Marketing agency prices in Canada at a glance
These are published ranges from agency price pages and listings, in CAD per month before tax. Treat them as directional: most agencies do not publish a price list, and the figures below come from a small number of sources.
| Option | Typical monthly cost (CAD) | What it usually covers | Vesk equivalent in tokens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single channel, Toronto | Local SEO $600 to $1,500; social media $700 to $1,800; Google Ads management $800 to $2,500 plus ad spend | One channel, run by one specialist or a small team | 10 tokens a month (8 posts and a carousel): Growth plan, $2,120 CAD plus tax a month |
| Growth-tier retainer | $1,500 to $3,500 | Two or three channels, light reporting | 20 tokens a month (a content calendar, 8 posts and 2 short videos): Growth plan, $2,120 CAD plus tax a month |
| The most common small-business retainer | $2,500 to $5,000 | A mix of content, ads and reporting, with a point of contact | 22 tokens a month (a calendar, 8 posts, 2 videos and a monthly report): Scale plan, $3,980 CAD plus tax a month |
| Full-service agency | $6,000 to $30,000 and up | Strategy, creative, media and reporting for larger budgets | Above a Scale plan: we size it at the kickoff |
| Fractional CMO | $5,000 to $10,000 | Senior direction and planning, with execution usually extra | Planning is included in every plan; the making is priced in tokens |
| In-house marketing manager | About $9,500 to $11,000 loaded | One person with one set of skills, plus months to hire | No equivalent: one person versus a team |
| Vesk Marketing | $1,010, $2,120 or $3,980 | A senior team on a token plan: 8, 20 or 40 tokens a month | 8, 20 or 40 tokens a month |
The in-house figure includes salary, employer payroll costs and equipment for a digital marketing manager in Toronto. A salary alone is lower. Equivalents are examples, not quotes; try your own mix in the token estimator.
Marketing agency retainer pricing: what moves the price
- How many channels. Each added channel (search ads, social ads, email, content, SEO) adds planning, production and reporting.
- Who does the work. Senior people cost more per hour but need fewer hours. A cheap retainer often means junior staff and a thin brief.
- Ad spend. Your budget with Google or Meta is separate from the agency fee, and some agencies charge a percentage on top. Ask which one applies.
- Setup and onboarding fees. Some agencies charge a one-time fee for audits, tracking and account setup.
- Contract length. Three, six and twelve-month terms are common, and a longer term sometimes buys a lower monthly fee.
- Reporting and meetings. A monthly call and a live dashboard take time, and the good ones price it in openly.
Four ways agencies charge
A monthly retainer is the common model. It gives you predictable cost and a steady rhythm, but the scope can be vague, and you pay the same in a quiet month as in a busy one.
Hourly rates are transparent but unpredictable. The bill depends on how long the work takes, and the agency has little reason to be fast.
A project fee suits a defined deliverable such as a website or a brand identity. It is clear up front, and it ends when the project ends, so it is a poor fit for ongoing work.
A token plan, which is how Vesk works, sits in between. You pay a flat monthly price, and every task has a fixed size in tokens quoted before it starts. You see exactly what you spend, and unused tokens carry over to the next month.
How much should a small business spend on marketing?
The best published Canadian benchmark is an older BDC survey from 2019, so read it as a reference point and not a target. Small businesses spend about $30,000 a year on marketing, about $2,500 a month, and businesses with 20 to 49 employees about $60,000, about $5,000 CAD a month. That is also the band where the most common agency retainer sits. An average hides the spread, since a tradesperson with a full calendar and a restaurant that depends on foot traffic should not budget alike.
Two ways of setting the number work best together. Top-down takes a percentage of revenue: a business with $1 million in revenue spending $30,000 is at 3%, and one with $3 million CAD spending the same is at 1%, so percentage rules vary and serve only as a sanity check. Bottom-up lists the work you need, prices each task, then adds ad spend, tools and a buffer of about one month of fees. Bottom-up is the number you commit to.
A 12-person company spending $2,500 CAD a month is at the typical level. At a typical agency retainer, that buys one or two channels run well, plus reporting. On Vesk Growth, $2,120 CAD a month covers 20 tokens, for instance a content calendar, eight posts and two short videos. Or, in a launch month, an ad campaign setup (8), a campaign landing page (8), an email campaign (3) and one post (1).
Example marketing budgets by stage, and the ad spend line
Fees pay people to do the work. Ad spend is what you pay Google or Meta to show your ads, and it stays on its own line, on top of every figure here. Start from the customer: if a customer is worth $2,000 in gross profit and you close one enquiry in four, you can pay up to $500 CAD per enquiry before you lose money. These examples use Vesk's plans because the deliverables are published, but the logic holds for any provider.
| Stage | Monthly fees (CAD) | What it buys |
|---|---|---|
| Getting started | About $1,000 | Starter, $1,010: 8 posts, or 2 short videos, or 1 ad campaign setup. One thing done properly each month |
| Growing | About $2,000 | Growth, $2,120: a content calendar, 8 posts and 2 short videos. A steady presence across the month |
| Pushing | About $4,000 | Scale, $3,980: a brand identity or a campaign, plus posts and videos. For a bigger offer or a launch |
Cutting marketing when sales are slow is tempting and often backwards, because it shortens the pipeline you will need in three months. If cash is tight, cut channels, not consistency: keep one channel doing well.
How to read an agency quote
Ask four questions of any quote, whoever sends it. What exactly will be made or done each month, and in what quantity? Who does the work, and are they senior? Whose name are the ad accounts, the domain and the social profiles in? And how do I leave, and what do I take with me? A quote that answers all four in writing is easier to compare, and usually easier to trust.
Be careful with the phrase "all-inclusive". It is worth asking whether ad spend, software licences, design revisions and extra meetings are inside the fee or billed on top.
Mistakes that make an agency look expensive, or cheap
- Comparing fees without comparing scope. A $1,200 retainer and a $3,500 CAD retainer rarely buy the same thing.
- Forgetting ad spend, which can double the real monthly cost.
- Choosing on price alone, then paying again to rebuild what did not work.
- Signing a long term with no exit, no reporting and no clear owner of the accounts.
- Paying for activity (posts, reports) instead of agreeing on what a good result looks like.
If you are already unhappy with what you pay for, start with why a marketing agency isn't delivering results, and how to choose the next one.
Where Vesk fits in these numbers
Vesk Marketing costs $1,010 for Starter, $2,120 for Growth and $3,980 CAD for Scale, plus GST/HST. That puts Growth below the most common small-business retainer range of $2,500 to $5,000 CAD, and at about a fifth of an in-house marketing manager. In return, you get a senior lead, a fixed size and price for every task, a platform that shows every task and token, accounts in your name from day one, and a first month you can get refunded in full.
It is not right for everyone. If you need only one or two posts a month, a freelancer will cost less. If you need a full-time person every day, hiring is better. The fractional CMO page compares an in-house hire, an agency, a fractional CMO and Vesk side by side.
Sources
- BDC: what is the average marketing budget for a small business? 2019 BDC survey of Canadian businesses, about $30,000 a year for small businesses.
- Robert Half Canada: digital marketing manager salary, Toronto Midpoint of $111,780 a year, as shown on the page today.