Asking what a marketing agency costs gets you either evasion ("it depends") or a number with no context. Both are useless for deciding. So here are the real ranges, what moves them, when hiring help actually makes sense, and the red flags that cost more than any invoice. We run an agency, so read this knowing where we stand; we have tried to keep it honest enough that it is useful anyway.
The three ways to buy marketing help
| Model | Typical small-business range | Fits when |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancer, hourly | €40 to €120 per hour | Specific skills, flexible scope, you manage the direction |
| Defined project | €1,000 to €10,000 | Clear deliverable: a site, a launch, an audit, an email setup |
| Monthly retainer | €1,000 to €5,000 at the SMB end | Ongoing channels that need steady work: content, email, SEO/GEO, ads |
Larger agencies quote multiples of these numbers, and cheap offshore options quote fractions of them. Both can be rational choices; both have failure modes the middle mostly avoids.
What actually moves the price
- Scope, above everything. "Run our email" is a different purchase than "run our marketing." The tighter you define the outcome, the less you pay and the easier results are to judge.
- Strategy versus execution. Thinking is priced higher than doing. A plan you execute yourself is often the cheapest way to buy agency-grade quality.
- Who does the work. A senior freelancer and a junior team at an agency can cost the same. Ask who touches your account, by name.
- Ad spend is separate. Retainers rarely include the media budget. If you are buying ads, add that on top and confirm how the fee scales with spend.
When hiring help makes sense, and when it does not
Do not hire yet if you have no working offer, no clear customer, or revenue under roughly €5,000 a month. Marketing amplifies what works; it cannot invent it. At that stage, buy a strategy session, not a retainer, and spend your money on the product and your first customers.
Hire when something already works and your time has become the bottleneck: orders come in, content converts when you find time to make it, and the marketing to-do list loses to operations every week. That is the point where €1,500 a month of consistent execution reliably beats €0 of good intentions.
A useful test for any proposal: divide the monthly cost by your average order value. If the agency fee equals 30 extra orders a month, ask them plainly how their work produces 30 orders. A good agency has an answer with a mechanism in it. A bad one has a deck.
Red flags that cost more than the invoice
- Guaranteed rankings or guaranteed revenue. Nobody controls Google, AI recommendations, or your customers. Guarantees signal either inexperience or an exit plan.
- Long lock-ins before results. Twelve-month contracts with no exit clause protect the agency from its own performance. Quarterly checkpoints are fair to both sides.
- Vanity reporting. If the monthly report leads with impressions and followers instead of inquiries, orders, and revenue, the report is decoration.
- No questions about your numbers. Anyone quoting a price before understanding your margins, order value, and goals is selling a package, not an outcome.
- They skip the basics. If they propose ads before your product pages, email capture, and analytics work, they are renting you growth instead of building it. The foundations are cheaper and compound; see our minimal lead capture setup for one example you can even do yourself.
Frequently asked questions
What should a small business budget for marketing overall?
A common working range is 5 to 10% of revenue for maintaining, more while actively growing. The better frame at small scale: pick the one channel that fits your business, fund it properly for six months, and judge it by inquiries and orders, not reach.
Is a freelancer or an agency better for a small business?
A strong freelancer wins on price and directness for single-channel work. An agency wins when you need several skills coordinated, like strategy plus content plus email plus technical work. The failure mode of each: freelancers get busy, agencies get layered.
Why do agencies price "from" instead of publishing a rate card?
Partly because scope really does move the number severalfold, and partly as a sales tactic. Fair agencies will still give you a realistic range after one conversation. If you cannot get a number after an hour of talking, that is your answer about how the relationship will feel.
What does Dreamiest charge?
We work in defined projects and small retainers in the ranges above, scoped in a first conversation that costs nothing. We would rather tell you "do it yourself, here is how" when that is true; several posts on this blog are exactly that advice.
The short version
Expect €40 to €120 per hour for freelancers, €1,000 to €10,000 for defined projects, and €1,000 to €5,000 monthly for small-business retainers, with ad spend on top. Hire when something works and your time is the bottleneck, define the outcome tightly, and walk away from guarantees, lock-ins, and vanity reports. The right agency should be able to explain, in plain language, the mechanism between their invoice and your orders.
If you want a straight answer about what your situation actually needs, even if the answer is "not us yet," start a conversation.