A digital marketing agency sells some mix of 22 services in nine groups: strategy and leadership, search, AI search, paid media, social, content and creative, email and CRM, web and conversion, and analytics. The service names barely change from one agency to the next. What changes is what you actually receive each month, so this list gives you, for every service, the deliverables to demand in writing, how it is usually priced, a published price example with its source, and the one KPI that tells you whether it is working.
Short answer: The core digital marketing agency services are SEO, local SEO, paid search, paid social, social media management, content, design and video, email, CRM setup, web design, CRO and analytics, plus newer AI search visibility work. Published flat fees in this guide run from $89 a month (a WordPress care plan) to $9,200 a month (WebFX’s top SEO and CRO tiers), before ad spend. US agencies listed on Clutch typically bill $100 to $149 an hour.
The complete digital marketing agency services list
Every price below is a published example from a named provider’s own pricing page or a published pricing survey, checked in November 2026. They are not market averages, and your quote will move with scope. Where no provider publishes a reliable number, the cell says so instead of guessing. All figures exclude ad spend, which you pay to the platforms directly.
| Service | What you should get each month (put it in the contract) | Common pricing model | Published price example | KPI to judge it by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy and leadership | ||||
| 1. Marketing audit and strategy plan | One-time: channel and tracking audit, competitor review, 90-day plan with budget split by channel and named owners. Then a quarterly plan review. | Fixed project fee | Fractional project work: $5,000 to $25,000 fixed (MarketerHire guide, April 2026) | Plan delivered on date; leads and pipeline against the plan’s targets |
| 2. Fractional CMO or marketing leadership | A set number of hours per week, ownership of the budget and the agency roster, a monthly report to leadership with spend, leads and pipeline by channel. | Monthly retainer | $3,000 to $15,000 a month for 10 to 20 hours a week (MarketerHire) | Cost per qualified lead and pipeline sourced, against budget |
| Search | ||||
| 3. SEO (technical and on-page) | A fixed keyword set tracked, a stated number of pages optimized, a log of technical fixes shipped, a monthly call. WebFX’s entry plan, for example, names up to 150 phrases and up to 30 pages optimized. | Monthly retainer, often with a 6-month commitment | $2,900 to $9,200 a month, 6-month commitment (WebFX); survey average retainer $2,917 (Ahrefs, 439 providers, 2024) | Non-branded organic clicks and organic conversions in Search Console and GA4 |
| 4. Local SEO, Google Business Profile and reviews | Weekly profile photos or posts, replies to every new review, citation corrections, location page updates, a monthly profile insights report. | Per location, per month | $275 a month per location for review and reputation management with weekly photo uploads and review responses (The HOTH) | Calls, direction requests and website clicks from the profile; review count and rating |
| 5. Link earning and digital PR | A list of pitches sent and placements earned, each with the live URL. No bought links. | Retainer or per campaign | No standalone published price verified; quote per campaign | New referring domains from relevant sites; earned brand mentions |
| Paid media | ||||
| 6. Google Ads and search PPC | Search terms report reviewed and negatives added, at least 2 ad copy tests running, conversion tracking checked, bid strategy review, monthly report by campaign. | Flat fee or % of ad spend with a minimum, plus a setup fee | $750 a month flat up to $5,000 spend; then $975 or 15% of spend; $4,500 or 12% above $30,000 (WebFX) | Cost per qualified lead or ROAS, not clicks |
| 7. Paid social (Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok) | A stated number of new creative variants, audience tests with results, frequency checks, lead form sync to your CRM. | Flat fee under a spend threshold, % of spend above it | LinkedIn Ads: $3,000 a month plus $1,000 setup, 3-month contract, for budgets under $15,000 a month; 20% down to 6% of spend above that (B2Linked) | Cost per qualified lead and lead-to-opportunity rate |
| 8. Retargeting, display and connected TV | Audience lists and exclusions, frequency caps, placement exclusions, a creative set refreshed on a stated schedule. | Bundled into PPC or % of spend | Bundled example: WebFX’s Pro PPC tier includes a one-time set of up to 24 display ads and one 15-second CTV ad (WebFX) | Incremental conversions, not view-through credit |
| Social | ||||
| 9. Organic social media management | A post count per platform, a calendar approved a week ahead, replies to comments and messages, a monthly report. | Monthly retainer by post volume and platforms | $750 a month for 12 image posts on Facebook and Instagram, up to $1,550 for 20 vertical videos, plus $300 setup (LYFE Marketing); from $3,150 a month (WebFX) | Engagement rate per post, profile actions, social-sourced leads |
| 10. Influencer and creator marketing | A creator shortlist with audience data, contracts with disclosure clauses and content usage rights, tracking links or codes per creator. | Per campaign plus creator fees | No reliable published agency price found; creator fees vary per deal | Cost per acquisition through tracked links or codes |
| Content and creative | ||||
| 11. SEO content and blog writing | For example: 4 blog posts of 1,500 words, each with a keyword brief, edit, internal links and publishing. | Per word, per post or monthly retainer | $0.16 a word human-written, or $0.06 a word AI plus human with a $49.50 monthly platform fee (Verblio); $750 per content asset, long-form counts as 1.5 assets (WebFX) | Organic clicks and conversions per post 90 days after publishing |
| 12. Graphic design (ads, social, sales collateral) | Ad and social graphics on request with a stated turnaround; a capacity limit in hours, not a vague “unlimited”. | Design subscription | $699 to $2,599 a month on monthly billing (ManyPixels) | Turnaround time; CTR of ad creative |
| 13. Video production | Script, storyboard, voiceover and edit per video, with a revision limit and usage rights stated. | Per video | From $1,000 per one-minute animated explainer (Breadnbeyond) | View-through rate; conversion rate on pages carrying the video |
| Email and CRM | ||||
| 14. Email campaign management | A set number of campaigns per month, segment chosen per send, subject line tests, deliverability monitoring. | Monthly retainer by send volume | $1,200 a month for 4 emails; $2,500 for 8 emails and 2 SMS; $5,000 for 16 emails and 4 SMS (Netalico) | Revenue or leads per send; spam complaint rate |
| 15. Email automation (flows) build | Named flows built (welcome, abandoned cart, nurture, win-back) with the number of emails in each. | One-time project | $2,500 for 5 to 9 emails across 4 core flows, up to $6,000 for 5 retention flows (Netalico) | Conversion rate or revenue per recipient of each flow |
| 16. CRM and marketing automation setup | Lead source capture on every form, lifecycle stages defined, lead routing and alerts, sales handoff rules documented. | One-time project, sometimes plus a retainer | Software fee to budget first: HubSpot requires a one-time onboarding of $3,000 for Marketing Hub Professional and $7,000 for Enterprise (HubSpot) | Share of leads with a source recorded; speed to first contact |
| Web and conversion | ||||
| 17. Website design and build | Sitemap, wireframes, page count, CMS, launch checklist, redirect map if replacing a site, and who owns the files and hosting. | Fixed project, sometimes hourly | Average project $38,105 in Clutch review data, though most reviewed projects cost under $10,000; US firms $100 to $149 an hour (Clutch) | Site conversion rate and leads, measured before and after launch |
| 18. Landing pages and CRO testing | A test backlog with hypotheses, a stated number of tests or hours per month, heatmap review, a results log. | Setup fee plus monthly retainer by hours | $3,600 first month then $1,800 a month for 10 hours, up to $9,200 a month for 50 hours (WebFX) | Conversion rate change on tested pages, with test length and sample stated |
| 19. Website care and maintenance | Weekly updates, backups, uptime monitoring, a set edit allowance, security fixes. | Monthly plan | $89 to $359 a month (WP Buffs) | Uptime and time to fix |
| Analytics | ||||
| 20. Analytics and conversion tracking setup | GA4 and Google Tag Manager configured, named key events (form, call, booking), ad platform conversions, consent setup, a tracking document you keep. | One-time project, optional monthly support | From $699 one-time for up to 3 key events; $2,000 with ecommerce, Consent Mode v2 and Looker Studio dashboards; $10,000 with server-side tracking; $1,500 a month ongoing (Analytify) | Leads in GA4 match leads in the CRM within a tolerance you agree |
| 21. Reporting and dashboards | A live dashboard plus a written monthly summary: what changed, why, and next month’s actions. | Usually bundled into every retainer | Bundled (see row 20 for a dashboard build price) | Report ties spend to leads and revenue by channel |
| AI search | ||||
| 22. AI search visibility (GEO or AEO) | A fixed list of buyer prompts tracked across named AI tools, a monthly citation and mention report, content updates shipped from it. WebFX’s SEO plans track 100 to 250 prompts. | Monthly retainer, often bundled with SEO | $1,500, $2,500 or $5,000 a month (The HOTH AI Discover); seven vendors’ published GEO prices run $390 a month to a $10,000 one-off audit (Omnia’s compilation, October 2026) | Share of tracked prompts where you are cited or named; AI referral sessions in GA4 |
If you would rather buy most of these from one firm, that is what a full service marketing agency sells, and the same rule applies: every bundled service still needs its own deliverable line.
How agencies price these services
Three models cover almost every quote you will see: a monthly retainer, a fixed project fee, or an hourly rate. In the Ahrefs survey of 439 SEO providers (updated August 2024), 78.2% charged monthly retainers, 48.9% charged per project and 34.8% charged hourly; many used more than one. The same survey put the average monthly retainer at $2,917 and the average hourly rate at $111. For a wider view, Clutch’s digital marketing pricing guide lists $100 to $149 an hour as the typical rate for US agencies and says projects reviewed on its platform range between $10,000 and $49,999.
Paid media adds a fourth model: a percentage of ad spend, usually with a minimum fee. That minimum is what small advertisers feel. Run WebFX’s published PPC tiers at different budgets and the fee as a share of spend falls from 75% to 12%:
- $1,000 a month of spend on the $750 Lite tier: the fee is 75% of spend.
- $2,500 of spend on Lite: 30%.
- $5,000 of spend on Lite: 15%.
- $10,000 on Pro (the greater of $975 or 15%): $1,500, or 15%.
- $30,000 on Pro: $4,500, or 15%.
- $50,000 on Enterprise (the greater of $4,500 or 12%): $6,000, or 12%.
Setup fees sit on top. WebFX lists a first month of $1,200, $2,250 or $5,800 depending on tier, B2Linked charges $1,000 to set up LinkedIn Ads, LYFE Marketing charges $300 for social, and WebFX’s two lower CRO plans charge double the monthly fee in month one. Our paid media agency pricing guide runs the same fee math for five agencies at three spend levels.
Digital marketing services list with prices: the same deliverable at different providers
Unit math is the fastest way to compare quotes, because it turns a package into the price of one thing you can picture. Each row divides a published price by the deliverable it buys.
| Deliverable | Published option | Unit math | What the higher price usually buys |
|---|---|---|---|
| One 1,500-word blog post | Verblio AI plus human ($0.06 a word); Verblio human ($0.16 a word); WebFX long-form asset (1.5 assets at $750) | $90 (plus the $49.50 monthly platform fee); $240; $1,125 | The WebFX asset sits inside a managed SEO plan with keyword targeting and on-page work; the Verblio prices are for writing only |
| One social media post | LYFE Good ($750 for 12 image posts); LYFE Best ($1,550 for 20 vertical videos) | $62.50 per image post; $77.50 per video | Video production instead of static images |
| One campaign email | Netalico Essential ($1,200 for 4 emails) | $300 per email, strategy, design and send included | Higher tiers add SMS and volume, not a lower per-email rate |
| Ad management on $10,000 a month of spend | WebFX Pro Google Ads (15%); B2Linked LinkedIn Ads ($3,000 flat) | $1,500 (15% of spend); $3,000 (30% of spend) | LinkedIn specialists price for a narrower, B2B-only skill set and charge a flat fee below $15,000 of spend |
| Tracking setup | Analytify Setup, Advanced, Enterprise | $699; $2,000; $10,000 one-time | Ecommerce and consent setup at $2,000; server-side tracking and ad platform enhanced conversions at $10,000 |
| Design capacity | ManyPixels Advanced vs Design team (monthly billing) | $699 for a shared team working up to 2 hours a day; $2,599 for 2 dedicated designers, about 8 hours a day combined | Dedicated people and same-day delivery |
Two things fall out of this. First, a “content” line item can mean $90 or $1,125 for the same word count, so always ask what the fee includes beyond writing. Second, flat fees punish small budgets: $3,000 to manage $10,000 of LinkedIn spend is a reasonable specialist price, but $3,000 to manage $3,000 of spend is not a decision you want to make by accident.
What services does a digital marketing agency offer? The nine groups explained
Strategy and leadership
An audit tells you what is broken; a fractional CMO owns the budget and holds the other vendors to their numbers. MarketerHire’s guide says most fractional CMOs work 10 to 20 hours a week per client. If you already have three agencies and nobody reconciling their reports, this is the missing service, and our page on fractional CMO services lays out what that scope covers.
Search: SEO, local and links
Ongoing SEO should be sold in countable units. WebFX’s published plans, for example, name the number of phrases targeted (150 to 300), pages optimized at the start (30 to 60) and content assets per month (2 to 8). Local SEO is a separate job centered on your Google Business Profile and reviews. Link work should be earned: Google’s spam policies list “exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links” as link spam. Budget ranges by business type are in our guide to how much SEO costs.
AI search visibility
Sold as GEO, AEO or “AI search optimization”, the useful deliverable here is measurement: a fixed set of prompts your buyers would type, checked monthly across named AI tools, with the pages and mentions that get you cited. Be clear on what Google itself says: its AI features documentation states there are “no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary,” and that you don’t need new machine-readable files or AI text files.
Paid media
Paid search and paid social are the services where weekly work shows up most clearly. On Google Ads, the core recurring task is reviewing the search terms report and adding irrelevant queries as negative keywords, which Google’s own help page recommends. Ask how often that happens and to see the change history. On paid social, the recurring task is new creative: ask for the number of new ad variants per month in writing.
Social media
Organic social is priced by post count and platform count, so a quote without both numbers is not a quote. LYFE Marketing’s published tiers show the shape: 12 image posts on two platforms at the bottom, 20 vertical videos at the top. Influencer work is a different service with a legal edge: the FTC’s Disclosures 101 for influencers says creators must disclose any financial, employment, personal or family relationship with a brand, and anything of value counts. Package comparisons are in our social media management pricing breakdown.
Content and creative
Writing, design and video are usually priced per unit: per word, per design hour or per finished video. The spread is wide because the scope is: a $1,000 explainer at Breadnbeyond covers one minute of animation with script, voiceover and music, with extra cost for every 10 seconds beyond the first minute. Ask for revision limits and who owns the source files.
Email and CRM
Email splits into two jobs: building automated flows once, and sending campaigns every month. Deliverability belongs in scope too. Gmail’s sender guidelines require senders of more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail to set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC, support one-click unsubscribe and keep reported spam rates below 0.3%. CRM setup is the plumbing that makes every other channel measurable. Agency options and fees are compared in our email marketing agency guide.
Web and conversion
A website build is a project; CRO and maintenance are retainers. The cleanest CRO quotes are sold in hours or tests per month. WebFX’s published plans, for instance, list 10, 20 or 50 CRO and UX hours a month. Maintenance plans at WP Buffs start at weekly updates, backups and uptime monitoring and add unlimited small edits from the $179 tier.
Analytics and reporting
Every other service depends on tracking. Without named key events for forms, calls and bookings, no agency can prove its KPI. Treat setup as a one-time project with a tracking document you keep.
Which services to buy first, by business stage
Buying order matters more than the list. This table is my rule of thumb from scoping these engagements, not a benchmark; match the row that describes you today, not where you want to be.
| Where you are now | Buy first | Wait on | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leads come mostly from referrals; the website has no conversion tracking | Analytics and tracking setup; Google Business Profile and reviews if you serve a local area; fixes to the main service pages | SEO retainers, paid social, influencer, AI search programs | Every later service is judged on tracked leads. Google’s own hiring guide says a small local business can probably do much of its SEO itself |
| Proven offer, you want predictable inbound leads now | Google Ads on high-intent searches, one dedicated landing page, a lead nurture email flow | Large content programs, brand video | Paid search shows within weeks which messages convert; SEO takes longer to show results |
| Paid search works but cost per lead keeps rising | SEO and content on the queries that already convert in paid search; CRO on the landing pages | More ad channels | You have conversion data to aim content at, and CRO lowers cost per lead on spend you already have |
| Long B2B sales cycle, high deal value | CRM and automation setup, LinkedIn Ads, SEO content for evaluation-stage searches, email nurture | Organic social at volume, influencer | Deals need several touches; the CRM is what shows which ones moved a deal |
| Ecommerce with repeat purchases | Email flows (welcome, abandoned cart), paid social creative testing, CRO | Broad brand awareness campaigns | Flows keep sending after a one-time build, which is how Netalico prices them |
| Three or more agencies, nobody owns the plan | Fractional CMO or strategy lead; unified reporting | New channels | Adding vendors without an owner multiplies reports, not results |
| Strong organic search already; buyers ask AI tools | AI search visibility tracking on a fixed prompt set, content updates from what it finds | Special “AI files” or markup sold as a fix | Google says no special optimization is needed for AI Overviews, so pay for measurement and content, not gimmicks |
Red flags in an agency’s services list
Most bad agency relationships are visible in the proposal before you sign. Google’s guide to hiring an SEO covers several of these directly, and our walkthrough on how to read an SEO proposal goes line by line.
- “SEO” as one bundled line with no deliverables. No keyword count, no page count, no technical fix log. Providers that publish prices, like WebFX, name all three, so it can be done.
- Ranking guarantees. Google states plainly: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google,” and warns against SEOs claiming a “special relationship” with Google.
- Links sold by quantity or domain rating. Paying for links that pass ranking credit is link spam under Google’s spam policies, and the penalty risk sits with your site, not the agency.
- The agency owns your ad or analytics accounts. Keep the accounts in your company’s name and grant the agency access. In Google Ads, only the Admin access level can give access, change access levels and unlink manager accounts, so that level should stay with you.
- A percentage-of-spend fee with no cap or review point. It pays the agency more when you spend more, whether or not results improve. Ask for a fee that steps down as spend grows, the way B2Linked publishes 20% down to 6%.
- “Social media management” with no post count or platform list. If a quote cannot say how many posts on which platforms, you cannot check delivery.
- AI search work sold as a technical file or markup fix. Google says none is needed for AI Overviews or AI Mode.
- Email with nobody responsible for deliverability. If Gmail’s authentication and spam rate rules are nobody’s job, campaigns can quietly stop reaching inboxes.
- Influencer deals without a disclosure clause. The FTC expects it; the contract should require it.
- Secrecy about what was changed. Google advises being careful with any company that won’t explain what it intends to do, and notes you are responsible for the actions of companies you hire.
Copy-ready scope of work checklist for your agency RFP
Paste the left column into your RFP or contract schedule. Score each proposal against the right two columns; any “fail” on items 1 to 4 is reason enough to pass on the proposal. If you want a second set of eyes on the shortlist, you can book a consultation.
| Requirement to paste into the RFP | Pass if the proposal | Fail if |
|---|---|---|
| 1. List every service with its monthly deliverables as numbers (pages, posts, emails, tests, hours). | Gives a number for each line | Any line says “ongoing optimization” or “as needed” with no count |
| 2. State the pricing model, monthly fee, setup fee and any % of ad spend for each service. | Shows fee, setup and % separately | One bundled number with no breakdown |
| 3. Confirm that all ad, analytics, CRM, domain and hosting accounts are owned by our company, with admin access retained by us. | Confirms in writing | Accounts are created under the agency’s name |
| 4. Name one KPI per service, how it is measured, and the baseline you will report against. | Ties each service to a business KPI with a data source | KPIs are impressions, reach or “visibility” only |
| 5. Describe the monthly report: dashboard link, written summary, and a list of changes made. | Includes a change log | Report is a screenshot pack |
| 6. State the minimum term, notice period and what we receive at exit (files, logins, content, creative source files). | Lists handover items | Exit terms are missing or content stays with the agency |
| 7. Name the people on the account, their roles and hours per month, and whether any work is subcontracted. | Names roles and hours, discloses subcontractors | Only a sales contact is named |
| 8. Confirm link work is earned only and that no links will be bought. | Confirms | Offers link packages by count or domain rating |
| 9. For paid media: frequency of search term reviews and negative keyword updates, and number of new ad variants per month. | Gives both numbers | “Continuous optimization” with no cadence |
| 10. For email: who owns SPF, DKIM, DMARC, one-click unsubscribe and spam rate monitoring. | Names an owner | Not mentioned |
| 11. For AI search: the prompt list to be tracked, the AI tools checked and the monthly report format. | Shares a sample prompt list | Promises guaranteed AI citations |
| 12. Provide two client references for similar scope and budget. | Gives contactable references | Only logos or testimonials |
I’d rather see a short proposal that passes all 12 than a long one that fails item 1. The number of services an agency lists tells you little; the number of deliverables it is willing to put in writing tells you almost everything.
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Frequently asked questions
What services does a digital marketing agency offer?
Most agencies sell services from nine groups: strategy and leadership, search (SEO, local SEO, link earning), AI search visibility, paid media (Google Ads, paid social, retargeting), social media, content and creative (writing, design, video), email and CRM, web design and conversion optimization, and analytics and reporting. Few agencies are strong in all nine, so ask which services they deliver in-house and which they subcontract.
How much do digital marketing agency services cost?
Published examples vary by service. WebFX lists SEO at $2,900 to $9,200 a month, LYFE Marketing lists social media management at $750 to $1,550 a month, and Netalico lists email campaign management at $1,200 to $5,000 a month. Clutch says US agencies on its platform typically bill $100 to $149 an hour. Ad spend is always extra and paid to the platforms.
What should be included in a digital marketing agency's monthly services?
Each service should have countable deliverables: keywords tracked and pages optimized for SEO, posts per platform for social, campaigns per month for email, tests or hours per month for CRO, and search term reviews plus new ad variants for paid media. Each should also have one business KPI, such as cost per qualified lead, and a monthly report with a log of changes made.
Which digital marketing services should a small business buy first?
Start with conversion tracking, because every other service is judged on tracked leads. Local businesses should add Google Business Profile and review management next. If you need leads quickly, Google Ads on high-intent searches with one dedicated landing page usually comes before an SEO retainer. Google itself says a small local business can probably do much of its own SEO.
Do digital marketing agencies charge a percentage of ad spend?
Many paid media agencies do, usually with a minimum fee. WebFX charges $975 or 15% of spend, whichever is higher, between $5,000 and $30,000 a month, and B2Linked charges 20% down to 6% of LinkedIn spend above $15,000. On small budgets the minimum fee can equal a large share of spend: $750 on $1,000 of spend is 75%.
Is AI search optimization (GEO) a real digital marketing agency service?
Agencies now sell it, with published prices such as The HOTH's AI Discover at $1,500 to $5,000 a month. The useful part is measuring how often AI tools cite or name you for a fixed set of buyer prompts, then improving content. Google says there are no special requirements or optimizations needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode.