How much do pr agencies charge?

You can either hire an in-house professional(s), contract a freelancer, or choose between a boutique firm or a large PR firm. Each of these options come at different costs with inherent pros and cons. The details below are from the UK market.

Read more: Choosing the right PR firm

The In-house PR Professional

When you hire an in-house professional, you get a person dedicated full-time to your company. This means this person understands your company culture, the brand and its strengths and weaknesses intimately. This helps with brand alignment in all communication and outreach, but this one-man shop could get inundated with managing the entire spectrum of PR, marketing and branding. For this reason, it’s always best to have a combination of internal and external PR pros. 

According to the latest salary data offered by Reuben Sinclair, the typical salary range for a PR executive for the year 2022 is £22-30k per annum. A PR executive typically has 1-3 years of experience. As you hire for more senior and managerial roles, the salaries naturally climb. Whether you hire for a senior or junior role depends on your budget, the business needs and the volume and scope of the work. It could be chaotic to hire a junior PR resource and expect them to manage all aspects of PR and marketing when they lack the support of experienced PR professionals in their team who are in a position to guide them.

The Freelancer

Freelancers tend to be specialists who are experienced in one PR aspect and are usually very focused on tactics. These professionals are commonly hired in addition to in-house teams to execute and deliver the strategy that an in-house team has created. Freelancers have specialities and niches, so you may need to hire one freelancer to handle your social media and another one for media relations. Hiring freelancers often costs more than hiring in-house resources where ‘day rate’ is concerned, but they are usually less than hiring a PR firm. According to YunoJuno’s Freelancer rates report 2022, the average day rate for a freelancer working in PR was £326 in 2021.

The PR Agency

Hiring a PR agency allows you access to a team of experts across the full spectrum of communications services from media relations, events management, change management, crisis communications, public affairs, SEO and more. Unlike a freelancer, agencies usually offer strategic planning, measurement and evaluation along with tactical delivery and execution.

PR agencies can be divided into two kinds depending on their size: large and boutique.

The Boutique PR Agency

When it comes to choosing the right PR agency for your business, it’s easy to get sucked into the hype surrounding larger firms. However, bigger isn’t always better! If you are looking to find a firm that can achieve your business’ marketing goals while still maintaining your budget, a smaller boutique PR agency may just be perfect for you.

A boutique agency usually has a staff of under 50. Their monthly retainer fees typically range from £5,000 -£10,000 for a London-based PR firm. The value resides in getting access to founders and senior PR counsel to work directly on your account and be available for consultations. Boutique firms also tend to specialise in specific sectors and services within the PR and marketing spectrum. 

Collaborating amongst a smaller group, boutique PR agencies are able to produce expert-level work in a fast and flexible manner. The boutique PR firm can also act as an extension of your own team, giving you direct access and control. Having a tight-knit team consisting of the best in the business allows a hands-on approach to your business’ PR.

The Large PR Agency

Large agencies usually have staff of more than 50 and have offices across the world. Some popular large PR agencies include Edelman, Weber Shandwick, and Hill and Knowlton. These agencies cost the highest with typical retainers in excess of £25,000 per month. These agencies are best suited for big corporations and governments, especially those needing PR support for multi-national launches and campaigns.

Read more: An insider’s guide to engaging with a PR agency

How do PR Agencies charge for their services?

If you decide to hire a PR agency, then it’s important to understand how PR agencies charge for their services. This will put you on a good footing when you come to the negotiation table.

1. Fee structure

When it comes to fee structure, there are mainly three different ways PR agencies bill. Pay-per-placement, projects, and retainers.

• Pay-per-placement

When providing media relations services, some firms offer a pay-per-placement option. This means you pay for each article or media interview that a PR agency is able to secure. Rates for coverage in top-tier media are higher than in mid-tier or low-tier media.

Commenting on this fee structure, Curzon CEO Farzana Baduel says, “The pay-per-placement option ends up being a numbers game because that is what you are paying for. It is extremely tactical with a focus on just getting the most number of press mentions — there is no strategy.” 

Media relations is not just about getting big channels like the BBC to cover your brand; it’s more about getting them to cover your brand in the way that you want with the right positioning and key messages. The best media relations practice involves research, strategy, planning, measurement and evaluation, and this pay-per-placement fee structure lacks these elements.

• PR Projects

Project rates are for projects that run for short terms – usually between one to three months. Specific services like strategy, crisis communications and branding happen to be project-based because once the work is done, you don’t need the services any longer. For example, you may hire a PR firm to deal with an immediate crisis, but once the crisis is dealt with the project ends. Similarly, you may hire a PR firm for branding and strategy, which once developed can be executed by your in-house team.

Project-based contracts are priced higher than annual retainers because agencies spend a lot of time in winning your business, onboarding you, and researching your company. The short-term aspect also puts a lot of pressure on the agency to deliver within the time frame. 

• PR Retainers

Unlike project-based contracts, retainer contracts run longer and usually for a period of 12 months. These often cost lower than project-based contracts because the time spent and the research done in the initial few months by the agency on your account are paid off in the long term.

Services like media relations are offered on retainer contracts because they give the best results in the long term. A one-off press mention in top-tier media can lead to a sudden spike in sales, but only consistent press coverage over the long term will help build and shape your reputation. In retainer contracts, you pay a fixed monthly rate to the agency every month based on a specified scope of work or number of hours.

Because yearly retainers bring the PR firms some sort of financial stability, there is room for negotiation and better prices than a project-based fee.

2. Services

Strategic services like crisis strategy, branding and public affairs understandably cost more as they require senior expertise. Similarly, services like media relations where a professional bring their relationships with journalists built over the years also cost more. Crisis communications command higher fees, as it requires the PR professional to be available round the clock to respond to the crisis as it evolves.

Read more: Why companies should invest in crisis communications BEFORE a crisis

On the other hand, services like social media and blogs are generally priced at a lower rate because they can be successfully undertaken with minimal input from senior management. Agencies pay different salaries to professionals with expertise in different areas. For instance, this 2021 report by staffing agency Hanson Search shows that while the starting salary in social media and content is £20,000, the starting salary in strategic consulting or internal communications is £25,000.

3. Sector

Hiring a PR firm with a specialisation in your industry will typically cost more than hiring a generalist agency that works across the board. This is because sector specialist agencies bring their valuable relationships with sector journalists and other contacts that can be used for partnership opportunities. Additionally, sector specialist agencies can skip the whole learning curve section, saving you a lot of billable hours.

PR costs differ from sector to sector. Consumer sectors like fashion and art generally cost less than finance and technology. This sector difference in prices shows up directly in the typical salaries that the agency pays to its employees across different sectors. For instance, according to Reuben Sinclair’s  PR and Communications 2022 Salary Guide, while the salary for a PR account manager in a consumer sector ranges from £ 30k – £35k, that of a PR account manager in the technology sector ranges from £35k – 40k.

4. Scope of work

The scope of work helps the agency determine how many hours of work it would take for each team member to deliver on the tasks. The costs you are charged are directly proportional to the hourly rates of each team member multiplied by the number of hours required to deliver on tasks. A proposal with only a few deliverables and a very simple scope of work will take less time for the agency to service and will therefore cost less, while a proposal with a complex scope of work will  cost significantly more.

Read more: The ultimate guide on writing PR briefs

5. Minimum pricing

Agencies often have a minimum pricing benchmark. So if your budget is lower than the agency’s minimum pricing, then you won’t be a good fit for each other. The minimum pricing is set to ensure that the agency stays profitable by making a profit of 15-25% on each client. Anything lower than that and the agency would be in danger of incurring a loss.

The minimum pricing is determined by the cost of overhead expenses of the agency. Agencies of different sizes have different overhead expenses. For example, large PR agencies have costs associated with the rent of large offices, whilst remote PR agencies do not bear the burden of paying rent.  Similarly, agencies that are forward-looking and invest in the new tools and software have tech and licensing fees. For example, PR agencies big on data analysis have monthly recurring subscriptions of social listening tools.

6. Additional costs

These are the expenses incurred while working on your brand. This could be travel costs, costs to organise an event or a press trip, or paid ads like Facebook and Google ads. The agency can either incorporate these into your main contract cost or mention that it would be an additional charge not covered in the proposal fee. 

Costs for items like these usually have a 10% markup. For example, if the agency has spent £100 on buying a design software on your behalf for your branding, they would charge you 10% over the rate at £110. This is because making the purchase is a financial responsibility for the firm, requiring the agency to research competitors or talk to sales teams to understand the best option for your brand and manage contracts and payments.

In conclusion, hiring a PR agency is an investment, and PR costs should be directly proportional to the value provided by a PR firm. But the decision of hiring a PR firm should be based on value, not just cost. 

Thinking about hiring a public relations agency?  Check us out! Curzon PR is a globally focused public relations and marketing communications consultancy specialising in strategy at the nexus of developed and growth markets. 

Curzon PR is a London-based PR firm working with clients globally. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Business Development Team [email protected]