To choose a social media agency, judge it on five things: what it will report to you each week, who will actually do the work, whether you keep your accounts and your ad spend in your own name, what the contract does if nothing is working after three months, and whether it can show you a result for a business like yours with real numbers attached. Price matters, but it is the last thing I would compare, because two quotes for the same fee can buy completely different work.
I run an agency, so read this knowing I have a side. I have written it so you can hold us to the same checks as everyone else.
Start with what you need, not who you like
Before you take a single call, write down the one number that would make this worth paying for. Booked appointments. Online orders. Qualified leads. If you cannot name it, every agency will name it for you, and most will pick something easy to grow, like followers or reach.
Then decide whether you need organic content, paid ads or both. They are different skills. An agency that is excellent at filming and posting may be weak at reading an ad account, and the reverse is just as common. The best setups run both through one team, so the posts that perform organically become the ads, but you should know which part you are buying.
The five questions that sort agencies fast
1. What will you report to me every week? A good answer starts with your money number: bookings, sales or leads against what you spent. Reach and likes can come after, as context. If the sample report they show you opens with impressions, that tells you what the agency is really optimising for. I wrote a longer piece on which social media metrics matter if you want a checklist to compare reports against.
2. Who will do the work? Ask by name. Is it the person pitching you, a junior working from templates, or a freelancer you will never meet? Any of those can be fine at the right price. What is not fine is finding out three months in. Here, you talk to me, and the people working on your account are named on our site.
3. Who owns the accounts and the ad spend? Your ad accounts, pages and creative should be in your name, and your ad spend should go straight from your card to Meta or Google. If an agency holds the ad account or bills spend through its own card, you lose your history the day you leave. Ask this before anything else is signed.
4. What happens if it is not working after ninety days? A long contract protects the agency, not you. Our terms are ninety days to prove it works, then month to month. Whatever the terms, ask how they would notice it is not working and what they would change. A vague answer usually means there is no feedback loop at all.
5. Show me a result for a business like mine. Ask for a named client, the starting point, the end point and the time it took. Dr. Andrew Brunswick, a neurosurgeon, grew from 9,590 to 233,000 Instagram followers with organic content only; you can read how that was built. Dead Soxy went from 2.23x to 4.64x return on ad spend after we rebuilt the creative and audiences, and the Dead Soxy case study shows what changed. That is the level of detail to expect. A logo wall with no numbers is not proof.
Red flags I would walk away from
Guaranteed follower counts or guaranteed viral posts. Nobody controls the algorithm, and guarantees like that usually mean bought followers, which hurt your reach.
A quote that blends the fee and the ad spend into one number. You should always see two numbers: what goes to the agency and what goes to the platforms.
No questions about your business. If the first call is a pitch deck and not a list of questions about your customers, margins and what has failed before, the plan will be generic.
Content plans measured only in posts per month. "Twelve posts" says nothing. "Twelve posts, six of them short video, each answering a question your buyers ask" tells you what you are paying for.
No offer to look at your accounts first. Any agency that wants your money should be willing to show you what is leaking before you commit. We do a free audit you keep whether or not we work together, and our ad account self-audit checklist lets you run most of it yourself.
How to compare quotes fairly
Put each quote on one page with the same rows: monthly fee, minimum ad spend, what content is produced and by whom, what is reported and how often, contract length, and who owns the accounts. Most of the difference between agencies shows up in those rows, not in the headline price.
For reference, our social media management starts from $1,500 a month, and paid campaigns need at least $2,000 a month in ad spend so there is enough data to test properly. Our social media management pricing page explains what moves the fee up or down, and how much a social media manager costs compares the options across the market, from a freelancer to an in-house hire.
Agency, freelancer or in-house?
A freelancer can be the right call for one platform and a steady posting cadence. In-house makes sense once social is big enough to fill a full salary, with benefits and training on top. An agency earns its fee when you need several skills at once, such as strategy, filming, editing, paid media and reporting, and you would rather pay for that team by the month than hire it. Whichever you pick, the five questions above still apply.
Questions people ask
How do I know if a social media agency is good?
Ask for a named client with a starting number, an end number and a timeframe, and a sample of the weekly report you would receive. A good agency leads its reports with bookings, sales or leads, and can explain what it changed to get each result.
What should I ask a social media agency before hiring?
Ask what they report every week, who does the work by name, who owns the ad accounts and creative, what the contract says after three months, and what result they have delivered for a business like yours.
How long should a social media agency contract be?
Long enough to test properly and short enough that you are not stuck. Ours is ninety days, then month to month. Paid accounts usually show clear signal in two to four weeks, while organic social compounds over three to six months.
Should I hire a local social media agency?
Local helps if you need content filmed at your location or you sell into a local market, because the agency knows the neighbourhoods and can be on site. We are based in Playa Vista and film across Los Angeles, but we also run accounts for clients across the US remotely.
What does a social media agency cost per month?
It depends on channels, posting volume and whether video and paid ads are in scope. Our social media management starts from $1,500 a month, with ad spend paid separately and directly to the platforms.
Let's talk
If you are comparing agencies right now, email me at info@robbp.com with the one number you want to move and what you have tried so far, and I will tell you honestly whether we are the right fit. How we run social for Los Angeles brands is on our social media marketing agency page.
