Freelance Quote ToolFree calculator →Define the monthly result before the content count
“Manage our social media” is not a usable scope. Clarify the business goal, platforms, audiences, content formats, posting frequency, approval process, response expectations, reporting, and who supplies raw assets.
Separate channel management from photography, video shoots, long-form editing, paid advertising, influencer outreach, and crisis support. Those can be separate deliverables or add-ons instead of invisible work inside one monthly fee.
Map the real monthly workload
Estimate time for every recurring activity:
- Strategy, research, content planning, and campaign ideas
- Copywriting, design, editing, captions, and accessibility
- Scheduling, publishing, links, tags, and quality checks
- Community monitoring and agreed response windows
- Client calls, approvals, feedback, and project management
- Analytics, reporting, recommendations, and next-month planning
Add time for revisions, delayed approvals, platform-specific versions, asset chasing, and unexpected announcements. Track actual time for the first three months, then update the retainer when the evidence shows that the workload is different.
Calculate a sustainable monthly floor
Use an internal hourly floor even when the client sees one monthly package. Add overhead, scope risk, profit, and payment fees so the retainer can support consistent delivery.
Hourly floor: USD 45 Monthly workload: 32 hours Overhead: 12% Scope / approval risk: 15% Target profit: 25% Payment fee: 3.5% Suggested monthly retainer: approximately USD 2,527
This is a worked example, not a universal market rate. Replace the assumptions with your own costs, experience, capacity, client demands, location, and positioning.
Package scope by platforms, production, and service level
A useful package states the number of platforms, original content pieces, adaptations, short-form videos, stories, community hours, approval rounds, reports, meetings, and response times.
Define whether one idea adapted across three platforms counts as one content concept or three deliverables. State whether raw footage, photography, licensed assets, scheduling tools, and ad spend are supplied by the client or charged separately.
Offer three monthly options
Let the client choose a service level instead of negotiating down the same workload.
Essential - approximately USD 2,274 / month One core platform Client-supplied assets Light community monitoring One monthly report Recommended - approximately USD 2,527 / month Two core platforms Original content plus platform adaptations Defined community-management hours Monthly strategy call and report Premium - approximately USD 3,159 / month Everything in Recommended Higher content volume or short-form video Priority response window Campaign and launch support
Make each option operationally different. The Recommended package should match the outcome and workload the client described most clearly.
Protect approvals, extra work, and renewal
Set one approval contact, a feedback deadline, included revision rounds, and a rule for missed approvals. Define what happens to unused deliverables and whether work rolls over.
List add-on prices or a change-order process for extra posts, urgent announcements, weekend monitoring, new platforms, campaign builds, shoots, extensive editing, paid-ad management, and crisis support. Review the retainer after an initial term using actual workload, results, and the next period's goals.
Common questions
Should social media managers charge per post or per month?
A monthly retainer is usually clearer when the work includes recurring strategy, production, publishing, community management, reporting, and meetings. Use per-post pricing only when the deliverable and surrounding responsibilities are tightly defined.
Should ad spend be included in the management fee?
Usually no. State the management scope and fee separately from the client's media budget. Paid campaign setup, creative production, optimisation, reporting, and platform spend are different cost lines.
How many revisions should a social media package include?
Define one or two consolidated approval rounds per content batch, together with a feedback deadline and one decision-maker. New direction after approval should use the extra-work process.
How do I raise an underpriced monthly retainer?
Use tracked workload and changed scope as evidence. Explain the new monthly capacity required, offer a revised package and a smaller-scope alternative, and give reasonable notice before the next renewal period.