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What running paid media for local business actually costs

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Featured · Cost & Pricing·7 min read·September 24, 2026

Working Media Ratio: How Much of Your Budget Actually Reaches a Customer?

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36¢
Of each programmatic dollar that reached a consumer (ANA, 2023)
4
Line items in a typical retainer
Cost & Pricing · 6 min

What Does a Marketing Agency Retainer Actually Pay For?

A retainer buys four kinds of work, and only some of them touch your campaigns. Here is how to tell which, and the one questi…

September 22, 2026
30-40%
What agencies charge on top of your media
Cost & Pricing · 6 min

How Much Does Digital Marketing Cost for a Small Business in Gwinnett County?

Real 2026 numbers for agency retainers, platform fees, DSP minimums and ad spend — and what a Gwinnett home services business…

September 15, 2026
40%
Cuttable without touching media
Cost & Pricing · 5 min

Where to Cut When the Marketing Budget Gets Cut

A cut order that protects revenue: five things to remove before you touch a dollar that reaches a customer.

August 22, 2026
3
Structural changes
Cost & Pricing · 5 min

Doing More With Less Is a Structure Problem, Not an Effort Problem

Every business is told to do more with less. Working harder does not achieve it. Three structural changes do.

August 11, 2026
70%+
Typical overpayment on execution
Cost & Pricing · 6 min

You Are Probably Paying Twice What Your Marketing Should Cost

Not on media. On the work of running the media. Here is where the money leaks across agencies, in-house hires, and software —…

July 14, 2026
30%+
Of ad budget to management
Cost & Pricing · 5 min

What Your Agency Invoice Is Actually Buying

Management fees, retainers, and percentages of spend — a plain look at how agencies price, and how much of your money reaches…

July 7, 2026
$42K
A year, before media
Cost & Pricing · 5 min

Follow the Retainer: Where $3,500 a Month Goes

A mid-size retainer is $42,000 a year. Here is the arithmetic of what that buys — and the part of it that has nothing to do w…

July 4, 2026
2x
Common convenience premium
Cost & Pricing · 5 min

The Price of the Convenient Option

Bundled marketing from whoever already has your business is easy to buy. Easy is a feature you pay for, and sometimes it is w…

December 23, 2025
4
Questions a price should answer
Cost & Pricing · 9 min

What Transparent Marketing Pricing Actually Looks Like

Most marketing pricing is designed to be hard to compare. Four questions that make any quote legible, and what a straight ans…

November 27, 2025
$2K
A month, allocated honestly
Cost & Pricing · 10 min

What $2,000 a Month Actually Buys in Local Advertising

A specific plan for a specific number: where the money goes, what results to expect by month, and the three ways this budget…

November 13, 2025

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