How much does digital marketing cost in the UK?

Digital marketing is important for any business these days. But how much does digital marketing cost? In this post, we’ll break down the major factors that affect your digital marketing costs and explore how to optimise the process to spend as little as possible while still delivering results. We’ll talk about some of the most common expenses associated with digital marketing like SEO and SEM, but also take a look at what you can do to reduce your investment in these areas. We’ll finish up by looking at how to keep costs low by keeping a close eye on ROI – which will help you see where you’re spending too much or not getting enough bang for your buck.

The first question people always ask when they start thinking about their digital advertising strategy is “what should be budgeted”.

This is a hard question to answer because there are so many factors that can affect how much your strategy will cost. We’ll dive into some of the major ones below.

SEO:

SEO refers to search engine optimisation, which involves increasing traffic from Google and other search engines through different on-site best practices like page load speed, use of keywords in content, backlinks, etc. You might be wondering why these things would impact costs – it’s because they’re not just levers you pull for better results; they also help reduce your overall marketing costs by making the conversion process more optimised and efficient. It sounds counterintuitive but if you want lower digital marketing expenses over time then optimising your website to rank higher is a good start for a long-term goal. Costs can vary greatly, but budget for around £400/month for a start-up and £4,000/month for a medium sized business.

PPC:

PPC or Pay Per Click will get instant results and you can set a daily budget. But there are some costs to consider – keyword research, ad copywriting, conversions.

Display: this is usually reserved for larger budgets as it’s the most expensive form of advertising but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth considering if your goal is brand awareness which display ads excel at because they offer more space than other formats available on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. They’re also popular in digital magazines like Adweek where they’ll be seen by subscribers who have opted in to receive messages from advertisers.

The average monthly spend for Google PPC would be around £1500/month

Facebook Advertising:

Facebook ads can be very cost effective once you know what you’re doing but it’s not always easy setting them up from scratch so we recommend hiring a digital marketing agency that specialises in social media advertising.

With Facebook ads, images are the key to success followed by the content. Expect to pay a higher price until your campaigns are more established. We would recommend testing Facebook ads with just £100 before investing more when you are happy with results and then moving onto other social media channels like Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat.

Social Media:

Social media is a necessary evil and if you’re not careful, it can consume all your free time. Outsourcing content writing for social media platforms will save time, but will cost.  It also may not as straight forward as you may think to find or hire good writers within your industry.

Doing this yourself is a free way to gain momentum, but we do recommend focusing on one social media channel first before branching out to others.

Conclusion

The benefits of digital marketing and SEO are numerous, but it can be difficult to get a handle on the cost. It’s hard to know how much you should budget for PPC ads or what your return will be with social media campaigns. But if you’re careful about tracking your results and understanding the number of conversions per pound spent, then any investment in digital marketing is worth it. Contact us today if you need help getting started or want advice on how best to allocate your resources. We’ve got all sorts of packages that will work for small businesses just like yours!