July 6, 2026
By Susan Jones, Co-Founder, WebMax Canada
Three quotes, same business, same general ask, and the numbers come back so far apart they’re not even in the same conversation. One’s a few hundred dollars. Another’s a few thousand. The descriptions all sound similar enough on paper that you can’t tell what you’re actually comparing, so you either pick the cheapest one and hope, pick the most expensive one because surely that means more is happening, or you do nothing and stay frustrated. None of those are good options, and most owners we’ve talked to have lived at least one of them.
This came up more than anything else in conversations we had this spring with contractors and trades owners across BC and Alberta. One owner put it in a line that’s stuck with us since: at least with Google, there was some normal pricing you could point to. He’s right that it used to work that way. Websites and search help settled into ranges over the years, so three quotes would roughly rhyme and a person could make a decision. The newer AI visibility quotes aren’t there yet. Same business, similar-sounding service, and the numbers scatter with no clear way to tell what the difference buys.
A contractor would never accept that kind of fog on a quote for their own work. Materials, labour, timeline, what’s included, what counts as an extra. It’s a skill built from years of writing them and comparing them, and it’s exactly why so many contractors get frustrated the moment they’re on the other side of the table, trying to evaluate a quote for marketing or AI visibility services where none of those familiar categories show up.
The good news is the same instincts apply. They just need to be pointed at different line items.
When you quote a job, the price means something because it maps to specific materials and specific hours. A marketing quote should work the same way. If a number comes back and you can’t say, in one sentence, what that money buys, that’s the same red flag as a renovation quote with no breakdown. Ask for the breakdown. A vendor who can’t give you one in plain language either hasn’t thought it through or is hoping you won’t ask.
Every contractor knows the difference between a one-time install and an ongoing service contract, and knows to ask which one they’re looking at before comparing prices. The same split exists in digital marketing and AI visibility work. Some of what gets quoted is a one-time setup: cleaning up your business listings, fixing your website’s basic information, getting your basic online listings in order. Other parts are ongoing: writing new content, monitoring how your business shows up, adjusting as things change. A quote that doesn’t make clear which bucket each item falls into is a quote you don’t fully understand yet, the same way you wouldn’t sign a contract that didn’t specify whether the price included a maintenance visit or not.
Nobody can guarantee placement in AI search results or a specific Google ranking, for the same reason nobody can guarantee three sunny weeks for an outdoor job. Conditions change, and anyone who’s actually done the work knows it. A vendor who promises a guaranteed outcome here is either inexperienced or being less than straight with you. What a credible vendor can promise is the work itself: clear information, consistent details, content that actually answers questions, monitoring that shows you what’s happening. That’s the equivalent of a contractor guaranteeing the work meets code, not guaranteeing the weather.
Before hiring an electrician or a roofer, most owners ask some version of: what exactly will you do, and how will I know it’s done right. That same question works perfectly on a marketing vendor, and it tends to sort the field fast. An answer that’s specific and checkable is a good sign. An answer that’s vague, or that pivots straight into more selling, tells you what you need to know before you’ve spent a dollar.
A building quote that leaves out permits, disposal, or site cleanup isn’t necessarily dishonest, but it’s incomplete, and a contractor knows to ask what’s missing before signing. The same gap shows up constantly in marketing and AI visibility quotes. A quote can cover website changes and say nothing about your basic online listings. It can cover content writing and say nothing about whether anyone is tracking if it’s working. Ask directly: what’s covered here, and what’s a separate cost I’d need to budget for later. If the answer changes depending on who you ask, or takes longer than a sentence, that’s worth noting before you commit.
Most vendors won’t enjoy being asked these questions, and that reaction tells you something on its own. The ones worth hiring treat a direct question as a normal part of the conversation, not an obstacle to get past. If you’ve already collected a few quotes that didn’t hold up to this kind of scrutiny, getting a second, plain-language read on what they actually cover doesn’t cost you anything to ask for, and it’s a faster way to find out what you’re really comparing than guessing.
Susan Jones is Co-Founder of WebMax Canada, a 100% Canadian-owned digital marketing company based in Victoria, BC, and Google Certified, working with contractors and trades businesses across the country for over 10 years. WebMax Canada believes a marketing quote should be as plain and checkable as a building quote. Read more candid thinking on this from the team’s recent field research on the blog.
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