How Much Does Social Media Marketing Cost in 2026?

Social media agency pricing ranges widely. From $1,000/month for startups to $25,000+ for enterprise, and what you pay directly determines what you get. A freelancer, full-time hire, and agency each serve different needs, but if you want strategic firepower without being locked into a long-term contract, a month-to-month agency model gives you the best of both worlds.

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So we hear this question a lot. I think people are looking online and wondering what does
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social media actually cost? Well, we’re going to talk about real numbers today. We’re going
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to expectation set with you and we’re going to compare what a full-time hire would be,
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what a freelancer would be, and then what a good agency or what I would say would a boutique
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small agency would be what a large agency might be as well. And give you guys the information,
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the power you need in order to make the best decision possible. Sue Joanna, Jason, how do
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you guys think about when you guys first started pricing social media marketing, when you first
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started the company, Jason, what were your thoughts around pricing?

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I mean, when you’re just starting out and if you don’t have a lot of experience or case
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studies behind it, I mean, you’re going to have to try to compete on price, which is
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not where you want to be long-term. But building momentum and getting a good library of case
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studies should be the priority, though. So I mean, I think when we first starting out,
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which was 2018, 2019, I mean, our retainers typically covered around 2,500, 3k a month
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for basically what would be full service, probably posting three times a week across
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maybe a couple channels, mix of imagery and video content, and then managing a relatively
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modest paid budget. So a lot of agencies that I think that are either newer or just starting
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out, you know, can still get away with that sort of pricing structure. But as we’ve matured,
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you know, our retainers have gone up just because of the scope or the size of clients
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that we’re working with, and the fact that we have to remain and keep happy, the tools
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and platforms that we have to use, I think it is actually more formulaic if you’re willing
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to put in a little bit of the groundwork. A lot of agencies do time tracking. We do not
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do that. So it actually adds a little bit of ambiguity and takes a little bit more digging
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around to figure out what an appropriate hourly rate is. But that’s how we have such good
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talent because we don’t. That’s the right. We do that by design, actually. That is not
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a bug. It’s a feature. People do their best work when they’re not being watched. So yeah,
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and then I think you just have to kind of figure out what a good hourly rate is. And then when
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you’re talking to a new prospect, you know, identify how many hours a month it’s going
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to take collectively, you as an agency to do it. Multiply by your agency rate and charge
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on that. And I think that’s something that Jason’s really good at transparency wise is
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just saying we’re not trying to get the most money out of you possible. We are calculating
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the number of hours that this is going to take. And we have identified our agency rate
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based on the platforms we’re using, the talent that we have and how much it costs to serve.

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And that’s the bill that you’re getting. It just depends on, it just depends on it’s
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always what you get what you pay for. So depending on the size of your business or your goals
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and objectives, I mean, you can find somebody that’s, you know, fresh out of school or kind
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of a hustler and kind of doing their own thing independently that’s kind of young and up and
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coming and you might be able to get them for, you know, 25, 30, 40 bucks an hour. But if
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you’re working with an experienced agency that has lots of experience and has more horsepower
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and, you know, more design, track record, you’re going to pay more for that. So it just depends
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on what you’re comfortable with and what your goals and objectives are.

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Yeah. And I think that people don’t understand completely that if you whittle people down
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too much on the price, ultimately, that’s going to impact what they can deliver because
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when people will basically profit margins go from, you know, something healthy where they’re
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actually able to pay some bills down to like they’re pretty much working for you for free,
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you may feel good about that because you’ve got the best price, but that’s not going to be the
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best mental scenario and working environment for the people doing the work. And ultimately,
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it’s not sustainable and people will fall off and the work will probably suffer for that. So
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what might seem like a great deal up front really probably turns into not so great work on the
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back end, then you end up then paying double for it because you have to redo it. Yeah. And a really
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good simple way of kind of thinking about it too is if you’re just trying to kind of think of it,
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you know, in a weird sort of way, 50 bucks an hour is kind of going to kind of get you that
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individual contributor contractor singular person that kind of jack of all trades master of none
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could probably, you know, do a pretty good job for smaller businesses,
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but it’s going to be limited in being able to go super deep or having just a really sophisticated
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ability to deliver advanced design work. You know, a hundred bucks to 125 an hour
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ish is probably your your newer kind of smaller agency that maybe has been around or just started
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a year to end doesn’t have as much overhead. You’re probably still working with one person,
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maybe two. So they’re a little bit more sophisticated, maybe maybe using some more advanced sorts of
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things and then usually 200 an hour or more are your premium level experienced agencies where
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you’re getting an account manager who owns the relationship, you’re getting a paid manager who’s
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just focused on paid, you know, you have more, you have experts working on very singular things
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as opposed to one person doing everything. So the outputs more can be more extensive,
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the sophistication behind what’s being done. And I think something that sometimes goes unnoticed
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is and what I think is an area that we provide some of the most valued clients is you have a
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whole think tank. So when we have experienced an issue with a client or a roadblock or something
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that we need to come together and strategize on, well, we’ll do it in our team calls, we’ll come
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all together. So you’re getting multiple brains, like 50 years of experience and marketing altogether,
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I was going to say a hundred, but I realized Jason, you’re the only, we’re all whatever.

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But yeah, we have a lot of experience. We can all come together and strategize for a client,
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and I think, and then we, you know, give all that information to the account manager and they
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kind of filter it through. And I think that’s something we typically try to make note of it and say,
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hey, our whole team got together and did this, but I can see how it would go unnoticed it for
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people who have internal hires and then move to an agency, you’re not just getting access to your
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account manager, your account manager is your liaison, but you’re, you’re getting access to a
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wider marketing brain. Yes, yeah, 100%. So you had to sum up the section here, just in generalities,
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you know, you’re in a small agency, we’re going to talk about a couple thousand dollars a month,
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they’re going to have certain deliverables that are going to be, you know, certain amount of posts
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a week, a certain amount of platforms, then you get into a company like ours, which is a boutique
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size agency that’s been around for eight plus years that definitely has some horsepower behind them.

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And you’re looking at a couple of tiers, I think, which is $4,000 gets you three,
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four posts a week, depending on the content that you have that you’re able to give us, we are able
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to edit that in a certain way and a certain amount of platforms and a paid output, then you go up
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to the next level, which would be $7,000 a month, we’re producing a lot more videos, we’re able to
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help garner more UGC, we’re managing bigger paid budgets, and then you go up to the top tier,
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which is some of our biggest clients, which are $15,000 a month plus, and you know,
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you’re pretty much talking about posting every day, unique pieces of content on each platform,
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managing multiple campaigns and different ad accounts that all have.

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We’re communicating with the client every day, yes, complex strategies.
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We’re more on extension of your team at that level rather than just providing a service for you.

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100%. So then talking about the comparison of like, that’s agencies, and we’re talking about
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apples to apples, but now if we talk about apples to oranges and things we try to identify when we’re
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in the process of vetting prospects and seeing if it’s a good fit for both sides is,
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are you looking for an agency to do this work? Amazing. Are you looking for an agency, maybe a
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full-time hire and maybe a freelancer? Well, that’s problematic for us, but I don’t think
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a lot of prospects understand why that is. And I guess, Jason, you’re really good at
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talking about this because you’ve done a lot of hiring. Explain what general rates are for junior
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marketers, senior marketers, what they will do, and then what the pricing difference is for paying
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one of those people for a year as opposed to an agency. Yeah, I mean, it’s pretty rare.

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I mean, business is a little bit different in terms of what might be in their best interests,
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and usually bringing it in-house versus working with an agency usually comes down to two things.
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One, how obviously the resources that you have to work with size of company, but also
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probably which is the bigger outlier for that is, how much control do you need and want over
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the output of your social media? We’ve learned sometimes the hard way that when clients don’t
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give an agency a lot of creative flexibility once they’ve kind of gotten onboarded and
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understand the brand and the no-fly zones and those sorts of things,
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you really shouldn’t be hiring an agency if you’re not willing to let them fly, to let them take
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some creative risks. Yeah, if you’re looking for an executioner, if you have a really tight
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and strict brand guidelines and you’re looking for someone to execute work on social media that
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you prescribe, I think that’s where we find an internal hire makes the most sense, because
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you’re looking for someone to go take what you have and go and take orders. You’re not looking
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for a strategic partner, you’re not looking for someone who has expertise in social media and can
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translate your brand onto that, onto social media, you’re looking for someone who can just do what
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you need. Yeah, people are going to usually be more expensive than agencies in general, apples to
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apples, if you’re trying to surround yourself internally with the right level of talent and
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breadth of talent, you’re certainly going to be getting more bang for your buckles than agency,
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but again, if control and you’re really finicky about what goes out and how it goes out, typically
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that doesn’t work well with agencies, because the biggest value of hiring an agency is your
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– it’s a creative multiplier, you’re trusting that they’re experts at what they do and
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as long as they’re getting acclimated to your brand, they should be able to work on your behalf
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fairly independently. Yeah, and a full-time hire for a junior role is somewhere in that
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four to five grand a month range, so I mean you’re already in the ballpark of what an actual
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legit and respectful agency that’s been around for a while is going to charge you and then let
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alone get up to a senior hire and then you’re probably talking more in the realm of seven,
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eight thousand dollars a month. Then again, they’re incredibly talented people and if you need
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somebody on your team to be that executioner, I think that’s a great route. Then you get into
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the freelancer stage and the kind of the ins and outs of the freelancer thing is you’re looking
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at somebody who may be 40, 50. Before we move on, if I could just go back a little bit to the
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internal hire as well, when you’re hiring someone who’s even seen your level, I think
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previously, social media has been seen as like it’s been taken less seriously. I think it’s taken
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more seriously nowadays, but what I think people in the space are still competing against is
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you hire a social media manager and you expect them to be a paid ads expert, a content creation expert,
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a video producer, video editor, photographer, and so you can have the budget to pay an employee
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eight thousand dollars a month, but they can’t wear 10 hats. Maybe they’re your content creator,
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but they can’t also do paid ads, so it’s not only budgeting for the one employee, it’s budgeting
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for probably three or four. A hundred percent, so well said. Then the freelancer thing is a
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great route if you are a company that does not have the resources or money to invest in either
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even a small agency or a full-time hire, then you find the fact that you have to go out and vet
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somebody to do contractor-style work. The biggest thing I’d say there is that they take away as you
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know, really do your due diligence and make sure you see some product from them prior to hiring,
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because God knows there’s a lot of people out there that don’t have those chops yet.

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Go for it. I was just going to say, I think also with contractors, by nature, by name,
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they’re not as reliable in terms of their longevity. They have to get their bills paid,
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and if one project works better for them than yours, they’re going to move there. Unless you
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have a strong contractor agreement, you could be left in the lurch. I think setting realistic
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expectations for different business stages. I’d say startup, solarpreneur, we’re looking at the
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$1,000 to $2,500 mark. When you’re talking about a small business, it’s doing maybe one to five
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million in revenue. You’re looking at that $2,500 to $5,000 a month mark. When you’re talking about a
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medium-sized business, if your company is doing $5 million to $50 million and you’re not investing
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more than $1,000 or $2,500, you’re just using social as an afterthought and probably throwing
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away money at that point in time. We think mid-sized companies should be spending between $5,000 and
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$10,000 at least a month on social. Then you have enterprise companies, which we’ve definitely
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worked with a couple of those, and that’s going to be in that $10,000 to $25,000 a month range.

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If you want help figuring out what budgets make sense to you, we’ve built a free tool that helps
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with that. It’s our budget calculator in the description. We’re also incredibly open to jumping
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on a call, chatting through anything. Even if it’s not a fit, usually we can point you in a great
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direction and a lot of times it is a good fit. I hope that helped and I hope you can get a better
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takeaway of what good social media marketing costs. Boom.

Key Takeaways

• “How much does social media marketing cost?” can’t be answered honestly until you know your goals, your budget, and what level of service your business actually needs. Pricing without context is just a number.
• Hourly rates tell the real story: ~$50/hour gets you a generalist freelancer, $100–$125/hour a smaller agency, and $200+/hour a full-service agency with specialists across paid, organic, and creative.
• A full-time junior social media hire runs $4,000–$5,000/month (already in agency territory) and they still can’t do everything an agency team can.
• Beating an agency down on price doesn’t make you a smart negotiator, it makes the work suffer. Unsustainable margins lead to high turnover, less creative energy, and worse results.
• Budget benchmarks by business size: startups $1,000–$2,500/month, small businesses $2,500–$5,000, mid-size companies $5,000–$10,000, enterprise $10,000–$25,000+.
• When you hire an agency, you’re not just getting an account manager, you’re getting an entire think tank of experienced marketers solving problems for your brand collectively.