Most UK PR agencies charge between £1,500 and £6,000 a month on retainer, with project work typically landing between £3,000 and £15,000 depending on scope. Outside London the mid-point sits lower than inside it. Those are the real numbers, and the rest of this article explains what moves you up or down that range so you can tell a fair quote from a bad one.
Agency pricing is one of the most searched questions in this industry and one of the least answered. Most agencies will not publish a figure because every project is different, which is true but unhelpful if you are trying to build a budget. So here is the honest version.
Retainers are usually priced on the number of senior hours your account needs each month, not on outputs. Three broad tiers cover most of the UK market.
£1,500 to £2,500 a month. A light-touch retainer. Expect proactive media relations, a handful of press releases a quarter, reactive comment opportunities and a monthly report. This works for a business with a clear story and a patient timeline. It does not stretch to crisis cover, events or content production.
£2,500 to £4,500 a month. The most common band for an established SME. You get a named account lead, a consistent flow of stories, media relationships maintained on your behalf, spokesperson support and usually some content or social crossover. This is where most of our own retainer clients sit.
£4,500 to £6,000 and above. Senior-led strategic counsel alongside delivery. Appropriate when PR is tied to a funding round, a rebrand, a sensitive issue or a national launch. At this level you are buying judgement as much as output.
Below £1,500 a month you are generally buying a freelancer’s time, which can be excellent but carries single-person risk. Above £6,000 you should expect a named senior strategist in the room every month, not just on the pitch.
Project pricing suits a defined moment rather than an ongoing programme. A product launch, an opening, a report, an awards campaign.
For context on what the top of that range delivers, our Lane7 Cardiff launch ran across three weeks rather than a single night and produced 19 pieces of coverage across nine titles, 14 creators posting, and more than 230 RSVPs to the launch party.
1. Seniority on the account. This is the single biggest factor. An account run by a director costs more than one run by an executive, and the difference shows in media access and judgement. Ask who will actually do the work, not who is pitching.
2. Media targets. National broadsheets and broadcast take more time and more relationships than regional and trade. A campaign aiming at the BBC is not priced like one aiming at your sector press.
3. Volume and cadence. Two stories a month costs roughly twice one story a month. Obvious, but worth stating because many briefs ask for national coverage on a budget built for one release a quarter.
4. Sector complexity. Regulated sectors, technical products and anything requiring legal sign-off absorb more hours. Finance, health and public sector work are priced accordingly.
5. What is bundled in. Content production, photography, events and paid amplification all sit outside core PR. An agency that can do them in-house, as we do through our creative production team, will usually be cheaper than one subcontracting them.
The rule of thumb is simple. If you have a moment, buy a project. If you have a story that needs telling continuously, buy a retainer.
Retainers work because media relationships compound. A journalist who has had three useful stories from your agency takes the fourth call. That is not something a six-week project can build. Projects work because they are finite and easy to judge, which makes them a sensible first engagement if you have not worked with an agency before.
Most relationships we have start as a project and become a retainer once both sides know how the other works.
Three things that never appear as a line item but account for a large share of the fee.
Relationships. The reason a story lands is often that someone has spent years being useful to that journalist. You are renting access to that.
Judgement about what not to do. A good agency will talk you out of the press release that will embarrass you. That advice is worth more than the release would have been.
Availability. When something goes wrong at 7pm on a Friday, you are paying for someone to pick up.
That last one is the most revealing question in the list, and very few people ask it.
We sit in the middle band for most retainer clients, with project work priced on scope. We publish ranges because a prospect who knows the number before the first call is a better conversation for both sides. If the budget does not fit, we would rather say so in week one than month three.
If you want a specific number for a specific brief, send us the brief and we will price it. You can see the kind of work those budgets buy across our PR and communications service and our full showcase archive.