How much does small business marketing cost?

What actually drives the price

Marketing cost comes down to three things:

• How many channels you need. Keeping a Google Business Profile current is a small job. Running a website, ads, reviews, email and social media together is a bigger one.
• Setup versus ongoing work. Some work is done once, like building a website or cleaning up your business listings. Some is monthly, like posts, review requests and reporting.
• How competitive your market is. A plumber in Port St. Lucie competes with far more businesses than a shop in Sebastian, so it can take more work to move up.

What to pay for first

Most small businesses get the most for their money from the same few things, in roughly this order:

1. Your Google Business Profile. It is where most local customers decide who to call or visit. A complete, active profile costs little and often brings in calls within weeks.
2. Reviews. Fresh five-star reviews help you rank and help people choose you. Automatic review requests do the asking for you.
3. Fast follow-up. If calls go to voicemail and quote requests sit for a day, you are paying to find customers your competitors close. Instant replies fix that.
4. A website that works on a phone. It does not need to be fancy. It needs to load fast, say what you do and where, and make it one tap to call.
5. Ads, when you need calls now. Ads work best once the basics above are in place, because they send people to a profile and website that can close the deal.

Doing it yourself versus hiring help

You can do a lot of this yourself if you have the time. Claiming your Google profile, adding photos and asking customers for reviews costs nothing but hours. Where owners usually get stuck is consistency: posting every week, replying to every review, following up on every lead while running the business. That is the part worth paying for.

Red flags when comparing prices

• Long contracts before you see results. Ask what happens if you want to stop.
• No clear list of what you get each month. You should know exactly what is being done.
• Reports full of impressions and clicks but no calls or leads. Ask how they track phone calls and form submissions.
• You do not own your website, profile or ad accounts. Those should be in your name.

What a website costs

A website is usually a one-time project plus a monthly hosting and maintenance plan. We give you a fixed-price estimate first, and qualified businesses can pay for a new site over 12 months, interest-free. See small business websites for what is included.

The cheapest way to find out what you need

Book the free marketing checkup. We look at how your business shows up on Google, in AI answers and on your website, and tell you the two or three things that would bring in the most customers for the money. If you only need one, we will say so.