How much does social media management cost in Melbourne? A 2026 pricing guide

Social media management in Melbourne in 2026 costs anywhere from about $1,000 a month for a freelancer scheduling posts on one channel up to $15,000 or more a month for an agency running several channels, community, and paid social with a strategist on the account. Paid social management on its own usually sits between $1,000 and $5,000 a month on top of whatever you spend on the ads themselves.

The range is wide because "social media management" means very different things depending on who is quoting. For one supplier it is three scheduled posts a week. For another it is the whole social function: strategy, calendar, posting, replies, DMs, moderation, paid campaigns, and a monthly read on what moved. Most overpaying, and most underdelivering, comes from comparing those two as if they were the same product.

This guide covers the management and paid side of social: running the channels, the community, and the ads. If you want the cost of producing the content itself (shoot days, editing, photo and video libraries), our monthly content retainer cost guide breaks that down. We run social media and ad management for clients out of our Collingwood studio as part of a wider marketing agency offering, so the brackets below are a read of the Melbourne market, sense-checked against the work we do every week. Prices are AUD, ex GST, current as of November 2026.

Social media management cost in Melbourne at a glance

Four brackets cover almost every legitimate option. The jump between them comes down to three things: how many channels are managed, whether anyone is actually replying to your audience, and whether paid social is part of the scope.

Bracket 1: $1,000 to $2,500 per month. Freelancer or junior, one or two channels, posting and scheduling from content you supply. Light captions, basic graphics, little or no community management, a short monthly summary. Right for a small business that already makes its own content and needs someone to keep the channels moving.

Bracket 2: $2,500 to $5,000 per month. Small agency or senior freelancer, two or three channels, a planned monthly calendar, captions written to a tone of voice, community management inside business hours, and a monthly report. Paid social is usually a separate line or a light boost budget. This is where most small Melbourne businesses land.

Bracket 3: $5,000 to $10,000 per month. Agency team, three or more channels, daily or near-daily posting, full community management including DMs and moderation, structured paid social on Meta and often TikTok or LinkedIn, and a monthly strategy review that changes what happens next month.

Bracket 4: $10,000 to $15,000+ per month. The whole social function outsourced. Multi-channel management, always-on paid social with creative testing, senior strategy, influencer or creator coordination, and reporting that ties social to enquiries and sales rather than likes. Usually multi-venue, multi-location, or national brands.

What social media management actually includes

A complete management scope has six parts. When a quote looks cheap, one of them is usually missing, and it is almost always community management.

Strategy and calendar: who the channel is for, the two or three content pillars it can sustain, posting cadence per platform, and a calendar you approve before anything goes live.

Posting and formatting: each post cut, sized, and captioned for the platform it lives on. A Reel, a LinkedIn post, and a TikTok are three different jobs even when they come from the same footage.

Community management: replying to comments, answering DMs, moderating, and escalating anything that needs you. This is the most time-consuming part of the job and the part that most affects how a brand reads. A channel that posts but never replies looks unattended.

Paid social: campaign setup, audiences, creative testing, budget pacing, and optimisation across Meta, TikTok, or LinkedIn. Often the best-performing organic posts become the strongest paid creative, which is one reason it works better when the same team runs both.

Reporting: a monthly read in plain English on what worked, what did not, and what changes next month. Screenshots of platform dashboards are not reporting.

Content supply: who makes the photos and video being posted. Management fees usually assume you or another supplier provide it. If the agency also shoots, that is a production cost, covered in the content retainer guide.

What paid social management costs

Paid social has two separate costs, and quotes that blur them are hard to compare.

Ad spend is the money that goes to Meta, TikTok, or LinkedIn. You pay the platform directly. For a Melbourne small business, a workable starting budget is usually $1,000 to $3,000 a month per platform, enough for the platform to learn and for creative tests to mean something.

Management is what you pay someone to plan, build, test, and optimise the campaigns. In Melbourne that typically runs $1,000 to $2,500 a month for a single platform with a modest budget, and $2,500 to $5,000+ a month for multi-platform programs with ongoing creative testing. Creative production for the ads (new video cuts, statics, variations) is often extra unless it is written into the scope.

If you are comparing quotes, ask each supplier to separate spend, management, and creative into three lines. It is the quickest way to see what you are actually buying.

What actually drives the price

Number of channels. Each platform needs its own formats, cadence, and community. Two channels is not double one, but five channels is a different job entirely.

Posting frequency. Three posts a week and daily posting are different workloads, and the gap widens once each post is cut separately per platform.

Community volume. A brand with a few comments a week costs far less to manage than a hospitality group fielding bookings, complaints, and questions in DMs every day. Response-time expectations (same day, within the hour, weekends) move the price more than most buyers expect.

Paid social scope. Number of platforms, number of campaigns running at once, and how much creative testing is expected each month.

Seniority. A junior posting from a calendar is cheaper than a strategist who reviews performance and changes the plan. The second is usually what a growing business needs.

Approvals and stakeholders. One decision-maker approving a calendar is quick. Multi-location brands, franchise groups, or regulated categories with legal sign-off add real hours each month.

Costs that sit outside the monthly fee

Ad spend. Paid directly to the platforms and separate from any management fee.

Content production. Photo and video shoots, editing, and design. Unless the scope says the agency shoots, assume the management fee covers posting what already exists.

Influencer and creator fees. Paying creators for content or usage rights is usually invoiced separately, with the agency coordinating.

Tools. Scheduling, social listening, and reporting software is often passed through or paid by you directly.

Out-of-hours community management. Weekend and evening coverage is commonly priced as an add-on, especially for hospitality and events.

Freelancer, agency, or in-house?

A freelancer makes sense when you need consistent posting on one or two channels, you supply the content, and community volume is light. The trade-off is capacity: one person covering strategy, posting, replies, and ads is stretched thin, and holidays or illness stop the channel.

An agency makes sense when social is one part of a wider marketing system and you want the strategy, content, community, and paid side run by one team. The benefit is continuity and integration. The trade-off is cost against a single freelancer.

In-house makes sense once social volume justifies a full-time role. A Melbourne social media manager salary plus super, tools, and management time usually costs more than a bracket-two or bracket-three agency scope, and one hire rarely covers strategy, community, paid, and content production on their own. Many businesses land on a hybrid: an in-house coordinator who knows the business, with an agency handling production and paid.

How we approach it

At Lucky Boy, social is rarely a standalone job. For East Brunswick Village it sits inside a full marketing partnership with shoots on site every two months, ads management, email, SEO, and the website. For Usher Group and our hospitality clients like Hilton Surfers Paradise and Providore Global, the social work sits next to the photo and video we produce for them.

That is the pattern we think works best: the people managing the channel are the same people who planned and shot the content, and they can see which organic posts are worth putting money behind. If you want to talk through what your social needs, get in touch and we will scope it against your channels, your community volume, and what you want social to do for the business.

How to get an accurate social media management quote

Send a supplier five things and the quote will be close to the real number.

One: the channels you want managed, and which matter most.

Two: how often you want to post on each, or a sense of what you post now.

Three: roughly how many comments and DMs you get each week, and what response time you expect.

Four: whether paid social is in scope, which platforms, and your monthly ad budget.

Five: who is making the content. If you need it produced as well as managed, say so up front so the quote covers both.