Takeaways

The 2019 version of the digital marketing industry pricing survey was doozy. With 271 respondents across the world, both agencies and consultants, working across a multitude of services there was a LOT of data to analyze and synthesize.

We highly recommend reading through all of the individual chapters of this guide, but if you are looking for the tl;DR version with just the insights then you have come to the right place with this page.

This page is broken into insights for each of the major sections of the guide.

Digital marketing agency insights

Here are the main takeaways from the digital marketing agency section:

1. The average hourly rate for digital marketers and digital marketing firms worldwide is $148.13 per hour.
2. The average hourly rate for US digital marketers/firm is $167.28.
3. The average hourly rate for UK digital marketers/firms is $111.36.
4. 1 in 5 of respondents with 50+ employees are in the $200-$300 range;
5. Almost half (45%) of agencies with 11-20 employees charge $100-$150/hr.
6. Agencies seem to be, on average, charging more in 2019 than they did in our 2017 survey.
7. That said, only 16.98% of all respondents say that they charge more than $200 per hour on average and a full 29.89% of respondents charge $101-$150 per hour for their work on average.

Digital marketing consultant insights

Here are the main takeaways from the digital marketing agency section:

• Almost 1/3 (31.73%) of solo consultants worldwide charge $51-$100 per hour for their work;
• 64.43% of solo consultant respondents charge less than $150/hr for their work;
• 84.62% charge less than $200/hr for their work.
• On average, US solo consultants charge a LOT more than UK consultants.
• The average hourly rate for US-only digital marketing consultants is $161.57.
• The average hourly rate for digital marketing consultants worldwide is $140.29 per hour.
• 41.25% of worldwide consultants charge less than $100 per hour;
• 27.28% of US consultants charge less than $100 per hour;
• 54.54% of US consultants charge between $101-$200 per hour;
• 18.18% of US consultants in our dataset charge over $200 per hour and 2.88% charge more than $500 per hour.

SEO provider insights

Here are the main takeaways from the SEO providers section:

• Worldwide, SEO firms charge an average of ~$149 per hour;
• 71% of US SEO agencies charge between $101-$200 per hour;
• Only 41% of UK SEO agencies charge between $101-$200. UK agencies are more likely to charge between $51-$150 per hour.
• The average SEO consultant hourly rate worldwide as of January 2019 is $148 per hour.
• 55.32% of US SEO consultants charge $101-$200 per hour, and 25.53% charge less than $100 per hour!

PPC provider insights

Here are the main takeaways from the PPC providers section:

• PPC agencies on average have higher monthly minimums and retainers than consultants;
• US PPC firms are more expensive than worldwide averages (which is consistent across our dataset);
• 32.89% of our worldwide PPC firm respondents report charging under $100 per hour for their PPC work;
• Only 1.88% of our respondents report charging more than $300 an hour for their PPC work.

Facebook ads insights

Here are the main takeaways from the Facebook advertising providers section:

• Facebook advertising firms on average charge $137.50 per hour for their work;
• 53.54% of reporting firms charge between $101-$200 per hour;
• Only 1 reporting firm (out of 127) charges $300 or more per hour, and none charge over $500 per hour.
• Only 8.66% of worldwide FB ads firms in our dataset charge less than $50 per hour. Only 3 of these are US-based and all of those have less than 5 years of digital experience.
• Facebook ads agencies seem to charge more than Facebook ads solo consultants currently.

Other takeaways

• 79% of firms surveyed do not charge an onboarding fee;
• 77.5% of US firms do not charge an onboarding fee;
• 79% of SEO firms do not charge an onboarding fee;
• 75% of agencies (2+ people) do not charge an onboarding fee;
• 86.5% of solo consultants do not charge an onboarding fee.