The short answer is: anywhere from $0 to $8,000+, depending on what you're actually buying.
That range is so wide it's almost useless. So here's the more useful version: most NZ small businesses either pay nothing for a free audit that's designed to sell them something, or pay agency rates that are built for businesses five times their size. There's very little in between — which is exactly where this article sits.
I run a paid marketing audit service for NZ small businesses. My prices are published below. But before we get there, it's worth understanding why the pricing landscape is so fragmented — because it explains what you're actually comparing when you evaluate your options.
Why Marketing Audit Pricing in NZ Is All Over the Place
The marketing audit category in NZ has a structural problem: the dominant model is free.
Almost every digital agency and SEO provider in NZ offers some version of a free website or marketing health check. These audits are free because they're not really audits — they're lead generation tools. The audit finds problems (it always does), and the solution is always to engage the agency that found them.
This isn't a cynical observation. It's just how the model works. If you're offering a free service, you need a conversion pathway to justify the cost. The "free audit" pays for itself by selling the fix.
The result is a market where:
- Free audits are everywhere and largely identical
- Paid audits are either tool-generated (thin) or agency-priced (expensive)
- Honest, independent assessment at small-business prices barely exists
That gap is what a paid practitioner audit is designed to fill.
What Does a Marketing Audit Include?
A marketing audit reviews your current digital presence to identify what's working, what's creating friction, and what to prioritise. At minimum it should cover your website, search visibility, Google Business Profile, and how enquiries are captured. A thorough audit also covers AI search visibility, social presence, and competitive context.
What it shouldn't be: a list of technical errors with no context about which ones actually matter for your business. A broken image on a page you don't use is not the same problem as a missing call-to-action on your homepage. The value is in the prioritisation, not the list.
A good audit ends with a clear answer to: what should I fix first, and why?
The Four Tiers of Marketing Audit Pricing
Free audits ($0)
Free audits typically cover SEO basics, page speed, and sometimes Google Ads performance. They're generated by tools (SEMrush, Ahrefs, Screaming Frog) and interpreted by someone who uses the findings to open a sales conversation.
They're not useless. If you've never had any kind of audit, a free one will surface obvious technical issues. What they won't tell you is whether those issues are actually affecting your business — or what order to fix them in.
The practical limitation: the person interpreting the findings has a financial interest in finding problems. That's not a personal failing; it's just the structure of the model.
Tool-generated audits ($75–$300 NZD)
A step up from free: a paid report generated by an audit platform, sometimes with light commentary. These are useful for technical SEO checks but rarely include strategic interpretation.
You'll get a score and a checklist. You won't get an answer to "is this actually what's holding my business back?"
Paid practitioner audit ($450–$1,400 NZD)
This is where a person — not a tool — reviews your marketing and gives you a prioritised, context-specific verdict.
At Aria Studio, the paid audit options are:
Marketing Health Check — $450 NZD
A focused review of your website, Google presence, AI search visibility, and lead capture. Written summary with prioritised findings. 30-minute debrief call. Designed for businesses that want to know whether they have a real problem — before committing to anything larger.
Marketing Audit + Action Plan — $950 NZD
The full review: website, SEO, Google Business Profile, AI visibility, social presence, email, and lead capture. Written findings with a 90-day action plan. 60-minute debrief call. For businesses that already know something isn't working and need a clear plan.
Complete Assessment (Marketing + Brand) — $1,400 NZD
Both the Marketing Audit and the Brand Audit delivered together. Covers how your marketing performs and how your brand presents. 90-minute debrief call. Saves $200 versus booking separately.
The audit fee is deducted from any subsequent build or implementation work if you decide to proceed.
Agency engagement ($2,000–$8,000+ NZD)
Full-service agency audits at this price point include dedicated account management, competitive landscape analysis, channel-by-channel deep dives, and often ongoing support to implement findings.
Appropriate for businesses with marketing budgets, marketing teams, or complex multi-channel situations. For a small business owner who wants to know why their website isn't generating enquiries, this is likely more than you need.
What Should a Marketing Audit Cost for a Small NZ Business?
For most NZ small businesses, a paid practitioner audit in the $450–$950 NZD range is the right tier.
Here's the reasoning: you want someone with enough skin in the game to give you an honest answer (which rules out free), but you don't want to pay agency rates for a problem that might take two specific fixes to resolve.
The $450 Health Check is the right starting point if you're not sure whether you have a structural problem or a specific one. If you already know something significant is wrong and you need a plan, the $950 Audit + Action Plan gets you there without a preliminary step.
The cost recouped: if the audit finds and fixes one thing that improves your enquiry rate by even one client per month, a $450–$950 investment pays for itself quickly. The risk is paying that and getting a generic checklist that doesn't move anything. That's why the auditor matters as much as the price.
When a Marketing Audit Isn't Worth It
Not every business needs one. Here's when it probably isn't the right next step:
You launched recently. If your website has been live for less than three months, you don't have enough traffic or data to audit meaningfully. Focus on getting found first.
You already know exactly what to fix. If you know your Google Business Profile is incomplete, your contact form is broken, and your homepage copy is outdated — just fix those things. You don't need to pay someone to confirm what you already know.
Your marketing isn't the constraint. If the real issue is capacity (you can't take on more work), pricing (your margins don't work), or product (clients aren't happy), a marketing audit won't help. Those are different problems.
You want a shortcut, not a finding. An audit tells you what to fix and why. It doesn't fix it for you. If you're not in a position to act on findings in the next 90 days, wait until you are.
The Right Question Isn't the Price
The pricing question is usually a proxy for a different question: is this actually going to tell me something useful?
A $0 audit that surfaces three specific findings you act on is worth more than a $2,000 audit that produces a 40-page report you don't read.
The best audit is one where the finding is honest — even if the honest finding is "your marketing is mostly fine, here are two specific things worth tightening." That's a useful outcome. It means you stop second-guessing, make the targeted fixes, and move on with confidence.
If you want to get a sense of where your marketing stands before deciding whether a paid audit makes sense, the free self-audit is a reasonable starting point. It covers the same four areas as the paid review — and it's free.
Start with the free self-audit →
Or if you're ready to book a paid audit, pricing and process are on the Marketing Audit page.
See what's included in the paid audit →
Tim Evans is the founder of Aria Studio, a Wellington-based marketing, web, and AI studio. He runs paid marketing and brand audits for small businesses.