The most common question we are asked, and the one most agency websites carefully avoid answering. Here are real numbers.
Monthly retainers by service
These are the ranges we see across the Trivandrum market in 2026 — not just our own pricing, but what businesses here are actually paying.
- Local SEO — ₹12,000 to ₹25,000 per month for a single-location business. Multi-location or e-commerce runs ₹25,000 to ₹50,000.
- Google Ads management — ₹10,000 to ₹20,000 per month in management fees, or 12–18% of spend on larger accounts. Ad spend is separate.
- Meta Ads management — ₹8,000 to ₹18,000 per month, again excluding spend.
- Social media management — ₹12,000 to ₹35,000 per month depending on content volume and whether shoots are included.
- Full-service retainer — ₹35,000 to ₹80,000 per month covering strategy, ads, SEO, content and creative.
What about ad spend?
Management fees are what the agency charges. Ad spend goes directly to Google or Meta and should always be billed to your own card. For a small Trivandrum business, a meaningful monthly test budget starts around ₹15,000 to ₹25,000. Below ₹10,000 a month the platforms do not get enough data to optimise, and you learn very little.
One-time project costs
- Business website — ₹25,000 to ₹80,000
- E-commerce store — ₹60,000 to ₹2,00,000
- Logo and brand identity — ₹12,000 for a logo alone, ₹35,000 to ₹1,00,000 for a full system
- Corporate video — ₹40,000 to ₹1,50,000
- Product photography — ₹15,000 per half-day shoot
Five pricing red flags
A fixed package quoted before any conversation. If an agency can price your account without knowing what you sell, they are selling activity rather than outcomes.
Guaranteed page-one rankings. Nobody can promise this. Google does not sell placements.
Ad spend billed through the agency. You lose visibility of what was actually spent. Always pay the platform directly.
Agency-owned ad accounts. If you leave, you lose the pixel data and the campaign history you paid to build.
Pricing far below the market. ₹5,000 a month buys a few scheduled posts and nothing else. It is not cheap marketing; it is no marketing.
What you should get for your money
Whatever you pay, insist on: admin access to every account in your own name, a monthly report traceable to sources you can log into yourself, an agreed target cost per lead, and a named person you can actually reach. If an agency resists any of those four, the price is not the problem.