So, you want to up your game and use social media marketing to take your business to a new level. Well, it is a wise decision. And if you are unsure how much does social media marketing cost and how much you must invest in it, you aren’t alone.
This question bothers a lot of businesses and marketers.
Here is the thing: Social media marketing is on the rise, especially after the Covid-19. Businesses that weren’t using social media in the past were forced to switch to it after the pandemic. Lockdowns have changed the way people buy and the importance of social media marketing has increased significantly. Whether it’s influencer marketing or social media ads, you have no choice but to invest in social media marketing.
The question is: How much does social media marketing cost?
This article dissects different costs associated with social media marketing and how you can calculate what you should be spending on it.
How Much Does Social Media Marketing Cost?
Social media marketing cost depends on several factors. And the two key factors that determine your cost are:
- What you want to achieve from social media marketing (Your objective or campaign goal)
- How you want to do it (DIY vs. outsourcing).
Let’s dig deep and see how both these factors are associated with the cost of social media marketing:
1. Social Media Marketing Goal
Your social media marketing objective is the key factor that determines the cost. For example, if you are interested in running a social media ad campaign on Facebook and Instagram, it will cost you more as you’ll be spending a daily fixed amount on ads.
On the other hand, if your goal is to manage social media accounts to engage with your followers, it will cost you less as a single employee can manage all your social media accounts.
Most businesses prefer simple social media marketing that involves account management, content creation and publication, and analysis. This will cost you, on average, $500+ per month depending on the number of social media accounts you have.
Here are the average social media costs according to WebFX estimation:
Social Media Marketing and Management Cost
Social media marketing and management are usually sold in a bundle together, you’ll be paying $500+/- per month. This cost is variable and is related to several factors such as:
- Social media tools you are using (e.g. Buffer or Hootsuite). These tools help your social media marketing team and solve a lot of their problems leading to a reduced cost per month.
- How often you publish on social media as publishing more often means more content creation and it will add to the cost.
- The number of followers you want to manage. If you have a lot of followers, the account manager will have to respond to several comments and messages on a daily basis. This will cost you more.
- What industry you are in as some industries like ecommerce have to be very active on social media. You’ll receive a lot of support messages on a daily basis.
- Small vs. large business. Small businesses have limited products, customers, and followers so their account management is easier as compared to large businesses.
Social Media Advertising Cost
If you are interested in running social media ads, it will cost you more. There are two types of costs associated with social media advertising:
- Fixed cost per month (that mostly includes salaries)
- Variable cost per month (daily/weekly advertising spend).
The fixed cost per month remains constant whether you run any ads or not. This cost includes:
- Salaries
- Cost of tools that you specifically use for social advertising.
Then the variable cost is the advertising cost you pay to the ad network. This is variable and depends on your budget. Each social media network has a minimum daily spend. For example, YouTube has a minimum daily spend limit of $10 while Facebook Ads has $1 per day. Twitter has no spending limit.
2. How You Want to Do It
The most critical factor that determines your social media marketing cost is the way you do it. There are two ways:
- Do it your (DIY)
- Outsource.
Do It Yourself
Most small businesses go with the DIY option. If you are interested in social media marketing and account management, you can do it at less than $100 per month easily. This doesn’t include salary cost though.
Here is what you need to do:
- Give an additional charge to one of the team members (preferably someone from the marketing team) – $0 or salary raise of $200-$300.
- Buy a social media scheduling and/or management tool. I love Buffer. It is cheap and works awesome – $10 per month.
- Create a free account with Canva to create stunning photos and graphics for social media – $0.
- Buy a subscription to a video creation tool such as Animoto, Biteable, or Lumen5. These tools help you create professional videos for social media – $30 per month.
- Repurpose blog content and share snippets on social media accounts with minor or major tweaks – $0.
That’s all. It will cost you way under $100 per month to do social media marketing in-house. If you want to give a raise to your employee, it will cost you no more than $500 per month.
If you are interested in running ads, you can do so with an additional advertising budget. The minimum budget you can go with is $30 per month (for Facebook and Instagram ads @$1 per day).
Outsourcing
Most businesses prefer outsourcing social media marketing as it makes it easier for them to pay a fixed amount per month to the agency or freelancer. And you can focus on other important strategic tasks.
You can hire an agency or go with a freelancer.
Social media marketing agencies will charge you a minimum of $500 per month for social media marketing and account management. A freelancer, on the other hand, can do the same job at as low as $300+/- per month.
The same is the case with social media advertising that will cost you $500 per month if you work with an agency and $300+ per month if you go with a freelancer. This cost doesn’t include your advertising budget.
Final Words
It is hard to estimate a fixed amount per month for social media marketing. The most important factor is DIY vs. outsourcing. If you have a limited budget, go for DIY. If you can spare $500+ per month, hire a social media marketing agency and leave the rest on it.
Outsourcing saves you from managing different tools and dealing with several accounts individually. But you’ll lose control.
Decide carefully. It isn’t all about money.
Featured Image: Pexels
