Key facts
- Marketing cost in Canada has two layers: the fee you pay whoever does the work, and the media you pay the platform; agencies that blend the two into one number make comparison impossible, so ask for the split.
- SearchPod's Canadian prices are public: Google Ads management at 10% of the monthly ad budget with a $600 CAD minimum and no markup on spend, SEO at $50 CAD per page from ten pages a month, websites as one-time packages from $1,500 to $20,000+, $0 setup, month to month, with a 30-day guarantee on the first month.
- The LocaliQ and WordStream 2026 search advertising benchmark publishes category averages for cost per click and cost per lead across North American accounts; it is the only third-party figure this page uses, and it is a labelled average, not a Canadian price list.
- Canadian prices are usually quoted in CAD and carry GST or HST depending on the province, and Quebec adds QST; a quote that does not say which currency and whether tax is included is not yet a price.
- Local search costs vary by city because competition sets auction prices: the same plumbing keyword costs more in Toronto or Vancouver than in a smaller city, which is why a budget should be set from the local cost per lead you measure, not a national average.
The two layers of cost, and why quotes hide one of them
Every marketing bill in Canada is really two bills. The first is the fee for the work: managing ads, writing pages, building a site, sending email. The second is the media: what Google, Meta or another platform charges for the clicks and impressions, billed by the platform to your card. An agency quote that states a single monthly number usually hides how much of it is media and how much is fee, and sometimes hides a markup on the media.
Ask for the split every time. A fair quote states the fee, states that the media is billed by the platform at cost, and states any setup fee and the contract term. Without those four lines, two quotes cannot be compared, and a low headline number can be the more expensive one.
The published prices you can compare against
SearchPod's price list is public and in Canadian dollars. Google Ads management is 10% of the monthly ad budget with a $600 CAD minimum, so a $3,000 budget carries a $600 fee and a $10,000 budget carries a $1,000 fee; the ad spend itself goes to Google in full. SEO is $50 CAD per page from ten pages a month, so the starting point is $500 CAD for ten pages. Websites are one-time packages from $1,500 to $20,000+ depending on scope, listed on the websites page. There is no setup fee, no contract term, and a 30-day guarantee on the first month; the conditions are at /pricing/terms.
Those numbers are useful even if you never hire SearchPod, because they give you a fixed reference to put beside any other quote. If another agency's fee for the same ad budget is far higher, ask what the extra buys; if it is far lower, ask what is excluded.
What the media itself costs, and the one benchmark worth using
Media cost is set by auction, so it depends on your industry and your city more than on the agency. The LocaliQ and WordStream 2026 search advertising benchmark publishes category averages for cost per click and cost per lead across a large set of North American accounts; SearchPod's calculators use those figures as editable, labelled defaults. They are averages across categories such as home services, legal, dental and real estate, and any single Canadian account will sit above or below them.
The practical use is as a starting budget: pick your category's average cost per lead, multiply by the leads you want, and you have a first-month media budget to test. Replace the average with your own cost per lead as soon as you have a month of data. Competition sets the price, so the same keyword costs more in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary or Montreal than in a smaller market, and more in legal or dental than in most trades.
Currency, tax and the details that change a Canadian quote
Ask which currency the quote is in. Many agencies serving Canada quote in US dollars, which moves the real cost with the exchange rate; SearchPod quotes Canadian clients in CAD. Ask whether tax is included: GST applies federally, HST in the provinces that harmonize, and QST in Quebec on top of GST, and a quote that leaves tax out looks cheaper than it is.
Ask about bilingual work if you sell in Quebec. Ads and pages in French are a real cost and, for businesses operating in Quebec, a legal consideration under the province's language rules, so a quote should say whether French versions are included. Ask about data residency only if your industry requires it; most small businesses do not.
Finally, ask what you own. In Canada as anywhere, the ad account, the website, the Google Business Profile and the data should be in your name, and a quote that leaves them with the agency carries a cost you pay when you leave.
Related questions
It depends on the model and the scope. SearchPod's published fees are 10% of the Google Ads budget with a $600 CAD minimum, $50 CAD per SEO page from ten pages, and one-time website packages from $1,500. Other agencies use retainers, hourly rates or performance fees; ask for the fee separately from the media and compare on the same ad budget.
Usually not, and it should not be. Google and Meta bill the advertiser directly for clicks and impressions. A quote that blends spend and fee into one number needs to be split before it can be compared; SearchPod never marks up spend and bills only the management fee.
Media costs are, because more advertisers compete for the same searches, so the same keyword costs more per click in a large city. Agency fees do not have to be higher; SearchPod's fees are the same in every city. Set the media budget from the cost per lead you measure locally, not from a national average.
SearchPod quotes Canadian clients in CAD: $600 CAD minimum for Google Ads management and $50 CAD per SEO page, with US clients quoted at $450 USD and $38 USD. Always ask any agency which currency a quote uses and whether GST, HST or QST is included.
Put both on one page with the fee at your real ad budget, the setup fee, the contract term and exit rule, the currency and tax treatment, what is included and excluded, and who owns the accounts and the site. Then use SearchPod's published prices as a fixed reference point beside them.
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