Marketing proposals are the hardest quotes to compare, because two agencies can both say “SEO” and mean different amounts of work. Splitting setup from retainer is the fastest way to see what is actually being sold.
One-time work, by channel
| Work | Cost | What you receive |
|---|---|---|
| Email account setup and list import | Rs 8,000 - Rs 25,000 | Domain authentication, templates, first send |
| Email template design, three to five | Rs 12,000 - Rs 40,000 | Designed and tested templates |
| Local SEO profile and citations | Rs 15,000 - Rs 40,000 | Categories, photos, duplicate cleanup |
| Email automation flows | Rs 15,000 - Rs 60,000 | Welcome, abandoned cart, re-engagement |
| Social media starter, one platform | Rs 18,000 - Rs 30,000 | Content calendar and first month |
| Technical and content audit | Rs 25,000 - Rs 75,000 | Crawl findings and a ranked fix list |
| Content strategy and topic map | Rs 25,000 - Rs 80,000 | Six to twelve months of topics |
| On-page and technical fixes, small site | Rs 45,000 - Rs 1,50,000 | The audit implemented |
Monthly retainers, by channel
| Retainer | Cost per month | Typical scope |
|---|---|---|
| Local SEO, single location | Rs 8,000 - Rs 25,000 | Profile posts, reviews, local pages |
| Email campaign management | Rs 12,000 - Rs 45,000 | Two to four campaigns, list hygiene |
| SEO, small site up to fifty pages | Rs 15,000 - Rs 40,000 | Fixes, content briefs, reporting |
| Digital marketing, one channel | Rs 25,000 - Rs 45,000 | Content plus basic reporting |
| Social, two platforms with video | Rs 30,000 - Rs 55,000 | Calendar, creatives, community |
| Content retainer, four to eight pieces | Rs 30,000 - Rs 1,20,000 | Research, writing, editing |
| Performance marketing management | Rs 40,000 - Rs 1,20,000 | Campaign build, optimisation |
| SEO, competitive or large site | Rs 40,000 - Rs 1,50,000 | Technical, content, links |
| Two or three channels with creative | Rs 45,000 - Rs 90,000 | Coordinated programme |
| Full programme with paid media | Rs 90,000 - Rs 2,00,000 | Channel mix, landing pages, reporting |
What a retainer fee does not include
Ad spend. Ever. A performance retainer of Rs 40,000 manages a budget that is billed by the platform directly to your card, and the size of that budget matters far more than the management fee.
Also outside: photography and video production, paid tools and subscriptions, and the media cost of influencer or publisher placements. Ask for these as separate lines.
Which channel to start with
Start with the one where demand already exists and you are simply not visible. That is usually search.
A business with a real service and a weak site should fix the site and the technical foundation before buying content. A business with strong search presence and no follow-up should fix email before buying ads. A business with no product-market clarity should not buy any of it yet.
The order matters because each channel gets cheaper once the previous one is working. Nothing is as expensive as running ads into a page that does not convert.
How to compare two proposals
Check the deliverable count, not the channel list. “SEO” can mean four blog posts or a technical rebuild, and the price difference usually tracks that.
Check who does the work. A senior strategist selling and a junior executing is normal; being told otherwise is not.
Check the reporting. If the monthly report is a screenshot of rankings, you are buying activity. If it ties traffic to enquiries, you are buying a result.
Check the notice period. A twelve-month lock-in on a channel nobody has tested is a bet, not a plan.
Where marketing budgets leak
Three places. Paying for content nobody searches for. Paying for ads on keywords the business cannot serve. Paying for reports nobody reads.
All three are avoided by one discipline: write down what a qualified enquiry costs today, before spending anything, and compare every month against that number.
FAQ
Is SEO cheaper than ads? Over a year, often. Over a month, never. Search takes three to six months to show movement on a new site.
Can we run a retainer without a setup phase? You can, and it usually means the first month is spent discovering what the setup phase would have found.
Do you charge for the audit separately? Yes, and it is credited against implementation if you proceed within a month.
What is the minimum sensible monthly budget? Below about Rs 25,000 a month, one channel done properly beats three done badly.
Are platform costs included? No. Ad spend, tool subscriptions and stock imagery are billed by their providers, and we do not resell them.
Marketing pricing in Noida
We quote marketing from Noida with the deliverables named before the retainer, so month three has something to measure. Call 7840002466 or send the current numbers through the contact page.
For a technology-side view of the same budget, the software cost comparison covers what the site itself should cost.
