How much margin do you add when estimating client projects?
-
After you calculate how many hours you need to complete a marketing project for a client, how much extra do you add for project management, communication, all the little things that come up, unexpected problems, client questions, etc.?
One resource I read said to add 10% to 20% for project management, then add 25% to 33% more for fluctuations, then state a +/-15% margin of error on the estimate. I was wondering what percentages others use when estimating client projects.
-
Not really. We go by "feel" most of the time too. If you know they're not willing to pay as much as you think it's actually going to cost 'hours' wise, sometimes you just have to charge what you think they're willing to pay. Obviously, if you do this for too many clients you'll loose out, but if you're really slow it can make sense. Moral of the story, try to go for bigger clients :). The smaller ones usually end up burning you if you're on a Cost Per Hour model....in my humble opinion at least.
-
Do you have a specific % you use when over-estimating for small clients, or do you just go by "feel"? We've tended to do the latter, but are trying to be more disciplined about it.
-
From my experience it's much easier to go back to the well with larger clients. Smaller clients don't tend to appreciate the "margin of error" bit so I'll try to over-estimate the quote when dealing with them. Smaller clients tend to ask 2x as many questions as well.
10-20% sounds about right for project management, but I won't put that in the proposal. I'll mark project management and reporting as "free" and just include them in the package (with the markup in other areas). I don't put the hours estimated for each task either... though i know some agencies do.
That doesn't 100% answer your question, but I hope it can help.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Ocean of Project Management Software
There are hundreds and thousands of project management software out there.... Can you share what your agency is using and why?
Industry News | | Joseph-Green-SEO1 -
Why, my client website sudden gone down its ranking?
Hi Moz, As I am shocked to see sudden drop in my client website himachalpackagetour.com sudden dropped its ranking, here I am sharing single keyword "himachal tour packages" rank = 10th into rank = 250th in Google.co.in ? How it could have happened , I didn't even touch anything with the website. Let me tell How, Why it happened and suggest me to get it back same ranking. Thanks in Advance. Best,
Industry News | | Futura
Teginder0 -
Best way to charge my clients...........I think I finally decided
I have struggled with the best way to charge my clients FOREVER it seems and I think I finally have decided on how to proceed! ANY suggestions would be greatly appreciated! (I have read the seomoz blog posts about the subject, the Art of SEO and Search Engine Optimization Secrets book and tons of blogs, etc). I got into this business because of what I was able to accomplish with my party rental companies website and what I had studied and read for months and months. Without knowing any better I tried to get into SEO and online marketing and fell straight into designing websites and subcontractors and hosting and everything EXCEPT seo work! sound familiar? I CAN'T be the only one this happened to 🙂 I have regrouped and finally gotten my FIRST pure SEO client. They agreed to pay me $3,000 over 6 months for JUST recommendations with monthly reporting on traffic, # of links, etc. My plan is to charge clients X amount of dollars broken up over 6 months - $2-5k. (that will include monthly reporting) for a list of recommendations. (on page, link opportunities, design suggestions, kw suggestions, email campaign, on and on). NO MORE $400-500 FOR A WHOLE WEBSITE - INCLUDING CONTENT CREATION! (I was stupid enough to do this - TWICE! I like doing it this way so I can focus on giving them maximum value right from the get go and not slowing spoon feeding my knowledge out to them or them getting burned out after 2 months and not wanting to continue because they haven't seen a miracle yet. I will justify the clients investment by dividing that lump sum by $75 an hour (low for some of you I know) and track the time I spend researching links, their competitors, their on page, etc. and include it in my monthly report. I plan to give my first client their report in a few weeks and it will be pretty comprehensive but not EVERY thing I can think of but enough to impress. They are welcome to pursue the links I found, make the site changes, etc themselves OR I will be happy to have ALL my recommendations implemented for them for a reasonable, fair amount. If they want me to do it I will explain my staff will be doing the work and it will be $25 +/- an hour vs. $75 Sorry for the long post and thanks for hanging in there if you read this far! 🙂 I would love any suggestions or flaws with my plan! Thanks in advance and have an AWESOME week! Matthew
Industry News | | Mrupp441 -
Questions to help get to know a potential client and see what the possibilities are for there campaign?
OK so I am putting together a list of questions to refer potential clients to. The purpose of these questions is to: 1, Help them understand the difference between "just give us your keywords and we will make you rank" seo and the full range of options that are advocated here on seo moz. .... 2, Get them to see that there are different levels of involvement that are available for different aspects of a campaign and give them ideas and options on how much input they want to have as well as make them see that we can help them with even the stuff they are gonna do themselves or do it for them with there input and permission. Thats where things get a bit confusing I was thinking of having a list of fifty linkbuilding/linkbaiting techniques and check box options beside each one so that they can read a little bit about the particular technique ie forum participation for example and then see how they felt like that related to there industry , wether they would want there staff to do it with some training from us wther they would want us to help them find the right forums and show them how to link back and to which page, or wether they would just want us to handle everything or simply not feel that that was right for there business .. then they would move on to the next thing ie video creation or user generated content and in the end we would have a big list of things to discuss with them and they would have a better understandiing of how much there is to good seo and what might work for them and also how we could help them and how a relationship/ partnership might look I would love some feed back on this is it possible will it help us to build trust with potential clients (which is diffucult for a new biz in this industry) how would you lay it out would it be a usefull resource for other seo companies etc thanks so much seo mozzers this forum is awsome and i know you will steer me in the right direction oh ps this would be something we would keep on our site
Industry News | | duncan2740 -
I'm looking for a freelance SEO ninja who I can pull into client projects from time to time. Any advice?
My company helps health care providers with internet and social strategy and solutions. At times, my clients need SEO services and I need a trusted and skilled pro to turn to who I can collaborate with on behalf of my clients. I may even be interested in putting together an SEO package for my clients if I can find the right person/agency to work with. Thanks for any help/advice you can offer.
Industry News | | bgeyser0 -
How to find non stingy clients
I was browsing around other SEO websites and seeing how they charge upwards of $2500 a month... In Australia things are a little different, many potential clients gasp in shock at the prospect of paying just $500 a month... Because of this it seems all the SEOs in Aus have taken to undercutting each other to the point where you can get 'guaranteed' 1st page results for just $200 a month - its become a necessity of doing a guarantee and having a low price just to compete... How do you find clients that actually have decent budgets? Most of the clients I have so far are from referals from web developers or from my participation on business forums etc. I have thought about trying a telemarketing campaign or a direct mail campaign to try and snag some lawyers, and cosmetic surgeons etc Has anyone had experience with these methods or can offer any other suggestions to snag clients with deeper pockets?
Industry News | | Netboost0 -
Punchy Friday: Too much SEO Education?
This is not a question really, just an observation. Yesterday I was listening to "Stuff You Should Know" podcast, and it was about "Tickling". They were addressing how it is impossible to tickle yourself, and they theorized it was because our brain is AWARE that it's your own hand doing the tickling. The first thought that came to my brain was that our brain had put a "NoFolow" link on the tickling page of our brain website when it is from our own hands. I'm reading WAY to much about SEO . . . Happy Friday everyone.
Industry News | | damon12123 -
Is it smart to reveal your clients and projects in the Q&A forum? What about on your own SEO blog?
On one hand it seems like having my cake and eating it too: blogging about SEO using my clients as case studies in order to give them a couple backlinks. On the other hand it seems like asking for it from Google or from competitors. Got any advice? And what of mentioning actual domains and brand names when asking questions here in the forum? One one hand it seems like I'd get more specific advice, on the other hand, once again, it seems like it comes with some amount of risk. Any advice? Thanks!
Industry News | | TheEspresseo0