How much does dispensary marketing actually cost?

The market range

Pull up any published guide from a cannabis marketing agency and you'll see the same spread: roughly $1,500 a month at the low end, $20,000 or more at the high end. That range is real. It's also nearly useless on its own, because it's three different products wearing one label.

Most single-location dispensaries shopping for help are in the first tier and get quoted the second. That's the gap this page exists to close.

What moves the price

Five things explain almost all of the difference between a $1,500 engagement and a $7,500 one. Use them to place yourself honestly:

• Store revenue and number of locations. More locations means more menus, more staff, more events, more content, and platform settings per store.
• List size. A texting list of 2,000 and a list of 40,000 cost very different amounts to send to — and earn very different amounts back. This is the main reason a flat price is unfair in one direction or the other.
• The state of the account today. A platform that's set up and just under-used is a tune-up. One with no sign-up capture, unregistered texting, and broken automations is a rebuild — weeks of setup work before normal operation starts.
• Which channels. Retention marketing (SMS, email, loyalty) is measurable in dollars. Social media builds the audience that feeds it. Doing both costs more than doing one, but the two together work better than either alone.
• Who does the work. An agency with account managers, coordinators, and a creative team has overhead in every invoice. A specialist who personally runs your account doesn't.

How we price: base + performance

We charge a base monthly fee plus a small share of the revenue our work generates above where your account started. Here's how that works, step by step:

The baseline is written down first

On day one, before we change anything, we record what your program is already making: revenue the platform attributes to messages, using its strict attribution setting (a sale only counts when the customer clicked the message — not the generous setting that roughly doubles every figure). That number is the baseline. The performance share applies only to what comes in above it.

Why we price this way

Three reasons. It's fair to small stores — a one-location shop isn't subsidizing a rate card designed for a chain. It's fair to you — if your revenue doesn't grow, we don't earn more, so we have skin in the game. And it keeps the reporting honest — an inflated number would inflate our fee, so we have every reason to use the stricter measure.

Social media management

Social is a flat $900 a month — it doesn't produce a revenue figure to share, so a performance model wouldn't be honest. Bundle it with retention and ask about combined pricing.

The one-time rebuild, when you need it

Some accounts need repair before normal work can start: missing sign-up capture, broken or absent automations, unregistered texting, messy contact lists. That carries a one-time setup fee, waived on six-month commitments. We confirm whether you need one after we've seen the account — before you've spent a dollar.

What you should expect for the money

Whatever you pay and whoever you pay it to, here's what a fair engagement at any price should include. If you're getting quotes, ask about each one:

• A written starting point before any work begins, so results mean something.
• Results reported from your own dashboard, not a slide deck you can't check.
• A named person who does the work, and how many other clients they carry.
• Compliance handled — customer consent (the TCPA texting law) and carrier registration (10DLC) for texting, Meta's cannabis rules for social — and a straight answer about who's liable if it's wrong.
• A way out. Month-to-month should be available, even if a longer commitment gets a better rate.

Pricing questions