Pricing · honest guide
What digital marketing actually costs a small business in India (2026).
Quotes for the same work swing from ₹5,000 to ₹5,00,000, and most of them hide what you’re really paying for. Here’s the honest version — real numbers, in rupees, and how to pick the tier that fits where your business is right now.
By Aditya Vashistha, Performance & Search · 7 min read · more notes
Whether you run a salon, a clinic, a café, a shop, a gym, a studio or a hotel, the question is the same: how much should this cost? The honest answer is that it depends on your stage — how far along you are, and how fast you want to grow. A brand-new place testing the waters and an established business chasing its next hundred customers should not spend the same way.
So instead of one number, here are four tiers — from doing it yourself for ₹999 to a full monthly engine — with exactly what each one buys and who it’s for. Every price below is what we actually charge, listed plainly on our pricing page. No packages that “start from” a number you can never actually get.
Do it yourself — the Funded-Look Kit (₹999)
What it is: a one-time ₹999 kit — templates, a brand palette, caption and post frameworks, and a simple checklist — so your Instagram, WhatsApp and Google profile look like a business worth trusting instead of one put together in a hurry.
What you get: the “funded look” without a designer on retainer. You do the posting; the kit gives you a system so it holds together and doesn’t look thrown-together week to week.
Who it’s for: brand-new shops, salons, cafés or clinics that want to grow on sweat and ₹999 before spending more. Honest limit: the ceiling here is your own time and taste — the kit sets you up, but nobody’s doing the work for you.
One-off projects — fix the one thing that’s leaking
Website Conversion Teardown — ₹1,799. A founder records a walk-through of your site or landing page and names the exact spots where a visitor hesitates instead of booking or buying. It’s the cheapest way to find what’s quietly costing you customers.
Landing Page Sprint — ₹11,000–₹44,000. One fast, focused page built to turn clicks into calls, bookings or orders. The range depends on how many sections, forms and integrations it needs.
Website build — ₹45,000. A complete site that names your city, loads fast, and is built to win the booking or sale — not just to look pretty.
SEO audit — ₹20,000. Turns “why can’t customers find me?” into a prioritised, plain-English plan within a week.
Who it’s for: businesses with one specific leak — traffic but no bookings, or a site that quietly embarrasses you — who want it fixed once, cleanly, without signing up for a monthly bill.
Ongoing growth — a retainer that compounds
SEO Content Sprint — from ₹15,000/month. Steady, locally-targeted articles (like this one) that pull in the customers already searching for what you do. Cancel monthly — you’re never locked in. See how it works in GrowMint Labs.
Monthly management retainer — ₹25,000–₹95,000/mo. We run the whole growth engine — content, ads, listings, landing pages and reporting — in three levels: Launch ₹25,000 for one channel done properly, Grow ₹55,000 as you add channels, and Scale ₹95,000 when you’re pushing hard across everything. It’s the same work our growth & local SEO service delivers.
Who it’s for: businesses ready to grow every month, not just fix one thing. Marketing compounds — the content and reputation you build in month one keep paying you back in month six.
Ad spend — paid straight to Google and Meta
What it is: the money that buys the clicks and views — completely separate from the fee you pay anyone to manage it. It’s not our revenue; it’s your budget.
The trap to avoid: many agencies quietly mark up your ad spend, or take a percentage of it, so the more you spend the more they earn — even when the ads aren’t working. That quietly rewards waste and hides how your money is really spent.
How we do it: your card pays Google and Meta directly, at 0% markup. You see every rupee. We earn a flat management fee, so we’re paid to make your budget work, not to inflate it. You can start small — a few thousand rupees a month is enough to learn what actually converts before you scale.
So what should you actually spend?
Match the tier to your stage, not to what a neighbour paid:
Just starting, budget’s tight: the ₹999 Funded-Look Kit plus your own hours. Prove the idea before you spend more.
One clear problem: a single project. The ₹1,799 teardown is the cheapest, lowest-risk place to start — it often tells you which of the others you actually need.
Ready to grow steadily: the SEO Content Sprint from ₹15,000/month, or a Launch retainer at ₹25,000/month.
Growing fast, several channels: a Grow or Scale retainer (₹55,000–₹95,000/mo) plus ad spend paid directly to the platforms. The full menu, with no fine print, is on our pricing page.
One honest warning: the cheap-and-vanishing agency is the most expensive option there is. A ₹5,000 “full package” that goes quiet after two months costs you far more than it saved — you pay again to undo the mess, and you lose the months you could have been growing. Before you sign anywhere, ask three questions: who owns the accounts (it should be you), is my ad spend marked up (it shouldn’t be), and what happens if I leave. Clear answers are worth more than a low number.
Quick answers
Asked most often.
How much should a small business in India budget for digital marketing?
It depends on your stage. You can start with the ₹999 Funded-Look Kit and your own time, fix one specific leak with a project from ₹1,799, or grow steadily on a retainer from ₹25,000 a month. There’s no single right number — only the right next step for where you are.
Should I pay per project or take a monthly retainer?
Pay per project when you have one clear problem — a slow website, no landing page, a listing nobody finds. Move to a retainer when you want customers to keep arriving every month, because marketing compounds and one-off fixes don’t. Both are on the pricing page.
Why charge 0% markup on ad spend?
Because marking up ad spend rewards waste — the agency earns more the more you spend, whether the ads work or not. Your card pays Google and Meta directly, you see every rupee, and we take a flat fee to make that budget work.
Send your website, your Google listing or your Instagram and a founder films the three fixes that matter most — free, within 48 hours, yours to keep whether we ever work together.