Digital marketing can be the ideal solution for a wide range of business problems. Whether your aim is to increase brand awareness or drive more online sales, investing in a digital marketing strategy can drastically increase your business performance. If you’re still not sure what is digital marketing then visit our basic
How Much Should A Business Spend On Digital Marketing?
Regardless of how large or small your business is, it’s very important to research into how much you should be spending on digital marketing. Digital marketing agencies vary in their pricing, but plenty claim to offer services at very cheap rates - and this is something your company needs to look out for.
In nearly all cases, you get what you pay for. Choosing a digital agency that is the cheapest today might mean having to swap over to another agency in 6 months time. Make sure to choose a digital marketing agency your business can scale with into the future.
With so many agencies out there, setting a reasonable budget will help you shortlist and choose the right one for your business. What is a reasonable budget, though?
Although several factors affect digital marketing budgets which we will explain later in this blog, the average digital marketing budget ranges from £20,000 to £100,000 for small-to-midsize businesses (SMB) per year. Do keep in mind that digital marketing is an ongoing process, so budgets may change as you scale up your business.
4 Key Factors Influencing Digital Marketing Costs
Marketing Budgets
It may seem like an obvious factor but businesses with conservative budgets are often limited. Low-cost digital marketing options include creating and building social media presence and blogging. Whilst services such as pay-per-click advertising often require larger marketing budgets. The larger your budgets are, the more time it will take for an agency to manage your campaigns, and this is often reflected in the price of the service.
It is very important to remember that one of the main goals of any digital marketing agency is to get results for your business. So, the money you invest into digital marketing should eventually return the business through online revenue, customer acquisitions, and brand awareness.
Business Size
The size of your business has a substantial influence on your digital marketing costs. If you are a SMB, the prices you pay will be much lower than that of an international corporation.
The size of your business often affects the type of digital marketing agency you partner with, too. To scale well with a digital agency you must find one offering the services you need, and be comfortable with their expertise in the services they are providing you with. In conclusion, if you’re a SMB you are unlikely to partner with a digital marketing agency that serves only the world’s biggest organisations.
Complexity of Strategy
The intricacy of your digital marketing strategy influences the budget you’re working with in most cases. If your strategies include aggressive pay-per-click campaigns, then you should expect to pay more than if there was a less aggressive strategy. This is because aggressive strategies often require more time, expertise and technical ability, so you can expect to pay more.
If your digital marketing strategy includes a number of digital services such as SEO, PPC, and Paid Social then you should expect to pay higher digital marketing prices due to the number of services you are using. The more complex your strategy, and the more channels you are using then the more money you should expect to pay.
Timelines
Some digital marketing services, like SEO, have less strict timelines than pay-per-click advertising. If you’re hiring a digital marketing agency and have clear goals with predefined timelines of when you need things done by, then you can expect to be charged not just for the services you are buying, but the speed at which the service must be delivered.
Clear Clicks 3 Tier Guide To Digital Marketing Costs
To gain a firm understanding of the costs associated with digital marketing we have broken down the service types into 3 tiers. Basic, intermediate, and advanced.
Basic Digital Marketing - Suitable for small businesses that don't have large digital marketing budgets. Low cost methods such as blog writing, social media management, and basic SEO are cost effective ways to increase your online presence. Agency fees for these services start from around £500 per month.
Intermediate Digital Marketing - Ideal for medium-sized companies with sizable budget and ambitions for growth. An increased budget allows medium sized businesses to broaden their online presence by using more sophisticated marketing platforms such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Agency fees for these services start from around £1,000 per month.
Advanced Digital Marketing - Optimal for large businesses with substantial target audiences requiring several marketing channels working in conjunction to achieve business goals. At the advanced digital marketing tier, expect to see all of the above mentioned services on a larger scale with new services introduced such as website optimisation and data analytics. The cost of outsourcing all of these services to an agency starts from around £5,000 per month.
How Clear Click Can Help
At Clear Click, our experienced teams integrate strong digital marketing strategies for businesses of all sizes. If you are looking for a digital marketing agency to partner and scale with, then contact us today!
