How Much Does Outsourced [Social Media Management Cost]?

How much does it cost to outsource the social media management of your social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and more channels to a professional outsourced social media management agency?

Do you want to know how much an Agency charges to manage individual social media accounts or a group of social media accounts?

Admittedly, the cost of outsourcing social media management is one of the most frequent questions that social media management agencies or companies get asked about and we get tons of them too, here in Lagos, Nigeria.

So, in this article, you will learn how much it costs for packaged social media accounts and the cost of Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or Facebook ads.

You will also learn about the cost of advertising on the most popular social media networks.

And from what you learn, you can easily decide which platforms and pricing packages align with your business goals.

The answer to any of those questions is not clear-cut, but I will give you a simple, common sense, and yet practical answer to each of those questions.

You see, to cut costs, many small and mid-sized companies are tempted to manage their social media accounts in-house.

But the reality is that many people who are awesome at running their core businesses, simply don't have the expertise or enough time for the learning curve that social media management demands.

Others don't have the time to craft amazing content, upload, promote, monitor, and measure the engagements on their social media sites.

Then some just don't know how to use social media effectively to draw human traffic.

While many others are simply not comfortable with engaging with ‘strangers’ online.

What outsourced social media management strategy do you need?

So, do you want to know how much it would cost you to have a social media manager 'handle' your social media accounts?

Conversely, do you want to know how much a social media management agency charges to manage your social media marketing?

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You're probably saying 'come on guy what is the difference?'

The difference is that somebody that 'just handles' content postings for you on your different social media platforms is different from an agency that manages your social media accounts as part of your holistic marketing strategy.

That is a truism that many have not appreciated nor accepted.

But it is what it is.

The difference between 'handling' your social media accounts and having a professional agency manage them is like the difference between hiring a stenographer and an executive secretary to 'handle' or manage your official duties.

A stenographer just writes down words that someone says in shorthand.

As you already know, a stenographer 'handles' just one job - and that job is just to transcribe.

That one job is all she does.

On the other hand, an executive secretary does more than taking notes. The executive secretary does way more than a stenographer.

She does so with more responsibilities and 'power'.

As you have noticed, the duties and responsibilities are uniquely different, even if people mistakenly call both of them 'secretary'.

Similarly, the differences in the kind of services a social media manager is hired to do are unfortunately the biggest misconception that many people have in figuring out how much to pay for social media management.

For some, this misguided and inexcusable belief is that every content manager does the same thing - and that is just to post content.

With what result?

The result is that such misinformed reasoning clings to the 'logic' that both should be paid the same - peanuts.

The 'logic' forgets that when you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

The flawed reasoning then is, if all a social media manager does is post content using one of those pretty social media management platforms, then anybody can do it.

And if anybody can do it, it should not cost that much.

Is that reasoning true of all social media managers and social media marketing?

Outsourced social media companies indeed post an insane amount of content every day.

That is just a major part of what we do.

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Offshore social media marketing agencies craft and post tons of content on the internet every minute.

On the other hand, for professional offshore social media management companies, that is only one tiny piece of the puzzle - and we admit, an important one at that.

Therefore, to find a social media management agency that meets your needs, you have to define what it is that you want out of social media marketing.

After you have written down your social media marketing goals, it becomes ridiculously easy to find an agency or company whose niche in social media marketingmeets your goals and vision.

Then the question arises: 'worldwide, how much are businesses, organizations, or individuals spending on social media management.

Global Social Media Management Spend

According to eMarketer, the global social media ad spend was estimated to reach $36 billion in 2017.

And in 2015, advertisers in the U.S. were projected to spend $9.59 billion on social ads, up 31.0 percent from 2014 and that figure is more than double the amount they spent in 2013.

The most popular social media network for advertisers, Facebook was ahead of its peers in the paid social advertising landscape globally.

Therefore the point is clear.

Tons of successful companies are spending billions of dollars on social media advertising and management.

Shouldn't that data get you curious about social media marketing?

What is it that social media marketing is bringing to the bottom line that is making them happily spend this insane amount of money on it?

But before you outsource your social media marketing, what do you want to get out of your social media management?

For many, it is an ego thing - aka social-proof.

If you're not thinking of how to use the unique and awesome power of social media marketing to skyrocket the sales of your products or services, then you are not ready to pay for the services of a professional social media management company.

Between you and me.

What Are Your Social Media Goals?

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Do you have a social media plan or strategy?

The main goal that companies that are laser-focused on their marketing want to achieve is to boost their social media presence.

When you catapult your social media presence, you generate new leads, amplify your brand awareness, and engage with your current customers.

When you have sizeable authentic connections, you have more genuine eyeballs to learn about your new products or services.

Do you have SMART goals or a winning plan?

Effective social media agencies are using SMART goals. SMART is an acronym for:

S - Specific: Achievable goals are clear, simple, and defined. The more specific the goal is, the easier it is to see what needs to be accomplished.

Most of the time, just supplying answers to the five “W” questions, Who, What, Where, Why, and Which is all it takes to help you achieve greater specificityr.

M - Measurable: Can you measure your goal? How do you know when your goal has been reached?

A good way to achieve this is by attaching a metric to your goal so that you can measure your progress. Tons of metrics can be measured in real-time.

A - Achievable: A beautiful way of putting this is 'are you realistic and reasonable'? Are you modest enough to set realistic goals with the resources that you have?

Will you be able to achieve this goal? Make sure you’re being reasonable with your expectations.

R - Relevant: A relevant goal for small and mid-sized businesses or organizations is a goal that has the potential to impact their business objectives, vision, or values in remarkable ways.

T - Time-sensitive: A social media goal should have a deadline.

The purpose of the SMART approach is to help you avoid the pitfalls that stop people from achieving their goals.

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However you slice it, you would agree with me that it costs money or time to produce effective content, post the content, monitor, engage with your audience and run marketing campaigns.

Despite the costs associated with it, awesome content can amplify your online presence as well as your bottom line.

Also, it takes great expertise and money to craft impactful comprehensive guides, amazing infographics, creative video, and other types of amazing content.

Like many other small and mid-sized business owners, you might find yourself in a situation where you are investing a lot of resources without corresponding results.

Other Services That Social Media Management Agencies Offer

• A professional offshore company would set up all your bios, profile, and background images for all your different social media platforms.

  That means designing your graphics, color schemes, fonts, and other design elements that will match and enhance the ones on your website.

  In other words, crafting your branding.

• Besides, it involves creating valuable content that is the voice of your brand and that meets your needs and expectations with an effective mix of relevant social media marketing strategies.

• A social media sub-contractor promotes your content massively and aggressively while actively engaging with your audience to form new relationships.

  Such nurtured relationships are the main reasons why your target audience buys your goods and services as well as recommends them to others.

• An effective social media marketing agency monitors and measures all the buzz about you and your competition and takes appropriate and immediate actions.

As you can see, based on what you want to achieve, you can hire somebody to 'handle' your social media accounts or an agency that will take your social media marketing as part of your holistic marketing strategy and boost your sales.

Some are willing to pay for such knowledge and experience.

Therefore, the cost of professionally managing your social media accounts varies from a package of services to a package of services and from one agency to the other.

It also depends on the experience level of the social media agency that you hire, the size of your business, the package of services you require, and a whole bunch of other important factors.

Why Do Social Media Marketing Pricing Vary So Much?

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The global nature of the internet is why social media pricing varies from agency to agency and from one location to the other.

The industry-wide cost of social media management varies from $1000/month to $15,000.00/month.

Since there is no global standard on how to qualify to be a social media management agency, anybody can open a social media management agency.

Astonishingly, such companies can claim that they are social media management ‘experts’ or ‘gurus’.

And remarkably, back up their claim with any pricing that tickles the fancy of their prospective clients.
So you can appreciate why it is definitely up to you to do your research and find out for yourself, what you consider a fair price for what you want in your social media management.

Professional and reputable digital marketing agencies are transparent.

By reasonably comparing apples to apples and not to oranges, you get to know what you are getting for what you are willing to pay. 

Good social media management and pricing decision should be based on what the hired company brings to the table.

For you, that means a good ROI while keeping the reputation of your brand intact. 

Social media pricing is based on many factors and should be flexible to meet the needs of the clients and their target audience.

This flexibility makes it ridiculously easy for many, especially new businesses and organizations to embrace social media marketing

By taking a closer look at the service pricing of the different social media platforms, you can make an informed social media management hiring decision.

If you finally decide to hire a professional social media management agency, I applaud your decision.

Why?

Because such a wise decision would skyrocket your online presence.

Most importantly, it would also help you sell tons of your products or services.

Is massive success not what you want?

How Much Does Outsourced Social Media Management Cost?

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The price for outsourced social media management varies from company to company and also from country to country.

The reason why such is the case is that the cost of doing business is not the same in all countries.

For instance, in Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria where British English is commonly spoken, social media marketing agencies here can manage the social media accounts of companies in the US, UK, Australia, and other English-speaking developed countries.

Since the wages here are stipends compared to what is paid in advanced countries, one might erroneously conclude that it is ridiculously cheaper to do business in Nigeria than in advanced countries.

That may be true until you count the cost of generating your own electricity and water.

How much does it cost to deal with bad roads and stressfully bad Wi-Fi services?

Even with the added costs, it is still cheaper to outsource your social media marketing to an agency here in Lagos or Abuja than to manage it in-house.

Since Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and, Pinterest are the leading social media platforms that most people are on, we will break down what you get when you embrace the different packages of the different social media platforms.  

How Much Does It Cost To Manage A Business Facebook Account?

With well over a billion monthly active users, you would agree with me that Facebook is the largest and most powerful beast of a social media advertising platform in the world.

Taking advantage of that awesome behemoth of a platform can be a difficult challenge.

However, to succeed on Facebook, you will need to understand how to drive user engagement and effectively use audience targeting to get the most out of your advertising budget.

Signing up for a Facebook business account is free.

If you are a small or mid-sized business owner who is creative and blessed with plenty of free time, you can actually ‘handle’ your own Facebook business page.

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To cut costs, many businesses cut corners.

Sadly, some choose to hire a teenager, family member who plays on Facebook all day.

That route might not cost you initially, but you will pay for all the unintended consequences later on.

Still, you will not get the results you’re looking for either.

That is if the results you’re looking for include generating leads, expanding your brand, engaging with your customers, or promoting your goods or services.

Since those strategies are important for your business success, would you still outsource your social media management to a teenager or an inexperienced person or agency?

You will need to hire a professional social media marketing agency.

If you hire a friendly, professional digital marketing agency, you get a team that spends plenty of time researching what content people in your niche are sharing on the internet or that are trending online. 

And they spend even more time promoting your online content massively and ruthlessly for the ultimate success.

Let's get to the cost.

Get this:

For effective online management of your business Facebook account, some online PR agencies charge an average of $2,500 - $5,000 per month, with some going as high as $9,000 for the following services:

• Page setup and administrative structure.
• Custom cover photo and profile photo.
• PPC Advertising strategy.
• Setting up and managing Groups and Events.
• Custom landing page/Facebook app.
• Profile (biography, mission, etc.)
• Vanity URL
• Duplicate page/location, clean up.

What Is The Cost Of Managing A Twitter Account?

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If you have "sweat equity" you can grow a Twitter following over time. On the other hand, you can buy Twitter followers and have great social proof on your profile page.

How does such a high number of Twitter followers benefit your business?

A professional social media marketing agency that is armed with a laser-focused strategic plan can craft useful, compelling, and relevant content that would ‘wow’ your target audience.

Interacting, engaging, listening, and monitoring your target audience is what differentiates great agencies from the ordinary.

If you intend to launch a Twitter account complete with the setup and outsourcing the creation of content and audience interaction, many agencies charge $800 — $4,000 per month

For those with an existing Twitter account that need the expertise to skyrocket the marketing to the next level, we offer “limited coaching” to achieve the goals of our clients.  

Many companies charge $1,000 - $2,500 per month for:

• Page setup and administrative structure.
• Initial seeding of followers/accounts to follow / outreach.
• Custom cover photo and profile photo.
• Advertising strategy.

• Vanity URL

• Profile (biography, mission, etc.) SEO optimization.

How Much Does It Cost To Manage A LinkedIn Business Account?

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Professionally crafted LinkedIn profiles and Company Pages are very important in an effective professional branding strategy.

However, it doesn't matter who you are or what you do; it’s not easy to write about yourself. 
Setting up a LinkedIn business page is free but unlike Facebook where almost anybody can set up your page, you need somebody who is savvy and detail-oriented to set up the company page.

LinkedIn Company Page is three pages. (‘Home’ ‘Products’ & ‘Insights’). 

After the LinkedIn pages are set up, a dedicated person manages those Pages going forward.

The cost of developing content to share and the time needed to engage with followers and monitor followers are all factored in when calculating the cost of managing LinkedIn Pages.

A lot of businesses that have an underperforming LinkedIn profile or

Company Pages are not readily found on the platform.

That is why there is a whole industry that specializes in crafting

LinkedIn Profile and Company Pages that get results.

To have result-oriented online management of your LinkedIn business pages, some online PR agencies charge an average of $3,500 - $7,500 per month, with some going as high as $9,900. 

A successful social media management program will help your company reach thousands of potential new customers online and on multiple devices.

This is possible because our bespoke and result-orientated social media marketing solutions ensure that every action that we take brings you one step closer to your goals and in achieving the results you envisioned.

You see, by making our amazing and dedicated social media specialists part of your team today, you will benefit from our no-risk result-oriented marketing and branding solutions.

Social media enhances the sales process only if your company has a comprehensive content marketing strategy and committed resources to maintain your websites.

Despite what many people have come to believe, social media is not a "set it and forget it" process.

What Is A Social Media Strategy And How Much Does It Cost?

A social media strategy is the way that your business or organization plans to use social media to achieve its objectives or goals.

It is a very simple statement that outlines your social media intent, goals and the measurable objectives for using social media, and the targeted results that you envision.

An effective social media strategy is a holistic plan that takes into account all the other marketing strategies that the company or organization is using to achieve its goals. 

For A Thorough Social Media Strategy

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In this package, you outsource all of your content creation for all your relevant channels – $5,000 - $12,000 a month

An Exhaustive Social Media Strategy

With a thorough social media strategy, you can outsource most of your content creation at first, with the agency assuming more responsibility as the project proceeds.

Be ready to pay $4,000-$9,000 a month for 4-12 months.

The Crafting Of A Social Media Strategy

If you want the agency to craft your social media strategy with limited coaching and assistance with the execution of the strategy, the cost ranges from $3,000 to $6,000 a month for 3-9 months.

Restructuring Of Existing Social Media Strategy

This is a package with limited coaching and assistance with the strategy. You pay $2,500 - $6,000 a month for 3-9 months.

For limited coaching on improving the execution of an existing social media strategy, it would cost $2,000 - $5,000 a month for 3-6 months.

Social Media Strategy Audit – $2,000-$5,000.

How Much Does PPC (Pay Per Click) Advertising Cost?

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Many digital marketing agencies treat PPC as an afterthought or a courtesy offer.

It might shock you then to learn that many digital agencies that provide awesome digital marketing strategies, customer service, and value client relationships, shy away from PPC advertising services.

Still, many that provide stunning Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies are slightly interested in PPC advertising.

Why?

Because many digital marketing agencies that believe in the power of organic search results are not interested in paid advertising.

However, the PPC marketing model has been working admiringly well. Google AdWords is the giant of that group. How much dough are we talking about?

Recode reports: "Google parent company Alphabet makes more money from digital ads than any company on the planet — it’s expected to make 73.8 billion dollars in net digital ad sales in 2017.

Wow!

That is after subtracting for traffic acquisition costs, according to internet research firm eMarketer.

Google represents 33 percent of the world’s $223.7 billion in digital ad revenue this year.

Facebook is a distant second at $36 billion this year, or nearly $40 billion less than Google".

So you can see that whether you are using PPC or not, your competition is because they can measure the results.

Now that you've seen the need for PPC advertising, you need a quick answer to the question:

How Much Does PPC (Pay Per Click) Advertising Cost?

I know you want the pricing now. You should be interested in what you're getting for what you would be paying.

With an effective PPC manager, you avoid the pitfalls that other marketers have gone through.

Your on-point manager uses every successful best practice out there.

Your stellar agency squeezes maximum results from each campaign and each ad group.

An awesome PPC manager's job includes polishing, tweaking, and improving your advertisement, day in and day out.

Get this:

It is important to understand that PPC management is not cheap.

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If you want to reap the awesome benefits of PPC advertising, it will cost you anywhere from $250 - $1500 per month on average

That price can go much higher than those quoted.

That's because a full-service PPC includes initial consultation, set-up, and analytics integration.

It also includes keyword research and selection, copywriting, bid management, ad scheduling, and weekly, bi-weekly, monthly reports.

It may also include search term reports, ad performance analysis, restructuring existing ads, and creating new ads (groups and campaigns).

Our digital marketing agency charges a monthly management fee plus a percentage of ad spend, typically from 15 - 25%, depending on how much money you’re paying us per month.

If you're a small business with very small accounts, it’s normal for agencies to also charge you a monthly minimum.

This guarantees that the agency will be able to pay the people at the agency that are working on your account each month.

It might surprise many to learn that smaller accounts require more work than big accounts.

The reason why it is so is that not only are you building the campaigns, you're also managing them.

How Much Does Social Media Audit Cost?

As with other aspects of social media marketing, it is not easy or practical to give you a standardized cost of social media audits.

This is because the cost varies depending on the complexity and effort involved.

What Is A Social Media Audit?

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A social media audit is a series of independent assessments or steps taken to optimize a business's social media profiles and strategies.

By being able to see what is working and what needs to be improved, a social media audit can help small and mid-sized businesses stay on top of their online presence.

This review starts with the review of the website and all the social media channels that the client is using.

We gather tons of information on different social media channels.

As you can imagine, it is not fun for a social media marketing manager to waste precious time on social media platforms that are not producing results.

Do a deep and thorough review of all the social media channels and not just Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Did you create a Social media account a few years back that you forgot exists?

Is there an old Instagram channel floating around with just a few subscribers?

Using tools like Namechk or Knowem we can find existing social media profiles.

The audit also examines the social media activities of your competition to compare against your company’s performance.

Once the analysis is complete, we’ll provide you with a comprehensive report that includes key recommendations for improving your performance. 

Social Media Strategy Audit – $1,500 - $5,000

Our Social Media Management Process

The first thing we do is to consult with your company so that we can learn about all the obstacles that you face with social media management concerning your sales process.

Then we do a social media audit of all your social media accounts.

As you already know, this independent analysis of all your social media channels helps us immensely to see what is working and what things need improvements.

After that, we recommend the most suitable package that best fits your needs and budget.

Then, we set the right monthly social media management program.

Additionally, we craft a unique, compelling and awesome strategic plan to leverage your social media pages as valuable tools for your sales team.

Finally, we put the plan into action by promoting you massively and ruthlessly to achieve your goals.

What You Get:

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Increased human traffic to your website by using social media.

• Real-time monitored accounts that positively project your company and brand.

• Massive engagements on your social media platforms that increase engagements with your prospects.

Dedicated Account Manager - keeps your workflow under control.

Weekly Posts On All Platforms - Most of the posts would be on Twitter with backlinks to the website.

Reputation Management – makes it easy to seamlessly respond to your friends’ requests, new likes of Facebook, comments, and even Twitter’s Direct Messages.

Posts Keyword Research - We research keywords or phrases to enhance your visibility on your chosen social media platform

SEO & SMO Post Optimization – helps your company stay visible on all platforms.

Blog Posts - We create awesome blog posts that will drive killer traffic to your website.

Ad Campaigns – We work with you in creating and monitoring your awesome ad campaigns such as Facebook Ads and Google Ads.

Final Thoughts On Outsourcing Social Media Management

As we have already mentioned at the beginning of this article, many small and mid-sized businesses recognize and appreciate the need for social media marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy.

Still, many have this misconception that they can hire just about anybody to ‘handle’ their posts with amazing results.

This crazy idea drives some into believing that all you have to do is post a few contents here and there on the internet and sales will skyrocket.

This leads to big-time frustration because many companies, brands, and organizations know that they need to be active on social media.

And that is why they outsource a lot of their marketing strategies to other companies that specialize in those digital marketing tactics.

You can also outsource the following:

Social media management

Article writing.

Remote work

Website design and development

Costs Of Other Digital Marketing Projects

Graphic Design Pricing or cost

Website Design And Development cost

Unfortunately, despite all the costs associated with outsourced social media management, many people still think that social media marketing is free.

Is it?

Effective Social Media Management Costs Money. It Is Not Free

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While signing up for the different major social media networks is free, but if you are going to achieve any meaningful success in social media, you will spend money.

Really?

But when compared to traditional marketing, social media marketing brings more bucks to the table.

So in cornbread language, we say that social media marketing rocks!

As you think of how much you would realistically spend to achieve any measure of success, consider the following points.

Social media marketing has grown in different specialty areas.

Any successful campaign would require outside experts who can help you gain a competitive advantage.

As your effective management continues to roll out meaningful and successful content that touches your target audience emotionally, you get more engagements.

“Social media channels are free to enter, but associated costs and problems become apparent later.

Even YouTube marketing takes a lot of time just to set it up properly.

That is also probably one of the reasons why the return on investment has been hard to measure.

The perception that these channels are free, although prima-facie true, hides several problems.

Looking at three of the major problems associated with this misconception will help companies plan a social media strategy that increases ROI.

Interestingly, the more successful you are at amplifying your audience engagement, the more manpower you will need to keep up with those conversions.

For effective monitoring of social media accounts, paid platforms are better than free ones.

Not to be overlooked is paid media.

Outsourcing social media marketing is amazingly ideal for a company that loves to spend its time on its core business.

Granted, most businesses outsource marketing and advertising.

Do you see any reasons why social media marketing should be any different?

Companies, organizations, or individuals that treat social media as part of a holistic marketing strategy, reap awesome benefits.

Therefore, treat your online presence and branding as you would any important marketing strategy.

Put your money where your mouth is and be actively involved to ensure that you are represented in the way that you want. 

As our partner, you’ll find that investing in social media will skyrocket your major brand marketing KPI's across all marketing channels.

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WhatsApp us at: +234 080 331 75396