What Australian agencies actually charge in 2026

Australian agency websites are allergic to prices and addicted to the word “from”. From $3,000 a month. From $1,500 for a “starter SEO package”. From a percentage of media that looks modest until you see the spend. The number is doing a job: it is getting a marketer to book a call. It is not a quote.

This desk publishes ranges so you can tell a serious conversation from a tile. They are not a rate card, and they are not a promise that your category or city will land in the middle. They are also not a licence to treat the cheapest PDF as the same product as a team that will still be on the account in November.

The piece belongs in working together because money is how the relationship is designed. If you are still choosing the shop, read how to choose a digital marketing agency in Australia first. A cheap partner you cannot brief is not a saving.

How to read every number in this piece

These are desk estimates for 2026, drawn from public rate conversations, advertised packages, and the shape of proposals Australian marketers actually receive. They are not a survey we can defend, and they are not invented invoices. When a shop says they are “well under market”, ask under whose market.

All figures below are in Australian dollars. Ask every time whether GST is on top. Most business-to-business quotes are exclusive. A $10,000 retainer is $11,000 on the invoice if the shop is registered, which a real shop is. Media, production and software pass-throughs carry GST too. Comparing an inclusive number from a sole trader to an exclusive number from a mid-sized independent is how you invent a bargain.

Ask what the number includes in hours and names, not in capabilities. Capabilities are infinite. Hours are not.

Monthly retainers, as they actually show up

A specialist retainer — SEO, paid search, paid social, or a thin content practice — commonly sits between $4,000 and $15,000 a month plus GST for a company that is past the founder-does-ads stage. The low end is usually one competent person splitting their week across several accounts, plus a manager who appears at the monthly. The high end is a small named pod and a scope that includes the unglamorous work: tracking, reporting that a human wrote, and time to say no.

A full-service brand and performance retainer for a mid-market company often runs $15,000 to $40,000 a month plus GST. That is not “the internet”. That is a strategist, makers, and media people who will share a weekly. Above $40,000 you are usually buying seniority, a heavier production cadence, several markets, or a shop that is also running a roster of specialists.

Below $4,000, something has been removed. Junior labour. A scope that is really a reporting login. A shop that plans to upsell you the work you thought you bought. A founder who will do the first month themselves and then vanish into new business. None of those is automatically a bad buy. They are bad buys when the website implied a team.

Enterprise and government sit elsewhere. They buy through panels, day rates and statements of work that look like projects even when the relationship lasts years. If that is your world, the number on a boutique homepage is not your number.

What “from $3,000 a month” is hiding

The tile is hiding the rest of the invoice.

It is hiding onboarding. Discovery, tracking audits, access requests, the first month where nobody ships because the shop is still in your analytics. Some shops price this as a separate project. Some bury it in month one and then look busy.

It is hiding production. Creative, photography, a product feed that has to be cleaned, a page the lawyer has to see. Media retainers that assume “you supply assets” are priced for a company that already has a studio. Most do not.

It is hiding software. Listening tools, reporting wrappers, a “proprietary platform” that is a Looker Studio file with a logo. Ask what you would still own if you left.

It is hiding media. A management fee of $3,000 on a $20,000 spend is a different product from $3,000 that is supposed to include the ads. Some shops want a percentage of spend. Some want a fee. Some want both and hope you will not add them up.

It is hiding GST, as above, and it is hiding the review cycle. Eight rounds of feedback from a steering group will blow a cheap retainer without anyone being dishonest. The shop will either go quiet or send a variation. Both are expensive.

Projects, and why they drift

Brand projects — a platform, a campaign, a site, a content job with an end — are still quoted as packages because marketers like a number they can take to a CFO. Desk range, not a quote: a focused campaign or site build for a mid-sized brand often lands between $20,000 and $150,000 plus GST before media. The spread is the difference between a landing page and a system, stock and a shoot, one decision-maker and a board.

Projects drift when the brief was a vibe. They also drift when the shop priced the work they hoped you would want, not the work you described. A fixed fee is only fixed if the change process is real. Ask to see it. Ask what a week of delay on your side does to the date and the money.

Discovery-as-a-project is a legitimate product. It is also a way to charge for the conversation that should have been the pitch. If you already know the work, do not buy a six-week “immersion” unless you can say what decision it will produce.

Media: percentage, fee, or both

Australian media is still bought three ways.

A percentage of spend — historically in the teens, now often lower on large accounts and higher on small ones — aligns the shop with activity, not necessarily with outcomes. It can be clean when spend is stable. It can also be a quiet incentive to keep spend up.

A fixed fee aligns the shop with labour. It is easier to audit. It can punish the shop when the work suddenly gets hard, which is when you most need them.

A hybrid — fee plus a reduced percentage, or fee plus a performance kicker — is common. It becomes cynical when the kicker is tied to a platform metric the shop can move by changing the attribution window.

Ask where the media is billed. Some shops want to be the advertiser of record. Some want you to hold the accounts. The first is simpler until you leave. The second is messier until you leave, at which point it is a gift. Keep when and how to fire your agency in mind while you are still friendly.

This desk will not print a “typical ROAS” to justify a fee. If a proposal uses one, ask for the baseline, the window and the offer. Then decide whether you are buying media labour or a story.

City, category and risk change the number

Sydney and Melbourne still price like capital cities because the senior people live there and the rent is not theoretical. Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Hobart can be cheaper for the same junior hour and not cheaper at all for a scarce specialist. Remote retainers have flattened some of this, not the cost of sitting in the room.

Regulated categories cost more because someone has to read the line. Alcohol, health, money, gambling, children’s products, anything a government entity will have to defend. If the shop did not price a legal pass, you will.

Production-heavy categories cost more because pixels are not the work. Tourism, retail, food, anything that has to be filmed in a real place. A creative and social retainer that assumes the assets already exist is priced for a different company.

How to compare two quotes without lying to yourself

Put them in the same units. Monthly fee, expected hours, named people, what is excluded, GST, media treatment, production, software, notice period.

Ignore the capability slide. Ask who did the last comparable quarter of work, and whether those people are still employed.

Ask what happens in month four, when the onboarding theatre is over and the work is repetitive. That is the month you are buying.

Ask the shop to price the brief you wrote, not the package they sell. If they cannot, either your brief is a cloud or their delivery is a productised slice. Writing a brief agencies will actually read is the cheapest way to make quotes comparable.

The desk’s view

Pay for names, hours and the right to change your mind. Treat “from $3,000” as an advertisement. Treat GST as part of the number. Treat media as a separate conversation even when it sits on the same invoice. If a shop will not talk about money until the third meeting, they are selling a feeling. Feelings do not survive the first variation.

The editorial standards page is why this piece has ranges and not a league table of invented invoices. If your lived number sits well outside these bands, tell the desk. Bring the scope.