Performance Marketing
2026-10-06 · 9 min read
Sapun Lamichhane
Founder & CEO of Arcetis
A proper social media management scope typically covers content planning and a calendar, graphic design, copywriting, scheduling and posting, community management, meaning replying to comments and messages, and basic monthly reporting. This is distinct from paid ad management, which is a separate cost even when the same agency runs both.
Knowing this split matters because a quote that sounds cheap might only cover posting, with design, community management, or strategy billed as extras you discover later.
Strategy work, deciding what the account is actually trying to achieve and for whom, is often the least visible part of the service but the part that determines whether the rest of the work has any direction. A retainer that skips this and jumps straight to posting content is usually working without a real plan.
“A social media retainer that only reports follower growth is not measuring the thing you are actually paying for.”
A basic package, one to two platforms, a handful of posts a week, no paid boosting, typically runs NPR 15,000 to 25,000 a month. A standard package, multiple platforms, more frequent posting, occasional content shoots, and active community management, usually costs NPR 25,000 to 45,000 a month.
A full-service package with regular video or reels production, influencer coordination, and a paid boosting strategy layered on top can run NPR 45,000 to 60,000 or more a month, depending on production volume.
Pricing can also shift based on how much original creative work is needed versus how much existing brand material, logos, product photos, brand colors, is already available and ready to use, since building visual assets from scratch for every post takes considerably more design time.
Photography and videography shoots are frequently billed separately from the base retainer, as is any paid ad spend, which always sits outside the management fee regardless of tier. Influencer fees and rush requests or extra revisions beyond an agreed number are also common add-ons.
Before signing, get an explicit list of what counts as "included" versus "billed extra," since this is where many businesses end up paying meaningfully more than the quoted number.
Platform-specific requirements add to this too, running paid boosting well enough to matter, rather than just clicking "boost post," genuinely is a different, more technical skill than organic content creation, and should be treated and priced as a distinct line item.
Hiring a junior social media person in-house typically costs NPR 20,000 to 35,000 a month in salary alone, before accounting for design software, a camera, or other equipment. That buys dedicated attention but usually not the breadth of skills, strategy, design, copywriting, and video, that a small outsourced team can offer collectively.
The trade-off is control versus capability, an in-house hire is fully dedicated to you but limited to their individual skill set, while an agency brings a wider team but divides attention across clients.
It is also worth considering a hybrid approach some businesses use, an in-house person who handles daily posting and quick responses, supported by an outside team or freelancer for higher-effort design and strategy work on a less frequent basis.
Good social media management should tie back to real business outcomes, actual inquiries, saves, shares, or conversions, not just follower count growth, which is easy to inflate and does not necessarily reflect business impact.
If a monthly report only shows "followers grew by X" with no connection to inquiries or sales, that is a sign the retainer may not be earning its cost, regardless of how polished the content looks.
Ask for the specific numbers behind any "engagement" claim rather than accepting the word alone, a post with high reach but almost no comments, shares, or inquiries is not necessarily evidence that the content is working for the business.
Ask whether you keep the raw content files, photos and videos, after the engagement ends, and what the approval process looks like before anything is posted. Ask what the response time commitment is for comments and direct messages, since slow replies lose exactly the engagement the content was meant to generate.
Also ask what the reporting format actually looks like before signing, a sample report from a past month tells you more than any sales pitch.
It is reasonable to ask for a short trial period or a smaller initial scope before committing to a long-term contract, this lets both sides confirm the working relationship and output quality actually match expectations before larger money is on the table.
No, paid ad spend is always separate from the management fee, regardless of package tier. The management fee pays for the work, content, strategy, posting, community management, while ad spend is the money paid directly to the platform for boosting or running ads.
It varies by tier, a basic package might cover three to four posts a week across one or two platforms, while a full-service package can include daily posting plus regular video content across multiple platforms. Get the exact posting frequency in writing rather than assuming.
If you have someone with genuine time and some skill in content and design, in-house can work well for a very small operation. Once you need consistent strategy, varied content types, and community management on top of posting, an outsourced team often covers more ground for a comparable cost.