I run a social media marketing company in Midland, Texas, and this is the first question almost every business owner asks me. It is a fair question, and it is the one most companies in my line of work refuse to answer in public. They want you on a call first. My prices are on my website, so I will give you the honest version of how this pricing works, including mine.
The short answer
There is no single fair price, because there is no single thing being sold. Two quotes can differ by thousands of dollars a month and both be honest, because one covers a handful of copied posts and the other covers a full operation. The mistake owners make is comparing the monthly numbers without comparing what the numbers buy. Before you judge any price, including mine, ask what is actually included.
What the cheap end buys
At the low end you will see offers for a couple of hundred dollars a month, sometimes less. What that usually buys is a set number of posts, written once and copied across every platform, often built from templates the same company runs for dozens of other businesses. Nobody is replying to your comments. Nobody is looking at your pages to see what is working. For some businesses that is genuinely enough, and if all you need is signs of life on a page, I will tell you to take the cheap option and save your money. Just know what you bought: activity, not marketing.
What the expensive end buys
At the high end are agencies charging several thousand a month. Part of that is real capability: strategists, designers, people who answer your customers the same day. Part of it is overhead you are paying for whether it helps you or not: account managers, offices, layers between you and the person doing the work. A small service business rarely needs that structure. You need your pages handled well, by someone who knows your name and what you sell.
The questions that actually decide the price
When you compare offers, these are the questions that separate them:
How many platforms are covered? One page is not the same job as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn together.
How many posts a month, per platform? Twelve posts total is a different product from twelve posts on each platform.
Is every post made for its own platform, or is one post copied everywhere? A LinkedIn post and an Instagram post do different jobs and should not read the same.
Who writes, designs, and schedules the work? If the answer is you, you are not buying what you think you are buying.
Does anyone reply to comments and messages, and how fast?
What do you get at the end of the month to show what happened?
A quote that will not answer those questions in writing is a quote you should not sign.
What I charge, in plain numbers
My company is Triple G Marketing Consultants. Here is the whole ladder, the same numbers that are on my site.
If you do not know what is wrong yet, the Marketing Diagnostic is $97. You get a short written review of your social pages and your website and how they connect, your top problems in priority order, and the first fix for each. It takes two business days. The full $97 is credited toward the larger examination if you upgrade within 30 days.
The Marketing Examination is $297. That is a full written audit of five areas: your offer, your destination, your audience, your content, and your measurement. It takes five business days and includes a 30 minute walkthrough call. After I have done ten paid examinations, that price goes to $497. That is stated on the page now, before it happens, because a step up should never be a surprise.
For the posting itself, the Starter package is $297 a month for the first six months, then $497 a month standard. That is 12 posts per platform per month on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, 36 posts total, every one written and designed for its own platform. At the introductory rate that works out to about $8.25 a post. Growth is $697 a month, with 20 posts per platform and daily replies to comments and messages. No contract on the local packages. Thirty days notice stops it.
How I would decide, if I were you
If your pages are quiet and you do not know why, do not buy a monthly package from anyone yet. Spend the $97 level money first, wherever you spend it, and find out what is actually broken. If you already know your pages are the problem and your time is the real shortage, a monthly package is the honest fix, and you should judge it by the questions above, not by the headline price. And if a company will not put its prices and its step ups in writing, that tells you something about how the rest of the relationship will go.
Start here
The local packages, with every price and term stated, are at https://triplegmc.com/local. If you would rather have the diagnostic first, it is described on the examination page at https://triplegmc.com/examination. Questions before either: bgriffin@triplegmc.com. I read them myself.
Brian Griffin
Triple G Marketing Consultants, Midland, Texas
