Most pages answering this question will not tell you what the writer charges. They give a range, explain that it depends, and steer you towards a call.
Here is the range with sources, and then my own prices in full. No form, no call required.
The short answer
Most UK social media management packages cost between £250 and £1,200 a month, according to published UK pricing guides. Full service management runs from £1,500 to £3,000 or more. My own packages are £399, £599, £895 and £1,395 a month, with Meta ads management at £449 a month per campaign.
What do UK social media managers actually charge?
I went through published pricing guides from UK providers. The bands are broadly consistent and look like this.
| Level | Typical monthly cost | What you generally get |
|---|---|---|
| Templated | £99 to £250 | Scheduled generic posts, little research, nobody reading your comments |
| Basic presence | £250 to £600 | Consistent posting on one or two platforms, basic reporting |
| Managed with strategy | £600 to £1,200 | Multi-platform, original content, some community management, proper reporting |
| Full service | £1,500 to £3,000+ | Strategy, video production, daily audience care, senior time |
Those come from SuperHub, which puts freelancers typically at £250 to £800 a month and agencies at £800 to £5,000 or more, and notes that £300 to £600 buys consistent, competent output; One of One Group, reporting £250 to £500 for light-touch posting, £600 to £1,200 for custom multi-platform support and £1,500 to £3,000 or more for full service; and Impact Connect, which puts the overall UK range at £200 to £3,000 or more, with most small businesses paying £200 to £1,200.
At the edges, 99social advertises from £99 a month, and Social with Ryan describes a market running from £99 for templated content up to £45,000 or more for multi-location enterprise contracts.
Where these numbers come from
These are published guides from commercial providers, not independent research. Nobody collects official statistics on this. Treat them as the shape of the market.
What are you actually paying to keep on your own plate?
The monthly fee is only half the comparison. The other half is the work you are still doing yourself, the work that keeps slipping, and the parts that genuinely need your input.
That is why I rebuilt my free DIY or Delegate tool around workload first and money second.
Free workload and cost comparison for UK trades
DIY or Delegate? Social Media Workload Planner
Work through the real jobs behind your social media, add the time you spend on the ones you do yourself, then compare three routes: DIY, a one-off guided strategy, and Done For You management.
You can add your own hourly comparison value if you want to see what that time represents in pounds. The tool does not call it a saving, predict extra revenue or force management to come out on top.
Compare DIY, Guided and Done For YouUse that before comparing packages. Then you are comparing the fee with the workload that could actually move off your plate, not just a list of posts.
What I charge: my social media management packages
Four management levels, with published prices and current details available on my Packages & Pricing page. No form or call required.
| Package | Price | What you are paying me to manage |
|---|---|---|
| Build Trust & Consistency | £399/month | One social platform professionally planned, created, published and reviewed |
| Stay Visible | £599/month | Facebook and Instagram managed as one joined-up presence |
| Stay Visible & Engage | £895/month | Two-platform management plus weekday community management and monthly strategic adjustment |
| Industry Leader | £1,395/month | Higher-intensity management, community activity, approved outreach, competitor intelligence, enquiry-path monitoring and deeper reporting |
The exact mix of posts, graphics and video is set in the approved monthly plan. Example quantities appear in the detailed service documents to show the likely level of activity, but they are not fixed monthly content allowances.
Compare all four management levels, prices, responsibilities and current terms on my Packages & Pricing page:
View Packages & Pricing.
Every price on this page also sits on my packages and pricing page, along with the one-off services and add-ons.
- Add-ons. Add-ons. LinkedIn management, £149 a month for B2B trades businesses. Extra Reels, £40 each.
- Setup. Commit to three months and there is no setup fee. Prefer to try one month first? That month carries a £249 setup fee with no ongoing commitment, and if you continue onto a three month plan I deduct the £249 from your next invoice. About a week before a trial month ends I will ask how you want to continue. Nothing rolls on by default.
- Ads are separate. Meta Ads Management costs £449 per managed campaign per month, plus a £249 one-off setup fee. The minimum management term is three months. Advertising spend is separate and paid directly to Meta.
Do social media management prices include VAT?
I am not VAT registered. £399 means £399 leaves your account.
Impact Connect's UK pricing guide notes that prices in this market are usually quoted plus VAT. If a VAT-registered provider quotes you £1,395, the invoice is £1,674. If they quote £895, you pay £1,074.
Ask every provider you speak to whether their price includes VAT. It is an easy 20% to miss when you are lining up quotes, and it can flip which option is actually cheaper.
Why these prices, and how long they will last
I should be straight with you about something.
These are launch prices.
I spent nearly four years running social media in-house for a UK logistics business. Since January 2025 I have also been building and managing live Meta Ads campaigns there, alongside that same role.
I am also certified in Meta advertising, marketing analytics and social media management, with every certificate verifiable from my homepage.
What I do not yet have is a public portfolio of my own client results, because I only started trading as a freelancer in August 2026. My prices reflect that, not the work itself. As I build a track record I can show publicly, I expect them to move up to match the experience behind them.
There is no countdown clock on this page and I am not going to invent a deadline. What I will tell you is that the rate you start on is fixed for your term, which is printed on every package PDF above. Whatever happens to my prices later does not happen to yours mid-term.
How do these prices compare with the UK market?
Compare my table with the bands further up.
- £399: one platform professionally managed. The value is in taking planning, creation, publishing and review off your plate, not buying a fixed number of graphics.
- £599: Facebook and Instagram are managed together as one customer-facing presence.
- £895: adds weekday community management and a monthly strategy review, so the next plan can change according to evidence.
- £1,395: adds a higher level of ongoing activity, community-management capacity, approved outreach, competitor intelligence and deeper reporting.
You can check all of that yourself. The PDFs are linked above and they are the complete specification, not a summary.
What comes with every package
- One person, and the same person every time. Your work is never passed to junior staff, outsourced, or handed to someone you have never spoken to. You explain your business once.
- Approval before anything is published. You see the month's content laid out before it goes anywhere. Nothing is published without your sign-off.
- No password required. Access runs through Meta's own permission system, at the minimum level the job needs. Your accounts stay yours and you can remove my access in seconds.
- A three month term, not twelve. Three months exists because the work needs time to show you anything. After that it runs month to month with 30 days' notice.
And the honest limits. I work Monday to Friday. I take a limited number of clients so the quality holds. I build content from photos and clips you send rather than turning up with a camera. If you need a team of six and same-day turnaround at any hour, I am not the right answer, and I would rather say that now than three weeks into an invoice.
I use AI-assisted design tools for some graphics. Everything is planned, edited and checked by me, and where an image is AI-generated I label it.
Is it cheaper to hire a social media manager in-house?
Worth checking properly, because the salary is not the cost.
On a £30,000 salary in the 2026 to 2027 tax year:
| Cost | Per year |
|---|---|
| Salary | £30,000 |
| Employer National Insurance, 15% above the £5,000 threshold (GOV.UK) | £3,750 |
| Minimum pension, 3% of qualifying earnings (GOV.UK) | £713 |
| Minimum | £34,463, about £2,872 a month |
Before equipment, software, insurance, recruitment or sick pay. On top of that, GOV.UK confirms almost all workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday, which is 28 days for a five-day week. Paid, but not worked.
Two honest caveats
Employment Allowance can reduce that National Insurance by up to £10,500 a year if you are eligible, which for a first employee could remove the £3,750 entirely. And an employee gives you five days a week, which no outside supplier does at any price.
The real question is not £2,872 against £399. It is how many hours a month you actually need. For most trades firms under about eight people, there is not enough social media work to fill a full-time role.
What do builders, plumbers and small firms usually pay?
Most trades businesses land between £399 and £895 a month.
- Sole trader, nothing running. Start at £399 on one platform. Do not spend £900 before you know whether you will actually send photos, because that is what determines whether any of this works.
- Two to five people, want more of the good jobs. £599 or £895. Both platforms, enough content to look active, and from £895 somebody answering your messages.
- Five to eight people with a marketing budget. £1,395, or a package plus ads.
- Phone not ringing this month. Social media is the wrong tool. It builds over months. If you need work in three weeks, ads will do more, and I will tell you that rather than sell you a retainer.
There is more detail on what each level includes on the social media management packages page.
What should you check in a social media management quote?
- Does the price include VAT? Worth 20%.
- What responsibility is actually included? Check the platforms, planning, content production, publishing, community management, reporting, review frequency and what happens when the agreed monthly scope is reached.
- Is community management included, or billed separately?
- Who does the work day to day?
- How long is the term, and how do I leave?
- Is ad spend included? It almost never is.
And be careful with anyone promising a guaranteed number of leads or enquiries at any price. Nobody controls whether your quote gets accepted. I do not promise it and neither should they.
The next step
Still deciding whether to DIY, get a plan or hand the work over? Use the free DIY or Delegate Workload Planner. It compares your own workload, your optional time-value figure and the current SGS routes without calling the difference a saving.
Want help with this? Go to the contact page and choose the option that best matches what you need.
Choose the right contact optionThe contact page separates enquiries by what you need, so you can go straight to the relevant form.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a social media manager cost in the UK?
Published UK guides put most small business packages between about £250 and £1,200 a month, with full-service management running to £3,000 or more. My four packages are £399, £599, £895 and £1,395, all published in full.
How much should a builder or plumber expect to pay?
Most trades businesses land between £399 and £895 a month. Below that you are usually buying generic scheduled posts. As the fee rises, you should be paying for a broader management responsibility, not simply more posts. That can include additional platforms, community management, strategy review, competitor intelligence, enquiry-path monitoring and deeper reporting.
Do your prices include VAT?
There is no VAT to add. I am not VAT registered, so the price you see is the price you pay. Check this with any other provider, because UK prices in this market are usually quoted plus VAT.
Will these prices go up?
Probably. They are launch prices set while I build a public track record as a freelancer, not a reflection of the experience behind the work. Whatever happens later, your rate is fixed for your term.
Does the price include advertising budget?
No, and it rarely does anywhere. Ad spend goes straight to Meta and is separate from any management fee.
Is it cheaper to hire someone in-house?
Usually not for a small firm. A £30,000 salary costs over £34,000 once National Insurance and pension are added, though Employment Allowance may offset some of it. An employee does give you five days a week.
Is there a minimum term?
Three months with setup included, or one month with no commitment and a £249 setup fee credited back if you continue.
Market figures accessed 22 August 2026 from published pricing guides by SuperHub, One of One Group, Impact Connect, 99social and Social with Ryan. All are commercial providers writing about their own market, not independent research, and no official statistics exist for UK social media management pricing. Employment costs accessed 21 August 2026 from GOV.UK guidance on National Insurance rates, workplace pension enrolment, holiday entitlement and Employment Allowance. Pension and holiday figures are statutory minimums and may differ under your own scheme.