What a digital PR cost guide should itemise before you compare quotes

What to take away

What a digital PR cost guide should itemise

A useful quote reads like a shopping list, not a summary. Visible line items let buyers cut scope without reopening the whole contract.

Agree what counts as a campaign before pricing. One data-led story with a landing page is a different job from a rolling newsjacking retainer. The digital PR costs and budget guide for England walks through the same categories month by month for a fuller annual view.

Agency time and campaign planning

Strategy, media list building, journalist conversations and reporting all consume hours, and hours are where quotes vary most. Ask for estimated hours per activity and the rate applied to each. Rates for senior staff are usually higher than for juniors, so ask who does the work as well as how many hours it takes.

An illustrative mid-market retainer covering two campaigns a quarter might sit at £2,500 to £4,500 a month. A single data-led story sold as a project might be quoted at £6,000. Both figures are examples, not market rates.

Third-party data, tools and production

Survey panels, data licensing, design, page builds and monitoring usually sit outside the agency fee. These pass-through items are easy to miss and hard to challenge later. Third-party costs often carry an admin fee, so confirm whether it is charged on the supplier's invoice or a marked-up figure.

Publishers protect ad revenue closely. IAB UK's guidance on solutions to ad blocking for publishers explains the commercial trade-offs behind coverage decisions.

VAT and pass-through costs

VAT changes the total, not the fee. Standard-rated marketing services carry VAT at 20%, and the GOV.UK guidance on VAT rates on different goods and services is where to confirm how your line items are treated.

Self-employed suppliers who are not VAT registered may quote without it, which can make a smaller supplier look cheaper than it really is. Ask for a VAT number before you compare totals.

Staff costs if you hire instead of outsource

Outsourcing is not the only route. An in-house team puts salaries, employer National Insurance, pension contributions and notice periods on your budget, not a supplier's, while recruitment fees and onboarding time land before the hire produces anything.

Acas publishes free advice on employment matters covering contracts, pay and workplace disputes, so read it before committing to a permanent hire.

Before and after: rebuilding a blended quote

The figures below are illustrative, not market rates. They show a single-campaign quarter once a quote is itemised.

In this example the itemised quarter comes in lower before VAT, and the VAT line is visible rather than absorbed. Swap each line for the figures in your own quotes before you compare suppliers.

How to compare two quotes fairly

Put both quotes against the same scope before you look at price. Check the number of campaigns, the deliverables, the hours and the reporting cadence. Payment terms belong in the comparison, because a deposit of 50% on a three-month project ties up cash long before any coverage appears.

Then read the small print: what happens if a campaign produces nothing, and who pays for reshoots or extra data. Line items missing from a quote are where budgets break, and our breakdown of hidden costs of data and sources covers the usual gaps.

Common questions

Should a quote be monthly or per campaign?

Depends. Monthly retainers suit ongoing media relations; project fees suit single data-led stories. Ask which model the agency's scope assumes, because a monthly figure covering four campaigns is not comparable with one covering two.

Is VAT always added to digital PR fees?

Not always. Unregistered suppliers cannot charge it, and some clients cannot reclaim it, so the tax position matters to both sides. Confirm on the invoice what the earlier quote implied.

What if a campaign produces no coverage?

Agree the remedy in writing before work starts. Common options include replacement campaigns, a credit against the next quarter or a reduced fee. Each has a different effect on your effective cost per link.