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A billboard rep, a KSL account executive and a Facebook ads freelancer will each pitch you, and none will tell you what the others cost. This guide lists the Salt Lake options with each vendor's published prices, and says where no price is public.
For most small businesses in Salt Lake City, start with a free Google Business Profile and a small Google Search campaign, then add Meta ads aimed at the ZIP codes you serve. Billboards on I-15 and I-215, KSL, UTA bus ads and sponsorships work once you can spend about $1,000 a month or more on one channel. Direct mail through USPS EDDM costs $0.26 a piece in postage, and an ad in our own newsletter, The Salt Lake Valley, starts at $149 a month.
Start with what a customer does right before they call you. Someone with a burst pipe in Murray searches Google. Someone picking a med spa in Holladay scrolls Instagram. Put your first dollars there.
Under $500 a month, the money goes to your Google Business Profile (free), a tight Google Search campaign on your best two or three services, and a few dollars a day on Meta. From $500 to $2,000 a month you can add one local channel that repeats your name: a newsletter, an EDDM postcard to the neighborhoods around your shop, or a Blip digital billboard on a daily budget. Past $2,000 a month, a traditional billboard on I-15, a KSL package, a UTA bus tail or a team sponsorship becomes realistic.
If you would rather hire someone to run it, see our list of advertising agencies in Salt Lake City.
Prices come from the vendor's rate card or the source named in the last column.
| Channel | Who it reaches | Published cost | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | People searching your service on Google Maps | Free | |
| Google Search ads | People searching right now | $5.42 average per click, $66.69 per lead | LocaliQ 2026 benchmarks |
| Meta (Facebook, Instagram) | Locals by ZIP, radius, age, interest | Any budget; Meta suggests starting at $5 or more | Meta ads pricing page |
| Static billboard | Commuters on I-15, I-80, I-215 | $800 to $5,000 per board per month | BillboardsIn estimate |
| Digital billboard | Same corridors, rotating ads | $1,000 to $7,000 per month leased; Blip from $20 a day | BillboardsIn, Blip |
| KSL.com, TV, radio | Statewide news readers and listeners | Quote only | KSL |
| Deseret News Saturday print | 18,000+ mailed subscribers | $225 eighth page to $2,040 full color page | Deseret News 2026 rate card |
| Deseret News Utah Today newsletter | 76,695 subscribers | $110 a day or $780 a week | Deseret News newsletter rate card |
| UTA bus ads | Riders and drivers along bus routes | About $500 a month for a bus tail, $8,000 for a full wrap | BillboardsIn estimate |
| USPS EDDM postcards | Every address on the carrier routes you pick | $0.26 a piece postage, plus printing | USPS |
| The Salt Lake Valley newsletter | 2,419 Salt Lake County subscribers | $149 to $539 a month; $59 event pin | Our own price list |
| Salt Lake Chamber | Other business owners | $1,500 to $10,000 a year | Salt Lake Chamber |
Your Google Business Profile is the box with your hours, photos and reviews that shows up when someone in Sandy searches "plumber near me". It costs nothing. Fill in every category, add real photos of your crew and shop, and ask happy customers for reviews.
Paid Google Search puts you above the map results for the words you choose. LocaliQ's 2026 benchmarks, drawn from thousands of its customers' campaigns, put the average cost per click at $5.42 and the average cost per lead at $66.69. The spread by trade is wide: attorneys average $9.87 a click and $131.63 a lead, dentists $8.00 a click, home improvement $8.33 a click and $90.92 a lead, and restaurants $2.05 a click. Use them as a check on any quote you get. Our SEO companies guide covers the free side of Google.
Google fits anything people search for by name. It fits poorly for something nobody knows to look for yet.
Meta lets you aim ads at people who live in specific ZIP codes or within a few miles of your door, so a bakery in Sugar House can skip West Valley City and a landscaper in South Jordan can skip downtown. Meta's pricing page recommends starting with at least $5 and notes a daily budget can run up to 75% over on one day while averaging out across the week.
Meta works best for things people buy with their eyes: restaurants, med spas, gyms, events. It works poorly for emergency services, where the customer is already on Google.
Salt Lake County commuters funnel onto I-15 through the middle of the valley, I-80 past downtown and up Parleys, the I-215 belt, and Bangerter Highway through West Valley City, West Jordan and South Jordan.
BillboardsIn, an ad marketplace, estimates Salt Lake City static billboards at $800 to $5,000 per board per month and digital billboards at $1,000 to $7,000, depending on the road and the size. A rep quotes the specific board.
Blip sells time on digital boards by the 8-second play with no contract. Its Utah page says a $20 daily budget buys about 166 plays a day, $50 buys about 415, and $100 buys about 831. That makes a billboard test possible for a few hundred dollars.
Billboards fit businesses with a short name that people choose over weeks: dentists, injury lawyers, home builders, car dealers.
KSL's advertising page claims more than 4.8 million monthly users on KSL.com, with 64% of traffic on phones, and sells display banners, sponsored articles, video and streaming audio ads, plus custom creative from its in-house team. None of these prices are published; you fill in a form and a rep builds a package. We could not find published spot rates for KSL TV or KSL NewsRadio either.
KSL Classifieds is a separate buy. Many listings are free, and KSL's terms describe paid business accounts and self-serve featured listings paid by card. If you sell cars, equipment, furniture or a local service, set up a KSL business account before paying for anything bigger.
KSL fits businesses that serve the whole Wasatch Front. If you serve one end of the valley, much of the buy lands on people in Ogden and Provo.
The Deseret News publishes its rates. The Saturday paper goes to more than 18,000 subscribers by mail, and its 2026 rate card lists an eighth page at $225 in black and white or $255 in color, a quarter page at $450 or $510, a full page at $1,800 or $2,040, and a two-inch classified block at $30. Its newsletter rate card, last updated January 2025, lists Utah Today at 76,695 subscribers for $110 a day and Utah Business Daily at 25,366 subscribers for $250 a day. The Deseret News also says 80% of its audience lives outside Utah, which matters if you only sell locally.
The Salt Lake Tribune is a nonprofit and sells print and digital ads, but its advertising page does not list rates. City Weekly still publishes and runs its Best of Utah readers' poll; we could not find a current rate card on its site, so ask for one. The City Journals publish free monthly papers named for individual cities, such as the Sandy Journal and the West Jordan Journal, and say they deliver to more than 250,000 Salt Lake Valley homes a month.
UTA does not sell its own ad space. In March 2024 its board approved a revenue contract with Lamar Transit Advertising for interior and exterior advertising on transit vehicles, with a five-year base term. So a bus tail, a bus wrap or interior cards on TRAX go through Lamar.
We could not find published Lamar transit rates. BillboardsIn estimates Salt Lake City bus ads at about $500 a month for a bus tail, $2,000 for interior cards and $8,000 for a full wrap. Buses move, so you cannot pick a street. Transit ads fit businesses near TRAX stations and along busy bus routes.
EDDM mails a postcard to every address on the carrier routes you pick on the USPS map, with no mailing list, so a pest control company can cover Draper's SunCrest neighborhood and skip downtown apartments. USPS lists retail EDDM postage at $0.26 a piece and allows 200 to 5,000 pieces per day per ZIP code at retail. Mailing 2,000 homes costs about $520 in postage before printing.
EDDM fits home services, dentists and restaurants, and works best when you mail the same routes several times.
Newsletter ads sit inside an email people chose to get. The Deseret News sells its lists, priced above. We publish The Salt Lake Valley, a free newsletter for Salt Lake County that goes out Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and we sell ads in it, so weigh this paragraph with that in mind.
As of October 27, 2026, The Salt Lake Valley has 2,419 subscribers. That is far smaller than a Deseret News list, and every reader signed up for Salt Lake County news. We cap each issue at three ad spots and write the copy for you. The Closer plan is $149 a month for the closing spot in four issues, Neighbor is $179 a month for a text mention in two issues, and Local Favorite is $539 a month for the top image ad plus a mention and a closing spot. Events can be pinned to our events page for $59 a week, and a Local Directory listing is $49 a month. We estimate about 800 opens per send. If you need more reach than that, a Deseret News list or Google is the better buy.
Real Salt Lake and the Utah Jazz both sell corporate partnerships, from signage and in-game reads to naming rights. Neither team publishes small-business pricing, so expect a custom quote and a sales conversation. These deals fit businesses that sell to the whole valley, like banks, car dealers and injury lawyers.
Community events cost far less. The Downtown Farmers Market at Pioneer Park lists 2026 art and craft stalls at $65 a day or $1,200 for the summer season, with $1 million in liability insurance required. Youth sports leagues and city festivals in places like Sandy and West Jordan also sell banners and booths.
A chamber membership is mostly a networking buy. The Salt Lake Chamber lists membership levels at $1,500 for Executive, $4,000 for Bronze, $8,000 for Silver and $10,000 for Gold. The Executive level includes an enhanced online directory listing, a ribbon cutting and the option to buy two Deseret.com digital sponsorship days for $250.
City chambers have their own perks. ChamberWest gives new members a $250 advertising credit and 10% off its advertising products. Chambers fit businesses that sell to other businesses, such as accountants, IT shops and law firms.
Pick one channel and run it long enough to judge: about a month for Google or Meta, two or three mailings for EDDM, four weeks for a billboard. Give each channel its own phone number or promo code so you can count the calls.
Add a second channel only after the first pays for itself. If you spread $1,500 across five channels in month one, you will not know which one worked. For the AI tools that make tracking easier, our free AI 101 class walks through them.