How to price social media management: retainers, scope and revisions
Most freelancers and small agencies underprice social media management in the same way: they price the posts and forget the work around them. Planning, briefing, chasing approvals, revisions, reporting and the client call all take time, and a price built only on “twelve posts a month” quietly pays for none of it.
This guide doesn’t tell you what to charge — rates vary too much by market, experience and client for any number here to be honest. It covers how to structure a price: the common models, how to work out your own number, what a retainer should include, and the scope rules that stop it eroding.
The three pricing models
| Model | How it works | Good for | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly | Bill the time spent | One-off audits, consulting, undefined work | Punishes efficiency; clients watch the clock |
| Monthly retainer | A fixed fee for an agreed scope each month | Ongoing management — the most common model | Needs a clear scope, or it grows |
| Packages | Fixed tiers — e.g. two networks and twelve posts | Freelancers selling to small businesses | Clients pick the cheapest and ask for the biggest |
For ongoing work, the retainer is usually the right answer. Social media is a monthly rhythm — plan, approve, publish, report — and a monthly fee matches it. Packages are a retainer with the scope pre-written, which makes selling easier and scope creep more visible.
Work out your number from time, not posts
A post is the visible part of the work. To price a month properly, estimate the time the whole month takes and price that.
| Task | Example hours per month |
|---|---|
| Planning the month and writing briefs | 2 |
| Writing captions | 3 |
| Design and editing | 5 |
| Review rounds and changes | 2 |
| Scheduling and publishing checks | 1 |
| Community management (if included) | 3 |
| Reporting | 1.5 |
| Client communication and calls | 1.5 |
| Total | 19 |
The hours above are an example for one client with twelve posts across two networks, not a benchmark — time your own first two months and use those. Then multiply by your hourly rate, and check the result against what the client’s market will bear.
What a retainer should include
Write the scope down in the proposal, in numbers wherever possible. A retainer defined as “social media management” will be interpreted by the client as everything.
- Networks: which ones, by name
- Posts: how many per month, per network, and in which formats
- Creative: whether design, photography or video editing is included, and to what level
- Revisions: how many rounds per post are included
- Community management: whether replying to comments and messages is included, and in what hours
- Reporting: a monthly report and a call — how long
- Approval turnaround: how quickly the client agrees to review
- Paid advertising: included or not — and if managed, whether ad spend is separate
Anything not on the list is out of scope. That isn’t a refusal to help; it is what lets you price the extra work fairly when it comes up.
Revision limits protect the price
Unlimited revisions turn a fixed fee into unpaid hours. Two rounds per post covers almost every genuine fix; beyond that, a post usually needs a new brief, not another edit. Put the number in the proposal, alongside what happens after it: further rounds move the post to a later slot, or are billed.
Approval deadlines protect the price too. A client who takes two weeks to answer compresses your production time into the last few days — the approval workflow guide has proposal wording for turnaround and missed deadlines.
Costs to account for
- Tools: scheduling and approval, design, stock media — per client where they scale with clients
- Stock photos, music and fonts licensed for commercial use
- Your own non-billable time: sales, admin, learning
- Taxes and payment fees in your country
Check how your tools charge. A tool that charges for every client reviewer makes each new client more expensive to serve; one where client approvers are free doesn’t.
Minimum terms and notice
The first month of any client costs more than the rest — onboarding, account access, learning the brand. A minimum term, commonly three months, lets that cost be earned back. Pair it with a notice period of a month, so an ending client doesn’t leave a hole in next month’s income.
An onboarding fee is the alternative: a one-off charge for the setup month, then a retainer that can be cancelled with notice. The onboarding checklist lists what that month includes.
When to raise your prices
- Your calendar is full and you are turning work away
- A client’s scope has grown beyond the original proposal
- Your time tracking shows a client consistently takes more hours than priced
- Once a year, as a matter of course, with notice
Raise prices for new clients first, then for existing ones at their renewal, with a month’s notice and a sentence on what has changed. Clients who value the work rarely leave over a considered increase; the ones who do are often the ones costing you most.
Pricing checklist
- 01Choose a model: retainer for ongoing work, hourly for audits and consulting
- 02Estimate every hour of the month, including reviews, calls and reporting
- 03Multiply by your rate and check it against the client’s market
- 04Write the scope in numbers: networks, posts, formats, rounds, reporting
- 05Set revision limits and an approval turnaround in the proposal
- 06Add your costs: tools, licences, fees
- 07Set a minimum term or an onboarding fee, and a notice period
- 08Track your hours for two months and adjust