How to budget for copywriting services before you commission work

What to take away

Why per word quoting misleads

The per word rate is the most quoted number in this market and the least useful one. It prices typing, not thinking. Two suppliers can both quote 20p per word and deliver very different amounts of research, structure and editing for that money.

Per word also punishes good editing. A writer who cuts a bloated 2,000 word draft down to a sharp 900 words earns less for better work. Suppliers who are genuinely good at cutting tend to stop quoting that way.

Volume hides the problem. Two hundred product descriptions at 8p a word is a fair measure of a repeatable task. A landing page that has to carry a campaign is a different job, and the words are the smallest part of it.

Specialism moves the rate more than length does. A regulated financial page carries more risk than a lifestyle piece of the same length, and suppliers price that risk into the quote.

Treat a per word figure as one input rather than the price. Then ask what sits inside it: discovery, outline approval, revision rounds, source checks, meta description, image alt text. Inclusions change a comparison far more than the rate does.

Suppliers also differ on what counts as a word. Headings, captions, calls to action and legal footnotes may or may not be included. A 1,200 word brief can arrive as a 1,400 word invoice if the counting rule is loose.

For typical ranges by content type and sector, the copywriting services cost guide in England shows how suppliers price different formats. Read it before you conclude that a quote looks expensive.

The four pricing models you will be quoted

Suppliers usually work to one of four models. Which one you are quoted depends on how certain the scope is, how much research the work needs and how much you intend to publish each month.

Per word and per project

Per word suits high volume, low research work: product descriptions, short news items, straightforward service pages. It is easy to compare and easy to underestimate.

A rate of 25p on a 1,200 word article is £300 of writing time. The same article with two expert interviews might take six hours. The rate is reasonable; the job is simply not a per word job.

Per project suits anything with a defined deliverable, such as a landing page, a white paper or a set of ten service pages. The supplier carries the risk of overrun, so the headline number looks higher. Count research and revisions in, and project pricing often costs less.

Ask what a project price includes. A quote covering outline approval, interviews, two revision rounds and publishing support is not comparable to one covering writing alone.

Payment staging matters here. A third on signature, a third on draft and a third on delivery, for example, is common on larger projects, and a cancellation after the outline usually attracts a charge.

Day rates and retainers

A day rate buys time rather than output. It suits scope that is genuinely unknown, such as a rebrand or a launch in a new market. Expect planning and admin to sit inside the day, not just writing hours.

Day rates also set the price of overage. The hourly figure agreed here becomes the cost of every extra revision later, so read it in the contract rather than the proposal.

A retainer spreads cost across the month and holds capacity. It suits teams publishing continuously, because the supplier learns your subject and house style once instead of on every job.

Agree a monthly deliverable and a rollover rule. If unused days vanish at month end, put that in writing before you sign. Retainers normally carry a notice period of one to three months as well.

Some suppliers offer a lower base fee plus a bonus tied to traffic, rankings or leads. A hybrid deal like that only works if the measurement is defined before work starts and both sides can audit it.

Analytics behind that measurement needs a lawful basis. The ICO's online tracking guidance covers consent, cookies and similar technologies, and is worth reading before you accept any performance clause.

The rules on cookies and marketing messages sit in the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. Any tracking behind a bonus payment should be checked against that text.

For most buyers the choice comes down to certainty. A project price protects you when the scope is fixed, while a retainer makes more sense if you publish every week. A day rate is the honest option when nobody can describe the scope yet.

To see how each model behaves across a year, this guide to copywriting services pricing models in England sets out the trade-offs between volume, flexibility and committed spend.

What a realistic budget looks like

Take a mid-sized English professional services firm publishing eight articles a month. Each piece runs to 1,200 words and needs one expert interview. The figures below are illustrative examples, not market rates.

Across a year the itemised build comes to £51,840 before contingency. Add 12 per cent for extra revisions and scope changes, which is £6,221, and the annual budget is £58,061.

The same scope on a retainer might cost £3,600 a month, including two revision rounds and a named editor. That is £720 a month less than the itemised build. It also removes the option to skip a quiet month, and two unused months still cost £7,200 unless the contract allows rollover.

A smaller business publishing two articles a month on the same rates spends £1,080 a month, or £12,960 a year before contingency. Add 12 per cent and the figure is £14,515.

None of these numbers includes promotion. If you plan to boost the content, the published LinkedIn advertising costs and pricing give you a benchmark for paid distribution. A promoted post budget of, for example, £500 a month sits outside the figures above.

Compare cost per article rather than the annual total. A £540 article that ranks and converts can beat a £200 article nobody finds, and an annual total hides that difference.

Swap the numbers into your own plan before you commit. Multiply your monthly output by the per article cost you have been quoted, then add your own estimate of internal time. That internal figure is usually the one that surprises finance.

If the annual total exceeds what you can approve, cut volume rather than quality. A supplier asked to halve a rate will cut research first, and research is the part that earns the traffic.

The hidden costs that break a budget

Briefing is the first one. A vague brief produces a draft that needs rewriting, and rewriting is charged. An hour spent on a proper brief is usually cheaper than an hour spent on corrections.

Revisions are the second. Most quotes include one or two rounds. Beyond that, suppliers charge hourly, often at the day rate divided by seven or eight. If an extra round takes an hour at, for example, £75, twenty articles add £1,500.

Expert time is the third. Interviews, fact checks and sign offs pull senior people away from billable work. That cost never appears on the supplier's invoice, but it lands in your own accounts.

Tooling is the fourth. Keyword research, rank tracking and reporting subscriptions are often assumed to be the client's. Settle who pays before anyone signs, and check whether the analytics account sits in your name.

Compliance review is the fifth. Regulated sectors need legal or compliance sign off, which adds calendar time and sometimes fees. Misleading claims in advertising attract enforcement, and the ASA's list of non-compliant online advertisers shows how that plays out in practice.

Localisation is a quieter line. A page translated into a second language is charged per word per language, and it usually needs a second edit in the target market. Charts, photography and downloadable design sit outside a writing quote unless the proposal says otherwise.

Ask for the inclusions list in writing. Anything missing from it is a cost waiting to appear on a later invoice.

This breakdown of copywriting services hidden costs in England lists the rest, and it is worth reading before month three rather than after it.

Tax, margin and what you can actually spend

Budget from net profit, not revenue. Copywriting is a deductible business expense for most trading companies, so the real cost sits below the invoice. How far below depends on your marginal rate.

Corporation Tax rates and allowances are published by HMRC, and the rates and allowances for Corporation Tax page should sit behind any profitability calculation. Do not carry a rate forward from an older plan.

Sole traders and partnerships face a different calculation, because Income Tax and National Insurance apply instead. The principle holds either way: the deduction lowers the real cost, and the rate decides by how much.

Buy through an agency and part of the fee is margin. Ask for the split between strategy, writing and account management. A 30 per cent margin on a £5,000 project is £1,500 that buys no words.

Value added tax matters most when you cannot reclaim it. A £4,000 quote plus VAT at the standard rate costs £4,800 in cash. If that VAT is not recoverable, £4,800 is the budget line.

Set the budget in net terms and show the gross figure separately. Mixing the two, especially where VAT is involved, makes the spend look larger or smaller than it is.

Decide what the spend must return before you brief anyone. Set a target cost per enquiry as well as a target cost per published asset. Without those targets, every quote looks cheap or expensive for no clear reason. This guide to copywriting services return on investment explains how to set them.

How to run a fair comparison

Send the same brief to three suppliers and ask each for two quotes, one per word and one per project. Ask what happens to the price if scope changes halfway through.

Score on inclusions rather than price alone. A quote covering research, two revision rounds and publishing support is not comparable to a writing-only quote, even when the totals look similar.

Check ownership and reuse rights. Some contracts restrict reuse to particular channels or time periods, which quietly raises the effective cost of work you have already paid for.

Ask for a sample that matches your sector. A general sample tells you about style. A sector sample tells you about research quality, which is the part you cannot judge from a rate card.

Ask each supplier to name the person doing the work. If the pitch comes from one name and delivery from another, price that gap into your decision.

Agree a review point at three months. If cost per published asset is rising without a matching rise in enquiries, change the brief or the supplier.

Once the commercial side is settled, delivery decides whether the budget holds. This operations and delivery guide for 2027 covers scheduling, capacity and handover.

Common questions

Is a per word rate or a project fee cheaper?

Project fees are usually cheaper once research and revisions are counted, because the supplier carries the overrun risk. Per word wins mainly on simple, high volume work with a settled brief.

Should I pay a retainer or buy work ad hoc?

A retainer suits continuous publishing and secures capacity, often at a lower effective rate. Ad hoc buying keeps flexibility but costs more per asset and risks gaps in the schedule.

What contingency should I add to a copywriting budget?

Add roughly 10 to 15 per cent of the quoted fee for extra revisions, additional research and scope changes. On a £50,000 programme that is £5,000 to £7,500 held back.

Can I claim copywriting as a business expense?

For most trading companies it is an allowable business expense, which reduces taxable profit. The saving depends on your rate, so use current HMRC figures rather than an assumed one.