How much does a marketing consultant cost in the UK?

What a marketing consultant costs depends less on their day rate than on how much they have to find out before they can help you. Of our fixed-price projects, only a website can cost more than £8,000; the rest run from £2,500 to £8,000. Monthly work and the fractional day rate are priced separately, and the prices are published on every service page before you speak to anyone. That's our price, not a survey of the market, but it gives you something firm to compare against.

What our prices buy

Our fixed-price projects start at £2,500, and every one but a website stays within £8,000; a website build runs from £3,500 to £15,000. Every service has a published band and a named starter package: the smallest useful piece of work in that area, enough to change something and small enough to judge us on before you commit to more. Ongoing work, such as monthly SEO or ad management after a launch, is optional and quoted separately. So is fractional work, where we lead your marketing for a set number of days a month.

For the full list, service by service, alongside what the same work costs in-house, see what marketing costs in the UK.

The four shapes a price comes in

Most consultants price in one of four ways, and the shape tells you more than the figure.

A day rate is common, and it's the least useful of the four to a buyer. You're buying time rather than an outcome, and you carry the risk if the work takes longer than expected. It suits open-ended advisory work, and it suits nobody who needs a specific thing delivered.

A monthly retainer buys ongoing capacity. It makes sense once there's a machine to run: ads that need managing, content that needs publishing, reporting that needs doing. It makes very little sense before that machine exists, which is why a retainer sold at the start of a relationship is worth questioning.

A fixed-price project puts the risk on the consultant. The scope, the price and the dates are agreed before anything starts, so you know your exposure on day one and any overrun is their problem. It also requires the consultant to understand the job properly before quoting, which is why it takes a call first. Before you sign one, check what a fixed-price project actually includes, because a fixed price is only as firm as its scope.

A fractional arrangement sits between a consultant and an employee. You get a senior person's judgement on a regular rhythm, usually a set number of days each month, without recruiting a director. It works when there's enough going on to need steady leadership, and someone in the business to carry out the day-to-day work in between.

What actually moves the number

Six things move it, roughly in order of how much they matter.

How much has to be discovered. A business with clean analytics, a clear proposition and an accessible website is cheaper to work with than one where the first fortnight goes on finding out what's true. This is the single biggest swing.

How many channels are in scope. One channel done properly costs less than four done at once, and usually performs better.

Whether anything is being built. Strategy and advice cost less than a website, because a website is production work, with a design stage, a build stage and a testing stage.

Who does the implementing. A plan you carry out yourself costs less than one someone else carries out. Both are valid, but the cheaper one isn't automatically better value if it sits in a drawer.

How much access you can give. Access to the website, the analytics and the ad accounts, plus one named person who can approve things, keeps a project moving. Chasing approvals is expensive.

How fast you need it. A compressed timeline costs more everywhere, and marketing is no exception.

What about hiring someone instead?

For a lot of businesses, the real comparison isn't one consultant against another. It's a consultant against hiring somebody. The Office for National Statistics' median salary for a marketing and commercial manager in 2025 was £53,703, and once employer National Insurance and pension are added, that comes to about £62,329 a year before recruitment or equipment. We work that through for all three levels of role in what marketing costs in the UK.

For comparison, our own 90-day marketing plan is a fixed £2,500.

How to compare two quotes

Two quotes for "marketing help" can differ by thousands of pounds and both still be fair, because they're rarely quoting for the same thing. Before you compare the figures, line them up on these points:

1. The deliverable. Write down, in one sentence each, what you'll have at the end. If you can't, the quote is for time, not an outcome.
2. The exclusions. A cheaper quote often leaves out the tracking, the copy or the revisions. Ask what is explicitly not included.
3. Who does the work. The person on the sales call and the person doing the work aren't always the same, so ask.
4. The dates. A quote without dates has no deadline to miss.
5. What happens after. Is there a retainer at the end, and is it optional? A low project price followed by a required retainer is a different price.
6. Ownership. Make sure your website, domain, ad accounts and analytics are in your name, not the supplier's. Getting them back later is harder than it should be.

Once they line up, compare the prices. Where they don't, the difference in price is usually the difference in what you're getting.

Why so few publish a price

Publishing a price means committing to a scope, and committing to a scope means doing the thinking before the invoice rather than after it. "It depends" is easier. Without a number, there's nothing to hold anyone to.

If a consultant won't give you a range before the first call, ask what the range has depended on for their last few clients. A straight answer to that is nearly as good as a published price, and an evasive one tells you what you need to know.

What to ask before you agree to anything

• What exactly is in scope, and what is explicitly not?
• What happens if it takes longer than you thought?
• Am I buying your time, or a delivered outcome?
• What do you need from me, and what does it cost me if I am slow?
• Is there a retainer at the end of this, and is it optional?
• Will the accounts and assets you set up be in my name?

You'll find our own answers in the FAQs on the services page. In short, the price doesn't move unless you ask for more work, the quote comes within two working days of the call, and there's no retainer unless you want one.