In the age of social media, it has become impossible to grow one’s business without getting involved with the social media platform. Whether it is a giant, multinational company, or a start-up, every company has dived into the ocean of social media to enhance their field.
But, there is a higher probability that not many people know how to handle social media effectively. They may be quite awesome at running their core business. Again some of them don’t have the expertise or enough time for the learning curve that social media management demands. That is something Social Media Agencies are really good at!
So, how much does it cost to outsource social media agency services?
Unfortunately, it can’t be answered in a specific number. It varies – a lot. It depends on several factors which we’ll be discussing throughout the article.
Different Kinds Of Services
Before knowing how much the social media agencies charge, let’s break down the services it renders. The services the social media agency provide can be classified in three ways:
Social Media Marketing
The general idea of Social Media Marketing is any social media action you take that is unpaid. If you’re posting about your blogs, sharing info with your followers, or commenting in social media groups, you’re actually marketing. Undoubtedly it is a crucial facet of any digital marketing strategy.
Social media agencies nowadays took this marketing to a next level as they provide you to build your own company pages or profiles professionally at a certain cost. Not only do they set up the page but also they control the quality of your company by posting, commenting, and communicating with clients. It also includes:
- Social Media Publishing
- Social Media Audit
- Competitor Analysis
- Social Media Marketing Strategy
- Creating a Social Media Policy
- Creating Social Profiles
- Providing Social Customer Support
- Running Social Media Campaigns
- SEO
Regarding social media marketing, any agency can charge their clients for one to five media networks $900-$7000 per month depending on budget and services clients want.
You can learn more about SMM in our detailed article Types Of Digital Marketing.
Social Media Advertising
Social Media Advertising refers to any social media activities that are paid. It involves running paid ads on various social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. It engages customed images, banner ads, videos, boosting posts, campaigns, etc. These ads are targeted to specific users and followers.
Ultimately, the main goal of social media advertising is to attract traffic to your company. Social Media Advertising can cost any company $450-$6000 per month, with monthly ad spends ranging from $200-$50000 considering business size, strategy, and budget.
Social Media Management
Social Media Management is the process of creating content and engagements with your brand throughout your social platform. It actually combines the activity of marketing and advertising both to grow your business consistently with time. It would cost $900-$20000 per month which will include developing the company’s social media marketing and advertising strategy for one to five networks.
Various Kinds Of Pricing Model
Social Media Agencies provide different kinds of pricing models. It differs from client to client which one to implement. Obviously, every pricing system has its pros and cons. Here we discuss some of the general pricing packages.
Time-Based Pricing Model
Based on the client’s needs, these agencies provide such a pricing model where customers are charged according to time. Generally, this is considered as hourly or monthly pricing models.
Hourly
This is an ideal option for the newbie businesses just starting with the experience of 0-3 years. It is simple and convenient for those who want their work done in a short time. However, it is very popular among social media agencies as it doesn’t lead to building up as a team. Moreover, it is obviously not a great model for lengthy projects.
Monthly
Monthly fees are welcomed by social media agencies. It is an easy pricing model to incorporate. It is a great way to earn cash in a lengthy project. Again it is easy for clients to understand how to stay within budget. This gives a consistent and predictable income to the agency and there are no surprises for the clients as well.
All-In-One Pricing Model
This is something for those companies that don’t have an in-house social media team or manager. Here, all the things like setting up the social page to attract it to the public- everything needs to be done by the agency. As a result, the agency works as a part of the company
Project-Based Pricing Model
Usually, massive or experienced social media agencies go for this structure. The best aspect of this model is it offers a lot of flexibility. It allows clients to test the result of small tasks before agreeing to long-term commitments. It is definitely easier to scale than an hourly pricing model.
This particular form of pricing works much better for agencies as clients can price based on their expertise, not on their time. Nevertheless, the project-based model has also a downside. It has the risk of undercharging if a project takes longer than expected.
Value-Based Pricing Model
Value-based pricing is also named as value added pricing or perceived value pricing. By using a value-based pricing approach, companies can build a framework that leverages their brands, product features, audiences demographics, and market position. It is mainly customer-focused pricing. Despite that, this method can be difficult to implement as it is a complex process that needs a better understanding and lots of research.
Performance-Based Pricing Model
Performance-based pricing is the term for defining a form of payment to a service provider that is measured by the overall outcome of the service. It simply means one pays for what he gets. In this method, the agencies can give their maximized performance. It is an incentive technique for both agency and client. Anyways, there needs to be constant monitoring. Sometimes goals can change. Also, there can be compensation for over-performance or under-performance.
Retainer Pricing Model
Once the agency creates a good relationship with the clients and is able to produce a huge amount of work done each month, the agency then can step up a retainer pricing model. In the retainer model, there is a recurring monthly or bi-weekly agreement between agency and company that reserves a set amount of time and services for a fee. This is where customers are to pay upfront.
This form of billing establishes long-term collaboration between agencies and clients. In addition, there is no surprise pricing which leads to set an accurate budget for clients. But this model is a bit on the pricey side, making it harder to pitch to new clients.
Revenue Sharing Pricing Model
Small businesses or start-ups are likely to grab this particular form of the billing process. Most businesses can’t afford the thrust of the marketing fees every month. Also, they are not even sure if the strategy is going to help them grow their business. That is where the Revenue Sharing Pricing Model enters the scene.
It is kind of the latest addition to the pricing model. Regarding this method, clients just don’t pay the agency money; they come to an agreement of sharing a portion of the revenue generated by the agency.
The bright side of this model is that the agency feels the necessity to make the marketing successful specifically. Therefore, the company is more likely to reach tangible goals in this case. Parameters like CPC, CPM are taken considerably in this pricing form which shows how important performance and measurability have become for even the smallest business.
Anyways, it can be costly if the revenues are low. Again, it gives no incentive for the agency to minimize costs.
Customized Pricing
Social Media Marketing is an evolving ground. Here not everyone has the same audience, similar product, or goals. So some clients may not find the mentioned above model sufficient. Therefore, it allows the agencies to analyze individual clients and tailor the services for them. Here clients have to pay only for the services they need.
This structure renders more options to agencies which eventually adds value to the agencies. The services become cost-efficient here. However, clients may negotiate multiple services and probably bring down the profit margin of the agency.
Choosing The Right Platforms
Depending on the business, rather it be big or small, considering the right platform to nourish one’s business is a stepping stone. Now certain platforms will work better than others in terms of awareness, lead generation, and conversion. Naturally social media pricing varies from platform to platform, which is why it is a fatal decision to select your platforms wisely. Let’s have a look at some popular social media grounds.
Speaking of social media, the first name that comes to mind is obviously nothing but Facebook. It is undoubtedly the most popular social network in the world with over 1 billion daily active users. It is an avoidable social channel out there. As a result, one can easily find his target audience of any type here. While it costs nothing but a couple of minutes to set up a business account on Facebook and simply making a page and asking friends to like it, it is not enough. It is just a start to a bigger way.
So how can anyone manage to grow one’s business on Facebook?
Growing a business means reaching out to more target audiences. To do that, Facebook ads are an outstanding way. Through Facebook ads, companies can reach their objective like:
- Page likes
- Clicks to website
- Website conversions
- App installs
On Facebook, the ads are cost by CPC ( Cost per Click), CPM ( Cost per Mille or 1000 views), CPA ( Cost per Customer Acquisition), CPL ( Cost per Lead). Facebook ads cost $0.25 for every 1000 people reach. In CPC, it costs an average of $0.27. If one’s objective is more traffic, he should go for PPC. But if his objective is lead generation, he may pay for each form submission. There would be shown Sponsored Post at the top of the post when it is done by a social media agency.
Facebook Likes is a fatal way to reach out to more people. A social application company named Buffer found that they paid an average of $0.57 for each Facebook like. There is also another option to make visible one’s post to more people by using Boosted Post. Facebook uses CPM structure to boost the existing post or page to make it visible to a greater number of audiences. However one can expect to pay $6.35 per 1000 views for a boosted page.
Facebook marketing covers unique posts and content creation, interacting with other pages, creating custom images, customer service, etc. Creating a new Facebook account, designing, and setting it up would cost $500-$900 in the first month. In addition, ad spending will cost $1500-$5000 per month.
Instagram is another amazing platform considering its distinguished structure. Instagram is more visual than any other platform. Now Facebook owns Instagram, so it almost offers the same procedure for setting up Ads and targeting audiences.
Over 800 Million monthly users are active on this site. More than 60 Million photos are posted each day and 1.6 Billion daily likes are given. It tends to have more younger users than Facebook. Businesses like Fashion, car, etc can grow their companies through Instagram marketing.
However, it is not a suitable place for accountant businesses as Instagram is more image-biased. Setting up a Business Profile on Instagram costs nothing just like any other social platform. It is a better option for B2C companies and has 10x more engagement than Facebook at a similar cost.
On average, one can expect to pay $6.70 for every 1000 views of an Instagram photo ad with the CPM model. Also for video ads, one can pay around $3 for every 1000 views, with some businesses reporting paying $0.02 per view.
When the agency takes over one’s Instagram responsibility, they will provide services like:
- Instagram growth
- Engagement and responding
- Creating and executing an Instagram hashtag strategy
- Image or content optimization
- Scheduling content, aim for 2/3 posts a day
- Copywriting and preparing content for Instagram
- Creating a custom dashboard for reporting and analysis
- Monthly report
As of WebFX, professional management of one’s Instagram ad campaign can cost from $450-$850 per month, with monthly ad spends starting at $200. Also, Instagram marketing services range from $900-$1600 or more per month.
When it comes to achieving marketing goals, Twitter is a powerful tool. With more than 145 million active daily users, Twitter must be a part of one’s marketing strategy. And it is the fifth most popular social media network in the world. With 500 million tweets sent every day, one needs to be strategic to catch the targeted audience’s attention. It is a limited advertising platform and based on demographics and some user behavior. But it doesn’t collect as much affinity data as others.
In Twitter, when anyone promotes a tweet, that will show up as Promoted in the user’s timeline. It is operated on a bidding system and one will pay based on the engagement. Agencies earn for one’s business through Clicks, Replies, Retweet, and Favourites. It would cost anyone $0.50-$4 per engagement on promoted tweets and promoted accounts.
With a budget of $2000-$4000 per month, a social media agency will create new business accounts, design content, and interact with followers. While launching a new Twitter account, completing with setup and outsourcing content creation or consumer interaction, it will cost $1000-$7500 per month. Anyways, managing and promoting an existing Twitter account can cost $1000-$2500 per month.
LinkedIn is the place for businesses that allow one to build credibility, create a meaningful network among professionals. More than 30 million companies use LinkedIn for business. There are LinkedIn marketing tools for every business size and type, from small to large and B2B to B2C.
Compared to Facebook, LinkedIn generates leads 277% more effectively. It also accounts for more than 50% of the total social traffic coming to B2B sites. However, it is one of the most expensive advertising platforms. It costs 24% higher than Facebook. One can choose a total, daily, or per bid budget. Also, one can select an objective for clicks, impressions, or messages. Just like Facebook’s Sponsored Post and Twitter’s Promoted Tweet, one’s business can also sponsor updates on LinkedIn.
In LinkedIn ads for CPC option, the minimum bid is $2, but LinkedIn suggests to bid $5.55-$9.33. In CPM, the minimum bid is $2 whereas LinkedIn’s suggestion is $2.85-$4.62. Again, in the Sponsored post for the CPC model, the minimum bid is $2.50, but LinkedIn suggests a bid of $5.67-$10.09. For CPM, the minimum bid is $10.50 for every 1000 impressions, but LinkedIn’s suggestion would be $18.55-$28.91.
To start by creating a targeted lead list of prospective customers, cleaning that list against the existing customer database and retargeting the audience will cost $1000-$1600 per month. It will cost an extra $450-$850 for advertising on LinkedIn.
Snapchat
Snapchat is probably the newest kid in the social media family. Snapchat has shown that it can be really valuable to businesses that have the audience there and the right strategies in place. Snapchat has approximately 249 Million daily active users. 18% of social media users also use Snapchat. It has more users than Twitter. 61% of females and 38% of males in the world use Snapchat. 76% of Snapchat users are also online shoppers.
Though Snapchat is increasing in popularity amongst brands quickly, there’s still less competition here for business. Any company can reach a new audience if their product can be appealing to younger ones. Snapchat recommends setting a swipe up between $1 and $3, making adjustments as needed according to the ad performance.
With Snapchat marketing and advertising, it can cost from $900-$1400 and $400-$900 per month respectively.
Pinterest is less of a Social Media, and more of a Visual Search Engine and productivity tool. More than two-thirds of Pinterest users are women. LinkedIn has members, Instagram has grammers and Pinterest has pinners. Pinner is the branded term for a person who uses Pinterest. Promoted pins are regular pins that companies have to promote. These pins appear in the home feed and search results and include a Promoted lebel. It uses CPC model so clients need to pay the agency when someone clicks the pin and visit the website.
There are three main goals one can set with Pinterest ads:
- Building brand awareness: $2.00-5.00 for 1000 impressions
- Boosting engagement: $0.10 – $1.50 per engagement
- Driving web traffic: $0.10 – $1.50 per engagement
With the amount of $900-$1600 per month, the Pinterest account will be taken care of by any social media agency, and as client’s demand with an extra $450-$900 for advertising.
Summery
Generally, any company chooses a bunch of social platforms to promote their business. They cost as an individual or a package.
Social Media Management
| 1 Network | $2100 |
| 2 Network | $2500 |
| 3 Network | $2800 |
| 4 Network | $3100 |
| 5 Network | $3300 |
Social Media Advertising
| 1 Network | $900 |
| 2 Network | $1300 |
| 3 Network | $1600 |
| 4 Network | $1900 |
| 5 Network | $2200 |
Many social media agency costs extra fees for effective strategies ranging from $1000-$3000. Developing a strategy means evaluating each platform to determine which one makes sense for one’s business. Without a strategy, any marketing and advertising plan would be meaningless.
A misconception about social media marketing is that it is easy, simple, and quick. From the audience to leveraging one’s social media to PR opportunities, it’s needed for an endless and ever-changing list of skills, tools, and best practices. Hence a dedicated and smart social media agency can help a businessman to grow his business with the spark of fineness and expertise in the world of social media.
Recommended Reading
Read out useful detailed articles written by us.
- What Are The Different Types of Digital Marketing?
- Why is Instagram Such an Important Social Media Platform?