How Much Does Hiring a Marketing Agency Cost?

We live in a world where technology, user habits, and marketing strategies change instantly. The techniques and tools that worked yesterday won’t work today. And what worked today won’t work tomorrow.

When you add all of this to the already-loaded plate of a business owner or in-house marketing manager, it can feel impossible to keep up-to-date on trends. This is when a trusted marketing agency comes into play.

If you’re looking into hiring a marketing agency, you might wonder, “how much does it cost?” or “what should I look for?" Below are FAQs about agency pricing that might help you select your next partner. 

How much is a marketing agency?

Just like people don’t go to Mcdonald's for a gourmet meal, you will not get a world-class ROI in the first 12 months with a small budget. When it comes to the cost of outsourced marketing, you get what you pay for. 

What type of results are you hoping to achieve? If your answer is to maintain status quo and establish a presence, you might want to consider hiring a tactics-based agency, or stitching together a group of freelancers. On the other hand, if your answer is to obtain measurable business growth, you need an ongoing agency partnership that:

1. Uses empathy to gain a true voice of your customer.
2. Tailors a strategy geared towards your specific goals, with you by their side.
3. Has the ability to execute plans in concert with your team, or independently with a fierce level of follow-through.
4. Measures success with the intention of course-correcting based on results.
5. Blends data, technology, and creativity to provide your business with a fresh perspective. 

In order to achieve all of this, a business will need time and money. What does this mean for you? Well, for starters, you can expect to invest at least $10,000-30,000 over the first 60-90 days.

How do you budget for a marketing agency?

Every agency budget differs on a business’ size and overall objective. A company with a smaller team, and fewer internal resources, will need to rely on the agency for more assistance. This will increase the cost. Similarly, a partner searching for bigger results at a faster rate can expect to invest more money. 

A good rule of thumb is to think about the investment of a marketing agency like one to two new hires. You will need to invest anywhere from $80-150k annually as a mid-sized company.

How do you justify the cost of a marketing agency? 

Don’t let the sticker shock of $80,000 keep you from investing in the growth of your business. Look at it like this — you can spend the same amount of money you would use to hire 1-2 salespeople to hire a top-tier marketing agency with a proven track record for success. However, unlike a new hire, the right agency will provide a faster return on investment with measurable, long-term success. 

What is a marketing agency's average return on investment (ROI)? 

When it comes to a return on investment, there are no guarantees. Agencies can, however, increase the odds of success by:

• Tapping into the experiences of other companies, industries, and strategies. This allows them to formulate an educated approach based on past discoveries.
• Digging into the data to make decisions. Numbers don’t lie, so an agency must rely on trackable results to influence the overall strategy.
• Putting the right people on the right projects. One of the luxuries of working with an agency is that every team member provides a specialized skill set, increasing your overall chance of achieving an ROI. 

Real ROI requires time 

At Vye, the return on investment all comes down to one thing — time. After the inbound strategy is built, the content is planned, and the strategy is executed, data begins to snowball. Similar to the end of a hockey stick, our client's marketing dashboards often see a drastic climb in everything from web traffic to leads and revenue at about 12-24 months after a strategy build. 

Take Tapemark, for example: 

Tapemark, a transdermal and oral film drug pharmaceutical and manufacturing company, partnered with Vye in 2019. At the time, Tapemark wanted to position itself as the market leader among CDMOs across the country. 

Tapemark leaders became skeptical and wanted to pull back on the strategy after about 12 months. But soon thereafter, the Law of Increasing Returns came to play. To this day, their website traffic has grown more than 800% and received international recognition in the process. 

While other companies might have thrown in the towel, Tapemark held onto the trust and belief that a long-term partnership with the right marketing agency could lead to tangible, trackable returns on their investment.

Why should you partner with a marketing agency long-term?

If you haven’t discovered it by now, some of the best agency success stories begin with a commitment to marketing continuously. If you are looking for quick fixes to problems like SEO optimization, low social media engagement, or a malfunctioning website, you might want to reconsider. Agency work improves over time based on familiarity with the business and previous strategy success. Not to mention, a data-driven approach, and a strategic plan, should set you on the path toward tangible results. 

Marketing success is inherently tied to understanding the culture, vision, customer, and industry. So, the longer you partner with a marketing agency, the better understanding they will get of your business. All of this, in turn, leads to better results and a long-term, tangible impact on your overall business. 

How to select the right marketing agency?

Now that you have a general idea of the prices for a marketing agency, here’s how to get started:  

1. Read the reviews — There’s no better way to understand the service an agency will provide than by reading the client testimonials. 
2. Analyze the sales process — How does the agency sell its services? Are they difficult to communicate with, or do they remove friction from your experience? You will learn a lot about a potential new partner by answering these questions before signing on the dotted line. 
3. Find out what motivates them — A lot of agencies boast big promises, like increased web sessions or revenue — but if that end goal doesn’t align with your own, what does it matter? It’s crucial to communicate with any potential new partner to understand their approach to empathy and how it translates into their inbound marketing services. 
4. Identify your goals and budget — What are you hoping to achieve with an agency? Is it realistic or within reach? Discuss all of this before signing on the dotted line. Clearly delineating your goals, within an expected budget and timeframe, will help paint a clear picture of success in a partnership. 

Why Vye?

We could provide you with a laundry list of reasons to partner with Vye Agency — from our award-winning content and customized strategies to our Premier HubSpot Partnership. But that’s not the secret sauce.

Whether you entrust Vye with $5,000 or $500,000 marketing dollars, our process remains the same. Our unique, empathetic, and data-driven hybrid sets up for success. Simply put, we don’t project — we partner. We utilize uncommon creativity, science, and storytelling to help companies win. 

Are you ready to take your business to the next level? Tell us about your challenges and let’s see how we can grow your business together.