How much do typical marketing campaigns cost in Canada?
Let's chat about money! As a business owner, do you ever wonder what other businesses and organizations are paying for their marketing campaigns? What is healthy budget for a full campaign strategy and implementation in Canada?
While the answer always depends on your goals and approach, here’s a practical breakdown of typical costs in 2025 for Canada-based campaigns:
1. Strategy & Planning
Before creating any assets, you need a solid strategic foundation. This might include audience research, competitive analysis, messaging frameworks and campaign planning. Comprehensive strategy work or a one-time strategic build-out can range from a few thousand dollars if scoped as a standalone project.
2. Creative & Asset Development
This includes copywriting, graphic design, and creative production (landing pages, ad creatives, photography, videography, etc.). Many agencies charge separately for creative assets, and costs depend on complexity and volume.
Typical ranges for content and creative services can be:
- Content including blogs, graphics, basic assets: Roughly $1,800–$6,000 per month by agency service estimates (or broken down into an average cost of $125-550/hr team creation time)
- More extensive campaigns with high-quality video or premium content will be higher.
3. Digital & Paid Media Ad Spend
Ad spend budgets vary widely by platform, goals, and audience size. Common Canadian guidance suggests retailers and service businesses might budget at least a few thousand dollars per month to paid ads to start generating meaningful data and results. If executed correctly and hitting the right content for the right demographic, this cost can be much less.
On top of ad spend, many agencies typically charge management fees (babysitting the ad and amending scope settings when needed) which may sit in the 10–20% range of the ad budget or a flat fee depending on the arrangement.
4. Monthly Agency or Implementation Fees
Full-service agency retainers — covering the campaign setup, multi-channel execution, tracking and optimization — in Canada generally fall into the following average ranges:
- Small business / basic campaign-level support: $2,500–$5,000 per month
- Growth / multi-channel strategy support: $5,000–$10,000+ per month
- Larger enterprise or aggressive scaling campaigns: $10,000–$25,000+ per month
Some pricing guides for agencies also state that their full-service retainers generally average around $4,300 per month, with minimums closer to $2,500 and maximums near $9,000 for full-service marketing agency packages in Canada.
5. Analytics, Reporting & Optimization
Ongoing measurement and performance optimization shouldn't be forgotten in your campaign budget. Many agencies include reporting (generally monthly, quarterly, or annually) in their monthly fees, but advanced analytics setups or dashboards may fall into additional costs or tools if scoped separately.
Typical Canadian Full-Scope Marketing Budget Ranges (Monthly Approximation)*:
- Local / Small Campaign~$6,000–$10,000
- Mid-Sized Provincial/Regional~$12,000–$25,000
- Larger Nationwide / Multi-Channel$30,000+
*These ranges include agency service fees and recommended ad spend levels over time. Smaller businesses may start on the lower end and scale as performance improves.
What's the key takeaway here?
Strong strategy and optimized execution typically drive the best return on investment. We also are not talking about social media alone. There are many ways that marketing can be implemented and each campaign deserves a thoughtful, full-bodied approach.
Want to chat about what your business could be doing for their marketing? We would love to help you map that out!
Sources for budget ranges and service pricing:
- Canadian marketing agency cost ranges and monthly retainers: Bark pricing guide.
- Digital agency service breakdowns including SEO, PPC, content pricing: Digital Marketing 401 guide.
- Average digital marketing agency pricing and small business expectations: Noah Digital Canada.
- Calgary PPC and local ad spend context: Sofra Digital Solutions Calgary PPC guidance.
