12 Oct 20268 min readBy Shaish Guni
How to price social media management in a proposal
Social media retainers fall apart in a predictable way: the price was set for “a few posts a week,” and three months later you’re also answering DMs at night, re-editing approved posts, and running ads nobody priced. The fix is in how the proposal sets the price.
The short answer
- Count the monthly deliverables per channel. Estimate hours. Multiply by the rate you need.
- Price community management as time, with a stated daily window and response time.
- Keep ad spend out of your fee. Price ad management and content shoots as separate lines.
- Cap approval rounds, set a feedback deadline, and agree a minimum term before month one.
Separate the four kinds of work
“Social media management” bundles four jobs that cost very different amounts. Price them separately in your head, even if the client sees one monthly number.
Strategy and planning. The content calendar, campaign themes and monthly review. Fairly fixed time per month.
Content production. Writing, designing and editing posts and video. This scales with volume and format. An edited short video takes far longer than a text post, so count formats, not just “posts.”
Community management. Replying to comments and messages. This is the open-ended part, so price it as a time window (for example, 30 minutes per working day) with a stated response time, not “we’ll handle engagement.”
Paid social. Setting up and managing ads. This is a different skill with its own reporting. Price it as its own line, and keep the ad budget itself out of your fee entirely.
A worked example
Here is a two-channel retainer built from deliverables. Every input is illustrative. Use your own hours and rate. This is a method, not a price list.
| Monthly deliverable | Hours | At $60/hr |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly content plan and calendar | 3 | $180 |
| 12 feed posts across 2 channels (write, design, schedule) | 12 | $720 |
| Short-form video edits, 4 a month (from client footage) | 6 | $360 |
| Community management, 30 min per working day | 10 | $600 |
| Monthly report and review call | 3 | $180 |
| Scheduling and design tools | — | $60 |
| Monthly retainer, rounded up | 34 | $2,100 |
Illustrative inputs: a $60/hr effective rate and $60/month of tools allocated to this client. Ad spend and ad management are not included.
Notice where the hours go. Community management is nearly a third of the hours in this example. It’s the line most often left out of the price and then done anyway. If a client wants weekend or evening coverage, that’s a different window and a different number.
Then run two checks. Value: would this programme plausibly be worth more than it costs to this business? Capacity: if every client looked like this one, how many could you serve, and would that pay you enough? If the answer is no, raise the rate or cut the scope. Don’t quietly absorb the hours.
Build the tiers around output
Tiers should differ in what gets made, not just the price. A sensible shape: one channel with a set number of posts and light community management; two channels with video, as in the example above; and a third tier that adds a channel, more video and a longer community window. Name the one you recommend and say why it fits their goal.
List every tier in countable terms: posts per channel per month, videos, stories, community hours, reports. A client comparing “Starter” and “Pro” with no numbers can only compare price, and will pick the cheaper one.
Price the extras as their own lines
Content shoots. If you produce photo or video on site, price each shoot day separately. Monthly retainers built on “client provides footage” break the first time the footage doesn’t arrive. Say what happens then.
Ad management. A separate monthly fee, with the ad budget paid by the client straight to the platform. Running a client’s ad spend through your own account mixes their money with yours and makes your revenue look bigger than it is.
Onboarding. Auditing the current accounts, setting up brand templates and getting access sorted is real month-one work. A one-time setup line keeps the monthly figure honest.
The limits that protect the price
Approvals. One round on the monthly calendar and one on individual posts, with a feedback deadline. Say what happens to content that isn’t approved in time: it either posts as planned or moves to the next slot.
Response times. “Comments and messages answered within one working day, Monday to Friday” is a promise you can keep. “Always-on community management” isn’t.
Account ownership. The client owns their accounts and should keep admin access. You work with delegated access. Write it down. It makes the handover clean if the engagement ends.
Term and notice. A minimum initial term of around three months gives the work time to show a trend. Then move to rolling monthly with notice. Explain why in a sentence.
No follower promises. Commit to the deliverables and the reporting. Platform algorithms aren’t yours to guarantee.
Wording for the pricing section
Example pricing copy (our wording, illustrative prices)
“Recommended: Two-channel plan, $2,100 per month for an initial three months, then rolling monthly with 30 days’ notice. Includes the monthly calendar, 12 feed posts across Instagram and LinkedIn, 4 short videos edited from your footage, community management for 30 minutes each working day with replies within one working day, and a monthly report and call. Ad budget is paid directly by you to the platform. Ad management, extra shoots and additional channels are quoted separately.”
Putting it into the proposal
Our free social media management proposal template has sections for the account audit, channel strategy, deliverables, approvals, reporting and pricing. If social is part of a broader engagement, the marketing proposal and digital marketing proposal templates fit better. The same pricing logic applies to SEO retainers.
We make ApeiroCraft, where those templates open. Your tiers and setup fee go in as pricing line items, the client signs on the proposal link, and you can see when they opened it. The accepted proposal becomes the first invoice in one click. ApeiroCraft doesn’t automate recurring invoices: for later months you save the invoice as a template and send it each month. Invoices link to your own payment page.
Social media pricing questions
- How much should I charge for social media management?
- Work it out from the monthly output: list posts, videos, stories and community-management time per channel, estimate the hours, multiply by the effective hourly rate you need, add tools, and round. Then sanity-check it against what the work is worth to the client. There's no single right market rate; the right price is the one your scope and capacity support.
- Should ad spend be included in a social media management fee?
- No. Keep the client's ad budget separate from your management fee, ideally paid directly by the client to the platform. Price ad management as its own line if you offer it.
- Should I price social media management per platform?
- Price per deliverable, grouped by platform. Each channel has its own formats and community, so 'Instagram and LinkedIn' is two workloads. Listing posts per channel per month makes the scope countable and the tiers easy to compare.
- How many revisions should a social media proposal include?
- Set one approval round on the monthly calendar and one on individual posts, with a deadline for feedback. Content not approved by the deadline either posts as planned or moves to the next slot — say which in the proposal.
- Should I promise follower growth?
- No. Promise the deliverables, response times and the metrics you'll report. You don't control platform algorithms, and growth targets you can't guarantee turn into disputes.