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Honest pricing

What UK Marketing Actually Costs in 2026

Most agencies won’t tell you what anything costs until you’re on a call. We think that’s the wrong way round. So here is the honest picture: the figures that have a real source behind them, the market ranges that have none, and exactly what we charge.

By Craig Fearn, Outcome Digital Marketing. July 2026.

The figures that have a real source

Start with what can actually be stood up. Each of these comes from a named survey or an official price list, not a guess. Sources are listed at the bottom.

£480/day

median UK copywriter day rate in 2025, up 9% on the £440 of 2024^[1]

7.8%

of company revenue now goes on marketing in 2026, up from 7.7% in 2025^[2]

+7.3%

UK marketing budgets are growing at their fastest rate in about two years^[3]

from £9.81/mo

Mailchimp email marketing once you pass 500 contacts (free below that)^[4]

£500–£2,500

typical small-agency logo and brand identity; premium work runs into five figures^[5]

The short version

Marketing is getting more expensive, not less. Budgets are rising and so are the day rates behind the work. That makes it more important, not less, to know what you are paying for before you commit.

What agencies typically charge (a rough guide)

Read this first

There is no audited survey behind UK agency retainer prices. What you find online is dozens of near-identical ‘2026 pricing guide’ posts, most of them written by agencies, all landing on suspiciously round numbers. We looked. So treat the table below as a rough sense of what gets quoted, not as a fact. We would rather tell you that than dress a guess up as data.

Service	Typical quote (no audited source)
SEO and local SEO retainer	£300 to £2,000 / month
Google Ads (PPC) management	10 to 20% of ad spend, or £300 to £2,000 / month
Website design	£500 (one-page) to £15,000+ (large-agency build)
Social media management	£300 to £3,000 / month
Ad spend to test paid ads properly	£150 to £300 / month minimum

What we charge

Since we are telling everyone else to be upfront, here is ours. These are real prices, published, not a ‘from’ teaser that triples on the call.

One-page website

£500 to £800

Multi-page website

£1,200 to £1,800

Custom or ecommerce build

from £2,000

SEO and local SEO

from £299 / month, no lock-in

What that includes

On-page SEO comes as standard with every site we build. You get an itemised quote before anything starts, and there is no charge for account managers or project managers you will never meet. See the full web design pricing, try the cost calculator, or just ask us for a plain quote.

Sources and method

The figures in the first section each come from a named source, listed below. The market ranges in the second section do not, and we have said so plainly rather than borrow authority they haven’t earned. Our own prices are exactly what we quote, published in full on our pricing page.

These sourced figures are free to cite. Please credit ‘Outcome Digital Marketing’ with a link to this page, and follow the original source for the underlying survey.