How Much Does Social Media Management Cost for a Small Business?
What does social media cost? Ask five providers what social media management costs and you'll get five numbers — usually after a "discovery call" you didn't want. Here are the real ranges up front, so you can decide without the pitch.
The four ways to pay, compared
| Option | Typical monthly cost | What you actually get |
|---|---|---|
| Managed agency package | Often A$1,000–A$3,000+ | Strategy, content and publishing, with the level of service setting the price |
| Freelancer | A$800–A$2,500 | One person's hours; quality and consistency vary with their workload |
| DIY with a scheduling tool | A$20–A$150 + your time | Software that publishes what you still have to write |
| AI social media manager | From A$99 | The content written, scheduled and published for you |
What sets the agency price
Managed social media in Australia can range from hundreds to several thousand dollars a month. The price depends on how much strategy, content creation, video, community management, advertising and personal service are included.
Many managed agency packages sit around A$1,000–A$3,000+ per month, while larger full-service programmes can cost considerably more. You are buying skilled people and their time, so the more human work included, the higher the number.
We've broken down the full retainer economics in The True Cost of Hiring a Social Media Agency.
The hidden cost in the "cheap" option
DIY looks free until you price your own time. Writing a decent post takes 20–40 minutes: the idea, the caption, the image, the hashtags, the platform-by-platform reformatting. At five posts a week, that's easily 3–5 hours — every week, forever. If your hourly value is A$100, "free" costs more than the agency.
And the scheduling tool doesn't carry the hard part. Buffer, Hootsuite and friends now bundle AI assistants that can draft a caption when you ask — but you're still the operator: prompting, choosing, scheduling, publishing. The system is still you.
What the AI option actually costs
An AI social media manager collapses the stack — strategy, writing, scheduling and publishing — into software. With TheAgencyIQ, Qy! learns your brand once, then writes, schedules and publishes across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and YouTube:
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | A$99/month | 30 text posts + 10 image posts a month for one brand. A steady, consistent presence. |
| Growth | A$299/month | 90 text posts + 45 image posts + 2 videos a month. The most popular plan. |
| Professional | A$799/month | 150 text posts + 100 image posts + 10 videos a month. Higher-frequency managed execution. |
Quota only counts on a confirmed publish — a post that doesn't go live doesn't cost you. And you're not locked in: plans are monthly, and the first 14 days are free with 5 text posts and 1 video included.
The honest bottom line
Hire an agency when you need substantial human strategy, original production, paid campaigns, community management or hands-on account service. That is skilled work, and it is worth paying for.
Use Qy! when your main problem is consistently planning, creating, scheduling and publishing social media without personally carrying the monthly work.
If you have strong opinions and five spare hours a week, forever, DIY with a scheduler also works — just price your own time honestly before you call it the cheap option.
Want the work handled without hiring someone to carry it every month?
Qy! learns your business, plans the content, writes the posts, creates the visuals, schedules the work and publishes through your connected channels.
Plans start at A$99 a month.
Start free for 14 days5 text posts + 1 video. No credit card required.
Manage social media for clients? See Qy! for Agencies.