We researched thirteen B2B marketing agencies before we named this studio. Twelve of them hid their pricing. Not loudly, not aggressively - just the standard industry move: a contact page, a discovery-call CTA, a form that asked for revenue range but returned nothing.
Column Five, out of Orange County, was the one exception in our sample, with a public band of $15K to $80K per month and a three-month minimum. Everyone else wanted a call before a number.
What the hidden number actually hides
Hidden pricing gives the seller room to re-quote the same scope after hearing the buyer's budget. It also filters out price-sensitive prospects after the agency has already spent time on discovery and proposal work.
Scope can vary, especially for production. A brand film can start at one number and move up with location, crew, and edit scope. But retainers are different. They usually have three or four repeatable sizes. Those sizes can be published.
What happens when you publish
Volume drops, and close rate rises. The calls we get are further down-funnel because the buyer has already self-selected into a number she can defend.
Bad-fit calls are cheaper to decline. A three-minute email naming a better-fit firm does more for the relationship than a thirty-minute call that ends with no fit.
Senior trust compounds. A CMO who finds the tier sheet first reads every other page through a different lens: team, work, case study, journal.
What it costs us
We lose some calls. That is the cost. But the calls we keep are cleaner, faster, and more honest. The buyer saw the number before the pitch.
Why this matters for the category
The point is not that published pricing is virtuous. The point is that hidden pricing makes the buyer carry too much ambiguity. When twelve of thirteen competitors hide a number, the thirteenth wins every prospect who noticed the pattern.
Until more studios follow, we will keep the sheet up. $2,500. $6,000. $12,000. Three-month minimum. No markup on ad spend.