Social media management pricing: what a month costs

Social media management pricing runs from 300 to 2,000 euros a month with a freelancer and from 500 to 5,000 euros with an agency, before ad spend. American agencies land in the same band in dollars. Few agencies publish their packages, so treat these as a range and ask every agency for a quote that names posts, channels and shoots.

This guide lines up the packages, explains what a shoot or community management adds, works out four kinds of business and weighs an agency against an in-house hire. What social media management covers when we do it is on social media management.

What sets the price

• Posts per monthScheduling eight posts is not the same job as twenty posts with reels and carousels.
• ChannelsInstagram and Facebook often share a post; LinkedIn and TikTok need their own tone and format.
• Who makes the visualsYour own photos, stock and templates, or a photographer and videographer on site. A shoot is the biggest variable.
• Community managementAnswering comments and messages every day is a line of its own.
• LanguagesPosting in two languages doubles the copy, and often the captions on video.
• FormatA reel needs filming and editing, a carousel design, a photo with a caption the least. Twelve reels a month cost more than twelve photos.
• Strategy and reportingA monthly report and a quarterly plan take hours you do not see in the feed. You can draft a plan yourself with the social media plan template and the content calendar template.

Social media management pricing per package

Some US agencies price per post instead, at 40 to 150 dollars a post. It is a handy check: divide any package by its number of posts and compare.

What a month of social media management contains

Our own estimate of a month with sixteen posts on two channels, the standard package above:

1. Plan. Topics, dates, promotions: two to three hours.
2. Visuals. Half a day of shooting per quarter, or selecting and editing what you supply: four to eight hours a month.
3. Making posts. Copy, design or editing: half an hour for a photo with a caption, two hours or more for a reel.
4. Publishing and replying. Scheduling, answering comments and messages: a quarter of an hour a day.
5. Report. What worked, what did not, what changes next month: one to two hours.

That adds up to twenty to forty hours a month, which is why a standard agency package sits around 1,500 to 3,000 euros, and why a 300 euro package always means you supply the images.

Four businesses, four budgets

Our own worked examples with the ranges above, before VAT and ad spend.

Add the shoot for the restaurant if it is not in the package, and for the store an ad budget of at least 300 to 500 euros a month per platform. What Facebook ads cost across Europe is in Facebook ads cost.

With or without a shoot

Without a shoot, the agency works with your photos, stock or designed templates. Cheaper, but your feed starts to look like other people's. With a shoot, a photographer or videographer comes by and you get weeks of material at once. A video maker in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking north of Belgium, charges, for example, 975 euros excl. VAT for about three hours of filming with six reels, a short company video and thirty photos. For what a full shoot day costs, see corporate video cost; what we film ourselves is on corporate video.

Hiring in-house in your own country

The salary in the comparison above is a Belgian band. Salaries for a social media specialist follow the local market, and the employer costs on top of a salary differ a lot between countries. Ask your payroll provider for the full monthly cost of one hire, add tools, a camera and the time to train someone, and put that total next to an agency package with the same number of posts. A hire wins when social is a full-time job; an agency wins when you want three channels done well without one.

Which channel fits your business

• Instagram and Facebookfor a local business with visuals: restaurants, salons, builders, holiday homes.
• LinkedInfor selling to businesses or hiring. Fewer posts, more text, ideally in the founder's own voice.
• TikTokfor a younger audience, if you can keep making video.
• Pinterestfor stores in interiors, fashion or gifts: people go there looking for ideas.

Start with one channel done well, add the next when the first runs.

What the price leaves out

• Ad spend, paid separately to Meta, LinkedIn or TikTok.
• A shoot if the package does not include one.
• Tools in your name, such as a scheduler or licensed music for reels.
• VAT. Agencies quote without VAT; across EU borders the reverse charge applies between businesses.
• Your own time to review posts and follow up customer questions.

Freelancer, agency, in-house or yourself

• Do it yourselfif you have one channel, like taking photos and can keep an hour a week free. Start with a fixed day and a fixed format.
• Choose a freelancerfor one or two channels with images you supply. You work directly with one person.
• Choose an agencyfor three or more channels, with shoots, reels and ads in one plan. What agencies charge in general is in digital marketing agency cost.
• Hire in-housewhen social is a full-time job and the person can take on other work too. Weigh it with the comparison above.

If you are not sure what an agency would do for you beyond posting, read what does a marketing agency do.

Pitfalls in a social media package

• Counting posts instead of imagesTwenty posts with stock photos do less than eight with images of your own business.
• Accounts in the agency's nameYour pages and ad account belong to your company.
• Results in followersFollowers are not customers. Agree what you measure: site visits, enquiries, bookings.
• A year without a trialThree months is enough to see whether style and pace are right.