The honest answer is that it depends, and any agency that gives you a flat price before understanding your business is guessing. But "it depends" is not useful when you are trying to set a budget, so here is the real picture: what Melbourne businesses tend to pay, what drives the number up or down, and how to work out a figure that fits where your brand is right now.
The short version
For a small Melbourne business getting serious about one or two channels, a realistic starting point is somewhere between $2,000 and $4,500 per month in agency fees, plus whatever you put into advertising media on top. Growing brands running several channels together usually land in the $4,500 to $11,000 per month range. Established businesses with in-house marketing that bring an agency in for specialist work, or brands in competitive categories, can go well above that.
These are fee ranges, not project quotes, and they move with scope. The rest of this article explains what actually sits inside them.
What you are paying for
Digital marketing fees usually cover five things, in different proportions depending on the work:
- Strategy and planning. Working out what to do, in what order, and how success is measured. This is front-loaded at the start of an engagement and then a smaller ongoing slice.
- Production. The actual making of things: content, creative, copy, landing pages, email flows, ad variations. This is often the biggest cost, and it scales with how much you publish.
- Management and optimisation. Running campaigns day to day, testing, adjusting bids and budgets, responding to what the numbers say.
- Reporting. Pulling the data together into something that ties spend to outcomes and informs the next month's decisions.
- Tools. Analytics, SEO platforms, scheduling, email software. Some agencies fold this into the fee, some pass it through.
Notice what is not on that list: advertising media spend. If you run Google or Meta ads, the money that goes to the platforms is separate from what you pay the agency to manage them. A business paying $3,000 a month in fees might be spending another $5,000 in media, or $50,000. Always be clear which number you are talking about.
The common pricing models
Monthly retainer
A fixed monthly fee for an agreed scope of work. This is the most common model for ongoing marketing, because most channels only work with consistency. Good retainers spell out exactly what is included so "scope creep" does not become an argument later. Watch for lock-in: a month-to-month or short initial term is a sign the agency is confident in the work.
Project or fixed price
A set fee for a defined piece of work with a clear end: a website build, an SEO audit and fix, a campaign launch, a brand refresh. Good for one-off needs. Less good for anything that needs to be maintained, because the work stops when the project does.
Percentage of ad spend
The agency charges a percentage of what you spend on media, often 10 to 20 percent. Simple to understand, but the incentive points the wrong way: the agency earns more when you spend more, not when you spend better. If you use this model, pair it with clear performance targets.
Performance or commission
Fees tied to results: leads, sales, revenue. Attractive on paper. In practice it works best in mature channels with clean tracking and a predictable funnel, and it can push an agency toward short-term tactics that hit the target this month at the expense of the brand.
Hourly
Usually for consulting, training or ad hoc support rather than ongoing delivery. Rates for experienced Melbourne practitioners generally sit between $120 and $250 per hour.
What moves the number
Two businesses in the same suburb can pay very different fees for what sounds like the same thing. The drivers:
- How many channels. One channel done well costs less than five channels done at once. More channels also means more coordination, which is real work.
- How much production. A brand that wants three videos a week costs more than one that wants a monthly blog. Creative volume is the biggest single lever.
- How competitive your category is. Ranking for "accountant Melbourne" or advertising against national retailers takes more effort and budget than a niche B2B service.
- Your starting point. A site with technical debt, no tracking and no content needs foundation work before anything compounds. That is time, and time is fee.
- In-house support. If you have someone who can brief, approve and publish, the agency does less and charges less. If the agency runs everything end to end, it costs more.
- Speed. Wanting results fast usually means leaning on paid media, which needs budget, and compressing timelines, which needs more hands.
Budgeting by stage
A rough way to think about it:
- Early. You are proving the market. Pick one channel that matches where your buyers are, keep fees lean, and put more of the budget into learning than into polish. Often one service to start, added to as it works.
- Growing. You have product-market fit and want to scale. This is where running two or three channels together earns its keep, because they compound. Fees step up, and so does media spend.
- Established. You have a marketing function and bring in specialists for the parts that need depth: SEO and AI search, Amazon, paid media at scale. Fees are for expertise, not hours.
Signs a price is a problem
- Too cheap. Marketing that costs a few hundred dollars a month is either automated templates or work nobody is really doing. Both waste the spend.
- Long lock-in. A 12-month contract with penalties for leaving protects the agency, not you. Good agencies keep clients by getting results.
- No reporting. If you cannot see what happened to your money each month, you are not a client, you are a subscription.
- Ad spend markup hidden in the fee. Ask directly whether the agency takes a cut of media spend, and get it in writing.
How FasTurtle prices it
We scope work to your goals rather than sell a package, and most engagements start with a free audit that turns "it depends" into a specific number. The audit looks at where you stand, compares you to two competitors, and gives you the five things to fix first, so you can see the scope before you commit to anything. From there you can take one service or the full stack, month to month.