Digital marketing tactics aren’t limited to social media, but regular posting, advertising, and boosted posts can go a long way toward building a brand and influencing consumer decisions. The right mix of social media tactics, executed consistently and crafted to appeal to a target audience on the appropriate platform, is essential in today’s digital world. Of course, the burning question we frequently hear is, “How much does social media marketing cost?” The simple answer is, “It depends.”
Factors that affect the cost of social media marketing
Every company can benefit in some way from the right mix of social media marketing tactics. Figuring out how to budget for and implement those tactics depends on factors specific to your business. We’ve identified a few primary factors that can affect the cost of a social media marketing strategy of any duration.
Current social media accounts
Setting up new social media accounts that support a company’s vision and brand takes a little time and may require new creative assets such as cover photos or videos and a profile icon. A business that already has pages set up with brand-appropriate creative elements on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and other platforms may be ready use those existing accounts to launch a successful social media marketing strategy without setup costs.
Many marketing agencies have a flat fee for setting up a new page on a social media platform. Creative assets may not be included in that fee. A great marketing agency will first evaluate existing pages, compare them to your top competition, and prepare a social media strategy proposal based on your goals, target audience, and budget.
Posting and page management
Businesses have a lot of options when it comes to creating and scheduling posts. Many costs associated with social media posting depend on the answers to these questions:
- Who will create the posts?
- How frequently will posts be scheduled?
- Will posting require subscription to a scheduling platform?
- At what intervals will posts be scheduled? Monthly or weekly?
- Who will respond to interactions such as comments and shares?
If you have a social media-savvy employee who can create a social posting calendar, create posts, and schedule them at times when their reach will be most effective to meet your business goals, that could reduce the amount you spend with an agency. Social media monitoring should also be done at set times throughout the day and even on weekends to optimize engagement and build the brand. For small businesses, that’s not always an option.
The good news is that a great marketing agency can customize a posting creation, cadence, and monitoring package to suit your audience and budget.
Advertising mix
Algorithms within each social media platform change frequently and can affect who sees your posts. Highly monetized platforms have refined algorithms in favor of paid posts, so it’s a good idea to include some paid advertising or boosted posts in your social media mix to increase the number of people your messages can reach. Advertising on social media can cost as little as $5 a day, or as much as you’re willing to spend to meet pre-defined engagement goals.
Ads can also be built to target specific audiences with shared interests or online behaviors, and even specific email addresses. Setting up those ads may take a bit of time and incur extra costs, so always ask for those estimates up front before you approve a social media ad campaign.
Measuring efficacy through analytics tools
Social media campaigns that are effective and help businesses reach their goals are created through a cycle of research, implementation, and analytics to measure what works and what doesn’t. Some agencies charge extra for those reports, which are usually run monthly to make the necessary adjustments.
Cowtown Creative uses the latest analytics tools to build and monitor social media campaigns that get results. We don’t charge extra for that service, because it’s our mission to provide marketing strategies that maximize return on investment and demonstrate that value to our clients.
Contact us today to find out how we can help your business conquer the social media algorithms and create effective and budget-wise campaigns to move your business forward on the right social media platforms.
