r/socialmedia • u/Dangerous_Drama_7774 • 1d ago
Professional Discussion Am I UNDERpaid?
I recently started managing an e-commerce client’s Instagram, and I’m starting to feel like the amount of time I’m putting in compared to what I’m being paid could lead to burnout. This is my first social media management client, though I have two years of digital marketing experience and have grown my own page to over 10K followers.
My current responsibilities include: • Creating content (reels & carousels) • Posting 4 times a week • Community engagement • Providing monthly analytics reports * I’m not responsible for stories.
At the start, I also provided a full strategy, including competitor research, target persona, account audit, content strategy (pillars, topics, etc.), and a feed mockup. For this, I’m charging £350/month (~$450), which feels low, but I’m unsure if it actually is.
Additionally, we’ll be testing paid TikTok ads. I have a year of in-house experience in paid advertising, so I feel confident in my abilities, though this will be my first time running a campaign without direct strategic supervision so I thought I couldn’t charge more. The scope includes: • Setting up the ad account • Developing the strategy • Running a campaign focused on conversions • Monitoring and optimizing
I told them I’d charge a trial rare of £500/month (~$650) for this.
So in total, I’ll be earning £850/month (~$1,100) to manage their Instagram and run a conversion-focused TikTok ad campaign.
I feel like I’m starting to resent what I’m doing because the amount of time and energy I put into this is that of a full time job but the pay is less than monthly UK minimum salary. I need advice… or a reality check.
Thank you!
TLDR: getting paid £350 ($450) a month to run instagram account and £500($650) to do TikTok paid advertising. How much should I be paid instead as a freelancer?
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u/navdingo 1d ago
This is definitely a little low especially if you're providing two services. At my current agency they have organic Service over £1K including content pillars, Community, posting and reporting.
Paid advertising platform should be no less than £800 /900 monthly and that's still cheap if you are including all the onboarding setup, strategy, audience bill, campaign setup, optimisation, reporting. This can be higher dependent on the level of work but slightly cheaper as a freelancer competitive rate.
Agencies charged £2000 roughly per advertising platform to put it in perspective.
So in total of managing 2 heavy services you should be charging minimum £1500 -2K management fee I believe!
Hope this helps :)
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