What Digital Marketing Costs: Real Numbers

The Full Price List

Most agencies make you sit through a discovery call to hear a number. Here is ours up front. Every price below is a flat fee: the invoice is the same every month regardless of your ad budget.

Ad spend is separate and goes directly to Google, Meta or Microsoft from your own account. You own every account, pixel, and audience we build. No long-term lock-in after month three. AI search visibility (being named by ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity) is included in web optimization and local SEO rather than sold as a separate line.

How Much Does Web Design Cost?

A professional small-business website costs $3,000 to $8,000 CAD. Our Essential tier starts at $3,000 for a 5-8 page custom WordPress build with mobile optimization and Core Web Vitals targets; the Business tier starts at $8,000 and adds e-commerce or booking integration and a conversion audit. Multi-location and custom-integration builds start at $18,000. These are fixed-scope quotes, not hourly billing, so the price you sign is the price you pay. A redesign costs the same as a new build in the matching tier, and includes mapping every URL that holds rankings or backlinks with a full redirect plan, so you keep your search equity. Details on scope are on the web design page.

How Much Should You Pay a Digital Marketing Agency in Canada?

Reputable Canadian agency retainers for a small business run roughly $1,500 to $5,000 CAD per month depending on scope, and the pricing model matters more than the number. The two common structures are flat monthly fees and percentage of ad spend (typically 10 to 15%). We only charge flat fees: when an agency's revenue scales with your ad budget, its incentive is to grow the budget, not the results. The full argument is in why we charge flat fees.

Is It Normal for an Agency to Charge a Percentage of Ad Spend?

Common, yes. Good for you, no. Percentage-of-spend pricing means that if cutting your Meta budget from $10K to $7K would improve your cost per result, your agency takes a pay cut for recommending it. Most won't. A flat fee removes that conflict: our recommendation is whatever produces booked leads at the lowest cost, including "spend less."

How Much Does Google Ads Management Cost?

Our Google Ads management starts at a flat $1,200 CAD per month for accounts spending up to $5K monthly, $2,000 for the $5K to $20K range, and $3,500 above $20K with a dedicated strategist. Most service businesses we manage invest $2,000 to $8,000 per month in ad spend on top of the fee. We take clients at a minimum of $1,500 per month in ad spend, because below that the account buys too few clicks to generate the conversion data that optimization needs. Meta and Microsoft Ads run on the same tiers. Full scope is on the Google Ads management page.

How Much Does SEO Cost in Canada?

Reputable SEO retainers in Canada run about $1,500 to $3,500 CAD per month for a local or regional business, and higher for competitive multi-location work. Ours start at $1,500 per month for a one-to-three location business (up to 20 target keywords, tracked daily), $3,000 for competitive multi-location work with content production, and $5,000 for aggressive authority building. Be skeptical of $300 SEO: at that price the work is automated software or link schemes, and both get sites penalized. The full breakdown is in what SEO actually costs.

How Much Does Conversion Rate Optimization Cost?

CRO is part of every web optimization and Google Ads program, because converting the traffic is the point of buying the traffic. As a standalone engagement for a site that already has meaningful traffic, the audit and quick-wins phase is $2,500 one-time and an ongoing program starts at $1,500 per month. The audit phase alone typically surfaces 3-5 fixes (broken tracking, form friction, page-speed regressions) that lift conversions 10-30% within 30 days, before any A/B testing starts. Scope is on the conversion optimization page.

Edmonton, Specifically

The prices above do not change by city, but the ad budget they sit on does. High-intent Edmonton keywords (dentist, lawyer, HVAC, plumber) carry costs per click between $5 and $35, which is why $500 per month, or $20 per day, is not a workable Google Ads budget here: it buys too few clicks to produce the conversion data optimization needs. Most Edmonton service businesses run $2,000 to $8,000 per month in ad spend. Edmonton-specific scope is on the Edmonton services page.

How to Compare Agency Quotes

Two quotes with the same number can be wildly different deals. Check the structure, not just the price. The full buyer guide, with the ten questions to ask and the red flags that end a conversation, is How to Choose a Marketing Agency in Edmonton.