Full service social media marketing, compared on published evidence

Agencies with a verified published price

How we compare social media agencies

1. Record only published evidence. Pricing pages, stated minimum engagements, named clients, contract terms and the specific services a provider lists. Where a provider publishes nothing, that absence is recorded rather than filled in with an estimate.
2. Unbundle the retainer. We separate strategy, content production, community management, paid media management and reporting, because a retainer that excludes creative production is not comparable to one that includes a monthly shoot.
3. Separate organic from paid. Paid social management is usually priced as a percentage of spend or a separate fee. We keep it distinct from organic work so the monthly figures being compared describe the same scope.
4. Show the spread. We publish the range and the median across verified providers rather than naming a single winner, since the right partner for a local retailer and a national consumer brand are different businesses.

What full service should include, and what it often does not

A genuinely full-service scope names five workstreams: strategy and channel selection, content production including original photography or video, publishing and community management, paid amplification, and measurement. The most common gap is production. Many retainers assume the client supplies raw assets, which turns a marketing engagement into a scheduling service the moment the client runs out of footage.

The second common gap is community management hours. Responding to comments and messages is real labour and it scales with audience size, so a retainer priced against a small following becomes unworkable as the account grows. Ask for the hours assumption in writing and ask what happens when it is exceeded.

Disclosure obligations that sit with the brand

Where an engagement includes creators, influencers, gifted product or employee advocacy, the disclosure obligations belong to the advertiser as well as to the person posting. The FTC's endorsement guidance treats an undisclosed material connection between a brand and an endorser as deceptive, and it applies to agency-managed programmes exactly as it applies to direct ones.

The practical implication for a buyer is contractual. Require that the agency's creator briefs include disclosure requirements, that posts are checked for them, and that records are kept. An agency that has run creator programmes properly will have this process already; one that treats it as an afterthought is exposing your brand rather than its own.

Questions people actually ask

Is placement in this comparison paid for?

No. Providers are compared on evidence they publish themselves, and nothing in the ordering is sold. A provider that publishes no pricing is shown as publishing none rather than being ranked lower or quietly omitted.

Should paid social sit with the same agency as organic?

It usually should, because the creative that performs organically informs what is worth amplifying and the audience data flows both ways. Keep the fees itemised even when the supplier is the same, so you can judge each part on its own.

How many channels should a full service retainer cover?

Fewer than most proposals suggest. Two channels done properly, with original creative and consistent posting, generally outperform five maintained thinly. Ask any provider proposing broad coverage how the production budget divides across it.

What should the contract say about content ownership?

That all creative produced under the engagement, including raw footage and source files, belongs to you and is delivered on request. Retained source files are the most common reason a brand cannot move agency without losing its library.

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