How to hire a copywriter
for a small business (2026)
Post the job with your products, your channels and your weekly quota in the first three lines, and expect to pay around the national median of $76,910 a year for a writer, before benefits. Allying does this job off the posting you already wrote, priced off the salary in it (about $1,923 a month at that median), and the first week of the work, thirty pieces in your voice, is done and waiting on a private page before anyone asks you for a call.
Last updated
What a copywriter is paid in 2026
BLS has no occupation called "copywriter". Copywriters are counted under Writers and Authors (SOC 27-3043), 47,940 employed in the United States with the self-employed excluded, and BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook puts 65% of writers and authors as self-employed in 2025, so the wage table describes the minority on a payroll.
| Percentile | 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A year | $44,310 | $58,230 | $76,910 | $101,950 | $139,870 |
| An hour | $21.31 | $28.00 | $36.98 | $49.01 | $67.25 |
Postings titled "content marketing manager" or "content strategist" are counted under Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists (SOC 13-1161): median $78,760, with the middle half between $58,350 and $108,310.
The six largest metros by employment in this occupation, with the median for writers in each: New York (BLS publishes no wage for writers there); Chicago $75,940; Washington $108,460; San Francisco (no wage published); Miami $66,470; Boston $85,260.
Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 (released 2026-05-15); O*NET 31.0 (August 2026). Last updated 2026-09-17.
What does a copywriter actually do day to day?
The top of the Department of Labor's own list for this occupation, in plain words: rewrite until the piece meets their own standard and yours; write the articles and other prose; show you drafts and ideas; edit what exists and send it up for approval; dig for the facts and the real detail; change the tone to fit the product and where it runs; write the ads for print, air and online; write in the customer's own terms so the message lands; plan the outline first; and find out which of a product's features are worth selling.
For a consumer brand or a service business, that is a weekly rhythm of hooks and ad text, emails for the moments on your calendar, product pages and articles, every one checked against what you can actually claim.
What should you look for?
Someone who reads your reviews before writing a word, because your customers already wrote your best lines. Someone who asks for the label or the spec sheet and writes only what it supports. Someone who works from your last thirty emails and live ads rather than a blank page, cares about the click rate on what they wrote, and quotes a review word for word rather than improving it.
Be wary of headlines with no results beside them, "clinically proven" in a sample for a product with no study, and anyone who offers to write your customer testimonials.
How do you write the posting?
Name the products and the channels: Meta ads, email, the product pages, the blog. Give the weekly quota in pieces: ten hooks, two emails, one article. Say where the facts live (the label, the spec sheet, the founder) and who approves a claim. Say what you must approve before it goes out: every email, any price, anything that names a competitor. Give the salary.
Show the voice instead of asking someone to "own" it: link three of your own pieces you are proud of. Running the ad account or pressing send in your email tool are separate jobs; mixing them in is how a copywriter ends up owning a budget.
What should you ask in the interview?
- "Read our homepage. What is the one sentence a first-time visitor needs, and where is it now?" A good answer finds the sentence in your own words, often in a review, and says which fold it is buried under.
- "Here is a claim from our best-selling product page. Where would you check it before it goes in an ad?" A good answer names the label, the study you link to or the certification page, and keeps the claim out until it is backed.
- "Write three subject lines for a restock email, in our voice, now." A good answer is short, names the product, has no fake urgency, and asks about your last restock email.
- "An ad you wrote is getting a poor click rate. What happens next week?" A good answer reads your account's numbers, kills the hook and not the concept, and ships the next variant with a note on what changed.
- "A customer review says something wonderful but not quite true. Can we use it?" A good answer says quote it word for word with permission, never rewrite it, and never let it imply a result that is not typical.
How much does a copywriter cost a small business in 2026?
A writer on payroll costs more than the salary line. In June 2026 wages and salaries were 70.0% of what private employers paid per hour worked and benefits the other 30.0%, by the Bureau of Labor Statistics' count (Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, released 2026-09-09, read 2026-09-17). At that split, a writer at the $76,910 median implies about $109,900 a year in total cost before recruiting and equipment.
Freelancers price by the hour, the piece or the month. One job board's 2026 guide reports junior, mid-level and senior writers at $50 to $85, $85 to $160 and $160 to $300 or more an hour; a landing page at $300 to $750, $750 to $2,000 or $2,000 to $5,000; and monthly retainers of $1,000 to $2,500, $2,500 to $5,000, and $5,000 to $12,000 or more. Those are the board's reported ranges, not ours.
Allying's price for this job is 30% of the salary you post, billed month to month, with a floor of $1,500 a month. A posting at the $76,910 median is about $1,923 a month. This job's floor only matters on an hourly or part-time posting; the exact price is in the proposal before you decide.
| Option | What it costs | What week one looks like | Who decides, who spends |
|---|---|---|---|
| An employee at the median | $76,910 in salary; about $109,900 a year all in at the 70.0/30.0 split | Reading the brand, a voice document, first drafts | You manage them; the ad and email accounts stay with whoever runs them |
| A freelancer | $1,000 to $12,000 or more a month on retainer, or $50 to $300 an hour, per the board's guide | A questionnaire and a first piece, usually | You approve per piece; claims are your call |
| An agency | No survey we would cite | A kickoff and a brand voice deck, most often | The account manager; ask who checks a claim |
| Allying | About $1,923 a month on a $76,910 posting; floor $1,500 | Ten hooks, five scripts, three emails, product copy for five products and a claim ledger, before any call | Nothing is sent or published without your yes; every claim traces to your file; nothing is spent in your name |
What should the first week produce?
Pieces you could run this week, not a strategy deck. In a good first week you should be able to read ten opening lines for your best-selling product, each from a different angle, with a note on which review or page it came from; five thirty-to-sixty-second ad scripts with shot notes; three campaign emails for a moment on your calendar; product copy for five products, side by side with what is on the page today; a ledger of every claim used and what it rests on; and one counted problem with the fix written, such as product pages with no description or a live ad carrying a claim your site does not make.
If a first week produces a brand voice document and a questionnaire, you have hired a consultant.
When should you not hire a copywriter?
When the posting's first bullets are filming or being on camera: that is a creator or a social media job. When you need someone to run the ad account, build email flows or pitch the press: those are different jobs, and a copywriter supplies their words, not the budget. When you need one page written once: that is a project with an end date. And when nobody can say what your products are made of, sort that first, because a good copywriter will refuse to guess.
How Allying does this job
Allying does the copywriter job as written in its playbook: ad copy, hooks, scripts and briefs for paid channels on a weekly cadence, kept in a library your team draws from; email and SMS copy drafted for your own tool and staged, never sent; landing page, website and product copy from your own facts; articles on the topics you should own; every piece read back against click rate, hook rate, cost per result, opens, clicks and revenue from your own accounts; a claim ledger that tags every claim to the label, page, study or review it rests on; your voice learned from your own words and reviews; and a daily note and a weekly counted report.
Week one, before any conversation, on a private page only you can open: ten hooks; five scripts; three emails; product copy for five products; the claim ledger; one counted failure with the fix attached; and seven more pieces chosen from your own posting so every bullet has one beside it.
The work is done with AI and overseen by a named specialist who answers for it.
Mae Santos, Allying's co-founder, is the person you talk to; write to hello@allying.com and she answers. The work is reviewed before it reaches you.
What Allying refuses on this job
- Inventing a fact about your business or products: an ingredient, a price, a sourcing story, an award. A fact without a source is a marked blank you or the source fill.
- Using a claim that is not in the claim ledger with a source, including one implied by a product name or an image pairing. A new claim goes to you with the substantiation it needs.
- Writing, scripting or staging a review, testimonial or "customer" quote a real customer did not give, including an AI-written one. Real customers give reviews, and you approve any quote by name.
- Making a disease, treatment or cure claim for a supplement, food, cosmetic or wellness product unless your substantiation file carries the evidence and you approve it.
- Sending an email, publishing a page or uploading copy into a live ad without your yes or a standing permission. The send stays with you or your email job.
- Running the ad account, building email flows, pitching the press or writing the regulatory label. Each is a different job with its own person.
Questions owners ask
Will it sound like us?
The voice comes from your own site, your reviews, your last thirty emails and the pieces you are proud of, and your edits correct it. Each change is kept as a lesson, and the share of pieces you approve untouched is reported every week.
Can it send our emails?
No. Emails and texts are drafted in your own tool and left as drafts; the send stays with you or with your email job.
What about claims for a supplement or a skincare product?
Every claim is tagged, in a ledger you can read, to the label, page, study or review it rests on. A claim without a source stays out; a health claim needs the evidence in your file and your approval.
Who owns the copy?
You do. Every piece lands in your own tool or folder with its claim tags, and the library stays yours if you stop.
Do I have to approve every piece?
At first, yes, for anything in your name. After your first approved piece of a kind (an article, product copy, an ad uploaded paused), that kind can run on its own; the send of any email and the approval of any new claim always come to you, and "ask me again" takes any of it back. The weekly report shows the minutes the job took from you.
Sources
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (released 2026-05-15), national and metropolitan workbooks. Read on 2026-09-17.
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Writers and Authors (last modified 2026-08-27): 65% self-employed in 2025. Read on 2026-09-17.
- O*NET 31.0 Database (August 2026), Writers and Authors 27-3043.00, task statements. Read on 2026-09-17.
- O*NET license, CC BY 4.0. Read on 2026-09-17.
- BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026 (released 2026-09-09): private industry wages and salaries 70.0 percent of employer costs per hour worked, benefits 30.0 percent. Read on 2026-09-17.
- Mediabistro, Freelance Copywriter Rates: What Employers Actually Pay in 2026, Mediabistro Team, 2026-04-20 (a job board's guide; ranges reported, not measured by Allying). Read on 2026-09-17.
- Allying playbook, copywriter / content marketer, version 1.2.0. Read on 2026-09-17.