How much does managed marketing cost?

A managed marketing service typically costs $319 to $2,500+ a month, plus a one-time website build. Gameplan's tiers run Growth at $319/mo (managed website), Growth Plus at $999/mo (website plus content and strategy), and Scale at $2,500/mo (full-stack, up to 10 articles a month), each with a one-time build from $5,000 paid upfront. Marketing campaigns, coordinated pushes across social, email, and a landing page, are a separate paid add-on, not included in any base tier.

What determines the price of managed marketing?

Three things: how much of the stack is covered (a website alone costs less than website plus content plus strategy), how much new content is created each month, and how much strategic ownership is included (competitor tracking, quarterly planning, a standing review call). Providers that only touch one channel, like a website or a single ad account, will always be cheaper than one running your full marketing function.

Is managed marketing cheaper than a traditional agency?

Usually, yes. Traditional agencies typically charge $3,000 to $15,000+ a month per discipline, often on a 6 to 12-month contract. A full-stack managed marketing service like Gameplan's Scale tier runs $2,500/month, month-to-month, with no long-term lock-in. It sits at or below the bottom of the agency range while covering more ground.

Does managed marketing pricing include running campaigns?

Not by default. A managed marketing subscription covers the website, SEO/AEO, and (on higher tiers) content and strategy. Running an actual marketing campaign, a coordinated push across social, email, and a landing page, is a separate paid add-on on Growth Plus and Scale, scoped and quoted per campaign. Always confirm whether a quoted monthly price includes campaign work or bills it separately.

How much does it cost to hire someone instead of using a managed marketing service?

A single in-house marketing hire costs $152,000+ a year all-in — salary plus payroll tax, benefits, and tools. Salary alone for a mid-level generalist runs closer to $63,000 on Glassdoor; the rest is the real cost of employing someone. A managed marketing service covering the same ground costs a fraction of that annually, and unlike a single hire, it isn't limited to one person's skill set across brand, website, content, and strategy.

Managed Marketing Cost: 2026 Pricing Breakdown

The short answer

Managed marketing costs $319 to $2,500+ a month, plus a one-time website build, usually starting around $5,000. Where you land in that range depends on how much you need done, not how good the provider is.

That’s the honest, if unsatisfying, answer to a question most providers dodge with “let’s hop on a call.” So instead of a range and a form, here’s exactly what determines the number, what each price point buys, and where the extras hide.

What “managed marketing” actually means

Before a price means anything, you need to know what’s being managed. Not every provider covers the same ground, and that’s the single biggest reason two “managed marketing” quotes can be $500/mo apart from each other.

At minimum, managed marketing covers:

The website. Built, hosted, kept fast, and technically optimized for search.
SEO/AEO. On-page and technical SEO, schema markup, and increasingly, structuring content so AI assistants like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews can find and cite it.
Content. New pages, articles, or updates, researched and published on an ongoing basis.
Strategy. Someone deciding what to prioritize next, not just executing a list.

Some services stop at the first item and call it “managed marketing.” Others go further and add campaigns, social, and email into the mix. The price should scale with how many of those you’re actually buying, which is exactly why the number ranges so widely.

What determines the price

Three levers move the number, in order of impact.

1. How much of the stack is covered. A managed website (build, hosting, technical SEO, unlimited updates) is a narrower, cheaper service than a managed marketing function that also creates content and owns strategy. Compare like with like: a $300/mo website-only plan isn’t a cheaper version of a $1,000/mo content-and-strategy plan, it’s a smaller purchase.

2. How much new content is created each month. Content production is the single biggest cost driver above the website floor. Zero new content a month costs less than four articles a month, which costs less than ten. This is usually where the price steps between tiers happen.

3. How much strategic ownership is included. A standing monthly review call, competitor tracking, and quarterly planning all mean a real person is steering the account, not just filling a content calendar. That ownership layer is what separates a managed service from a subscription tool.

Gameplan’s three tiers, named

Here’s what that looks like in practice, using our own current pricing as the example, because naming our own number is the whole point of writing this honestly.

Growth — $319/mo. The managed-website floor: a custom site, full technical SEO/AEO (on-page, schema, robots.txt, llm.txt), unlimited updates and new pages, managed hosting, and a monthly outcome report. You send new content; we review and optimize it. This is the website managed for you, not the content written for you.

Growth Plus — $999/mo (our most common fit). Everything in Growth, plus up to 4 commercial-intent articles a month, researched, written, and published for you. We own the content calendar and SEO/AEO strategy, run ongoing keyword and content-gap research, track competitors monthly, and hold a monthly strategy call. This is where most businesses land, the point where the website stops being a static asset and starts actively bringing in traffic.

Scale — $2,500/mo. Everything in Growth Plus, plus up to 10 commercial-intent articles a month and quarterly planning. The full-stack tier for businesses pushing harder on organic growth across more ground at once.

All three tiers carry a one-time build from $5,000, paid upfront, and none of them lock you into a contract. Every plan is month-to-month; cancel any time.

The part almost nobody separates out clearly: campaigns

This is where a lot of pricing pages get vague, so we’ll say it plainly: a marketing campaign is not included in any base tier. A subscription covers the website, SEO/AEO, and, on Growth Plus and Scale, ongoing content and strategy. Running an actual coordinated campaign, social, email, and a landing page built around one push, plus a cornerstone piece like an eBook, is a separate, paid add-on available on Growth Plus and Scale. We scope it to what the campaign actually needs and quote it up front before any work starts, rather than folding a vague “campaign” line into the monthly number and hoping you don’t ask what it covers.

If a provider’s monthly price sounds low relative to what they’ve promised, this is the first thing to check: does that number include campaign work, or is campaign work billed separately? Ask before you sign, not after the first invoice.

How managed marketing compares to the other ways to get it done

Managed marketing isn’t the only route. Here’s where it sits against the alternatives, so the number means something in context.

Traditional agency: $3,000–$15,000+/mo, typically per discipline, usually on a 6–12 month contract. Senior teams, slower turnarounds, and a bill that reflects the agency’s overhead as much as your account.
In-house hire: $152,000+/year all-in for one marketer — salary plus payroll tax, benefits, and tools, not salary alone (the fuller breakdown, with Glassdoor salary data). One person, however good, can’t credibly cover brand, website, content, and strategy at a high standard.
DIY tools: $0–$500/mo in software. Cheap in cash, expensive in hours, you’re still the one writing, designing, and publishing everything.
Managed marketing service: $319–$2,500+/mo, plus a one-time build. The middle path: a real team runs the function for a flat fee, and you’re not managing freelancers or learning a platform to get there.

The honest takeaway: a full-stack managed service sits at or below the bottom of the agency range, without the contract, while covering more of the stack than a single hire ever will. If you want the fuller side-by-side, including freelancers and AI website builders, see the full comparison.

How to actually choose a tier

Skip the “which is cheapest” question and ask these instead:

Do I need a website managed, or a marketing function run? If it’s just the site, kept fast and technically sound, start at the website tier. If you need new content and someone owning strategy, you need at least the middle tier.
How much new content can I realistically use each month? Four articles a month is a meaningful content engine for most small businesses. Ten is for a business actively pushing on multiple fronts.
Do I want a campaign, or ongoing content? These are different jobs with different pricing. A campaign is a scoped, time-boxed push; ongoing content and SEO is the always-on subscription. Don’t buy one expecting the other.
What’s my real budget over 12 months, not just the sticker price? Add the one-time build to twelve months of the subscription before you compare across providers, and check whether a lower monthly number comes with a contract that removes your ability to walk away.

Where Gameplan fits

We’ll put our own number where our mouth is: $319–$2,500/month, plus a one-time build from $5,000, month-to-month, no lock-in. Most businesses land on Growth Plus at $999/month, the point where the site stops just existing and starts actively earning traffic through content and SEO/AEO. Campaigns are available as a scoped add-on on Growth Plus and Scale when you want a coordinated push, priced separately and quoted before work starts.

You can see the full tier breakdown, including the complete feature comparison, on our pricing page, or talk to us and we’ll tell you honestly which tier actually fits where you are, not which one we’d rather sell.

Gameplan is a managed marketing service built for small businesses without a marketing team. We build and manage your website, SEO/AEO, content, and strategy for a flat monthly fee, from $319/mo plus a one-time build, month-to-month, cancel any time. Talk to us and we’ll honestly tell you if we’re the right fit.

How Much Does Managed Marketing Cost? (2026 Breakdown)