What social media management costs, and why agencies want 12 months

The short answer

There is no official going rate, so judge a quote by what a month contains: regular posts from your own jobs, replies to comments and reviews, and your Google listing kept current. Ours is £199 a month plus VAT. A 12-month tie-in mostly guarantees the agency’s income, so ask for a short start and monthly notice after.

Why we will not give you an average

Search for what social media management costs and you get a wide spread of figures, nearly all from agencies with a package to sell. We have not found an independent UK survey of these prices that we would put our name to, so we are not going to invent one.

A price on its own tells you very little anyway. Say a plasterer in Oldham is quoted £150 a month for one post a week, and has to send the words for it himself. That is dear. Someone else paying more for proper weekly work that brings in two extra jobs a month might be getting a bargain. So start with what you get for the money, then look at the money.

What a month of work should contain

For a tradesperson, social media is mostly about trust. A stranger looks you up before they ring, and they want to see a real firm doing real jobs near them. A month of work should be built around that.

• Posts every week, made from your own job photos, naming the town the job was in.
• Replies to comments and messages, so a question asked on a Tuesday is not still sitting there on Sunday.
• Replies to your Google reviews, good and bad, and the listing kept up to date: hours, photos and the area you cover.
• Your OK before anything goes out in your name.
• A short note at the end of the month: what went out, and what people asked about.

Our guide to the posts that get calls covers what those weekly posts should actually be.

What most one-van firms do not need in the monthly fee: TikTok, posting every day, or paid adverts bundled in. Ads might make sense later. They are a separate decision, with separate money.

If a quote does not say how many posts a week, who writes them, who answers the comments and whether you see them first, ask before you sign. A vague quote turns into an argument by month three.

Keep the ad money separate

If a package includes adverts, find out how much of the monthly figure is the agency’s fee and how much actually goes to Facebook. Meta’s own page on ad pricing says the advertiser sets the budget, calls the budget your most valuable cost control tool, and says you can cancel or pause an ad at any time.

That only helps if the advertiser is you. Our view is that the ad account, and the card on it, should be in your name, so you can see every pound spent and switch it off yourself. If the ad spend is hidden inside one round monthly figure, you cannot tell whether you are paying for adverts or for the agency.

What a 12-month contract is really for

Be fair to agencies first, because there are honest reasons for a minimum term. The first few weeks are mostly setting up: sorting the pages, learning your trade, building up a stock of photos. Social media takes a while to show anything. A client who leaves after four weeks has paid for the setup and seen none of the results, and nobody is happy. A small agency also needs steady income to plan its staff and its time.

Now look at who a 12-month term actually protects. If the work is good, you would stay anyway, and the contract changes nothing. The only months it does anything are the months you want to leave and cannot. That makes it a guarantee of the agency’s income, paid for by you. Plenty of decent firms use them. It is still worth knowing which side of the table the clause sits on.

Do the sum. Say a plumber in Stockport is quoted £199 a month on a 12-month contract. That is £2,388 committed before VAT, before a single post has gone out. On a three-month start at the same price, the commitment is £597. Same monthly fee, very different risk if the fit turns out to be poor.

Remember too that you are signing as a business. GOV.UK’s guidance on unfair terms in sales contracts says firms have more responsibilities towards consumers than towards other businesses. Read the contract on the basis that it means what it says, and if a particular clause worries you, that is a question for a solicitor.

What to check before you sign

• How long the minimum term is, and what happens when it ends. Does it go month to month, or roll on for another year?
• How much notice you have to give, and whether there is an exit fee.
• Who owns the pages, the photos and the posts if you leave.
• Who owns your Google listing. Google’s help page on owners and managers says a profile can have several owners but only one primary owner, and that managers cannot add or remove users or remove the profile. The primary owner should be you, with the agency added as a manager.
• Whether the agency asks to be added to your Facebook page or asks for your password. Never hand over the password.
• Whether the price includes VAT.

The VAT bit

Check whether any price you are quoted is before or after VAT. GOV.UK says a business must register for VAT if its taxable turnover over the last 12 months goes over £90,000, and the standard rate is 20%. So a VAT-registered agency adds 20% to the invoice.

Whether that costs you anything depends on your own position. GOV.UK says you can reclaim VAT on items you buy for use in your business if you are VAT registered, and that you must have valid VAT invoices. If you are not registered, the VAT is a straight cost, so compare quotes on the full figure. Your accountant will confirm how it works for you.

How we price it

Our Done for you package is £199 a month, paid monthly in advance. We are VAT registered, so VAT goes on the invoice, which makes it £238.80 a month with the VAT on. It starts with our Socials sorted package, free, so your pages look right before we post a thing. Then you send us job photos as you go, and we turn them into posts every week, reply to comments and reviews, and keep your Google listing fresh. Nothing goes out until you have approved it. Paid adverts are not included, and if they would make sense for you, we say so.

We have a minimum term too, and we would rather say so plainly: three months to start, because that gives the work a fair chance to show something. After that it is month to month, thirty days’ notice by email, no exit fee. You stay the owner of everything we make, from the posts to the pages, and if you leave it all goes with you. The full detail is on our packages page.

What to do next

If you have a quote on the table, check four things before you sign: the length of the term, the notice period, who owns your Google listing and whether the ad money is separate. If any answer is vague, ask for it in writing. And if you would rather someone looked at where your pages stand before you spend a penny, our free check-up does that, and it costs nothing.