Marketing Retainer Packages: What Each Line Includes and Costs
A marketing retainer package is a flat monthly fee for a named list of work. At Ziwi every line is published: local SEO from $297 a month per location, ads management from $297, reviews and reputation $197, hosting $99. Pick the lines you need and add them up on the pricing page.
Monthly lines, added up by you
- $99/moMaintenance and hostingSee what's included
- $297/moLocal SEO or ads managementSee what's included
- $997/moLocal SEO Plus, per locationSee what's included
vsTypical retainer$1,000 to $20,000 at WebFX, $3,500 to $15,000 at Clicks Geek
Every line month to month, call tracking included, ad spend paid to the platform from your own account.
See how we compareThis page is the package list, not the definition. Below: what a monthly retainer normally covers, what agencies publish for one, every Ziwi monthly line with its printed price, three example stacks built by adding those prices up, and what is never inside a retainer.
See the full published pricing page
We checked 194 Florida agency websites: 89% publish no price
What does a marketing retainer package include?
A retainer package is a flat monthly fee covering an agreed list of ongoing work, usually drawn from 6 areas: local search, paid ads, reviews, social, email and text, and website upkeep. What separates a good package from a bad one is whether that list is written down with a price next to each line, the way $297 sits next to local SEO here.
The background on how retainers are billed and why sits in our guide to monthly marketing retainers.
- Local search. Google Business Profile, listings kept consistent, on-page fixes and pages per service and area.
- Ads. Google Ads, Local Services Ads, Facebook and Instagram together under one fee, with the landing page and the creative.
- Reviews. Asking for them, answering them, and watching the profiles people read before they call.
- Social. Posts on the one or two platforms your buyers actually check.
- Email and text. Follow-up to every new lead, plus campaigns to past customers.
- The website. Hosting, updates, backups and small edits, so the page everything points at stays current.
Two packages can carry those same six words and differ by a factor of ten in work delivered. That is why the rest of this page prints a price against every line instead of a tier name. Ziwi sells no named bundles.
What do agencies charge for a monthly retainer package?
Published retainer ranges start around $1,000 a month and run well past $15,000. WebFX puts a monthly retainer at $1,000 to $20,000 and prices its own work from $3,000 a month (checked September 19, 2026), while Clicks Geek puts a typical agency retainer at $3,500 to $15,000 and everything handled for a small business at $4,000 a month and up (updated August 23, 2026).
Ziwi's monthly lines start at $99 and the largest single line is $997.
| Source, dated | What it publishes | Monthly price |
|---|---|---|
| WebFX, digital marketing pricing page (checked September 19, 2026) | A monthly retainer, any scope | $1,000 to $20,000 a month |
| WebFX, same page | Its own managed services, and SEO as a line item | From $3,000 a month; SEO $500 to $5,000 |
| Clicks Geek, Marketing Agency Retainer Pricing (updated August 23, 2026) | A typical agency retainer | $3,500 to $15,000 a month |
| Clicks Geek, same page | Every channel for a small business, and basic local SEO | From $4,000 a month; local SEO $800 to $1,500 |
| The Zulu Method, Marketing Agency Pricing Benchmarks 2026 (updated July 2026) | A generalist digital agency retainer | $2,500 to $12,000 a month |
| Ziwi, published | Any single monthly line, from hosting to Local SEO Plus | $99 to $997 a month |
Those figures are quoted as of September 2026 from pages you can open yourself, so check the date stamp before one goes into a budget. The harder problem is that most firms publish nothing at all: we read 194 Florida agency websites in September 2026 and 89% showed no price.
A package you cannot see a price for is not a package, it is a meeting.
What monthly services does Ziwi publish, and what is in each?
Eight monthly lines, each with a printed price and a list attached, and no bundle name anywhere. Local SEO runs $297, $597 or $997 a month per location, ads management is $297, $497 or $797 a month by ad spend band, reviews and reputation is $197 a month per location, and maintenance and hosting is $99 a month. The full list, including the one time items, is on the pricing page.
| Monthly line | Published price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Local SEO | $297, $597 or $997 per location | $297: profile posted weekly, citations, on-page fixes, review asks, two new pages or posts a month, monthly report. $597 steps that up to two a week and adds local link outreach. $997 keeps the two a week and adds a digital-PR program. |
| Ads management | $297, $497 or $797 by spend band | $297 with ad spend up to $1,500, $497 from $1,500 to $3,500, $797 above $3,500. Google Ads, Local Services Ads, Facebook and Instagram together under one fee, landing page and call tracking included. |
| Reviews and reputation | $197 per location | Review asks, responses, monitoring and profile cleanup. |
| Maintenance and hosting | $99 a month | Managed hosting, updates, security, backups and small edits. |
| Ziwi Care | $299 per location | Everything in maintenance and hosting, plus a new post every week, unlimited small edits and a dashboard. |
| Social | $197 or $497 a month | $197 is one platform, two posts a week. $497 covers Facebook, Instagram and Google at a higher cadence. |
| Email and SMS nurture | $297 or $597 a month | $297 wires follow-up to your forms and calls plus one campaign a month. $597 adds reactivation campaigns and registered text messaging. |
| Ziwi Engage | $99, or $299 for Engage Pro | Missed-call text back and chat capture at $99. Engage Pro answers, qualifies and books to your calendar. AI usage is billed at cost on top. |
Two rules run through that table. Per location means priced per location, because the work is done per location, so three addresses are three of something rather than one bigger something. And call tracking is included with every plan rather than sold as its own line.
What do you need first?
Pick one and see every line priced before you sign. No form.
People searching nearby find you first.
Essentials covers your Google Business Profile, business listings and fixes to your own pages.
Per location, Local SEO Essentials.
- Essentials$297/mo
- Plus two new pages or posts a week$597/mo
- Bigger markets$997/mo
Month to month, per location.
30 minutes on Google Meet. You own the site, the domain and the accounts.
A site that turns a visit into a call.
Designed and written for your business, and yours to keep.
With a 12-month plan.
- Maintenance and hosting$99/mo
- Ziwi Care, a new post every week$299/mo
30 minutes on Google Meet. You own the site, the domain and the accounts.
Your ads show up when people search for what you do.
Google, Facebook and Instagram ads, with the fee set by what you spend.
Management fee, by monthly ad spend.
- Ad spend up to $1,500$297/mo
- $1,500 to $3,500$497/mo
- Above $3,500$797/mo
Ad spend is paid to Google or Meta directly.
30 minutes on Google Meet. You own the site, the domain and the accounts.
Everyone you invite gets the same review request.
Review asks, replies, monitoring and profile cleanup, handled for you.
Per location.
- Reviews and reputation$197/mo
- Call trackingIncluded
Month to month, per location.
30 minutes on Google Meet. You own the site, the domain and the accounts.
What does a monthly package actually add up to?
For a single-location local business, a working monthly stack usually lands between $593 and $1,590 at published prices. The three below are examples we built by adding printed prices together, not packages you can buy by name. Nothing is discounted for stacking and nothing is hidden inside them.
| Example stack | The arithmetic | Monthly total |
|---|---|---|
| Get found, one location | Local SEO Essentials $297, reviews and reputation $197, maintenance and hosting $99 | $593 a month |
| Get found and get calls this month | Local SEO Essentials $297, ads management $297, reviews and reputation $197 | $791 a month, plus up to $1,500 of ad spend paid to Google or Meta |
| Competitive market, more content | Local SEO $597, ads management $497, reviews and reputation $197, Ziwi Care $299 | $1,590 a month, plus $1,500 to $3,500 of ad spend paid to Google or Meta |
Read that third row against the market table above: $1,590 a month in fees sits under the $3,500 floor Clicks Geek publishes for a typical retainer and inside the $2,500 to $12,000 band The Zulu Method cites for a generalist agency. To build your own stack line by line, use the marketing budget calculator.
What is never included in a marketing retainer?
Four things sit outside every Ziwi monthly price. Ad spend is the big one: it is paid to Google or Meta from your own account, on top of the $297, $497 or $797 management fee, and it never passes through us as a percentage.
- Ad spend. Billed by Google or Meta to your card, in your account, separate from the fee and never marked up.
- Photography and video. A shoot is quoted per location as its own job, never folded into a monthly line.
- Your domain name. It stays registered in your name and you pay the registrar directly.
- A percentage of your spend. Doubling your budget does not move a published management fee by a dollar.
- A promise about results. No plan here promises a position, a lead count or a booked job.
One line moves the other way. The website build is not a monthly charge either: it is $0 build fee with an ongoing plan kept 12 months, and you own the site from day one.
Do you have to sign a contract for a retainer package?
No. Every monthly line on this page is month to month with a 30-day notice, and no rung carries an annual minimum. A 12-month lock turns a $597 monthly test into a $7,164 commitment before the second report lands.
- Month to month, no notice period. On every plan, at every rung, with a managed move in and out.
- You own the accounts. The site, the domain, the ad accounts, the tracking numbers and the data, from day one.
- No percentage of spend. The fee is $297, $497 or $797 and moves only when the spend band does.
- The one commitment is the build offer. Take the $0 build fee with an ongoing plan kept 12 months and leaving early repays only the unearned part of the waived fee, never more.
- The terms in full. They are printed on the no-contract marketing agency page.
How do you compare two retainer packages line by line?
Turn both quotes into three numbers, a monthly fee, a monthly ad spend and a written deliverable list, then compare those. Most package comparisons fail because one quote folds media into the fee and the other does not.
- 01
Split the fee from the media. Ask for two numbers for the same month: what the agency keeps, and what Google or Meta gets.
- 02
Put a price on every line. Each deliverable gets its own row and its own number, the way the table above does. A tier name is not a line.
- 03
Ask what doubles per location. With two addresses, local SEO at $297 and reviews at $197 are each bought twice.
- 04
Ask who owns the accounts. If the agency keeps the site, the ad account or the phone numbers, the cost of leaving is part of the price.
- 05
Ask for the notice period. Multiply any quote with a 12-month minimum by twelve before setting it beside a month-to-month one.
- 06
Check the reporting line. Ask what a booked call cost last month. Impressions and likes do not answer that.
Retainer packages are only comparable when every line carries its own number. Ziwi's all sit in one place, month to month, with ad spend paid to the platform from your own account: read the published pricing page, or price one line first on local SEO cost and website maintenance cost. If the budget is small, start with marketing under $500 a month.