12 questions, answered directly. Where the honest answer is
"don't pay us for this," it says so.
How much does Main Course Media cost per month?
Our packages are $790 a month for Starter (custom website plus local SEO), $1,390 a month for Growth (adds all-channel ad management), and $1,890 a month for Market Leader (adds social media management and content). Single services à la carte start at $495 a month for one advertising channel, $595 for SEO, and $600 for social media management.
Every package is a flat monthly rate covering everything listed on the plan, with no setup, build, or onboarding fee and no long list of add-ons to decode. Ad spend on the Growth and Market Leader packages is billed separately and paid directly to Google or Meta.
How much does a marketing agency cost in Dallas–Fort Worth?
Expect roughly $300–$800 a month at the low end, $800–$2,500 a month for a boutique agency doing real work, and $3,000–$10,000 a month plus minimum ad spend at a large national agency. We sit in the middle at $790–$1,890 a month, flat, with ad spend never marked up.
The low end is usually template work that produces little you can attribute to an actual job. The high end buys a staffed team and enterprise tooling, which genuinely matters above a certain size — and means a small local business is a small account.
Is ad spend included in your monthly fee?
No. Your ad budget is paid directly to Google or Meta, stays in your own account, and we never mark it up or take a percentage of it. Our management fee is separate and does not increase when your budget does. We recommend $1,000–$3,000 a month per search channel, and $750–$1,500 for Facebook and Instagram.
We never require a minimum — you set and control the budget, and can raise or lower it whenever you want. We recommend a specific number based on what a customer is actually worth to you, before you spend a dollar. Because the account is yours, you can verify at any time that nothing is marked up.
How much does a website cost?
Your website is included in every package rather than sold separately, starting with Starter at $790 a month, and there is no setup, build, or onboarding fee — your first month is the whole cost of getting started. We do not sell websites à la carte, because a site with no SEO behind it rarely gets found.
A comparable custom build at a traditional development shop typically costs several thousand dollars upfront. Rolling it into the monthly fee is how we keep that off your books at the start. You see a first design concept within ten business days of sending us your content, and the site goes live within thirty days of your approval.
Am I locked into a long contract?
No. Plans are month-to-month with no minimum term and no early-termination fee — you can cancel any time with thirty days' written notice. You own the site and every account we touch, so if you leave, you leave with everything.
Fees for work already delivered are not refunded, and anything prepaid for a period we did not work is returned pro-rata. We do ask for a fair shot, because SEO genuinely needs a few months to compound and judging it at week six tells you nothing. That is a recommendation, not a lock-in.
What is the cheapest way to start working with you?
A single service à la carte: $495 a month for one advertising channel, or $595 a month for SEO. That is the lowest-cost entry point. One channel in isolation underperforms the same money inside a package, so once you want two or more things running together we will point you to a package instead.
What costs money beyond your invoice?
For most clients, two things: ad spend if you are advertising ($1,000–$3,000 a month per search channel, $750–$1,500 for Meta, paid straight to the platform), and your domain, roughly $12–$20 a year. Hosting is included in your fee, and call tracking is included wherever we manage your advertising.
Two more only apply if they come up, and we quote both in writing before any work starts: pages beyond the included build scope of ten service pages and five city pages ($150 and $125 each), and design revisions past the third round. Occasionally a build needs a paid plugin or booking tool, which we flag before anything is bought. Photography is free if you send phone photos of your own work, which genuinely outperform stock. There is no charge to hand over your website or accounts — they are already yours.
Do you take a percentage of my ad spend?
No. Our fee is a flat monthly amount that does not change with your ad budget. Percentage-of-spend billing creates an incentive to recommend a bigger budget rather than a better-performing one, which is exactly backwards.
When is hiring an agency not worth it?
When you cannot handle more work, when the monthly fee would strain payroll, or when you need results in 30 days with no budget for ad spend. Marketing that works produces phone calls; if nobody can answer them or take the job, more leads only create missed calls and bad reviews.
Fix capacity first — that costs nothing and will make you more money than we would. If $790 a month is a genuine strain, claim your Google Business Profile, ask every happy customer for a review, and come back when there is room.
How do I work out whether the math clears for my business?
Take your average job value, multiply by your close rate, and see how many extra leads a month it takes to cover the fee. At a $500 average job and a 50% close rate, Starter at $790 a month needs about four extra leads to pay for itself.
If your average job is a $3,000 panel upgrade or a $9,000 remodel, one job every couple of months covers our top package. Run that number before you talk to us — if it does not clear comfortably, do not sign.
Do your prices go up over time?
These are our current prices and the prices we launched with. Your rate is locked for your first twelve months, and any increase after that comes with at least sixty days' written notice — you will hear it from us directly rather than discover it on an invoice, and you can cancel without penalty if you do not accept it.
Market-wide, agency retainers have risen as paid-search costs climbed. Most of that pressure lands on ad spend rather than agency fees, and our own efficiency is why we have held our fee where it is.
Can I change or cancel my package?
Yes. You can move up or down a tier as your business changes, and plans are month-to-month rather than annual. To cancel, give us thirty days' written notice — there is no early-termination fee and nothing to buy out.
We would rather right-size your plan than have you quietly resent paying for something you are not using. If you do leave, you keep the website and every account, and we hand over the complete source files at no charge.
