Social media is a great place to promote your product or service to your target audience. There are more than 5,000,000,000,000 active users of these platforms worldwide, so you can effectively promote your brand. But in this situation, there is a legitimate question: What is the average budget for social media marketing? In our article, we will delve deeper into this topic and consider everything in detail.
What is the cost of social media marketing?
On average, social network advertising costs 15-200 dollars daily. You also have to pay between 10000 and 20000 dollars per month for account management (this is paid to the agency itself or to a marketing consultant). Total monthly costs can range from 200 to 50,000 dollars (this is paid directly to the social network for showing adverts).
On average, social media marketing agency pricing ranges from 100 to 5,000 dollars per month to manage a brand account. This rather large price range is because each business uses an individual marketing strategy. Much depends on the size of your company, the platform you choose, the agency itself, and more.
Benefits of social media marketing
Social media marketing is using social media and websites to promote your product and services and constantly connect with your target audience. Professional advertising and digital marketing will help in branding your company. This way you will attract traffic to your website and also increase sales. According to Statista, the most important benefit of social media marketing is increased reach. These are followed by increased traffic and more leads.
Overall, social media marketing has the following benefits:
- Audience engagement
- Increasing competitiveness
- Re-engagement of lost customers
- Increased website traffic
- Improved customer experience
- Increased brand awareness
- Greater return on investment
- Better understanding of your audience.
By attracting more attention to your brand, you can build a huge base of loyal customers. As a result, your sales will increase, and with them, your business’s profit.
The main factors affecting the cost
Social media advertising cost per month depends on many factors. The most important ones include:
- The chosen social network for promotion (each has its rates for displaying adverts)
- The sphere of activity of your company
- The size of your target audience
- How you plan to promote — whether you will trust an agency or hire a separate specialist on your staff
- How many channels you will use — the more social networks you use for promotion, the more you will have to pay.
Before looking for a suitable marketing agency for promotion on social networks, it is worth having an idea of your business’s pain points and what exactly you want to achieve with advertising. This way, you can further align your business needs with the promotion experts.
The fact is that some marketing agencies have their copywriters, designers, developers and statisticians. All these specialists can work together on each project. At the same time, looking for each specialist separately can be much more expensive than simply going to one professional agency with an experienced team already prepared.
If you go to consultants, you may see that their price list indicates social media marketing costs per hour. This specialist can give useful, practical advice, but at the same time, you will have to do many things on your own or look for workers to do it. Therefore, the best solution is to assign the promotion to a special professional agency.
Cost of social media promotion by cost-per-click
The CPC rate model pays for each user’s click on your adverts. At the same time, you can pay for a click, likes and other user actions. Each social network sets individual rates for this type of promotion of your advertising. In general, the prices are as follows:
- Instagram: from $0.70 to $3.00 per click
- Facebook: from $0.50 to $3.50 per click
- TikTok: from $0.10 to $1.50 per click
- Youtube: from $3.21 per click
- LinkedIn: from $2.00 to $7.00.per click
- Twitter (X): from $0.20 to $2.00 per click
- Pinterest: from $0.10 to $1.50 per click
Social media advertising price by cost-per-mille
Social media offers more than just pay-per-click. There is also the cost-per-mille (CPM) model. In this case, the advertiser must pay a certain amount for 1000 advertising displays to users. Advertising can be shown differently: in the feed and other options (depending on the chosen social network). Compared to the previous option, this type of advertising will cost less because you have to pay not for a simple click on a link but a certain number of views.
The rates also largely depend on the chosen platform:
- Instagram: $7.91 per 1,000 views
- Facebook: $7.19 per 1000 views
- TikTok: $10 per 1000 views
- Youtube: $9.68 per 1,000 views
- LinkedIn: $6.59 per 1,000 views
- Twitter (X): $6.46 per 1,000 views
- Pinterest: $30 per 1,000 views
Pricing of social media marketing by platform
The cost of social media marketing largely depends on the chosen platform. Below, we suggest you consider the most popular channels for promoting your business on social media.
Instagram, just like Facebook, is owned by Meta. These platforms use an identical Ads Manager. But social media marketing services cost differently. The cost of advertising on Instagram depends on several factors:
- Target audience size and location
- The level of competition in your field
- Estimated user action metrics – how a social network user should interact with your advert or make a sales conversion
The advert will be placed exactly where it is advertised: in the social network’s main feed, in the ‘Stories’ feed, or on the ‘Interesting’ page.
We have compiled a small table with the approximate cost of advertising on Instagram:
- Minimum budget: $40 per day for ad sets; $5 per day for ad sets that pay for clicks, likes or views; $1 per day for ad sets paid for impressions
- CPC:$3.56
- CPM: $7.91 per 1,000 impressions
- Advertising costs per month: 200-1500 dollars
Alternatively, you can use your brand’s adverts on Facebook and promote it using Instagram. Meta owns both of these platforms, so you can promote your business equally effectively through both social networks.
Facebook has 2,900,000,000 active users per month, making it one of the most popular advertising options. At the same time, Facebook offers many growth opportunities. The promotion model indirectly depends on attracting traffic from Facebook to your website and increasing brand awareness. The chosen strategy and the tools used directly depend on the cost of promotion on Facebook.
- Minimum budget: 40 per day for ad sets; $5 per day for ad sets that pay for clicks, likes or views; $1 per day for ad sets that pay for impressions
- CPC: $0.97
- CPM: $7.19 per 1,000 impressions
- CPL (price per like): $1.07
- CPA (price per action): $5.47
- Advertising costs per month: 200-1500 dollars
TikTok
TikTok is the youngest social network used for promotion. At the same time, TikTok Ads is considered one of the most popular tools for increasing brand awareness. The number of active users of the social network per month is over 1,000,000,000,000 people, which is an impressive result considering the platform only existed in 2016.
The rapid development of TikTok has made it one of the best platforms for your business. Users are 1.5 times more likely to click through and buy something they’ve seen on the social network’s feed. Adverts will appear as you scroll through the feed or pop up when you open the app.
Advertising on TikTok can be a little more expensive than promoting on other platforms. That is because advertising on TikTok often starts with a minimum daily budget of $50 if you create ad campaigns and $20 if you use an Ad-set budget. Also, the following factors affect the cost of advertising:
- The purpose of the advertising campaign
- The size of the TA and region
- The format in which the ad is used – an ad in the feed, brand filters, hashtags challenge, and more.
In general, the cost of advertising your brand in TikTok can cost the following amount:
- Minimum budget: $50 per day for campaigns, $20 per day for ad groups
- CPC: 1 dollar
- CPM: $10 per 1000 impressions
- Advertising costs per month: 200-1500 dollars
Youtube
Modern users watch more and more video content. Therefore, YouTube is one of the most effective ways to promote services online. For example, if your business is a car repair, you can upload useful instructional videos on the platform on how to change tyres and so on. You can also monetize your video – you will receive a certain amount for each video view. You can also include your contact details in the video’s description so that customers can find you if needed.
- Minimum budget: 10 dollars per day
- CPC: 3.21 per click
- CPM: $9.68 per 1,000 impressions
- Cost-per-view (CPV): $0.10 to $0.30 per view
- Advertising costs per month: 200-1500 dollars
As of 2018, social network LinkedIn rates the display of any sponsored content as a display ad for 1 second on a desktop or as long as 300 milliseconds on a smartphone. LinkedIn’s comparatively high social marketing price is because the platform has a huge business-orientated audience. Advertising to a professional B2B (business-to-business) audience is possible.
- Minimum budget: 10 dollars per day, $2 for 1 click
- CPC: $5.26 per click
- CPM: $6.59 per 1000 impressions
- Cost-per-send (CPS): $0.80
- Cost-per-open (CPO): $1.70
- Advertising costs per month: 200-1500 dollars
Twitter (X)
This social network is different from the others. Twitter (X) is perfect for promoting a new product or service. If you compare social media marketing campaign costs, this platform is often cheaper. The social network rules stipulate that an advert is considered to be displayed ‘every time your advert is shown to users’. Therefore, every time a user sees any part of your display on their device is considered a display.
- Minimum budget: None
- CPC: $0.38 per click
- CPM: $6.46 per 1000 impressions
- Cost-per-engagement (CPE): $1.35
- Cost-per-follower (CPF): $2.50-4 per follower
- Cost-per-download (CPD): $1.95 to $3.25 per download
- Advertising costs per month: 200-1500 dollars
An overview of social media marketing costs for small businesses would not be complete without considering the promotion rates using Pinterest. The presented platform is one of the most expensive in terms of price:
- Minimum budget: $2 per 1 pin
- CPC: $1.50 per click
- CPM: $30 per 1000 impressions
- Advertising costs per month: 200-1500 dollars
How to save money on social media advertising campaigns?
To make the most of your social media promotion budget, there are a few tips to follow:
- Set strategic goals. Any budget for advertising on social networks can bring tangible results if you calculate the cards correctly. The ultimate goal must be set: to increase traffic to the website, to increase sales by 20%, and so on. But this will be the basis for developing a strategy.
- Choose the right platform. Equally important is deciding which social network you plan to spend your money on. The best strategy is to go to the platform where your audience is. If TA is watching Instagram feeds rather than writing posts on X, it’s worth focusing on Instagram specifically. It will also cut costs because you won’t be wasting money on ineffective channels.
- Use low-cost but highly engaging content. You need to be strategic in finding content that will generate maximum interaction. For example, video content is much more attractive compared to static images. Short videos are the gold standard in marketing, as they won’t drain your budget.
- Use paid advertising. Despite wanting to save money, you should keep pursuing paid advertising. It is the one that is effective in increasing your brand awareness. Paid advertising gives you the immediate boost to achieve your goal and expand your audience. But you should do it wisely.
- Track and adjust your social media advertising strategy depending on the results. You need to review the results regularly. So you will understand what gives the desired effect and what it may save money because it does not work.
At the same time, you should not save money on competent promotion. The quality of marketing and the tools used largely depend on the result. Modern companies spend tens of per cent of their income on promotion to compete properly in the market.
How to build a successful strategy for social media marketing?
Experienced business owners realise that it’s not just about how much you spend on advertising but how well you invest some of your profits in promotion. To maximise the return on your investment, it’s worth sticking to the following tips:
- Quality content and enviable regularity. Optimise your publishing schedule on specific platforms to capitalize on organic trends. It will increase audience engagement.
- Performance analytics. Review analytics data regularly to understand which strategies are most effective. This will allow you to focus on what works best.
While strategizing, it is best to trust a professional promotion agency. Professionals use a comprehensive strategy. This includes auditing your social media accounts, analysing your performance, selecting metrics, creating end goals, and developing strategies for achieving them.
FAQ
How much does social media ads cost on average?
The average social media marketing budget ranges from 1000 CAD to 10000+CAD per month. The amount depends largely on the number of posts and the channels used for promotion. In addition, much depends on the experience of the chosen marketing agency and the size of your company.
What is the cost structure of social media marketing?
The cost structure depends largely on the chosen marketing strategy: what platforms you will use (each social network has its pricing policy) and what type of promotion is chosen (pay-per-click, per number of ad views and other options). After a detailed plan is drawn up, the budget is calculated.
What is a good budget for social media advertising?
The principle does not work in this case: the more, the better. It is necessary to think through the strategy intelligently. In general, most companies spend from 10 to 30% of their annual expenses on promotion. But the cost of marketing services largely depends on the purpose of your business, industry and target audience.
Is social media marketing free of cost?
No, you have to pay for promotion. Even if you do everything independently, you must pay social media to display your adverts. Rates vary depending on the platform you choose. On average, you should spend around $4,000-$7,000 on social media marketing.
How much to hire a social media marketer?
The services of a professional also need to be paid, as well as promotion on the platform itself. The rates depend on the specific agency. In general, the cost of services ranges from $450 to $6,000 per month.
