What to Put in the Price Field When Your Service Has No Fixed Price
If you sell an object, the price field is easy. If you sell an audit, a course or six months of retainer work, it is not — the honest answer is usually “it depends on the scope”. That is why so many service listings end up with an empty price, or with a token 1 typed in to get past the form. Both cost you enquiries, and neither is necessary.
A token price is worse than a real one
Typing 1 to get past the field does not read as “ask me for a quote”. It reads as an error, or as an ad that is not serious — and it is published as a real price, so your professional service goes out to search engines and buyers as costing one unit of currency. Buyers also sort and filter by price. A listing priced at a token amount lands among the cheapest results, next to things that have nothing to do with your business, in front of people looking for something else entirely.
Use a realistic starting price
The best answer for most service listings is the lowest amount a real engagement actually costs: your minimum project fee, the price of the entry-level course, the first month of a retainer. It is a true number, it sets expectations before the first message, and it filters out enquiries that were never going to convert — which is worth more than volume. Then explain the range in the description: what the starting figure buys, what pushes it up, and what you need from the buyer to quote properly. The rest of what moderation checks in a service listing is covered separately.
The amount is shown in US dollars
Prices on the site are displayed in US dollars, whatever your own currency is. A figure typed as though it were rupees will publish as a dollar amount, which either prices you far above the market or, more often, produces a number so low it looks like a mistake. Convert before you type, round to something sensible, and check how it reads on the live ad afterwards.
When the work really is free, say so
Some service listings genuinely have no price: a free consultation, a trial class, an open webinar, a diagnostic visit. There is a checkbox for exactly this — tick This item or service is free and the ad shows “Free” instead of a number. Use it only when the thing you are advertising costs the buyer nothing. A discounted course is not free, and a free first consultation attached to paid work is best described as what it is: price the work, and mention the free consultation in the description.
One or the other, never both and never neither
An ad carries either a price or the free mark. Tick the box and the price field empties; enter a price and leave the box alone. There are only four combinations, and two of them are refused:
- A price, no free mark — the normal case, including a starting-from figure for work you quote job by job.
- The free mark, no price — correct when the thing on offer genuinely costs the buyer nothing.
- Both — refused, because there is no way to know which one you meant.
- Neither — refused, because an ad that says nothing about cost gives the buyer no reason to write to you rather than to the next listing.
Put the detail where it belongs
The price field holds one number; the description holds the explanation. This is where packages, per-hour and per-project rates, batch sizes, durations and what is excluded all belong. A buyer who can see a starting figure and then read how the pricing works will send you a message that is worth answering, instead of the one-line “price?” that costs you both an exchange to get nowhere.
Update the price rather than reposting
When your rates change, edit the existing listing. It keeps whatever standing the page has already built, and the change shows on the ad straight away. Posting a fresh copy at the new price instead leaves two versions of the same offer competing with each other, which is both confusing for buyers and counted as duplicated content.