Markup and margin measure the same profit from different angles. Markup is profit divided by cost. Margin is profit divided by price. A 50% markup equals a 33% margin. Confusing the two leads to underpricing: if you need a 40% margin and apply a 40% markup instead, you're actually running at 28.6% margin and leaving money on the table.
Markup & Margin Calculator for Marketing Agency
Pre-filled with real marketing agency industry benchmarks
Marketing agency pricing comes in four main flavors: hourly billing, monthly retainers, project-based fees, and performance-based pricing. Hourly rates range from $75 to $150 for junior staff to $200 to $400 for senior strategists. Monthly retainers are the bread and butter, typically $2,000 to $15,000/month for small to mid-market clients. Project fees (website builds, brand identity, campaign launches) range from $5,000 to $100,000+. The markup in agency work is the gap between your delivery cost (what you pay your team to do the work) and what you charge the client. If a designer costs you $40/hour loaded and you bill design work at $150/hour, that is a 275% markup and a 73% margin. The goal is to maintain a 50 to 65% delivery margin across all service lines while keeping clients long enough to amortize the upfront sales and onboarding investment. This calculator helps you model pricing scenarios against your actual delivery costs.
Markup & Margin Calculator
Pre-filled with marketing agency industry defaults. Edit any field to use your real numbers.
Markup
900.0%
Margin
90.0%
Profit
$450
Marketing Agency industry average: 90.0% margin (10.0% COGS).