The ROI of a Social Media Manager, Explained

Social Media Marketing

If you’re a savvy business owner (like I know you are!), you don’t want to hire someone to help with your marketing before knowing what the ROI of a social media manager will look like. But unlike other investments, with organic social media management the measurement of ROI is a little more abstract. This is a frequent question I get from potential clients, so let’s dive into it!

Here’s the Truth: You Can’t Get Away Without Having a Social Media Presence Anymore.

If you do not have a presence on at least one social media channel, you are way behind the times – and hurting your business in the process. It’s not possible to look at social media marketing as a luxury anymore. It’s critical to your success (and I’m not just saying that because I’m a social media manager).

No, you do not need to be on every social media platform. And you definitely don’t have to post every single day (I explain why here). But you do need to show up consistently, with a strategy, and know how to leverage your platform(s) to your business’s benefit.

This is where a social media manager comes in.

You’ve laid the foundations of your Instagram (like I explain how to do in this post) – and now you’re ready to get the time-consuming task of creating content and engagement off your plate. But knowing if you’re making the right investment for your business can feel challenging, especially when social media management is pricey.

How much should I expect to pay a social media manager?

Pricing varies significantly between solopreneur social media managers and agencies, the deliverables included in their packages, and your industry. For full-service Instagram management, I would expect to pay anywhere from $800-$1600 a month.

(P.S. I charge $1200/month for my intro package – if you’re interested in working together, I’d love to hear from you!)

So will I see $800-1600 in sales when I start working with a social media manager?

Not necessarily. Unlike with Facebook ads, you can’t ascribe a 1:2, or 1:3, ROI – because it’s not so simple to track the link between Instagram and business performance. Here’s why:

Your Instagram (or social media platform of choice) acts as a top of funnel for potential customers. This is often how they get introduced to your brand. They engage with your content and if you’re doing things right, will move through the phases of know-like-trust. Hopefully, they become a customer.

But they’re not going to make the purchase on Instagram. Once they go off-platform, the other aspects of your business come into play – aspects your social media manager doesn’t have control over. If your website is clunky, your products aren’t easily located on your shop, or you aren’t good at closing sales calls – $1600 of effort from your social media manager isn’t going to lead to $1600 in sales. We are responsible for bringing you leads, but we cannot guarantee sales.

Here’s how to measure the ROI of a Social Media Manager

First and foremost, what I am giving you with a high quality content and engagement strategy, is, most of all, TIME.

🎥 All the minutes you spent creating content and filming reels while not even being sure it was working? Take it back.

📱 The hours you spent scrolling on Instagram, trying to figure out what the heck “engagement” even means and so you throw a couple likes at random posts and call it a day? All yours love.

📖 The weeks and months you spent on courses & guides from gurus whose advice, let’s be honest, just didn’t work for your account and your business (or you didn’t even implement because again – time is something you just don’t have)? Stop putting it on your to-do-eventually list.

Let’s do a bit of math – say you were spending 10 hours a week on your Instagram. When you hand over your social media to an expert like me, that is 40 hours a month that you are getting back (give or take an hour or so each week to approve content and respond to messages). Let’s say it ends up saving you 35 hours.

With that time, you can now focus on revenue-generating activities that are in your zone of genius. In non-business coach speak: All the time you spent on Instagram can now be spent on doing things in your business that you a) enjoy and b) are more directly correlated to you making money. For example, let’s say you’re an interior designer and your hourly rate is $150. If you spent those 35 hours on client work, you could bring in an additional $5,250 a month. Even if you only allocated 25 of those newfound hours to work, and took the other 10 to relax and spend time with your family, you would still be gaining $3750 – more than double a $1600/month package.

Investing in a social media manager gives you valuable time back and enables you to earn more money. All while simultaneously benefitting from the power of social media!

Other aspects to the ROI

Now, it’s not just time that you’ll get when you work with a social media manager like me. My work also leads to

Increased brand awareness through steady follower growth
Impressive profile content that makes a positive first impression
High quality leads nurtured (when I tell you my clients get people in their inbox almost daily asking how to purchase their products, I’m not kidding!)
Increased web traffic, with content strategies that drive followers off platform

This quality growth over time takes patience to see, but it is invaluable once it occurs.

Is Hiring a Social Media Manager Worth It?

You are the expert of your business. You are the best at working with your clients – no one else can do what you do! But when it comes to creating content and growing your community, unless you truly love that work (and are seeing results from your efforts) – your time can be better spent elsewhere. Part of being a savvy business owner is leaning into your strengths and getting help for your weaknesses. So yes, it is absolutely worth it.

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