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Learn content strategies, platform-specific tips, 

, and monitoring social media metrics for growth.

In 2026, professionally managed small business social media programs commonly cost $1,500 to $3,000+ per month when custom creative, planning, reporting, platform support, and account management are included. More strategic social media marketing agency pricing, including multiple platforms, community management, paid social coordination, and deeper creative direction, often costs $3,000 to $10,000+ per month.

Paid social advertising cost should be separated from organic social media management cost. The ad spend paid to Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or another platform is different from the agency fee for strategy, setup, creative, optimization, and reporting.

 is designed for businesses that want custom post creative, consistent branding, platform support, and practical marketing execution.

Typical Social Media Marketing Pricing in 2026

Managed small business social media program: $1,500 to $3,000+/mo

Strategy, creative, and community management: $3,000 to $10,000+/mo

Paid social media ad spend: Usually several thousand dollars per month for meaningful testing

Paid social management fee: Often $1,500 to $6,000/mo or 10% to 20% of spend

These ranges are consistent with public sources like 

Sprout Social's small business social media package guide

WebFX's social media advertising cost guide

Social Media Management vs Social Media Advertising

Social media management usually means organic social work:

Social media advertising means paid campaign work:

Some businesses only need organic management. Ecommerce brands often need both organic and paid social, especially when product launches, promotions, email campaigns, and retargeting need to work together.

Social media marketing cost changes based on:

Whether product photography or UGC is needed

Posting-only services may be enough to keep an account active. They are not the same as a strategic social media marketing services pricing package that includes creative direction, paid media support, ecommerce attribution, and reporting.

What Different Social Media Price Points Usually Include

Posting-only social media packages usually include a limited number of posts, basic captions, simple graphics or reused templates, scheduling, and minimal reporting.

This can be useful for businesses that only need activity on their profiles. The limitation is that these plans usually do not include deep strategy, custom creative, paid advertising, or conversion tracking.

Mid-market social media management pricing packages usually include a content calendar, custom post creative, platform-specific copy, scheduling, account optimization, light reporting, and some strategy.

This is often a good fit for businesses that want consistent social media support but do not need a full in-house content team.

Higher-end social media marketing may include creative direction, video production, paid social strategy, community management, social listening, influencer or UGC coordination, campaign testing, ecommerce attribution, and executive reporting.

This is where social becomes part of a broader marketing system rather than a posting calendar.

Ventura's current 2026 social media marketing pricing is shown below.

Ventura is positioned for businesses that want social media work connected to their website, ecommerce platform, and broader marketing strategy. Social media should not happen in isolation. A post can support a product launch, a paid campaign, an email promotion, a landing page, or an SEO content strategy.

That is why Ventura's related services matter. Social can connect with 

For ecommerce businesses, the value is not just posting more often. It is creating a more consistent customer journey across the website, search, ads, social content, and email.

Be cautious when social media pricing includes:

Identical posts copied across every platform

No explanation of what creative is included

The right social media package should explain how many posts are included, which platforms are managed, who creates creative, whether paid ads are included, how approvals work, and how results are measured.

How much does social media management cost in 2026?

Professionally managed small business social media often costs $1,500 to $3,000+ per month. More strategic agency packages with creative, reporting, community management, and paid social support often cost more.

How much should a small business pay for social media marketing?

A small business should pay based on the scope. Posting-only services are not directly comparable to strategic social media marketing, which commonly costs several thousand dollars per month when creative, planning, reporting, and paid social support are included.

What is included in social media management?

Social media management may include content calendars, captions, graphics, scheduling, account optimization, community management, reporting, and strategy.

Is ad spend included in social media marketing pricing?

Usually no. Paid social ad spend is paid to the platform. Agency fees are paid separately for setup, management, optimization, and reporting.

What is the difference between social media management and social media advertising?

Management usually covers organic posts and account activity. Advertising covers paid campaigns, audiences, budget, tracking, creative testing, and performance reporting.

How Much Does Social Media Marketing Cost in 2026?

 people to/from your business and grant them permission to assets in your Meta Business Manager. These steps are for adding individual people to your Business Manager, not partners such as other businesses. Learn more 

. We recommend that you add most people as employees and only grant admin access to those who need it to perform their job.

Don't add people to your Business Manager if you don't know them

. People you don’t trust may create fake accounts and request access to your Business Manager. If you’re unsure if a request is authentic, contact the person to confirm they initiated the request and that you’re comfortable adding them to your Business Manager.

Facebook never asks for access to a Business Manager

. If a business that claims it's Facebook asks you to add them to your Business Manager, it's not a legitimate request. We recommend that you deny the request and 

Third-party businesses can't get you verified

. If a business claims it can help get your business verified on Facebook and wants you to add them to your Business Manager, it’s not a legitimate request. We recommend that you 

. You can only complete business verification through the Business info section of Business settings. It doesn't require any specific person to have access to your Business Manager. Learn more 

We strongly recommend all users of your Business Manager enable two-factor authentication

. Two-factor authentication is a security feature applied at the personal Facebook account level that requires individuals to enter a special security code each time they try to access Facebook from a browser or mobile device we don't recognize. Note that if you created your Business Manager 90 days ago or longer, we require all business admins and employees with advertising access to turn on two-factor authentication on their Facebook accounts. To help protect your Business Manager, we’ll restrict people who don’t turn on two-factor authentication from advertising with any ad accounts associated with your Business Manager.

How to add people to your Meta Business Manager

Enter the work email address of the person you want to add.

Select the role you'd like to assign them. Be sure to read the description for each role. Choose either 

Select the asset and the task access you want to assign the person.

The person will get an invitation to join your Business Manager in their email inbox.

How to Add People to Meta Business Manager

Add Instagram business accounts to your Meta Business Manager. Then associate them to ad accounts or partners that are also in your Business Manager. Like other assets you add to your Business Manager, you can assign task-based permissions for Instagram business accounts in 

To add an Instagram business account to your Business Manager, you must have the username and password for the account.

The Instagram business account you’re trying to add can’t be owned by another business. Instagram business accounts can only be claimed by one Business Manager.

 can add Instagram business accounts in the Business Manager.

If your Instagram business account is linked to a Facebook Page, you should add both your Facebook Page and Instagram business account to the same Business Manager. Learn how to 

To associate an ad account with an Instagram business account, the ad account and Instagram business account must already be in the same Business Manager. You can't associate ad accounts to Instagram business accounts in a different Business Manager.

Add an Instagram account to your Business Manager

To add an Instagram account in your Business Manager:

Enter your Instagram username and password. 

: We may send you a security code to the email or phone number associated with the account to verify your identity.

You'll have the option to select the ad accounts and Pages you'd like to assign on the next screen. Click 

. You can also click the X to skip this step.

Once you’ve added an Instagram account to your Business Manager, you can add people and assign them permissions to carry out certain tasks, such as create and manage content, manage community activity and view insights. To add people to your Instagram account:

Select a person from the left-hand column. Then toggle on the tasks you want to grant permissions for. A blue toggle means it’s on, and gray means it’s off.

You have now added and assigned permissions for your Instagram business account in Business Manager.

Add an Instagram Account to Your Meta Business Manager

If you've ever shopped online, chances are that you've seen and considered reviews for merchants you shop with and products that you've browsed. Customers prefer real testimonials to marketing fluff, so it's no surprise that reviews are the fastest growing social marketing tool for online stores. According to a 2012 study, almost 33% of shoppers trust reviews over a particular brand or its marketing. If you're considering adding reviews to your website or online store, there are a few things you should know.

Online reviews are a becoming a big factor in determining your placement in search and shopping results. Total number of reviews, review quality and length, and trust of your review platform all play a big role. A 2013 study reported that almost 85% of users considered reviews before visiting a new restaurant, hiring a contractor, or making a major purchase, so it's no wonder that search engines take reviews into account more than in the past.

In general, there are 3 different types of reviews.

 are a measure of trust in your business in general. When someone fills out a merchant review, they're reviewing your customer service, shipping time, and overall quality of shopping experience. Merchant reviews are powerful incentives to trust your brand.

 rate the quality of individual products. Product reviews help build trust in the particular brand of a product, and allow customers to read personal stories from other buyers who've used that product, as well as share those reviews on social media. In fact, 42% of all Amazon customers have left product reviews, and products with postiive review have sold 200% more than those with no ratings. The best and most trusted review programs only allow reviews from someone who has actually bought that product.

 are reviews you collect either in your physical business location or on the go (using a tablet or phone, for instance). You can then syndicate that review to many online lists and social media platforms to get you the most exposure available when someone searches your business.

While you can always install a simple review plugin or use whatever comes built-in with your e-commerce platform of choice, it's far better to have reviews collected by a Google and/or Microsoft approved third-party review company. Those reviews are guaranteed to be from actual customers, which means they can't be faked. Depending on who is collecting your reviews, can be used to boost your visibility and attractiveness in Google Adwords, Google Shopping, Yahoo and Bing ad networks.

We've found Shopper Approved to be the best review company overall. Their prices are highly competitive and their customer service is top notch. Their review management tools are easy to use, and they're one of the most trusted names in the business. Shopper Approved collected 70% more review and are historically more visible on search engines than their competitors. Most importantly, their ratings are fed to Google so shoppers will see your review stars when browsing Google shopping.

Want to get started with reviews for your website or online store today? Ventura can set you up with a 30-day free trial of Shopper Approved. For more information, 

The Importance of Online Reviews

Posting on your business’s Instagram page is only half the fun, the other half is looking at your insights and measuring the success of your posts and ads, and adjusting as necessary. In this blog, we will discuss Instagram insights, how to create an Instagram ad, and how to measure your success.

Instagram business accounts are great because they let you track the success of stories, posts, and promotions. Here’s how to see those insights:

Select the post, story, or promotion you would like to research

Track the insights of a particular post by going into the Insights page and clicking on the post you’d like to research. Once there you’ll find helpful metrics for your post like:

Impressions- this is how many people took an action from your post like visiting your profile or using the call/email button attached to your post

Likes- how many times people liked your post

Comments-how many comments the post received

Saves-how many times your post was saved to a user’s Saved folder

Discovery- how many people found your post from the Discovery page, how many users found your post from their home feed,

Follows- how many new followers were gained from the post

Instagram tracks audience insights as well. It tracks a user’s age demographics, gender, and location. The location can be set to a country or a specific city, so small businesses can find this feature extremely useful. This audience insights page also contains:

The hours your followers are most active each day

The Activity tab lets you track weekly Interactions, Reach, and Impressions. This can give you an idea of how well your page performs. Some other helpful features you can track in the profile analytics page include:

Profile visits- how many times users visited your profile

Website clicks- how many times people clicked on your website from your profile

Call/email clicks- how many times people clicked the call/email call-to-action buttons on your profile

Mentions- how many times people mentioned you using your Instagram handle

The quickest way to gain a following on Instagram and start achieving your goals is to place paid ads. You should be targeting your demographic with these ads to increase sales and brand awareness. Here’s a quick rundown of how to create an Instagram ad:

If you don’t have one already you will need to create a business Facebook page since the apps are connected and the Ads Manager is run through Facebook.

In the Ads Manager select the ad objective, target audience, and ad format. You can also select a post you’ve already created and tap Promote. Instagram will do the work for you of selecting an audience to view your ads. This is recommended unless you feel very comfortable and knowledgeable about your target audience and how to use the Ad Manager.

Choose your maximum budget and how long your ad should run.

Publish your ad, once it is reviewed and approved you will get a notification that indicates it’s ready to run.

When measuring success on Instagram it’s important to remember why you created it. Was it to gain followers, get more bookings, build brand awareness? Here are three important metrics to consider when measuring success on Instagram:

Brand awareness ties into previously discussed topics like posting high-quality content, posting consistently, and targeting the right audience. When you do these things well a following comes naturally. These are the metrics for measuring brand awareness:

Followers- Watch your follower count over time. This will grow slowly at first then exponentially when you start posting more frequently and running ads.

Reach- Reach tracks the accounts viewing your stories, posts, profile. The great thing about this metric though is that it only measures new accounts viewing these things. So the same account viewing your profile more than once won’t skew the data. Over time your reach should improve steadily.

Impressions- Impressions are similar to reach in that it measures how many users view your stories, profile, and posts. The only difference is this metric can be skewed because it counts the total number of impressions, so if someone views your profile more than once it will count multiple views. It’s still a helpful tool if you want to measure how your posts are affecting your profile views or how your stories are affecting if people are looking at your profile, but reach is a better metric to measure how many new people you’re reaching.

Placing paid ads is a crucial part of a business’s success on Instagram. Track how your ads are performing with the following metrics:

Website Clicks- It’s likely if your advertising a product you’ll place a ‘Shop Now’ button on the ad that brings an Instagram user to your website. Track these metrics to figure out how well your ads are doing. Visit the Activity page in the Insights to see how many website clicks you’re getting

Email/Call Clicks- If your goal for creating Instagram ads was to receive emails or calls track how many of these are coming from Instagram with your Activity tab in the Insights page.

Success of ads- What ads are generating your desired results? Ask yourself if its the content that’s accompanying your ad, the copy, the time of day you posted it. Figure out what ads work for your business and replicate that.

Follower counts and leads are great, but are you building a genuine relationship? Brands that build a genuine community have the most success long term. Here are some important metrics when considering your community engagement on Instagram:

Comments- This shows people are engaging with your content. You want to build a community and have a dialogue with your followers. It’s crucial that you have people commenting and that you respond to these comments.

Story replies- If a user is invested in your business they are likely to watch your story and reply. How many replies you get is a good measure of how good of a relationship your building with followers

User-generated content- Are people frequenting your business or using your product/service and creating content based on it? This is one of the biggest factors to look at. If a customer is really invested in your product they will advertise for you. This shows you have a quality business. It’s very important to engage with these users when they post about your business since it opens a dialogue and creates a deeper relationship.

We touched on the importance of engaging with your community earlier. It’s also important to engage with other businesses in your area and industry. Being active and commenting on other’s posts is not just showing your support, but it’s getting your business out there in another way where potential followers or customers could see it. Instagram’s algorithm also favors people who exchange DM’s, comment, and like other’s posts. So if they’re following you you’re more likely to appear at the top of their Home page. This is crucial for engagement rates.

If you would like to outsource your social media advertising to experts contact us online or by phone. We have two offices to serve you. The number for the Tampa location is (813) 556-7990 and the number for the Las Vegas location is (702) 515-2057.

How To Successfully Advertise On Instagram

Give someone access and permissions to manage Pages in Meta Business Manager.

You must have full control of the Business Account to add people to Pages.

The person you're assigning Pages to must be 

To add people to Pages in Business Manager:

Select the person you want to give access to.

Select the Page you'd like to share access to. Toggle on the tasks you'd like to grant permissions for. Or give them full control of the Page.

Give Someone Access and Permissions to Manage Pages in Meta Business Manager

If you are a brand or retailer advertising on Facebook, your agency may ask you to share your Meta pixel. By sharing your Meta pixel with your web agency, they can better serve you by optimizing your ads and improving your results.

Adding the Meta Pixel to your website allows you to measure, optimize and build audiences for your ad campaigns. This piece of code provides valuable insights that can help you improve your advertising efforts and ultimately get better results.

What are the benefits of using Meta Pixel?

 to your website allows you to measure, optimize and build audiences for your ad campaigns. This piece of code provides valuable insights that can help you improve your advertising efforts and ultimately get better results.

How do I share my Meta Pixel with an agency?

How to Share Your Meta Pixel (Facebook Pixel) with an Agency

We’ve seen social media change the way we go about marketing and advertising our businesses to the world. Social media is an incredible avenue to maintain top of mind awareness with your shoppers.

Influencer Marketing has taken the internet by storm. While it was once a trend, it’s more common than ever before. Influencers are typically experts on the platforms you see them on, they already have an engaged audience, they know what kind of content their audience is interested in, and they know that they can influence their audience with the information they put out.

Many micro-influencers have a relationship with their audience that mimics the “regular guy/gal” brand archetype, making them more relatable and leading their audience to trust their opinions and recommendations. This is a great way for a business to leverage brand awareness and grow their audience even more.

Short-form Video Content will Continue to Rise

Many of us heard of TikTok at the start of the global pandemic and vowed to ourselves that we would never download it. As we’re over a year into the global pandemic, many of us can’t stand by that statement anymore. We’ve been consumed by the hilarious, relatable, and educational videos that are widely spread across the internet.

Short-form video content takes less time and space to create and it also falls in line with the current fast paced attention spans of online audiences. Long-form videos can offer much depth about a product, brand, or service to your audience but ask yourself….who has time to watch one five-minute video when they could watch 15 short videos in the same time and take in MUCH more?

Mobile Optimization will be EVEN MORE Critical

Consumers spend more and more time on mobile devices every day. As buying power continues to grow amongst Millennials and Gen Z audiences, mobile friendly websites will generate more revenue than slower, non-optimized online stores.

Mobile optimization not only encompasses your website, but also things like email marketing, for example. Consider ways that you can deliver a mobile email experience to subscribers.

Social Responsibility will be Prioritized

We are all aware of the global pandemic that started in 2020. This along with other world events, caused social responsibility, ethics, and transparency to matter much to consumers more now than ever before. Consumers care about brands that care about them, their employees, and shared causes.

You may see that some businesses have already begun to shift their social media marketing strategies to focus more on inclusive initiatives, promotions and offerings all while highlighting causes or missions they support.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to how discoverable your website and content is. SEO is not new in the slightest, but you can expect to see SEO be ingrained within much, if not all of your marketing tactics and strategies.

We’ve had the entire year of 2021 to work through the kinks of what business will look like in 2022. As we saw many virtual events in 2020 and 2021, 2022 will be more of a hybrid approach. Expect to see businesses using more physical opportunities for their audience in 2022. Although there may be less virtual events, that DOES NOT mean that virtual events are null and void.

Social Media Marketing & eCommerce in 2022: What to Expect

There’s no doubt that Instagram started as a simple photo-sharing app and has now become one of the largest social media platforms out there. It’s one of the best tools for businesses to reach their target audience. In this blog, we discuss why you should be on Instagram, how to set up your account, what to write in your bio, and how to set up call-to-action buttons.

Instagram boasts some impressive statistics that are advantageous for businesses when the proper steps are taken.

200 million Instagram users visit at least one business profile every day

 of accounts follow a business on Instagram.

Instagram has a huge share of different demographics

One of Instagram’s appeals is that people can choose to follow a brand, unlike other forms of advertising you can reach your audience without being intrusive. Thus, they are more likely to receive your message and convert to customers.

How To Set Up An  Instagram Business Account

Make a non-business profile (it will be changed to a business account)

Tap the three-line icon in the top right corner of your profile

At this point, you can attach your business’s Facebook page so your Instagram posts will automatically publish to your Facebook

Add your business category and contact information

Make An Impression With Your Profile Picture And Bio

Choose your profile picture. Most businesses use their logo. You will want this photo (like all the other photos you post on Instagram) to be of high quality.

Craft a unique bio. Ask yourself these questions when drafting your bio:

Instagram has call-to-action buttons and it’s highly recommended you use at least one. Here’s how to 

Instagram only used to have four options: Call, Text, Email, and Directions. They have since added new action buttons: Book, Buy Tickets, Start Order, Reserve. Determine which call to action buttons would be best for your audience and add them to your profile. You can reference these buttons in posts and stories for extra traction.

How To Set Up A Business Instagram Account

Creating an email promotion doesn’t have to be a difficult task. If you already have your email marketing list in place and your marketing calendar planned out, you’re halfway there. Let’s look at what the next steps are to turning on the money faucet for your business.

For this example, let’s pretend you’re promoting a new line of Widgets from Brand X. It’s Valentine’s Day (a big holiday for Widget sales), and you want to offer 10% Brand X Widgets (for a limited time, while supplies last) with coupon code BRANDX10. That’s everything we need to begin.

Your email marketing platform (Constant Contact, iContact, Campaigner, Mailchimp, etc.) will have an option to create a new email campaign. They will most likely allow you to choose from a set of pre-defined email templates. However, it would be best if you had a custom template that you make and re-use for your emails so that all the correspondence that comes from your business is consistent and your customers know what to expect.

Your email template can be an simple as your business logo and a phone number on top, or you can also include links to your website and customer service hours. Whatever you choose to include, keep the header short and sweet so that readers can get to the most important content of the email right away.

You may also choose to include a standard footer with links to your website. This is likely the best place for links and additional information that are not as important as the promotion but necessary for your business (like legalese and disclaimers).

It’s important to note that people have no patience.

They just don’t read an email if you don’t get their attention right away. We recommend creating one big compelling graphic with your promotion in big bold letters to be included as the very first thing in your email (under the short header, or possibly in place of it). Use as few words as possible to describe your deal. Remember that pictures speak louder than words, so don’t cover more than half the image space with text (under 25% would be ideal).

Whether it reads “Shop Now” or “Learn More” or even “Donate Today”, customers need to be told what to do next to take action. You can’t assume they will know that they can click the image to go to your website (which it should absolutely do).

We recommend making this graphic about 600 x 600 pixels wide. It will be easy to read in all email browsers (desktop and mobile), and you can also use that graphic (or a derivation of it) on social media. Be sure to make a version of your promotion graphic for inclusion on your homepage as a billboard. Consistency in marketing is key, and it’s important that your customers know that your email message matches the branding on your site.

To support your fabulous new main image, you’ll need supporting text just below it. This can be your wordier explanation of your sale or description of the product or products that you’re promoting.

It’s up to you as to whether or not you’d like to promote other items, categories, or brands below this. In our experience, it’s best to keep emails as short and to the point as possible. With that said, if you’re running an ongoing promotion like free shipping over a certain amount, or a contest, it may benefit you to include a smaller section below the main promotion with a custom graphic.

Before you schedule the email to be sent, it’s time to test your email. Send a test to yourself and open it on your desktop, and on your phone. Make sure all the links work!

A great thing about using a professional email marketing platform is that you can schedule your emails well in advance. That way, you can setup all your emails ahead of time and not have to scramble at the last minute to get them done. Good-looking email graphics can take a while and go through a few revisions before you approve, so plan ahead with an email marketing calendar.

And that’s it! You’ve crafted an effective email marketing campaign. On the day you send it out, be sure to keep an eye on your site traffic and email campaign reports.