What Increases the Price of Marketing and What Decreases the Price of Marketing (for Cleaning Business Owners)
By DREW LARISON
CEO, Five Door Media
Introduction: The Cleaning Industry's Marketing Dilemma
If you’re a cleaning business owner, you’ve probably asked yourself this exact question: "Why does digital marketing cost what it costs? And exactly what makes it go up or down?"
Maybe you're trying to scale your residential cleaning business, grow a commercial janitorial operation, or just bring in more leads during the off-season. Either way, understanding what drives the cost of marketing is key to making the smartest investment decisions for your company.
Just like cleaning jobs, marketing services come in different shapes, sizes, and complexities. Think about how pricing works in your own business. A one-time deep clean for a 4,000-square-foot house costs a lot more than a weekly maintenance clean for a 1-bedroom apartment. The same logic applies to your marketing.
In this blog, we’ll break down the top factors that can increase – or decrease – the cost of your digital marketing investment as a cleaning company. Our goal is to demystify this topic and help you feel more confident in evaluating quotes, proposals and performance.
Section 1: The #1 Factor – Scope of Work
What It Means:
"Scope of work" refers to what your marketing agency is actually doing for you. Are they just running your Google Ads? Or are they handling a full-service package that includes ads, SEO, content marketing, email marketing, and reporting?
Why It Increases Cost:
The more services you ask for, the more time, tools, expertise, and people are involved in executing your marketing. Just like you’d charge more for a whole-house move-out cleaning versus a bi-weekly touch-up, the agency has to charge more when the workload is heavier.
Common Marketing Services for Cleaning Businesses:
Google Ads Management
Meta (Facebook & Instagram) Ads
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Content Creation (Blogs, Service Pages)
Email Marketing (Automated and Manual)
Lead Tracking & Reporting Dashboards
Example: A basic Google Ads campaign may cost $750/month in management fees. A full-service package with SEO, blog writing, and ads might cost $2,000–$3,500/month.
What Lowers Cost:
At Five Door Media, we bundle services to bring overall cost-per-service down. The more you do with us, the more you save. Think of it like offering discounted rates to homeowners who sign up for recurring cleanings. It benefits both sides.
Section 2: Paid Ad Budget – The Hidden Variable
What It Means:
Your “ad budget” is what you pay platforms like Google or Facebook to show your ads. This is separate from your agency’s fees. Ad budgets fluctuate based on your goals, location, competition, and industry.
Why It Increases Cost:
More budget = more visibility. If you're in a competitive market (like Dallas, Atlanta, or Tampa), the cost-per-click (CPC) on Google Ads for keywords like "house cleaning" or "commercial janitorial services" can be much higher than in smaller towns. If you're looking to bring in 100+ leads/month, you'll need to spend more to get there.
Factors That Affect Your Ad Budget:
Geographic Location (urban areas = higher competition)
Lead Volume Goals
Target Audience (high-income homeowners, realtors, property managers, etc.)
Platform (Google, Meta, YouTube, etc.)
Example: A cleaning company in a mid-size market might need $800/month in ad spend to generate 30 leads. That same company in a major metro may need $1,500–$2,000/month for the same lead count.
What Lowers Cost:
Smart targeting, tight geographic focus, and strong conversion-focused landing pages can reduce your cost per lead. This is why working with an agency that specializes in home services (like us) can actually save you money in the long run—we don’t waste spend.
Section 3: Custom vs. Templated Marketing
What It Means:
Custom marketing means strategies and creatives are built specifically for your business—your brand, your market, your goals. Templated marketing uses general strategies or cookie-cutter content that’s reused across many clients.
Why It Increases Cost:
Custom campaigns take more time to plan, write, design, and manage. But they often convert better. Agencies that take the time to learn your business and develop unique messaging will likely charge more—but deliver more.
Analogy: It’s like charging more for an eco-friendly, allergy-safe deep clean that uses specialized products for a client with health issues. It's custom work, so it costs more—but it creates happier, long-term customers.
What Lowers Cost:
Templated services or software-based marketing platforms often come cheaper. However, if everyone in your city is running the same ad with the same template, you blend in. That can lower performance, and ironically, raise your cost-per-lead.
Section 4: Length of Agreement
What It Means:
How long are you committing to the agency? A month-to-month agreement? A 3-month sprint? Or a 12-month strategic growth plan?
Why It Increases Cost:
Shorter contracts often come with a higher monthly price. Why? Because the agency assumes more risk and has to recoup onboarding, strategy, and ramp-up time in fewer months. It’s like charging more for a one-time clean versus signing a client up for weekly service.
Example: At Five Door Media, our 12-month clients get our best pricing. Our 3-month campaigns cost more per month because we're front-loading strategic work in a short timeframe.
What Lowers Cost:
Longer agreements create efficiencies for both the client and the agency. You get better pricing, and the agency gets the time to execute a full funnel strategy that builds over time.
Section 5: Industry-Specific Expertise
What It Means:
Agencies that specialize in your industry — like cleaning services — bring tested strategies, pre-built frameworks, and proven conversion copy to the table.
Why It Increases Cost:
You're paying for speed-to-results. These agencies don’t need to "figure it out." They know what works, and they know what to avoid. This premium pricing reflects their specialized knowledge and ability to move fast.
Example: A generalist agency might charge $1,000/month but take 6 months to generate meaningful leads. A cleaning-specific agency at $1,800/month might produce ROI in half the time.
What Lowers Cost:
Non-specialized, offshore, or low-cost providers may offer cheaper services—but you often pay more in time, trial-and-error, and missed opportunities.
Bonus Section: Your Marketing Maturity
What It Means:
Are you starting from scratch? Or do you already have a brand, website, landing pages, and lead flow in place? The more marketing-ready you are, the less time and work is needed to get results.
Why It Increases Cost:
If your business is starting from ground zero—no website, no tracking, no brand voice—the agency has to build foundational elements before driving leads.
Analogy: It's like cleaning a hoarder’s house vs. a tidy condo. One takes significantly more prep, labor, and strategy.
What Lowers Cost:
If your business has an established foundation, the agency can plug into what’s already working and optimize from there.
Final Thoughts: Think in Terms of ROI, Not Just Cost
Price matters. But value matters more. The question cleaning business owners should be asking isn't just “how much will this cost?” but “how fast will this pay me back—and how long will it keep paying me?”
When done right, marketing isn’t an expense—it’s an investment. If $2,000/month in marketing consistently generates $10,000/month in new business, that’s a trade you’ll make every time.
At Five Door Media, we believe in building transparent, efficient, and results-driven marketing systems that scale cleaning companies sustainably.
