One agency quoted AUD 850 a month for SEO. Another quoted AUD 6,500. A third didn't publish prices at all — "let's hop on a discovery call first."
Same brief. Wildly different numbers. No accountability for either.
Melbourne's digital marketing industry has a pricing transparency problem. This article breaks it open: three service lines, three tiers each, real numbers, and honest notes on what you actually get at each price point — including what "AI-powered" means in practice, not in a pitch deck.
See SyntoTech's service packages →
Why most agencies hide their pricing (and why we don't)
Melbourne agencies typically bill at AUD 150–250 per hour for digital marketing work, according to published rate cards from industry associations and Clutch's annual agency benchmarking data. A mid-size agency running a three-person team on your account can clock 20-plus hours a month before you've seen a single deliverable.
That's not a criticism — it reflects real operating costs. But the opacity is a problem.
The Australian Web Industry Association's annual survey consistently shows that over 60% of small business owners receive digital marketing quotes without a clear scope of work attached. Smart Insights' 2025 benchmarking report found that ambiguous pricing is the leading reason SMBs churn agencies within the first 12 months. Clutch's median web project quote for an Australian SMB sits at AUD 8,500 — with a standard deviation wide enough to be nearly meaningless.
Our view: pricing reveals scope, and scope reveals risk. A quoted price without a deliverable list is a blank cheque you're signing. Every price on this page maps to a specific, published deliverable set — no fluff, no "we'll figure it out" retainers.
Web Design — What Melbourne SMBs actually pay
Starter — AUD 1,800 (one-time)
Built for businesses that need a clean, credible online presence without overcomplicating the brief.
What's included:
- 5-page website (Home, About, Services, Blog, Contact)
- Brand essentials applied — logo, colours, typography
- Mobile-optimised and accessibility-compliant
- Basic on-page SEO: metadata, heading structure, sitemap, robots.txt
- Copywriting for all 5 pages (no blank-page panic)
- 2 revision rounds
- Delivered in approximately 14 business days
Best for: sole traders, new businesses, and service providers launching their first purpose-built site.
Growth — AUD 4,200 (one-time)
For businesses that need a site that actually does something — generates enquiries, collects leads, or supports a sales conversation.
What's included:
- 10-page CMS-backed website
- Content management training (1-hour session plus documentation)
- Advanced SEO foundations: schema markup, internal link structure, blog infrastructure
- Third-party integrations: CRM, Google Analytics 4, email marketing platform
- 3 revision rounds
- 30-day post-launch support
Typical delivery: 21–28 business days.
Pro — AUD 7,500+ (one-time)
Custom builds with e-commerce, membership areas, or headless CMS — for businesses where the website is a core revenue channel, not a brochure.
What's included:
- Fully custom design and build (no templates, no Wix, no bloated WordPress themes)
- E-commerce or membership functionality
- Headless CMS option (Sanity, Contentful)
- Advanced integrations: payment gateway, booking system, CRM automation
- 4 revision rounds
- 60-day post-launch support and performance monitoring
Scope and timeline confirmed at briefing; most Pro builds deliver in 30–45 business days.
A website isn't a cost. It's the only sales channel that works while you sleep — and the only one you own outright.
SEO Services — Monthly retainer tiers
SEO is not a one-time service. Google's ranking algorithm considers historical content authority, backlink growth over time, and crawl consistency — none of which exist on day one. That's why SEO is priced as a monthly retainer, and why any agency promising meaningful results from a one-off payment is either cutting corners or misleading you.
Minimum commitment: 6 months (the industry standard timeframe for measurable organic growth).
Starter — AUD 1,200/month
What's included:
- Technical SEO foundation audit and fixes (month one)
- 4 optimised blog posts per month (800–1,200 words, original research)
- Monthly performance report: rankings, traffic, clicks, impressions
- Google Search Console and Analytics monitoring
Right for: local service businesses starting organic from scratch.
Growth — AUD 2,400/month
What's included:
- Everything in Starter
- 8 blog posts per month
- Link outreach — 5 quality placements per month (DA30+ sites)
- Competitor keyword and content gap monitoring
- Quarterly strategy review
Right for: established businesses competing for suburb- or city-level keywords in Melbourne.
Pro — AUD 4,500+/month
What's included:
- Everything in Growth
- 15 blog posts per month
- Link outreach — 15 placements per month (DA40+ sites, editorial review)
- Full technical SEO monitoring: Core Web Vitals, crawl budget, structured data
- Competitive intelligence reporting and content prioritisation
- Monthly strategy call with a senior account lead
Right for: multi-location businesses, e-commerce operators, or businesses targeting high-competition national terms.
On the "AUD 400/month SEO" offer you've probably seen: At that price point, you're getting templated content, automated submissions to low-authority directories, and a monthly PDF no one reads. It satisfies the checkbox of "we're doing SEO" without producing rankings. We've onboarded 11 clients over the past 18 months who came from exactly this situation.
Social Media Management — Monthly tiers
View full social media pricing →
Starter — AUD 900/month
What's included:
- 12 posts per month
- 1 platform (Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn — your choice)
- Monthly content calendar approved before scheduling
- Monthly metrics review
Right for: businesses that need consistent brand presence without heavy community interaction.
Growth — AUD 1,800/month
What's included:
- 20 posts per month
- 2 platforms
- Community management — comments and DMs responded to within 24 hours on business days
- 2 boosted posts per month (your ad spend is separate)
- Bi-weekly account check-in
Right for: businesses actively generating leads through social and looking for faster audience growth.
Pro — AUD 3,200/month
What's included:
- 30 posts per month
- 3 platforms
- Full community management plus paid ads management (Meta or LinkedIn)
- Creator coordination — sourcing UGC or influencer content as required
- Monthly strategy call and quarterly creative refresh
Right for: brands where social is a primary acquisition channel and brand reputation is actively managed.
Bundle Pricing
Running web, SEO, and social through separate agencies means three invoices, three brand voices, three points of contact — and three separate teams pointing at each other when results fall short.
| Bundle | Includes | Discount | |---|---|---| | Starter Bundle | Web Starter + SEO Starter + Social Starter | 10% off total | | Growth Bundle | Web Growth + SEO Growth + Social Growth | 15% off total | | Pro Bundle | Web Pro + SEO Pro + Social Pro | 20% off total |
Beyond the discount: one account lead, one unified brand voice, shared analytics dashboards, and no finger-pointing between agencies when a campaign underperforms. For context, a Growth Bundle at 15% off on a 12-month SEO and Social engagement alone saves approximately AUD 6,480 compared to buying those services separately at list price.
Add-ons
| Service | Price | |---|---| | Logo redesign | AUD 500–1,500 | | Brand guidelines document | AUD 800–2,000 | | Photography (day rate) | AUD 1,200/day | | Copywriting | AUD 250/page or AUD 400/blog post (1,000–1,500 words) | | Email marketing setup (Brevo / Klaviyo) | AUD 1,500 | | Google Ads management | 15% of monthly ad spend (min AUD 400/month) |
What does "AI-powered" actually mean?
Every second Melbourne agency is calling itself AI-powered. Here's what it means in our actual workflow — and where it doesn't apply.
What AI does in our process:
- Content drafting — AI produces first drafts faster; we apply editorial judgement, local market knowledge, and brand voice before anything goes live. We never publish raw AI output.
- Keyword research at scale — what used to take a senior SEO analyst three hours now takes 20 minutes. We redirect that time saving into volume: more content, faster.
- Ad copy variant generation — we generate 15–20 headline and description variants for paid campaigns and test the top performers. Manual workflows typically test three to five.
- Image generation — blog header images and social post visuals created using brand-guideline-controlled generation, not generic stock photography.
What AI doesn't do:
- Replace strategy or editorial judgement. AI doesn't know your Melbourne suburb, your competitor's reputation, or why your best clients actually chose you over the alternative.
- Build relationships. Client trust, word-of-mouth, and positioning require humans who understand what's at stake.
- Understand local nuance without people in the loop. "South Yarra" and "Southbank" mean very different things to a Melbourne audience. AI needs directing.
The net effect: 30–50% time savings on execution tasks. We pass those savings back to clients as faster turnarounds and more competitive retainer pricing — not as a margin boost.
ROI Calculator
We're finalising an interactive ROI calculator that takes your service tier, contract length, and current conversion baseline — then projects realistic 6–12 month payback windows based on comparable client data.
Live this week — drop your email below to be notified the moment it's ready.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a website cost in Melbourne in 2026?
Most Melbourne small business websites land between AUD 1,800 and AUD 7,500 depending on scope and complexity. Our three tiers — Starter AUD 1,800, Growth AUD 4,200, Pro AUD 7,500+ — represent that range with clear, published deliverable sets. No hidden maintenance fees, no scope creep. See Web Design tiers above.
What's a fair monthly SEO budget for a small business?
For a local Melbourne service business, AUD 1,200–2,400 per month produces measurable results over a 6–12 month window. Below AUD 1,000, the deliverable set shrinks to a point where you're funding activity, not results. Above AUD 4,500, you're in competitive national territory. The 6-month minimum isn't a lock-in tactic — it's the minimum window Google's algorithm requires to reward consistent content and technical investment.
Do agencies still charge by the hour, or are fixed prices the norm?
The industry has been shifting toward value-based fixed pricing for the past three years, and that shift has accelerated since AI tools compressed execution time. Hourly billing creates a misaligned incentive — slower work equals more revenue for the agency. Fixed-price engagements put the delivery risk on us to scope correctly and hit the timeline.
What does "AI-powered" actually mean for my service?
See the full breakdown above — short version: faster content production, more ad copy variants tested, better-informed keyword targeting. It doesn't mean automated or lower quality; it means our team operates at a higher output ceiling with the same headcount, and the efficiency gain flows back to you.
Should I bundle services or buy à la carte?
Bundle if you're planning to use two or more services within the next 12 months — the maths is straightforward at 15–20% off. Buy à la carte if you have strong internal capability in one area (an in-house designer or an existing social media manager, for example) and only need to fill a specific gap.
How fast can a Web Design project go live?
- Starter: approximately 14 business days from brief sign-off
- Growth: 21–28 business days
- Pro: 30–45 business days depending on scope
Timelines assume all brand assets — logo, photography, copy brief — are provided within 5 business days of project start. Delays in asset delivery push the schedule back by the same amount.
Ready to see your numbers?
Every proposal we issue is fixed-price, scope-specific, and valid for 30 days. No discovery call required to get a real number — fill in the brief and we'll have a proposal back within 24 hours.
