AI marketing for a small business costs roughly $200–$800 a month if you run the tools yourself, $1,000–$3,000 for a freelancer covering one or two channels, and $3,000–$8,000 for a traditional full-service agency retainer. Managed AI services generally sit between those, around $1,500–$5,000. Our own managed programs start at $1,997 a month.
That is the whole answer, stated up front, because almost nobody else will state it. Search this question and you will find page after page explaining that "it depends" before asking you to book a call. It does depend — but not so much that a range is impossible, and the refusal to give one is usually a negotiating position rather than an honest limitation.
| Approach | Typical monthly | What you actually get |
|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | $200–$800 | Subscriptions to AI writing, scheduling, and analytics tools. No strategy, no accountability, and your time is the real cost. |
| Freelancer | $1,000–$3,000 | One or two channels handled by a contractor. Cheap and flexible; capacity is limited and coverage stops when they are on holiday. |
| Traditional agency | $3,000–$8,000 | Multi-channel work with an account manager. Industry pricing guides put full-service small-business retainers at around $4,000 a month and up, with boutique agencies in the $3,000–$8,000 band. |
| Managed AI service | $1,500–$5,000 | An agent system running content, ads, reviews, and follow-up continuously, with a human tuning it. More output per dollar than a retainer, because fewer dollars go to coordination. |
Two figures are worth isolating. PPC management alone commonly runs $1,500–$5,000 a month in management fees before a penny of ad spend. And a great many agencies bill 10–20% of ad spend as their fee, which quietly means they earn more the more of your budget they consume.
Publishing this is unusual and deliberate. If a provider will not tell you their prices before a sales call, the price is not the reason.
| Service | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Free Audit | $0 | Scored report on your Google Business Profile, website, reviews, local SEO, and closest competitors. No sales call, no commitment. |
| Full AI Audit | $500 one-time | Four-pillar deep dive across marketing, sales, operations, and finance, plus working custom AI workflows built for your business. It applies toward your first month. |
| Managed Monthly | From $1,997/mo | Content, social, email and ads run continuously; local SEO and Google Business Profile management; review responses; weekly performance digest and monthly strategy review. Month to month, no annual contract. |
Ad spend is never included, and never marked up. Money you put into Google or Meta goes to Google or Meta. We do not take a percentage of it, because a provider whose fee rises with your ad budget has an incentive you should not be paying for.
Cost-per-click in legal and med spa markets is a different world from a nail salon or an independent restaurant. More competition means more content, tighter targeting, and closer monitoring — which is real work, not a surcharge.
Local SEO and reviews alone sit at the bottom of a range. Adding paid search, paid social, email sequences, and sales follow-up moves you up it. Most local businesses do not need all of it in month one, and any provider who insists otherwise is selling scope rather than results.
Every additional location multiplies the Google Business Profiles, review streams, and location pages that need maintaining. Multi-location dental groups, brokerages, and multi-branch HVAC companies are priced separately for that reason.
A business with a current website, a claimed Google profile, and a steady review flow is cheaper to grow than one starting from nothing. This is exactly what the free audit measures, and it is why we run it before quoting.
Honestly, sometimes not. If you already get all the work you can handle from referrals, a marketing retainer is a tool to a problem you do not have. If your phone is quieter than it should be and customers searching for your service are finding competitors first, the gap is usually worth more than the fee — but you should verify that with an audit before committing to a monthly spend, not after.
In our experience, Google Business Profile visibility and social output tend to shift within about 30 days, while lead-generation results usually take 60–90 days to read clearly. Anyone promising measurable lead growth in a fortnight is quoting a best case as though it were typical.
Expect roughly $200–$800 a month to run AI tools yourself, $1,000–$3,000 for a freelancer covering one or two channels, and $3,000–$8,000 for a traditional full-service agency retainer. Managed AI services generally fall between those, around $1,500–$5,000 a month. Our managed programs start at $1,997 a month.
Usually, yes — but the saving comes from where the labour goes, not from cutting scope. A traditional retainer pays for account managers and specialist hours. An AI-run system pays for the system plus the strategist who tunes it, so more of the budget goes into output. It is not free, and anyone quoting a few hundred dollars a month for full-service marketing is selling you tool access, not management.
It should not, and with us it does not. Ad spend goes directly to Google or Meta and is passed through at cost with no markup. Be careful with providers who bill a percentage of ad spend — that model pays them more when they spend more of your money, which is a direct conflict with your interests.
Start with an audit rather than a retainer. Ours is free and produces a scored report on your Google presence, website, reviews, local SEO, and closest competitors — no sales call required. If the audit does not show a gap worth paying to close, you have lost nothing.
There are no setup fees and no annual contract — our managed service is month to month. The optional $500 Full AI Audit is a one-time charge, and it applies toward your first month. Long lock-ins are common in this industry; treat a 12-month minimum as a question worth asking rather than a standard to accept.
In our experience, Google Business Profile visibility and social output usually shift within about 30 days, while lead-generation results typically take 60–90 days to read clearly, depending on how competitive your vertical is. Any provider promising measurable lead growth in the first fortnight is describing a best case as if it were the norm.
The free audit scores your Google presence, website, reviews, local SEO, and top competitors, and comes back with a specific number rather than a range. No sales call.
Get the free audit →Or call (203) 651-8786 · book a 15-minute intro call