How Much to Charge for Copywriting Services

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Hourly freelance copywriter rates. Project pricing. Copy jobs with royalties.

If you’re new to copywriting, you may be struggling with how to price your copywriting services! Every new freelance writer does! Heck, even experienced copywriters still go back and forth on good prices for freelance projects.

In this post, we’ll take a look at how to price for your freelance copywriting business — as opposed to a steady paycheck on-staff. Which is better? Filthy Rich Writer nicely compares on-staff copywriting vs. freelance.

It’s important to mention that there is so much variation in pricing. Every single writer and every freelance copy project will be different - every single time.

How Do You Price a Copywriting Project?

Early in my career, I did a lot of pricing “trial and error.” Sometimes I got lucky and really made bank, whereas other times I was frustrated for pricing too low. I eventually realized that my constant trial and error was holding me back from upping my rates.

It was 3 years into my career when I decided to stop “winging it” and learn from top industry experts. So, I took an online copywriting course that included really great pricing formulas!

Read this: Filthy Rich Writer Review

Freelance Copywriting Rate Overview

Let’s dive into all your questions about setting freelance copywriting rates so you can get out there and start quoting what you’re worth!

4 Tips for Setting Freelance Writing Rates

If you’re totally new to freelance writing in general, there are a few things to know about what you can charge (and what you should be charging).

#1 Charge More Than if You Worked Salary

Freelancers don’t get benefits or healthcare, so naturally, your rates will have to be higher than someone who writes on-staff.

#2 Charge for Your Whole Writing Process

There’s way more to freelance writing than just writing! Make sure you calculate your total work time into your quote. (More on this below.)

#3 Charge Each Project as if it Were a Step to Your Annual Income Goal

Now, don’t price-gouge your clients just so you hit your yearly income goal. But, you should be thinking about how much you want to make per year, what you need to make monthly and how many clients you need to get there.

#4 Charge with Future Opportunities and Benefits in Mind

You may stumble across clients that are potentially gatekeepers to more work, bigger projects or networking contacts. You should be paid the value of your services, but… some professional relationships are worth way more than the dollar amount you’ll be paid.

How Copy Pricing Differs from Content

Do copywriters price per word? Content writers do! Listen: If you’re a copywriter pricing per word, you are greatly undervaluing yourself!

Copywriters writing copy should NOT price per word, and here’s why: Copywriting is designed to be concise and written in as few words as possible. Why penalize yourself for doing your job as a copywriter?

Now, there are times when copywriters choose to write content for their clients. And Nicki Krawczyk, founder of Comprehensive Copywriting Academy, always tells her students that copywriters should be charging copywriter rates whenever they write content. That may be your hourly copy rate or charging per word like… $1+ per word with the right experience!

How to Price Your Services

Your clients may ask you about how you come up with your copywriting quotes. You don’t ever have to justify your prices to your clients. They can take it or leave it. But, most of my new clients always ask if I price hourly or by the project.

Hourly Copywriting Rates

I’ll be honest, I haven’t done hourly writing jobs in years. Mostly because I want to know exactly what I’ll make, and I want my client to know exactly what they’ll spend.

Regardless if you want to charge hourly or not, you still should know your hourly copywriting rate. (You’ll need to refer to it!)

How to Calculate Hourly Copy Price:

What’s your experience level? Are you considered a junior copywriter, mid-level or senior?

Find the average hourly copywriter rate in your area. Make sure to take your experience level into account. Google average copywriter rates in your city. Don’t just find one… browse around for several sources!

Take other experience into account. If you’re providing copy for a niche you know really well or you have authority in that field, that insight is worth money.

Should you add more since it’s a freelance project? Specific freelance up-charges vary. I’ve seen anything from 1.5 to 2.5 higher than a salaried employee rate.

Copywriting Project Prices

My preferred way to price a project is to come up with a project quote. It’s my all-in price so that both the client and I know exactly how it will all shake down.

How to Calculate Set Project Quotes

Type of copy project. Whether you’re doing short landing page copy or a long email sales funnel, every project is different. Plus, you may find that some industries are easier to write for than others.

Entire scope of the project. This is so important! Make sure you know exactly what the project is, what the copy client is looking for and what’s considered a separate project. With creative jobs like copywriting, some clients may not know if they’re requesting things outside of the original project. Be very clear about what your quote covers.

How many hours will it take you to concept this project?

How many hours will you have to communicate with the client? Emails, discussing the project, kickoff and feedback sessions.

How many hours will it take to edit the project?

Should you include time for revisions after the client has given you feedback? I’ve seen writers calculate in 1 to 2 revisions into their quote.

What’s your hourly rate? This is where you should know your hourly price, even for set price quotes. With this hourly rate, calculate the number of hours for the entire project and your rate.

Do you tend to underestimate? Many copywriters underestimate because they’re worried they won’t get the job… or they worry about counter offers. To give yourself a buffer, consider having a set amount or multiplier that you add into each price. This will help you feel like you’re being fair to yourself and the client. I’ve seen add-ons of about 1.1 to 1.2 over your raw quote is.

How Your Copywriting Portfolio Helps with Pricing

If you need another reason to bulk up your copywriting portfolio, here it is! Doing spec ads and previous projects will help you gauge if your price is too low, quite high or just right.

When I first started out, I didn’t have a great idea about how long specific types of projects take. By doing spec ads, I found out that email copywriting took way longer than I thought it would. On the flip side, I found my webinar writing was much faster.

Round out your portfolio so you know how to write digital and print copy, but also so you know what you need to be paid for it.

Copywriting Royalties? What’s the Deal?

You may come across some projects that have an opportunity to get royalties based on the results your copy generates. This is usually for projects where your copywriting is really “close to the sale” - the critical last step before people convert.

Projects like webpage copy are “further from the sale” since they generally direct people around the site. Not all copy projects will allow for royalties, and not all clients will allow it either.

“Close to the sale” copywriting is direct response copywriting. Someone looks at your copy on a sales email or sales letter and takes action. The beauty about direct response copywriting is that your client can easily track the sales that are tied to your copy.

And if they can track sales that come directly from your copy, your words have a real monetary value!

In these direct response situations, you may be able to negotiate a project price and then a percentage for royalties. Some writers choose to do a percentage of contacts sent or a percentage of sales.

This situation can be a great way to earn money from the initial project — and months or years after!

FAQs for Pricing Your Copywriting Projects

Here are some really common questions when it comes to pricing your copywriting projects!

Should I Ask for Payment Upfront?

Copywriters do it all different ways. Some ask for 25-50% upfront, whereas others charge after the project is complete. However, if you want to ease your client’s mind, tell them they don’t have to pay anything upfront. (I charge nothing until my client is totally happy with the work.)

How Should I Price if I Think a Client Will Give Me Lots of Work in the Future?

As I mentioned earlier, sometimes you come across a client that will open many doors in your career. It can be hard to recognize this, but you may want to alter your rates so that you land the initial job (and then hopefully the rest).

It’s all up to you though! Things like product description copy is a project that tends to be high quantity copywriting work.

What if I Price Too Low? What if I Price Too High?

Learn from every project you do. As you progress in your copywriting career, you’ll learn from your mistakes and adapt next time.

Make sure you’re not underpricing because you didn’t understand the full scope of the project. That’s a whole different thing. Be exceptionally clear with your client about everything involved in the project (and what isn’t included).

Should I Add a Buffer to My Writing Rates?

If you tend to underprice your project in fear of not getting the job, there’s no shame in having a set factor by which you multiply your rates. And remember to take into account freelancing rates!

Copywriting Pricing Resources for Writers

How do you think I learned all this stuff?! Well, I learned a little on my own, but the rest came from industry experts.

More Copywriting Resources to Consider:

Read this: Comprehensive Copywriting Academy Review (online copywriting course)

Read this: Filthy Rich Writer Review (online copywriting course)

Read this: Pricing Guide for Web Copywriters

Heads Up, Writers!

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Heads Up, Writers! (Read Below)

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