Incorporating social media marketing into your digital marketing budget is essential as it can yield measurable outcomes such as enhanced conversions and increased website traffic. Typically, social media marketing services are procured on a monthly retainer basis, ensuring consistent access to a predetermined suite of services at a fixed, predictable rate.
Costs of Social Media Marketing
Navigating the expenses associated with hiring a social media marketing agency entails understanding potential additional charges beyond the initial retainer fee.
Setup fees, also known as onboarding fees, may be applicable to cover the introduction and training required to initiate your account.
Ad spend for paid post promotion is typically not covered in agency retainer fees, requiring separate payment to each platform. Depending on campaign objectives, this could amount to an additional $50-$100 per day or $1,650-$3,000 per month.
Premium customer support options may be available, offering enhanced assistance for an additional fee.
Reviewing your service agreement is crucial, as not all social media channels may be included. Additional channels like TikTok, LinkedIn, or Pinterest may incur a fee of around $150 each.
Engaging influencers for brand promotion may incur extra costs, with fees varying based on factors such as content volume and duration of collaboration.
Social Media Marketing Temp, Part Time, and Freelancer Costs
The costs associated with temporary, part-time, and freelance social media marketing services have become more accessible through platforms like UpWork and Fiverr. In our research, we considered rates from top-rated and vetted freelance professionals endorsed by their respective platforms for their reliability and punctuality.
Highly-rated social media managers typically charge between $35 to $350 per hour, with most falling within the range of $50 to $85 per hour. While it's possible to find individuals willing to work for less, caution is advised to avoid compromising on the quality of marketing efforts, which could potentially harm your business's reputation.
Specialist agencies offer a higher level of vetting and can tailor services to meet your specific business needs.
What It Would Cost To Do Social Media Marketing In-House
Calculating the expenses associated with in-house social media marketing begins with considering the investment in staff time. Managing a single social media channel typically demands a minimum of one hour of focused work per day. Realistically, it's advisable to schedule the creation of informative, educational, or entertaining content, such as videos, at least twice a week. Additionally, addressing inquiries, complaints, and engaging in industry discussions is essential.
These tasks can be efficiently managed using free or cost-effective professional-grade tools. For example, Planable offers clear channel oversight and facilitates collaborative content creation. With a free starting option, premium plans are available at $11 per user monthly or $22 for expanded features. Alternatively, Hootsuite provides a comprehensive toolkit with a free 30-day trial. Subscriptions are priced at $99 monthly for one user, $249 for three users, or custom rates for teams of five and above. Further details on tool pricing are discussed in the subsequent section on the Cost of Social Media Marketing Tools and Software.
What's the Expense of Outsourcing Social Media Marketing with a Tight Budget?
On platforms like UpWork.com, hiring a social media management freelancer typically costs between $35 to $55 per hour. For those seeking the most budget-friendly options, outsourcing to English-speaking countries such as India, the Philippines, Malaysia, or Singapore could offer lower rates. Naturally, managing your own social media remains the primary approach for navigating a limited budget until professional assistance becomes financially viable.
What Social Media Services Will I Get for my Money?
When investing in social media, understanding what you'll receive for your budget is essential. Here's a breakdown of the basic services typically included:
Optimization or creation of social media profiles
Development of a content calendar
Posting custom branded content (such as posts and tweets)
Managing responses to customer inquiries, reviews, and complaints across social platforms
Engagement with influencers to extend content reach
Should you opt for social media advertising services, expect:
Lead generation to attract the right clients or customers
Driving website traffic through paid-per-click advertising
Precise audience segmentation and targeted advertising
Management of your brand's reputation through positive narratives
How to Ensure a Positive Return on Investment (ROI)
You might be questioning whether clicks, likes, shares, and follows genuinely translate into increased sales, turnover, and ROI. It's important to recognize that merely having a larger following doesn't automatically equate to more customers, and acquiring more followers isn't always the best use of your marketing budget.
To guarantee a favorable ROI, it's crucial to establish concrete business objectives tailored to your specific industry. Consider these examples:
Achieving a specific percentage increase in website traffic – relevant for consultancy and service industries
Generating more foot traffic during lunch hours – particularly relevant for food and beverage vendors
Boosting sales figures – especially crucial for ecommerce, designers, resellers, and physical stores
Increasing bookings – important for medical and personal service providers
Improving event attendance by a certain percentage compared to previous events – pertinent for B2B, weddings, or events-based businesses
Advantages of Social Media Marketing for Brand Reputation
It's important to acknowledge the multitude of intangible benefits associated with enhancing your social media presence. While these may be challenging to quantify, they play a crucial role in improving investment prospects, attracting and retaining talent, and effectively responding to market fluctuations. Some of these benefits include:
Expanding brand awareness
Reinforcing customer loyalty
Enhancing opportunities to establish your company's identity, including its beliefs and values
Enabling engagement with potential clients through ABM and ABX strategies
Improving communication with customers, fostering rapport and understanding
Effectively managing customer dissatisfaction, concerns, and complaints
Expenses Associated with Social Media Advertising
As previously mentioned, additional charges are incurred when you aim to expand your post's reach on social media platforms. While creating an account is often free, the primary revenue stream for these platforms comes from paid content promotion, granting access to their extensive user base.
Running paid social media advertising campaigns involves two main costs: content creation and platform promotion. The precise expense for promoting your posts varies depending on the platform and whether you engage an agency or manage the marketing independently.
When working with an agency or freelancer, the exact budget allocated to promoting your content may not always be transparent. Many social media professionals prefer to offer services based on fixed fees or predefined objectives rather than providing a detailed breakdown of expenditure.
How Does Facebook Determine Charges for Promoted Content?
When initiating an ad campaign on a Meta platform like Facebook, you establish a maximum budget. However, you're only billed for each impression (view) or click generated by users, known as "cost per click" (CPC). For instance, if you set a campaign budget of $1,000, you may only be charged $700.
Facebook's algorithms assess which ads are likely to garner the most engagement from specific users and distribute ad space through an auction system. Various bidding strategies exist to enhance your ad's visibility, a complex process often entrusted to specialized paid marketing or "biddable" experts by business leaders
Calculating ROI for Social Media Ad Expenditure
To illustrate, suppose you pay $0.97 per click for Facebook PPC (pay-per-click) ads, resulting in 1,000 clicks, totaling $970.
Remember to consider content creation and social media management fees, possibly bundled if you engage an agency. Let's say these amount to $350 for graphic design and $400 for social media management, totaling a campaign spend of $1,720.
Subsequently, determine the total revenue generated by the campaign by tracking user actions post-click. Assuming $3,200 in sales from customers who clicked the social ad.
Finally, deduct the campaign costs from the revenue to obtain your net profit. In this case, $3,200 – $1,720 = $1,480.
It's not a minus number, so that means you're doing well! However, you may not find every campaign is profitable – and this is normal. It's better to look at the bigger picture and measure all your paid social campaigns together. Try to analyze how you could improve on your results, either with better targeting or higher quality ads.
Average Spending on Social Media Marketing by Businesses
As per the Content Factory, businesses in the US typically allocate between $200 and $350 per day towards social media marketing endeavors. Consequently, monthly expenditures can range from $6,000 to $10,500, translating to an annual investment of $72,000 to $126,000.
Undoubtedly, social media marketing entails significant costs, yet the outcomes of a successful campaign are lucrative, aiding businesses in acquiring new customers and enhancing sales. Ultimately, the returns garnered justify the investment, making it a valuable endeavor.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How effective is social media marketing really?
Social media marketing can be highly effective in achieving various business objectives, including:
Increasing brand awareness
Driving website traffic
Boosting conversions
Cultivating a loyal following
Directly contributing to ROI
However, the outcomes may vary based on factors such as the target audience, content quality, and overall marketing strategy. To maximize success, it's essential to set clear goals, regularly analyze performance, target the right audience, and optimize content for each platform. Investing in a dedicated social media manager can streamline the process and ensure desired outcomes.
How do I hire the right social media agency?
Finding the right social media agency requires careful consideration and evaluation. Here are some key points to consider:
Assess the agency's specialization, including their experience with companies of similar size or within your industry.
Review the success of their previous campaigns and their ability to meet key performance indicators (KPIs). Client testimonials, case studies, and live campaign examples can provide insights into their effectiveness.
Understand the agency's full range of capabilities, ensuring they can accommodate your specific needs beyond social post creation. This may include expertise in paid ads, community management, content formats, and analytics.
How much should you pay for a social media audit?
The cost of a social media audit typically ranges from $300 to $800 for auditing main social profiles. However, a comprehensive multi-platform competitive audit may cost $1,500 or more. Factors influencing the cost include the number of posts analyzed, depth of reporting, and competitive comparisons.
Boutique agencies and freelancers often charge hourly rates ranging from $50 to $150, while larger agencies may offer packaged campaigns at a fixed price. Extensive audits conducted by large agencies can range from $5,000 to $20,000 and beyond, depending on the scope and complexity.
