Most social media proposals in the market look the same: a package with a number of posts, a number of stories, a monthly report, and a price. Then you compare three proposals on count and price alone.
That comparison is the cause of most bad experiences, because the count is not the service.
What does a package priced by count actually measure?
It measures volume of work, not effect. Twelve posts a month can be built on an understanding of the customer and a clear message, or produced in a single day from ready-made templates. Same number, completely different result.
And that is why, when you ask "how much for twelve posts?", you make the competition about price, and anyone can lower the price if they also lower the time spent on your account.
Ask about these instead of the count
- Who is the target audience and how was it defined? If the answer is "ages 25 to 45," that is not a segment, that is a demographic.
- What are we going to say? The core message everything revolves around, and the reason a customer should buy from you specifically.
- Who replies to messages? The single biggest point where sales are lost in this market. If replies are not in the agreement, define who owns them on your side.
- Is the ad budget included? And is the management fee a percentage of the budget or a fixed amount?
- What is in the report? Ask to see a real sample report before you sign.
What actually determines the price?
Pricing in this service is based on human hours, not on file counts. The difference between a proposal at two thousand and one at ten thousand is the number of hours and the experience of the people working on you.
Ask directly: roughly how many hours a month does this package take, and how are they split between thinking, execution and follow-up? That question exposes cheap proposals immediately.
There is a second factor: is the work made for you or produced from templates? Templates are not shameful in themselves, but they should cost less, and you should know what you are buying.
The difference between a content service and a growth service
A content service keeps you present and organised on the platforms, genuinely needed if your page is neglected. But on its own it does not produce sales in most sectors.
A growth service includes advertising, offers, and a clear path from ad to reply to sale. It costs more, and it should be measured by prospects and cost per customer, not by post count.
Decide which one you need now, and pay for the one you actually need. The worst case is paying for a content service while expecting the result of a growth service.
A package is not a substitute for a good product
The thing that wastes the most social media money is a company buying marketing while it has a problem in the product or service itself: late delivery, an illogical price, or a cold response to customers.
Good marketing in that situation only accelerates the exposure of the problem: more people try, are disappointed, and talk. Before you pay for a package, make sure what you sell can withstand more demand.
Hidden items that surface later
- Photography. Most proposals do not include shoots, and that is a real cost.
- Paid advertising. There is a difference between managing the ads and funding them, establish who pays what.
- Revisions. How many revisions are allowed per design? Without that clause you will argue every month.
- Replying to messages and comments. Included or not, and during which hours.
- Rights to the materials. Are design source files handed over to you at the end, or do they stay with them?
Do I need to be on every platform?
No. And this is the biggest waster of small-company budgets. Every platform has a different language, content format and rhythm, and being on four badly is worse than one well.
Choose based on where your customer is, not on what is trending: if you sell to companies, LinkedIn is usually more important than TikTok. If you sell a visual product to consumers, Instagram and TikTok matter more.
And when you ask an agency, if the answer is "you need all the platforms" with no reason connected to your customer, they are selling you volume rather than results.
How to think about the price relative to your business
Instead of asking "is this expensive or cheap?", ask "how much does this have to bring me to be worth it?" If the package costs a monthly amount and your margin per customer is known, you need a specific number of customers a month to break even.
If that number is reasonable for the size of your market, proceed. If it turns out you need more customers than your capacity or your market can supply, the problem is in the choice of service, not the price.
That calculation takes five minutes and prevents most failed engagements.
And if the budget is small?
With a limited budget, focus on one channel and one product rather than splitting a small amount across four platforms. A weak presence everywhere is worse than a strong presence in one place.
There is an order that works for most small companies: fix the basics first (correct information, clear photos, fast replies), then simple consistent content, then advertising with a small budget behind your best product.
That order saves you months of spending on content that reaches people who then land on an unconvincing page.
Replying to messages: the part that decides the sale
In this market, most social media sales happen in the messages, not on the website. And yet this is the part most often left without a clear owner.
If the agency replies, ask: within what time? During which hours? And who answers technical questions that need product knowledge?
And if you reply, set yourself a rule: every message answered within an hour during working hours. A campaign you are paying for where replies take two days is wasted, and the campaign is not the problem.
How to assess a proposal in five minutes
Read it looking for three things: is there any discussion of your customer and your market, or is it all about them? Are there target numbers, or only deliverables? And are there clear termination terms?
A proposal with all three, even if more expensive, is usually the cheapest over a year.
The annual package and the discount
Many agencies offer a discount for a one-year commitment. That discount can make sense, but ask yourself: do I know their standard well enough to commit for a year?
The middle ground I use with clients: agree the annual price, on condition of a review after three months and a termination clause with a month's notice. That way you take the discount and keep the exit.
And if they refuse the idea of a review entirely, that is a sign they rely on the contract rather than the results to keep you.
In short
Before you ask about the price, ask about the deliverables, the method of measurement and the responsibilities. A package that describes the work in detail turns out far cheaper than one that only describes the quantity.
And remember the most expensive thing is not the monthly price, it is a year spent paying for work nobody measures.
This is part of a series on choosing a marketing agency, which also covers what to ask before signing, and how to tell good work from mediocre.