How much does social media management actually cost in Australia?

The short answer: in 2026, social media management in Australia runs from about $500 a month for a freelancer posting on your behalf, $1,500 to $3,500 for a mid-range agency, and $3,500 to $8,000+ for full-service work that includes strategy, filming, editing and management. I charge $3,500 a month for a content package and $5,000 a month for full-service management. This article explains what you actually get at each level, so you can work out which one your business needs.

I run RAKO Media, a social media agency in Melbourne, so I'm obviously not neutral here. What I can be is transparent, which most agencies aren't. Almost every pricing page in this industry says "contact us", and I think that's half the reason business owners feel like they're being taken for a ride.

What the price points actually mean

The huge range in pricing isn't agencies being greedy at the top end. It's that "social media management" describes three very different jobs.

• $500 to $1,500 a month usually buys posting. Someone takes photos or content you supply, writes captions, schedules them and keeps the account alive. There's typically no strategy and no original video. If nobody's making content worth posting, this tier maintains your presence rather than growing it.
• $1,500 to $3,500 a month usually adds some content creation and reporting. Often the strategy is a template and the content is made by a junior, because at this price the agency can't afford to put senior people on your account for more than a few hours a month.
• $3,500 and up is where original video content, real strategy and proper management come in. Someone plans your content around your business goals, shoots it, edits it natively for each platform, manages the accounts and reviews the numbers monthly.

Short-form video is the reason that top tier exists. It's the content that actually grows accounts organically, and it's labour-intensive to do well. Planning, shooting and editing a month of platform-native video is a completely different job to scheduling twelve tiles.

Why the cheapest option usually costs the most

Here's the maths nobody does. If you pay $800 a month for posting that changes nothing, you haven't saved money. You've spent $9,600 a year maintaining the appearance of a social media presence, and you'll conclude that "social media doesn't work" for your business. It does work. I've watched a local butcher go from 35,000 views a month to over a million on organic video alone. What doesn't work is content without strategy, and content without video.

The honest question isn't "what does it cost", it's "what would a result be worth". If you can tell me what one new customer is worth to your business, you can work out very quickly whether proper social media management pays for itself.

Agency vs hiring someone yourself

The other comparison worth making is against a junior in-house hire. A junior social media manager in Australia costs roughly $55,000 to $70,000 a year plus super, plus a camera kit, plus software, plus the time someone senior spends managing them. Call it $75,000+ all-in. And one junior person is now responsible for strategy, filming, editing, copywriting, community management and reporting, most of which they've never done at a senior level.

A $5,000-a-month specialist retainer lands at $60,000 a year with no super, no equipment, no management overhead and no single point of failure. That's the comparison that matters, not agency versus agency.

What I charge and exactly what's in it

So this article practises what it preaches:

• $2,000 one-off for a full social media strategy document: positioning, content pillars, tone of voice, platform strategy and content examples. If we go into a retainer it's built into month one.
• $3,500 a month for a content package: research, content planning, a monthly shoot day and around twelve edited videos delivered ready to post. You handle the posting.
• $5,000 a month for full-service management: everything above plus scheduling, community management, monthly reporting and a monthly strategy call with me. Everything is done by me personally, which is the whole point of how I've set the business up.

Whether you work with me or anyone else, the test I'd apply is the same: ask exactly who does the work, ask whether original video is included, and ask to see one client's numbers over six months. Anyone doing the job properly will happily show you all three.