Social Media Management Pricing: What Are the Costs in 2022?

If you've ever wondered, “How much does social media marketing cost in 2022?” a standard social media management package will cost $750 per month and cover Facebook and Instagram. Or, for a freelancer to manage your social media, you'll pay between $285 to $795, depending on how many posts and channels you want covered.

The end price will always be tailored to what exactly you need. For an idea of how much you'll actually pay, you can use our completely free social media cost comparison tool to compare real quotes from leading agencies.

As businesses recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, growing your sales is more important than ever. Social media outreach can be an effective tool for hooking new customers and strengthening loyalty of existing ones.

In this article, we'll explain how much social media management costs, breaking down the price of various services you can afford with your budget.

How Much Does Social Media Marketing Cost?

You have two options here. You can either work with a social media management company, which typically charge monthly, or you can hire a freelancer, who usually charge by the hour. Below, we outline the average cost of both options.

Social Media Marketing Company Costs

The services of a social media marketing firm can come in anywhere between $50-$300 per hour depending on the breadth of services you're looking for.

Taking digital marketing firm BrandLyft for an example. They've received five-star customer reviews from the majority of their clients. Let's look at some quick-fire stats from Clutch.co:

• Hourly charge: $50-$99
• Client focus: 80% small business (<$10M)
• Cost of a four-month advertising and marketing project in 2021: $10,000-$49,999
• Cost of a five-month digital marketing project including social media in 2021: <$10,000

Pricing may not always be on an hourly or per-project basis. Some social media marketing companies offer monthly price packages for a standard set of service. This can take a weight off your shoulders as you can easily plan month-to-month budgets this way.

Here are some examples of the lowest monthly costs for social media marketing companies we've found to be high quality:

• Social High Rise responds to customer reviews and increases local search traffic: $249
• Lyfe Marketing monitors your Facebook and Instagram, sending 12 posts a month: $750
• Authentic Agency creates and publishes social media ads: $1,497

Social Media Marketing Freelancer Costs

These days it's easy to find peer-reviewed social media managers offering freelance services through platforms like UpWork and Fiverr. In researching these prices, we included top-rated and vetted freelance professionals endorsed by their respective platforms as reliable for quality and punctuality. You can always find someone willing to do the work for less money, but buyer beware of poor quality marketing which could actually harm your business rather than enhance it.

Here's an idea of standard costs of custom social media post creation (including research and creative content production):

• Four social media posts with relevant hashtags and captions over two channels: $285
• 10 social media posts across two channels: $395
• 20 posts across three social media accounts: $595
• 30 posts across four social media accounts: $795

[Prices correct as of June 20 2022]

Agencies like MarketerHire or Virtual Employee offer an even more thorough level of vetting and will match you to a specific pool of professionals according to your business' needs. Alternatively, you can access Expert Market's trusted supplier network if you provide us with a couple of basic details about your social media marketing.

Data shows companies focused on social media marketing in 2021 as a top priority. Graph: HubSpot 2021

What social media services will I get for my money?

Here's the question you really want answered: “What exactly will I get in return for $x,000?” and it's important you can give a satisfactory reply when the finance department hears your figures.

Here's a list of basic social media management services you can expect to receive:

• Optimize or create social media profiles from scratch
• Develop a content calendar
• Publish custom made content (i.e. posts and tweets) to increase brand exposure
• Responding to customer questions, reviews and complaints across social platforms
• Connect with influencers to broaden the reach of your content

Hm, do some of those seem a bit wishy-washy? You may be wondering whether clicks, hearts, shares and follows actually translate to increased sales, turnover and ROI. It's true that having more followers doesn't automatically mean more customers, and it's not a good goal to just “add more followers” in exchange for your marketing budget. You'll want to think more carefully about your benchmarks for success.

Before you go into your first meeting with a potential social media manager, you should draw up concrete business goals based on your particular industry. Here are some examples:

• Increased website traffic of at least x% – consultancy and services
• More customers through the door at lunchtimes – food and beverage vendors
• Uptick in sales – ecommerce, designers, resellers and physical stores
• More bookings – medical and personal services
• Better attendance at events (x% more visitors than previous event) – hobby clubs or religious groups

Instagram is the number one most used social media channel for marketing purposes, followed by Facebook and then Twitter. Statistics: HubSpot 2021

Don't forget, however. that there will inevitably be more intangible benefits to polishing up your social media presence. Although harder to measure, you may want to consider the potential knock-on effect of these when it comes to improved investment opportunities, hiring and retaining talent, and responding better to market changes. To name a few:

• Widen brand awareness
• Improve brand reputation
• Increase opportunities to define yourself as a company (including beliefs and values)
• Strengthen customer loyalty
• Better communication with customers, building rapport and understanding
• Manage customer dissatisfaction, concerns and complaints

It requires more creative thinking to see the wider brand value in the above, to be sure. If your business needs to focus on sales and conversions, you always have the option to invest more directly into social media advertising, specifically.

If you choose to pay for social media advertising services, these should entail:

• Lead generation
• Driving website traffic through paid-per-click advertising
• Precise audience segmentation and targeted advertising
• Run social media advertising campaigns

Social High Rise lists three types of Facebook ad campaigns, ranging in cost from $99 per month to $399 per month.

How Much Does Social Media Marketing Cost Per Month?

It's worth looking in depth at the various services you can afford depending on your monthly budget. Generally, the more you pay, the more social media channels your social media manager will cover.

To give you a clearer picture, let's explore the price plans, add-ons, and additional costs charged by two of the best social media marketing companies: Lyfe Marketing and Social High Rise.

Lyfe Marketing Pricing

The Instagram feed of Life Marketing helps marketers stay on top of social media trends and learn how to make the right business branding choices.

Core Social Media Management Plans

Each plan comes with a one-off setup fee of $150.

Add-Ons

Social High Rise Pricing

Core Social Media Marketing Plans

Each plan comes with a one-off setup fee of $199.

Add-Ons

How Much Do Businesses Spend on Social Media Marketing?

According to research by the Content Factory, the average company in the US spends between $200 and $350 per day on social media marketing. This means total costs can end up somewhere between $6,000 and $10,500 per month, equating to anywhere between $72,000 and $126,000 annually. 

The reason these figures are much higher than those we've cited is because they include all potential overheads, such as hiring in-house social media staff and training them up. These are things you don't need to worry about when you work with a social media management company or freelancer – so you can see how you might save money by working with a third party instead of managing your social campaigns in-house.

There's no denying that social media marketing can be expensive, but the results of an effective campaign will pay dividends; helping your business find new customers and boost sales. So, in the end, the rewards you’ll gain make it a worthwhile investment.

How Much is Social Media Marketing Worth?

The majority of businesses and marketers agree that social media marketing is a worthwhile investment. According to 2022 stats, 73% of marketers report that their social media marketing efforts have been effective, and 90% say it has increased their business's exposure.

We also know the popularity of social media marketing is trending upwards. It's predicted that $173 million will be spent on social media advertising in 2022. In fact, social media advertising is currently the second-biggest market in digital ads.

But how does that translate into meaningful figures for your business? One way to calculate the ROI (return on investment) of your own social media marketing campaign is to measure your quantifiable goals, such as the number of online form submissions or product purchases you gain, compared to the amount of money you spend on your social media marketing.

For example, let’s say you pay $0.97 – the average cost for Facebook PPC (pay-per-click) ads – for each time a customer clicks on your advert link. Now let's say you get 1,000 clicks. You’ve spent $970 in total. You’ll then need to divide that total spend figure by your average cost of acquiring a new customer in order to get your ROI percentage for Facebook PPC advertising.