Most distributors I talk to ask the same thing first: what is this going to cost? You’ll get real numbers below. First, look at what your current setup is already costing you.
Engineers and contractors send the same request for proposal to 3 or 4 distributors at once. If your company isn’t easy to find, you’re not one of them, and you’re left waiting on the manufacturer to pass you leads. When a buyer needs a unit or a part from a line you represent, they buy it from whoever showed up first. That sale could have been yours.
Stop and picture it for a second. Think about how many orders land on your desk each month and what the average one is worth. Now add one more order a month. If you close 10 a month today, you’d close 11. That one extra order every month adds up to 12 extra orders a year. If your average order is $5,000, that’s $60,000 a year you’re not getting today. Hold that number up against every price on this page.
How much should a distributor spend on marketing?
A 2025 Duke University study of U.S. marketing leaders found companies spend an average of 9.4% of revenue on marketing. Companies that sell products to other businesses spend less, about 6.4%. The Small Business Administration’s long-standing rule of thumb is 7 to 8% for companies under $5 million.
For a $3 million distributor, 6.4% is about $192,000 a year. Most distributors don’t spend anywhere near that, and they don’t need to.
What the big industrial agencies charge
The agencies that specialize in industrial marketing are good, and they charge like it. Their client reviews show websites at $20,000 to $30,000 and monthly fees of $1,500 to $4,000. One well-known firm charges $12,000 for a plan before any work starts. Many ask you to sign a 12-month contract.
What you’ll invest working with me
There are 3 pieces: Website Design, SEO / GEO, and Google Ads Management. Most clients start with the first 2.
Website: $2,450 to $12,500+. The price depends on how many of your products go online. You’re at the low end if you’re a small rep firm that wants to look established when you pitch.
You’re at the high end if you’re a distributor with 100 products. Each product page needs real research into the specs, the applications, and the manufacturer, plus custom images, all organized so Google and AI tools can read it and recommend you.
SEO and AI search: from $1,500 a month. Most of the work is research. I find out what your customers are searching for, write articles that answer those questions, and point readers to the products you sell. The same research keeps your product pages accurate, so buyers find you when they search Google or ask ChatGPT.
It also means getting respected industry sites to mention you and link to your website. That works like press coverage. When other sites vouch for you, Google and AI tools trust you more, and so do engineers. 86% of engineers check outside sources when they research a product. I make sure you’re front and center wherever they look.
Google Ads: starts at $750 a month for the service, plus a minimum ad spend of $750 a month paid directly to Google. Ads bring in leads while SEO builds. I recommend them for almost every client.
A full first year with a starter site, SEO, and Ads comes to about $38,450. For a $3 million distributor, that’s about 1.3% of revenue.
There are no contracts. You pay month to month and can stop at any time.
How long before the leads come in?
Ads usually start bringing leads in 1 to 2 weeks.
SEO takes 3 to 6 months. On a site that has been live for a while, I usually get there in 3 to 4. The timing depends on how long your site has been up, how many pages it has, and how many manufacturers you carry. It also depends on how crowded your market is. If Home Depot sells a lot of what you sell, expect the longer end.
What this looked like for two distributors
RWA Ventilation spent 9 months with a big SEO agency and got zero sales. After we rebuilt their site and SEO, organic traffic grew 239% in 6 months. They now get more than 30 leads a month. Google Ads alone brings in about 15 a month, and some months close to 20.
“Last year was our best year. The results have been fast and dramatic. It’s the most sales our company has ever done.”
Scott Williamson, President, RWA Ventilation Solutions
Heinlein Supply was spending $3,555 a month on Google Ads. I cut that to $343 a month, and they now get more qualified leads than they did with 10 times the budget. Revenue grew 33% in our first year together. Six years in, we’re still climbing, up 6% last year, and they just had the best year in the company’s 75-year history.
Why your website may be costing you more than your marketing
Gartner, the research firm big companies pay for business advice, found that B2B buyers spend only 17% of their buying time talking to suppliers.
I see the same thing in my clients’ inboxes. An engineer or buyer sends the same request for proposal to 3 or 4 distributor sites in a row, then compares the proposals that come back. They spend a few seconds on each site deciding whether it’s worth sending one. If your site looks dated, you’re probably missing out on those requests.
Most distributor sites I see need updating so they build trust and show you know the equipment and can get it. A list of manufacturer logos helps, but buyers don’t search by manufacturer. They search for the equipment they need.
Can AI build my website for less?
Yes, it can. ChatGPT can also pick a blower from a CFM number. It won’t know to ask about static pressure, how long the duct run is, or whether the blower is too small or too big for the job. It won’t ask whether a paint booth needs a spark-resistant blower to meet OSHA rules, or what the application actually is. You would.
I’ve seen this before. When I started building websites, I wrote every line of code by hand. Then pre-made website templates came out and WordPress became popular. People wrote website templates off as cheap and generic. Today nearly every large design agency starts from a template. What sets one site apart is the branding, the message, the content, and the taste behind it. I take the time to make sure your site shows who your company is.
AI is the same shift. Anyone can generate a website now. Without someone who knows your industry deciding what to say and what to leave out, a cheap website turns into an opportunity cost. It sits online, looks fine, and brings in nothing. Every month it stays that way, requests for proposal go to the distributor whose site did its job.
Who this works best for
- Industrial ventilation distributors and rep firms that want more quote requests for the product lines they carry, including equipment they don’t keep in stock.
- Owners who want to see leads, not reports full of jargon.
- Teams that answer a quote request within a day. Many don’t, and those leads go to whoever calls back first.
Who this isn’t for
- Companies that need leads from SEO in 30 days. Start with Ads instead.
- Businesses that sell mostly to homeowners.
- Anyone shopping for the lowest price.
Where to start
Book a call. We’ll look at your site and your market, and I’ll tell you what I’d do first and what it costs.