cannot be priced. “Thirty qualified conversations a quarter from mid-market logistics firms” can, because the work behind it can be counted.
- The channels. Channel choice moves the investment more than anything else. B2B referral leads average about $25 each and trade show leads about $840, according to Sopro’s benchmarks, and the lead generation breakdown lists the channels in between. Two channels funded properly usually beat five funded thinly.
- The content load. Pages, emails, ads, articles, video. When agents produce the volume under senior direction, this line shrinks, because the volume no longer bills by the hour.
- Speed. A campaign that has to launch in three weeks costs more than the same campaign with eight. If a board meeting or a launch date sets the clock, say so at the start, so it shows up in the scope instead of in a change order.
- Media and software. They sit outside the fee, on lines of their own.
Three lines on every quote
A marketing invoice pays for three different things, and each belongs on its own line.
- The work: strategy, production and operation. This is our fee.
- The media: what Google, Meta or LinkedIn charge for placement. It is not part of our fee.
- The software: email platform, CRM, analytics. The amounts are small, but they tell you a lot. An agency that rebills software at retail inside a blended retainer has shown you how it handles every other line.
If you cannot separate what the work costs from what the market costs, you cannot judge either one.
Where fees hide in marketing agreements
Most agreements are fine. The ones that are not tend to go wrong in the same six places.
Media markups. The agency buys your ads through its own accounts and adds a percentage, disclosed or not. Paid media reached 31.4 percent of marketing budgets in 2026, a five-year high in Gartner’s CMO Spend Survey as reported by Chief Marketer, so a markup on that line is real money. Ask whose name is on the ad accounts, and whether spend passes through at cost.
Software at retail. Tools rebilled inside the retainer at several times what they cost.
Out-of-scope billing. “Social media management” with no count of posts, channels or review rounds turns every extra request into an invoice. A scope written in countable units leaves nothing to argue about.
Fees that appear after the proposal. Setup or onboarding charges that arrive between the handshake and the signature.
Auto-renewal and exit penalties. Twelve-month terms that renew by default, with a 90-day notice window. Read the term clause before the pricing page.
Assets held hostage. The hosting, the ad accounts or the content library sit in the agency’s name, and leaving means rebuilding. It never appears on an invoice, and it is usually the most expensive of the six.
Our agreements count the scope in units and hold to the figure from the scope conversation. Ad accounts stay in your name, and media spend stays out of our fee. The Diagnostic report is yours whatever you decide next. In a system engagement, your business owns the content, the data and the accounts. The agent engine that produces them stays with us.
One test works on any agreement: hand it to your bookkeeper and ask for a prediction of next quarter’s invoices. If they cannot make one, look again.
How to compare two quotes
Put every proposal, ours included, through the same five questions.
- What is the all-in monthly figure: fee, media, software and likely overages?
- Who does the senior work, by name, and how much of it is in the figure?
- What do you own if the engagement ends in a year?
- What cost per qualified conversation should it produce, and how does that compare with published channel benchmarks?
- If the first month lags, whose plan changes?
The lowest quote often fails the third question.
We will not win every comparison, and should not. If you need one deliverable, once, a good freelancer will usually cost less. If you want a large agency’s name on a board slide, hire the large agency. Our structure fits when you want marketing that runs every week and gets measured against a baseline you saw first.
Start with the envelope
Before comparing quotes, set the total. How to budget for agentic marketing walks through the split, and the marketing budget calculator derives a range from your revenue.
Common questions
Questions, answered.
Do you publish a price list?
No. The figure depends on the problem, and we have not seen yours yet. Every engagement starts with the Diagnostic, which ends in a written scope and one figure for that scope.
Are there hidden fees in your agreements?
No. The agreement counts the scope and states one figure for it before you sign. Ad accounts stay in your business’s name, and media spend is never folded into our fee.
Is ad spend included in your fee?
No. Media spend is its own line, paid through ad accounts in your business’s name. Our fee covers the work.
How does your pricing compare with other agencies?
The structure differs more than the figure. Agents carry the production, so you are not paying for a coordination layer, and media spend stays out of the fee. For a single deliverable, a good freelancer will usually cost less, and that can be the right call.
What does a custom marketing campaign cost?
It depends on five things: the outcome stated as a number, the channels your buyers use, how much content the campaign needs, how fast it has to launch, and the media and software underneath it. The Diagnostic settles all five before a figure is quoted.