What a Marketing Agency Actually Costs in 2026 (and what Liftoff charges)
Most agencies will not put a number on a page. This one does. Here is how agency pricing usually works, what a retainer tends to hide, and every price Liftoff Local publishes — including what a home service business should expect to budget.
How agencies charge
There are four common models, and most agencies use some mix of them.
Hourly. You buy time, usually $100 to $250 an hour. It is honest arithmetic, but you are paying for effort rather than for anything that stays built. Slow months cost less; nothing compounds.
Monthly retainer. The most common shape. A flat fee each month covers an agreed scope — often some combination of search work, ad management, content, and reporting.
Project. A fixed price for a defined deliverable, like a website or a campaign launch. Good when the scope is genuinely finished at the end.
Percentage of ad spend. The fee is a cut of your media budget, typically 10% to 20%. The incentive problem is obvious: the agency earns more when you spend more, whether or not spending more is the right call.
What a retainer usually includes
Account management, some hours of execution, and a monthly report. That is the honest core of most retainers, and for a lot of businesses it is worth paying for.
What a retainer often hides
- A setup or onboarding fee charged on top of month one.
- Ad spend billed through the agency with a markup baked in, so you never see the real media cost.
- Deliverables described in hours or “strategy” rather than in things that exist when the month ends.
- Assets built in the agency's accounts — the site, the ad account, the phone number — that do not leave with you.
- Long initial terms with an auto-renewal you have to give notice to escape.
None of this is universal, and plenty of agencies do none of it. But these are the five places a quote gets bigger after you sign, so they are the five things worth asking about before you do.
Traditional retainer vs. the Liftoff System
| Traditional retainer | The Liftoff System | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | Hours and attention. The fee is usually sized to the time the agency expects to spend. | Capacity and infrastructure. The fee is sized to how much lead volume your business can absorb — crews, service area, locations. |
| What you own when you leave | Often very little. Sites, ad accounts, and tracking numbers are commonly held in agency accounts. | Your website and your Lead Management System, with your contacts and history. Your domain, ad accounts, and Google Business Profile stay in your name. |
| Ad spend | Frequently billed through the agency, sometimes with a markup or a percentage fee on top. | Paid direct to Google and Meta from your card. Never marked up, never a percentage. |
| Contract shape | Six to twelve month terms are common, often auto-renewing. | Builds are one-time projects. Monthly plans run month-to-month after the first term. |
| What's included | A scope defined in hours and channels, with a monthly report. | Everything aimed at making the phone ring — ads, follow-up, and tracking that shows exactly where every job came from. Everything is logged in one Lead Management System, and you see the source of every job. |
| Pricing visibility | Usually quoted after a discovery call. | Published on the site. Starting prices are on this page and on the pricing page. |
Traditional retainers vary a lot. The column above describes what is common, not what is true of every agency.
What Liftoff charges
These are our published starting prices. Prices written as “from” are the entry point and scale with the size of the business.
| Monthly plan | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Liftoff Growth | from $2,750/month | Home service businesses ready for a steady flow of leads |
| Liftoff Dominate | from $4,000/month | Businesses ready to own their market's attention |
| One-time build | Price | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation | from $7,500 | Website and lead management system built together. Bought separately they are $9,000. |
| Website | $4,500 | A custom site written and built around how you actually sell. |
| Lead Management System | $4,500 | A full lead system with follow-up that runs on its own. |
| Website+ | $8,500 | A larger site for multiple services, locations, or markets. |
| LMS+ | $8,500 | Built for multiple teams, locations, or complex handoffs. |
| Launch Site | $2,500 | A fast, clean site to get you online and taking calls. |
| LMS Starter | $2,500 | The essentials so no lead goes unanswered. |
| Demand Infrastructure | from $3,000 | For businesses that already have a site and a lead system, and need the demand engine on top. |
Foundation is arithmetic, not persuasion: a Website at $4,500 plus a Lead Management System at $4,500 is $9,000 bought separately. Together it is from $7,500.
| Care plan | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Website Care Basic | $25/mo | Keeps your site online, backed up, and secure. |
| Website Care Plus | $99/mo | Everything in Basic, plus we make your edits for you. |
| System Care | $199/mo | Keeps your lead management system running and your team supported. |
| Complete Care | $199/mo | Website Care Basic and System Care together. |
A care plan is required with every build, and it's included free with any retainer.
Ad spend is separate
Ad spend is separate. You pay Google and Meta directly from your own card — we recommend starting around $3,000/month for home services — and we never mark it up.
What HVAC, plumbing, and roofing companies should budget
Trade businesses do not all cost the same to market, and the reasons are practical.
Job value. A roof replacement and a drain clear are not the same search, the same page, or the same follow-up. Higher-ticket work usually means fewer, more competitive searches.
Service radius. One town is one set of pages and one Google Business Profile. Four counties means more pages, more citations, and more ad geography to cover.
Seasonality. HVAC swings hard twice a year. Roofing follows storms. Budget that is flat across twelve months is usually wrong for a trade — it should lean into the season.
Number of crews. This is the real ceiling. There is no point generating more calls than you can show up for, which is why our plans are priced on capacity rather than on hours.
A realistic local monthly budget
Using only our published prices and the ad-spend floor: a local contractor running Liftoff Growth at from $2,750/month with roughly $3,000/month in ad spend paid directly to Google is looking at about $2,750/month to us plus $3,000 to the platforms. Add System Care at $199/mo if you are not on a monthly plan — it is included free when you are. A first-year build is separate and one-time: from $7,500 for Foundation, or $2,500 to $8,500 if you only need the site.
How to tell whether a quote is fair
- The quote separates your fee from your ad spend, in writing.
- Every line item is a thing that will exist at the end of the month, not a number of hours.
- The agency can say who owns the website, the ad account, and the phone number if you leave.
- There is no percentage of spend and no percentage of revenue.
- The starting price was available before you got on a call.
We do not publish revenue or lead projections, and you should be careful with anyone who does. We do not control your close rate, how fast your team calls back, or how you price an estimate.
Questions to ask any agency before you sign
- Who owns the website when this ends — and does the domain stay in my name?
- Is ad spend marked up, or do I pay Google and Meta directly from my own card?
- Is there a setup or onboarding fee on top of the monthly price?
- What exactly happens at cancellation, and how much notice do you need?
- How fast does a new lead get a response, and who answers it — a person or a system?
- Where do my leads live, and can I export the whole list tomorrow?
- What will exist at the end of month one that did not exist before?
- Who is actually doing the work, and is any of it subcontracted overseas?
Our answers are on the pricing page and in the Liftoff System.
Frequently asked questions
Why do most agencies hide their pricing?
Because a hidden price lets the number move. If the agency knows your revenue before it quotes, the quote tends to follow your revenue instead of the work. We publish our starting prices so you can decide whether we are in your range before you spend an hour on a call.
Do you charge setup fees?
No. There is no separate onboarding or setup fee on top of a build or a monthly plan. What is published is what you pay us. Ad spend is the only other cost, and you pay that directly to Google or Meta.
Why are your prices written as “from”?
Because a two-truck company and a twelve-truck company across four counties do not need the same amount of work. The published number is the starting point. More crews, more service areas, and more locations price higher, and we tell you the number before anything starts.
Do you mark up ad spend?
Never. You pay Google and Meta directly from your own card, you keep the accounts, and we take no percentage of what you spend. Our fee is the same whether your ad budget goes up or down.
What do I own if I leave?
Your website, your domain, your ad accounts, your Google Business Profile, and the contacts and history in your Lead Management System. We do not hold your assets hostage to keep you on a plan.
Do I have to sign a long contract?
No. Builds are one-time projects. Monthly plans are month-to-month after the first term, and a care plan is required with every build so the work you paid for stays online and supported.
Want the number for your business?
Tell us how many crews you run and where you work. We'll give you the price before you commit to anything.