Digital marketing in Australia typically costs between $1,000 and $4,000 per month per channel for small to medium businesses, based on DNHQ’s June 2026 audit of 140 Australian agencies.
Published entry prices for full-service agencies start around $500/month for SEO, $495/month for social media management, $400/month for Google Ads management, and $1,295 for a website project, but most agencies charge considerably more, and 78% don’t publish their prices at all.
Service | Average advertised entry | Median advertised entry | Typical SME range (advertised) | Upper-tier published solutions |
SEO (monthly retainer) | $1,496/mo | $1,470/mo | $1,200–$2,500/mo | $5,000+/mo |
Google Ads management | $1,391/mo | $1,250/mo | $1,200–$3,500/mo + ad spend | $6,000+/mo |
Web design (project) | $8,404 | $4,975 | $2,500–$15,000 | $50,000+ |
Social media management (organic) | $1,219/mo | $960/mo | $950–$2,500/mo | $7,500+/mo |
Paid social marketing (ads mgmt) | $1,221/mo | $1,200/mo | $1,200–$2,500/mo + ad spend | $3,500+/mo |
Benchmarks exclude ultra-budget productised offers (SEO under $500/month; ads and social under $400/month; websites under $1,000). Those exist from as little as $99 – $330/month but are a different product class: templated, volume-delivered, and minimally customised. See methodology.
Source: DNHQ Australian Digital Marketing Price Index, published pricing of 140 Australian agencies audited June 2026. Prices AUD; GST treatment varies (see below).
Why you can't find this answer anywhere else
Here’s the uncomfortable truth our research uncovered: of 411 agency service lines we audited across 140 Australian agencies, 78% publish no pricing whatsoever.
Only 8% publish a genuine rate card.
The rest gate their prices behind “free strategy sessions”, budget-bracket enquiry forms, and downloadable brochures that ask for your email first.
That’s why every “how much does digital marketing cost” article you’ve read is vague.
The data didn’t exist, so we built it.
This article is based on the published pricing and published inclusions of 140 Australian agencies across SEO, Google Ads, web design and social media, collected June 2026.
The methodology is at the bottom; the numbers are real, recent, and Australian.
How much does SEO cost in Australia?
SEO in Australia costs an average of $1,496 per month at published entry level (median $1,470/month), with advertised retainers spanning $500 to $5,000 per month across the 38 qualifying monthly from-prices in our audit.
Most full-service agencies advertise entry prices of $1,200–$2,500 per month.
Ultra-budget productised SEO exists from $200–$499/month but is a different product (capped keywords, templated content, volume delivery).
Notably, the cheapest published prices cluster in regional Australia, while capital-city agencies are the most likely to publish nothing at all.
What the published market actually looks like:
Tier | Monthly price | What’s typically included (where stated) |
Budget / productised | $549–$999 | Up to 10–30 keywords, 2–4 blogs/mo, basic links, monthly report |
Standard SME | $1,500–$2,500 | 40–75 keywords tracked, content optimisation, link building, GBP/local, monthly report + strategy session |
Growth | $2,500–$4,000 | 75–100 keywords, more content + stronger links, technical work, dedicated specialist |
Competitive/enterprise | $5,000+ | Custom scope; most agencies at this level publish nothing |
Three things the price tags don’t tell you:
The same dollar buys wildly different amounts. Among agencies that publish both prices and quantities, a tracked keyword costs anywhere from $30/month to $99/month. Always ask what the number includes.
Hours are almost never disclosed. Only a handful of Australian agencies state how many hours of work your retainer buys (where stated: roughly 12–15 hours at ~$1,900/mo).
If an agency won’t tell you the hours, you can’t compare quotes.
AI/GEO optimisation is now claimed by half of Australian SEO agencies, and quantified by none. 49% of the SEO providers we audited now sell some form of AI-search optimisation.
Not one attaches a defined deliverable to it. If you’re paying for it, ask what “it” is.
How much does Google Ads management cost in Australia?
Google Ads management in Australia costs an average of $1,391 per month at published entry level (median $1,250/month), with qualifying fees spanning $400 to $6,000+ per month, plus your ad spend (always billed separately).
Most published SME packages sit between $1,200 and $3,500 per month.
Setup fees, where charged, run $499–$2,000.
Flat-fee budget operators exist from $290–$330/month; at that price expect a capped campaign count and minimal optimisation hours.
The four fee models you’ll encounter (only 48% of agencies disclose which one they use):
- Flat monthly fee: the most common disclosed model ($550–$6,000+/mo)
- Weekly fee tiers: e.g. $249–$499/week pegged to minimum daily ad spends
- Percentage of ad spend: typically appears at higher spend levels (e.g. 15% of spend)
- Unit/hours-based: pre-purchased blocks (e.g. ~$135/unit, 10 units/month)
The number that matters more than the fee: minimum ad spend.
Only 22% of agencies state one, but where stated they range from $500/month to $500/day ($15,000+/month). Your real monthly cost is fee + spend: an advertised “$300/month” management fee on a $3,000/month spend requirement is a $3,300/month commitment.
Buyer’s checklist from the data: ask the fee model, ask the minimum spend, confirm you own the ad account (some agencies build in theirs), and confirm whether ad creative is included.
Landing pages are excluded from most base packages and sold at up to $1,000/page.
How much does a website cost in Australia?
A professionally built website in Australia costs an average of $8,404 at published entry level, but the median is $4,975, because a handful of premium builds ($15,000–$50,000+) drag the average up.
Qualifying advertised projects run $1,295 to $50,000+, and below the $1,000 line sits a separate template/subscription market ($499–$995 builds, $25–$399/month website subscriptions).
If you’re a typical small business, the median is your better benchmark.
The clusters in the published data:
Tier | Project price | What defines it |
Budget template | $499–$1,299 | Template design, 5–15 pages, hosting bundled, client provides content |
Small business | $2,500–$5,400 | Kit/theme-based, ~4–7 pages, basic SEO setup, some training |
Mid-market custom | $5,000–$15,000 | Custom design, CMS (usually WordPress/Shopify), copywriting optional |
Premium custom | $15,000–$40,000+ | UX research, user testing, custom code, accessibility standards |
Enterprise | $50,000+ | Headless/DXP platforms, integrations, milestone delivery |
The two questions that cause every web project dispute (and that almost nobody answers up front): how many pages (stated by just 11% of agencies) and how many revision rounds (stated by 29%; quantified by a handful at 2–3 rounds).
Get both in writing before you sign.
Also budget for the after-launch reality: care/maintenance plans run $49–$300+/month at the SME level (and up to $2,200 – $9,900/month for managed performance retainers), and “12 months free hosting” style inclusions exist but are rare.
How much does social media marketing cost in Australia?
Social media management (organic posting, content and community) in Australia costs an average of $1,219 per month at published entry level (median $960/month), running $495–$2,450 per month depending on posting volume.
Paid social marketing (Meta/TikTok ads management) averages $1,221 per month (median $1,200), running $695–$2,500 per month plus ad spend.
These are different products with different price logic and most agencies sell them separately, though a small hybrid market bundles posting and ads into one $650–$900/month fee.
Below the $400 line sits a productised feed market ($99–$300/month for templated posting), which is a different product class. Fewer agencies publish social pricing than any other service.
What the posting-cadence tiers look like in the published data:
Posts per week | Typical monthly price | Notes |
~3 posts/wk (12–13/mo) | $275–$1,440 | Cheapest tiers reuse one post across 2 platforms |
4–5 posts/wk (16–20/mo) | $469–$2,700 | Mid tiers add stories/reels, more platforms |
Paid social mgmt | $300–$2,500 entry | Creative often costs extra; check minimum spends |
The catch most buyers miss: community management (actually responding to comments and messages) is almost never included.
Only ~1 in 3 agencies even mention it, and at several it’s a paid add-on. If “managing our socials” means answering your customers, confirm it’s in scope.
Same for photo/video: usually an add-on or top-tier perk, and several agencies require a separate “boosting” budget of $300–$500/month paid by you.
The hidden costs nobody puts on the pricing page
From auditing 88 agencies, the recurring traps:
- GST ambiguity. Fewer than 1 in 10 agencies state whether prices include GST. Where stated, prices are almost always exclusive, so add 10% to everything you see. (Every price in this article is as published; ask every agency “inc or ex GST?”)
- Setup fees ($499–$1,999 for ads; $550+ onboarding; $900 campaign setup), often revealed only at proposal stage.
- “No lock-in” with an asterisk. “No lock-in contracts” is the most-published commercial term in Australian marketing: more agencies publish their contract stance than their price. But look closer: “no lock-in” frequently coexists with a 3-, 6- or 12-month “initial period”, “sprint” or “recommended minimum”. One agency we audited displays a “No Lock-In Contracts” badge on the same site as a 3-month-minimum FAQ.
- Media spend is never included. Ad budgets go to Google/Meta on top of every management fee quoted here.
- The $X/day decoy. “$5–10/day” figures on agency pages are your ad spend, not their fee. Three agencies in our audit present platform costs where buyers would expect pricing.
What should YOUR business budget?
Pulling the channels together, realistic all-in monthly budgets (fees + minimum viable ad spend, ex GST):
- Local service business, one channel: $1,500–$3,000/mo (e.g. local SEO, or Google Ads with modest spend)
- Established SME, two channels: $3,000–$6,000/mo (the bracket most full-service agencies design for, and consistent with what agencies themselves recommend: several audited agencies state $2,000–$5,000/mo working minimums)
- Growth-stage, multi-channel: $6,000–$15,000/mo
- One-off website: $2,500–$15,000 project + $50–$300/mo care
Worth knowing as you budget: our companion research found Australian search demand fell 32–44% across every capital city in 2026 while AI Overviews now appear on ~37–38% of results, which means every dollar should be working both classic search and AI visibility. See the State of AI Search →
Agency vs in-house: what does each actually cost?
The comparison most businesses run in their head (“for that retainer I could just hire someone”) deserves real numbers.
A single in-house digital marketing specialist costs roughly $105,000 – $130,000 a year all-in: a $85,000–$100,000 salary (SEEK’s 2026 average for the role), plus 12% superannuation, leave loading, payroll on-costs, recruitment, and the tool stack agencies amortise across clients (SEO platforms, reporting software and ad tools run $300–$800+/month on their own). That’s $8,700–$10,800 per month for one generalist, before any ad spend.
Against the benchmarks in this article, the same money buys two to four specialist channel retainers (e.g. SEO at ~$1,500/mo + Google Ads at ~$1,250/mo + paid social at ~$1,200/mo ≈ $4,000/mo) with senior specialists in each discipline, no leave or turnover risk, and tools included.
The honest counterpoints: an in-house hire gives you dedication, brand immersion and unlimited iterations that no retainer matches, and one generalist can’t be a senior technical SEO, media buyer, designer and copywriter at once, which is the actual trade. The pattern that works for most SMEs in the data’s $3,000–$6,000/month bracket is hybrid: a marketing coordinator in-house owning brand and approvals, with channel execution bought as specialist retainers.
What we charge
We’ve spent this entire article telling you 78% of agencies won’t publish prices. Here’s ours:
Service | DNHQ pricing |
SEO | from $1,797/mo* |
Google Ads management | from $1,497/mo* |
Social media marketing | from $1,497/mo* |
Website builds | from $5,000* |
*Starting prices: your exact fee depends on scope, competition and inclusions, and is itemised line-by-line in every proposal. No lock-in contracts.
Methodology
Pricing data: published prices, packages and inclusions from the websites of 180 Australian digital marketing agencies across SEO, Google Ads/PPC management, web design and social media marketing, collected June 2026 (DNHQ Australian Digital Marketing Price Index). The transparency statistic (78%) is computed on a 140-agency representative sample drawn from independent directories and roundups across 20 Australian cities; price benchmarks additionally include a 40-agency oversample of price-publishing agencies found via search. Benchmark figures exclude ultra-budget productised offers (SEO under $500/month entry; ads and social under $400/month; web projects under $1,000) as a distinct product class; their existence and price points are noted in the text. Figures are advertised/published entry prices, not invoices. Quotation permitted with attribution to DNHQ Research.
