Client currently spending $15K/month on marketing..how much can I charge for SEO?

Try to get them to throw out a number if possible and negotiate from there. It'll probably be higher than what you would offer in the first place.

This is your number. We'll say $12k just to make things easy. If 1 student pays $12k and finishes in a year, that's roughly $1k per month net for the school. In my area there's about 400 searches every month for "technical school [city]" so we'll just say that if you got to the top of the first page they could get 40% or higher click rate that would be about 160 prospects per month. Out of those you can expect 10% to take some sort of action - filling out a form, calling a number, etc. (if they have a decent site).

So you could maybe get 1 student a month, or 12 students a year, and for that I would say charge $1,000 per month and see what happens.

$3,000 per month. Say it with a straight face. Pull up Google Keywords Tool and run the math right infront of them showing they can increase revenues by $xxxxxx per year. Tell them you can give them the contact info of 3 companies who'll do it for cheaper....but warn them to not expect those results.

If you're (soon to be) client is currently doing about $15K a month in marketing.

Offer a 3 month SEO deal @ $2000 p/m This is cheap for them.
If they are happy with you're results negotiate a 12 month contract say @ $1000-1500 p/m (assuming you are happy to work with them - as some clients are a real pain in the ****)

Did they say how much their adwords budget is?
Price per click average?
Words they target?
Searches on the words they target and others they should target(if you have others they are not already doing).


I would use that infor to figure it out.
Let's say they pay $2/click and have a budget of 2,000. That means they are getting 1,000 clicks from adwords a month. They "convert"(what do they consider a conversion actually) at 10% so they get 100 leads(?). So they are willing to pay $20 per lead in this case.

Now lets say there are 5,000 searches for what they(and you) figure they should target. Say 30% will click on them if they were #1 and of those convert. That means 150 leads. 150 x $20 is $3,000 per month you should charge so quote a bit more if you want to negotiate or $3,000 and hold to the number.

Now do that math with their real numbers. If they wonder about if you are worth it you can show them the math if you want to show you would give them the same value per lead as PPC. Or if the value is there do it for 75% and show that you are cheaper per lead vs PPC.

How much they're currently spending is irrelevant. It doesn't matter what you CAN charge, what matters are your prices. Your prices should basically be the same for everyone at that level. They can either afford you or they can't.

If it is a national trade school, I would definitely be charging around 5K+/mo.

Start with slow - $2k/month i will say for 4 keywords, show them your work for next 2 - 3 months, then increase keywords and cost.

Find out what "results" mean to them. In other words, what's is the most they could spend on each student, to make it workable. And it has to be under "normal" circumstances, as if they already paid off their original investment (or a loan to start this biz). That's probably the reason why they claimed not having ANY profits yet...

Besides, if they are already on the top of Google for most keywords, you might want
to explore other avenues for traffic, including social media. Also, check their website if it can be tweaked for better response and for list building.

Thomas

Thanks for all your suggestions. I will send over the proposal for $2K/mo for 5 keywords ($2500 for first payment which includes setup, analysis, etc.) and see what they think? I can always go lower if they balk at that price.

Offer $3k per month, and implement lead tracking so you can monitor the results and prove exactly how many leads come in, how your traffic converts, and exactly how much it is worth to your client. You'll find ways to increase the value, and you can increase the amount you charge over time, as long as you continually can prove to the client every dollar they spend with you bring them 2 or 3 dollars return.

lets say a customer is worth minimum 5k to them, whats search volume in their area like for this niche? Are 500 people a month looking? hows the competition? would it require a lot of work for you (shouldnt, theres too many good seo wso's)?

too many answers to your simple question, I'd say $1500 a month minimum though. If you get them a client every 3 months, then youre good

Stop thinking about how much to charge them and put more effort into how much you can make for them...

The more you can make for them, the more you can charge them.

If you present yourself as a COMMODITY, then people will go around comparing prices.

However, the EXPERT gets paid based on the value he provides. Two people can do the exact same job, one would get $1k and the other would get $10k - it's all in how you present yourself.

Abul

Okay so their marketing budget is $15K... Well, what I'd do in this situation is work out how I can get myself a much larger piece of the cake here.. I mean why stop at SEO?

The fact that they are in discussion with you shows that they are still not satisfied with the amount of leads they are currently pulling in. They're not happy.

So forget pondering over how much to charge them for SEO. You need to work out how you are going to get them to put all of their marketing dollars in your hands instead of those other guys they're currently paying.

I'd charge them $1,000 p/m for the SEO... do a killer job.. and then I'd come back for another slice of that $15,000 dollar cake.

You said they're already doing PPC and etc, so run your keyword research tool, show them how much money they're missing out on, then let them know that YOU are the guy that's going to rescue all that cash they've been leaving on the table...

Then you keep coming back until that whole $15K is yours...

That's how real marketers approach this stuff, and that's the way you're going to have to make your approach. Because believe me, if you don't then someone else will.