If you have asked a few agencies this question, you have probably had a few different answers. That is not agencies dodging the question, it is because the honest answer genuinely depends on your industry, your goals and how competitive your market is. Here is what the numbers actually look like.
The three things you are paying for
Lead generation pricing almost always breaks into three separate pieces, and it helps to think about them separately rather than as one number.
A one-time setup fee. This covers the build: landing pages, tracking, campaign structure, CRM integration. For a proper system, not a single landing page thrown together in an afternoon, expect somewhere between £750 and £3,000 depending on how much needs building from scratch.
A monthly management fee. This is what you pay an agency to run and improve the campaigns, write content, handle reporting and stay on top of performance. For a UK service business, this typically lands between £500 and £2,000 a month, though larger accounts with more channels can run higher.
Ad spend. This is the money that actually goes to Google or Meta, and it should be entirely separate from the management fee. If an agency is bundling your ad spend into their invoice without full visibility on where it went, that is worth asking about directly.
Why the range is so wide
A few things push the price up or down more than anything else.
Competition in your keywords. "Solicitor near me" in London costs a lot more per click than the same search in a smaller town, simply because more firms are bidding on it.
How considered the purchase is. A £50 callout and a £15,000 kitchen renovation need very different campaigns, and the more valuable the average job, the more it usually makes sense to spend on getting it right.
How much building is needed. If your website already converts reasonably well, setup costs less. If it needs a full rebuild with new landing pages and tracking from zero, that is more work upfront.
A rough guide by spend level
As a general steer, not a quote:
- Under £1,000 a month total tends to suit a single channel, tightly focused, usually Google Search on a handful of high-intent keywords.
- £1,500 to £3,000 a month total is where most established UK service businesses land once they are running a proper multi-channel setup with real reporting.
- £3,000 plus usually means multiple channels, ongoing content and SEO, and a business that already knows what a customer is worth to them.
The question that actually matters
The number that should decide your budget is not "what does an agency charge," it is "what is a new customer worth to me." If a client is worth £3,000 to you, spending £150 to £300 to acquire one is comfortable. If a client is worth £150, that same spend does not work. A good agency will ask about this before quoting you anything, and should be able to show you the maths on why a given budget makes sense for your numbers, not just theirs.
If you want a straight read on what a realistic budget looks like for your specific business, book a free consultation and we will walk through the actual numbers with you, no pressure, no obligation.
