Pricing
What marketing costs in British Columbia in 2026: retainers, video, websites and ad spend
By the Map Sense Media team · Published
Most pricing pages in this industry say "it depends" and stop there. This one does not. Below are the price points Map Sense Media actually quotes from its Abbotsford studio, the cost-per-result figures we see in our own client ad accounts, and the rules we use to tell a business how much it should spend. Everything is in Canadian dollars. Where a number comes from an ad platform, the source and the date range are stated.
What agency work costs
These are Map Sense Media's published starting points. Every quote is written after a scoping call, so treat them as the floor of a range, not a menu.
| What you are buying | Typical shape | Starting point (CAD) |
|---|---|---|
| Focused production project | One brand film, one photography day, or one campaign website | From about $5,000 |
| Three-day website | Fixed-scope marketing site, built and launched in three business days | Quoted per scope; written timeline before work starts |
| Monthly retainer | Content production, paid media management, creative iteration and weekly reporting | $4,000 to $10,000 per month, plus ad spend |
| Ad spend | Paid directly by you to Meta or Google | Never marked up; sits in your own billing account |
| Pay-per-lead (car dealerships) | Screened, exclusive leads delivered into your CRM after a free 14-day trial | Fixed price per delivered lead, agreed in writing |
What moves a production quote up: number of shoot days, number of locations, on-camera talent, permits, motion graphics, and whether the delivery is one hero film or a film plus a set of vertical cutdowns for paid social.
What moves a retainer up: the number of channels, how many creative concepts ship each month, how many landing pages the campaigns need, and how much reporting the account requires.
What should never move a quote: your ad budget. If an agency charges a percentage of media, the incentive is to spend more, not to spend well.
What a result costs in BC ad accounts
Owners usually ask "what should a lead cost?" before they ask what the agency costs. Here is what our own client accounts show. These are not a market survey; they are Meta Ads Manager figures from accounts managed by Map Sense Media, in Canadian dollars, on a seven-day click attribution window, with data through July 2026. Each figure counts one native conversion signal per campaign (a lead form, a registration, a WhatsApp or Messenger conversation, a call, or a purchase) and nothing is double-counted across pixel events.
| Account | Sector | Spend | Result | Cost per result | CTR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mainland Motors (strongest campaign) | Used-car dealership group | $29,386 | 1,012 registrations | $29.04 | 1.90% |
| Cut My Debt (strongest campaign) | Auto finance | $13,376 | 259 leads | $51.64 | 1.16% |
| Smart Sell Car (strongest campaign) | Automotive resale | $2,721 | 266 leads | $10.23 | 1.21% |
| 2 Min Loan | Short-term lending | $7,218 | 287 leads | $25.15 | 0.91% |
| Mainland Lube Express (strongest campaign) | Auto quick service | $1,157 | 348 conversations | $3.33 | 3.06% |
| Baba's Chicken Abbotsford (strongest campaign) | Restaurant | $44 | 16 calls | $2.72 | 12.07% |
| The London Fish | Restaurant, Vancouver | $898 | About 8,000 direction and link clicks | $0.11 per click | 9.17% |
Three things to take from that table.
- Cost per result tracks the value of the result. A used-car registration at $29 and a restaurant call at $2.72 are both good numbers, because a car sale is worth hundreds of times more than a lunch bowl.
- Click-through rate is a creative score. The restaurant accounts sit above 9 percent because the creative is the food. The finance accounts sit near 1 percent because the offer needs explaining. Neither is wrong; they are different jobs.
- Small budgets can work when the geography is tight. The Baba's Chicken campaign spent $44. It worked because it ran to a few kilometres around one restaurant with one clear offer.
How much should a BC business spend on ads?
The honest minimum depends on what one result is worth to you. The rule we use:
- Decide the most you can pay for one result and still make money. A clinic that earns $400 from a first consult can pay $60 for a booked consult. A cafe cannot.
- Multiply that by the number of results you need per month to make the campaign worth running.
- If that budget is under about $1,500 per month on Meta, run one campaign, one audience, one offer, and keep the radius tight.
- If it is above about $3,000 per month, plan for creative supply. Across the small-business Meta accounts we have audited, performance tends to plateau between $3,000 and $5,000 per month when the account is running the same two or three ads. We cover the pattern in detail in our piece on why Canadian SMB Meta ads plateau at $3k a month.
What a website costs
A marketing website for an owner-operated business in BC is usually quoted as a fixed project. At Map Sense Media the three-day website programme covers structure, copy direction and design on day one, build and content on day two, and responsive testing, tracking and launch on day three, with the promise stated in writing beforehand. Larger builds with e-commerce, custom software, integrations or content migration are scheduled with a written timeline. In every case the domain, hosting, analytics and code are handed over in your name.
The cost drivers that matter: the number of page templates, whether copy exists or has to be written, integrations (booking, inventory feeds, CRM), and photography. A site built without photography of your actual business is the most common false economy we see.
What video production costs
Production is priced by shoot days and deliverables, not by minutes of finished film. A single-location, single-day shoot with a small crew, delivered as one hero film and several vertical cutdowns, is the most common shape of the work and sits in the starting band above. Multi-location shoots, talent, permits and motion graphics are quoted as separate line items. For shoots outside the Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver, travel and accommodation are quoted separately before the date is held, so the production fee and the travel cost are never blended into one number.
How to compare two quotes
Put them side by side and check seven lines:
- Is ad spend separate, paid by you, and not marked up?
- How many creative concepts ship per month, and who makes them?
- Where does reporting come from, and is the attribution window stated?
- Who owns the accounts, pixels, footage and website?
- What is the notice period?
- Is there a named person responsible for the account?
- Does the proposal say what counts as a result?
A quote that answers all seven in writing is usually safe. One that answers none of them is usually expensive, whatever the number at the bottom.
Ask us for a written number
Map Sense Media quotes every project and retainer in writing after a scoping call, usually within one business day. Call +1-250-797-5461 or email tanish@mapsensemedia.com with what number you need to move and what one result is worth to you, and you will get a scope with a fixed figure before anything starts.