Leveraging the power of social media is necessary for businesses to reach a wider audience and compete in a world full of online businesses. According to research, 55% of customers learn about new brands on social media, and 78% of customers prefer buying from companies that provide a positive experience on social media. These numbers make investing in social media crucial.
But many businesses lack the proper infrastructure or investment to market on social media effectively. Most businesses struggle to decide which option is the most beneficial on a budget.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution for pricing for social media management—rates vary according to the scope of work required and the level of expertise the provider offers.
Here, we discuss how much you can expect to pay for these services so that you can make an informed decision about your social media management needs.
Reasons for Businesses to Invest in Social Media Management
Social media is critical to marketing as it delivers a larger chunk of a business’s revenue. But managing social media yourself is not easy. There are tactics and expertise only experts in the field can deliver. Here are five reasons why you should invest in social media management.
Online Trends and Social Landscape Changes Frequently
A social media manager is invaluable in keeping your business up-to-date with the ever-changing online trends and social landscape.
People behind social media platforms want users always to find something new, so they keep updating the platforms and releasing new features. Instagram reels and YouTube shorts are the latest trends on social media that quickly gained popularity.
Is your brand leveraging these trends? Because we’re sure, your competitors are. A social media management team is dedicated to monitoring social trends so they can apply them to your business for maximum reach and results.
Improve Customer Experience
Social media management teams use the latest social analytics tools to track user engagement and feedback. This way, businesses can identify how customers feel about their product or service and address any issues quickly.
A strong customer service presence on social media is essential for building brand loyalty. Any random employee with basic marketing skills and customer representation may not be able to handle the fiery social media world. A dedicated team of experts will ensure your business responds to comments promptly and accurately, creating a positive impression and establishing trust with your customers.
Grows Your Reach
If you haven’t grown your audience after spending significant time and money, you should definitely hire a social media manager.
Social media management services have the expertise and experience to quickly identify and address any issues you may have been having and help you craft a marketing plan that will get your desired results.
Social media managers know which areas to target, when to post for maximum visibility, how much ad spend is needed to display ads and much more that can help you achieve your marketing goals. By increasing your presence on social media, they can help you reach a larger audience and improve your brand awareness.
Makes Your Social Presence More Engaging
Having an employee randomly post on social media without direction or a plan isn’t the best move. This can actually be damaging to your brand in several ways. That’s why it’s so important for your social presence to be engaging.
Hiring a social media management team is the way to ensure your social media pages are actively engaged. They will be able to create an effective strategy for your brand, which is targeted towards the audience you want to reach and engage with. This way, you can ensure that your social presence is always engaging and beneficial for your business.
Tracking, Analyzing, and Adjusting
Social media management is an invaluable service to any business that wants to stay competitive in today’s digital world. Without a professional managing your brand presence, your messages can become lost amidst the flurry of content. Social media management teams are experts at tracking and analyzing results so they can adjust accordingly.
A dedicated team will constantly monitor your campaigns, switch objectives, turn off ads that aren’t performing, and adjust the frequency and ad spend to ensure you get the most bang for your buck. After campaigns are completed, they will report and analyze the results to implement better tactics in the next campaign.
With their eye on the bigger picture, they’ll be able to identify new opportunities for growth and keep your brand top-of-mind with customers.
Social Media Management Pricing
Now that you know the benefits of investing in social media management, you should consider the type of management you want for your social media. You can hire an agency, a freelancer, or an in-house team. All three have different costs.
**All estimates in USD
Social Media Management Pricing: Agency
If you’re looking to outsource your social media management entirely, from strategy planning to execution, hiring a social media agency can cost anywhere from $900 to $20,000 per month. The cost includes your ad spend, which varies depending on the number of platforms and your campaigns.
If you only need certain aspects are taken care of, such as content strategy and execution, consulting services usually come in at $75 to $500 per hour.
An agency’s services depend on its type, scale, and potential. But they usually include:
- Strategy development
- Platform management
- Running paid social campaigns
- Engagement and community management
- Content development
- Analytics and Reporting
It’s important to consider your budget when selecting the right social media agency, as some larger agencies may offer more comprehensive packages that require a higher budget. However, smaller boutique agencies and freelance social media professionals can deliver quality services without breaking the bank.
Social Media Management Pricing: Freelance
Some brands prefer freelancers over agencies for cost savings and flexible timings. The cost of working with a freelancer can range from a few hundred dollars to over $10,000 per month, depending on the type of service required and the level of experience the freelancer brings.
Basic services such as content creation can cost $25-$50 per post, while more advanced services like UCG, influencer marketing campaigns, and monthly analytics reports can cost $500 or more. For those with more limited budgets, many freelancers also offer hourly rates.
Remember that the cost of hiring a freelance social media manager does not include the ad spend amount.
Social Media Management Pricing: In-House
Hiring in-house social media management keeps communication quick and smooth with effective goal implementation. When you have dedicated employees focused on promoting only your brand, it is easier to maintain brand authenticity and provide more valuable content.
But hiring in-house social media management is more expensive as you don’t need one but three experts to handle your social presence. These are:
- Social media manager: The average monthly salary of a social media manager is $4,529.
- Copywriter: The average monthly salary of a copywriter is $5,076.
- Graphic designer: The average monthly salary of a designer is $4,127.
That’s a total of $13,732 for hiring an in-house social media management team–not including the social media marketing budget.
Social media management can be pricey—there’s no denying that. This burdens new and small businesses significantly, eventually forcing them out of the competition as they have little budget. One excellent way to beat this and stay competitive is by using relatively cheap professional-grade social media tools.
That’s where Publer saves small or new brands who want to take control of their social media without breaking the bank. With Publer, you can do all the things big brands are capable of, but without needing a pricey marketing agency – you can upload and schedule posts in bulk, create unique designs with multimedia integration, plan ahead with a comprehensive social media calendar, curate content from other sources, and more.
With the introduction of an AI assist, your team can effortlessly brainstorm new ideas, generate AI-based ad copies within seconds and generate unique and creative images to lighten up your social pages.
AI assist also takes the hassle out of replying to comments individually by doing that too. All this gives your team more time to plan and execute better ideas.
Factors that Affect the Cost of Social Media Management Pricing
There’s no one-size-fits-all regarding the cost of social media, as there are many varying factors. These are:
Volume of Content
The content production and publishing volume you want affects the cost of managing your social media. Generally, the more content you want published on your social media channels, the more you’ll have to pay for social media management. That’s because the more content there is, the more hours are needed to create, manage, optimize, and analyze. But that is not the case if you have an in-house team on a fixed payroll.
Of course, you don’t want to skimp on content creation—that would be a missed opportunity. But you want to ensure that your content is valuable and engaging for your audience. You should also focus on developing an effective content strategy so that each piece of content created has a purpose and helps advance your overall goals.
Number of Platforms
The number of platforms for which you need to manage your social media presence can greatly affect your costs. The more platforms you have, the more challenging it is to keep them all up-to-date and engaging. You will likely need to hire staff or invest in tools to help you with this task, which adds to the cost of managing your social media presence.
Also, each platform performs differently and has different trends. Your social media management team will need to analyze results and implement tactics differently to get the most out of each platform. This results in a higher cost per channel.
Level of Complexity
For smaller businesses, managing a few accounts and keeping up with basic engagement can be inexpensive. However, as your presence grows and the number of accounts and campaigns increases, so does the workload—and the cost.
Aside from simply managing multiple accounts, other complexity-related factors can also drive up costs. Advanced analytics and reporting may be required to run sophisticated campaigns and track their detailed results. There’s also the cost of hiring one or more people to help manage your social media presence, especially if you plan on doing more than just basic engagement.
Responding to customer feedback, queries, and complaints is another huge aspect contributing to social media management complexity. The bigger your brand gets, the bigger the chance of hurting its reputation, so you need experienced people behind the desk to handle customer engagement.
Number of Ad Campaigns and Posts
The more campaigns you create, the more time and resources it takes to manage them. Your social media management team will need more time crafting creative content, monitoring performance, adjusting settings, and tracking results.
This means having dedicated staff or paying a third-party vendor more money to manage your campaigns. So, if multiple campaigns are running simultaneously, you should expect to pay a higher cost for social media management.
Inclusion of Reporting and Analytics
The cost of social media management can vary depending on the types and levels of reporting and analytics included in a package. Companies typically use analytics to monitor KPIs such as engagement, click-through, cost-per-click, etc. They can also use advanced analytics to track customer sentiment and develop targeted campaigns.
By having access to these reports, businesses can quickly assess the effectiveness of their social media marketing efforts and make improvements as needed. The more detailed the reporting and analytics, the higher the cost. If a business opts for real-time reporting or custom data visualizations that provide insights into customer behavior over time, it may see an increase in its costs.
Businesses need to consider the cost-benefit analysis when deciding which type of reporting and analytics they want included in their social media management package.
Key Takeaways
Investing in social media management is vital to growing your audience and having more conversions. Social media managers are dedicated to staying updated on the latest trends and developing marketing strategies accordingly. No matter which way you go, a skilled social media management team ensures significant brand growth.
Remember the costs of social media management:
- Hiring a social media management agency costs $900 to $20,000 monthly.
- Hiring a social media freelance manager costs a few hundred dollars to $10,000.
- Hiring an in-house social media management team costs $13,732 on average.
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Ervin Kalemi
