How Much Does a Done-For-You Content Agency Actually Cost?

Try finding a price on any content agency's website. You'll click through five pages of "book a discovery call" before anyone names a number. The industry hides pricing because most of it is made up on the call, sized to whatever your company looks like on LinkedIn.

We think that's a bad way to treat buyers. Our prices are public on our homepage, and this post puts them in context: what the market actually charges, why the range is so wide, and the math that tells you whether any of it is worth paying for.

Quick credibility check so you know the numbers come from somewhere: we've built and run content engines for 40+ founders and brands over the last 4 years. The work behind those engines has driven 8 figures in client revenue, and the best campaign we've produced did $2.1M in a single launch day. We've seen what every price point actually buys.

What the market charges

There are three ways to buy content, and they're priced like three different products because they are.

Freelance editors: $500 to $3,000 per month

A good freelance editor charges $50 to $150 per short-form video, or $500 to $3,000 monthly for a steady volume. This is the right buy when you already know your strategy, write your own scripts, film consistently, and just need the footage turned into clean clips. The catch is that everything except the editing stays on your plate, and the editor can only be as good as the strategy you hand them. Most founders who burn out on content burn out here, doing four jobs and outsourcing the fifth.

In-house team: $15,000 to $25,000+ per month

Hiring the full function (a strategist, a scriptwriter, an editor, someone to manage posting and community) costs $180k to $300k+ per year in salaries, plus recruiting, management and the 3 to 6 months it takes the team to find its feet. We wrote a whole breakdown on when this is the right call. The short answer: when content is a department, not a channel. For most founders under $10M, it isn't yet.

Done-for-you agency: $2,000 to $10,000+ per month

The middle path: one partner runs the whole engine and you supply the one thing nobody can outsource, your face and your expertise. Quality varies enormously in this tier, which is exactly why the next section matters more than any price tag.

What actually drives the price

• Strategy depth. Is someone researching your buyer, your niche and your competitors before anything gets filmed, or are you getting a generic posting calendar?
• Scripting. Writing words that sound like you and sell without being salesy is slow, skilled work. Cheap packages skip it and you can tell.
• Volume and platforms. 8 pieces on one platform and 30 pieces across four platforms are different workloads.
• Filming support. Coaching on delivery, shot lists and remote direction shorten the path from awkward to watchable by months.
• Distribution and review. Posting, captions, and a monthly loop where performance changes next month's plan. Without the loop you're paying for output, not outcomes.

When you compare two quotes, line them up against that list. The $2,500 quote and the $6,000 quote usually aren't the same service at different prices. They're different services.

What we charge

Our pricing is on the homepage and it's the same for everyone:

• Strategy Intensive: $500. A 60-minute deep dive into your niche, buyer and content plan. Fully credited toward a sprint if we end up working together, so the risk is one hour of your time.
• Founder Brand Sprint: from $15k. 12 weeks to a complete content engine: research, strategy, scripts, filming coaching, editing, posting, and the capture systems that turn viewers into booked calls.
• Fly-Out Capture Day: from $25k. We fly to you, direct 1 to 2 days of filming, and walk away with roughly 3 months of content banked. Built for founders whose calendar is the bottleneck.

Ongoing retainers after a sprint get scoped on a fit call, because monthly volume and platform mix genuinely change the work. But you'll hear a real number on that call, not after a three-step proposal sequence.

The only math that matters

Price is the wrong number to stare at. The right number is what one client is worth to you. If your average client brings in $10k and a $5k per month engine books you two extra clients a quarter, the engine pays for itself with room to spare. If your average client is worth $500, the same engine has to produce volume that probably isn't realistic, and you're better off with a leaner setup until your offer supports it.

This is why we ask about your offer and your numbers on a fit call before quoting anything. Content built for a $15k service sells differently than content built for a $50 product, and sometimes the honest answer is that done-for-you isn't the right buy yet. We'd rather tell you that in 15 minutes than learn it together over 12 weeks.

Red flags when you're comparing quotes

• No questions about your buyer or your offer before quoting. They're selling a package, not an outcome.
• Guaranteed views or follower counts. Reach can be bought; revenue can't be guaranteed by anyone honest.
• Editing samples but no strategy samples. Ask to see the thinking, not just the cuts.
• Long contracts with no early checkpoint. Good partners earn month 4 with months 1 to 3.
• Prices that only exist on a call. If the number changes based on who's asking, you're the variable.

Working with Ben has been incredible. Most contractors will do the bare minimum without communicating, but Ben is always looking for ways to add value while keeping me in the loop.

Elias M., Corsair Terminal