Costs/Pricing

Which Advertising Agency Compensation Structure Is Better For Me? Part 1 of 3 « Free Advertising Candy. There are a myriad of ways in which advertising agencies can be compensated.

For full-service shops, it typically consists of some form of hourly billing, media commission and/or production commission. While there are standard industry norms, it is common practice to engage in negotiations specifically tailored to the unique needs of each client. Finding an agreement that is fair and mutually beneficial is the foundation to building a successful long-term partnership. Part 1 of this series is going to solely focus on non-commission forms of compensation. This is generally the foundation of the agreement.

What are “hours”? It’s often a vague concept to dissect, but billable hours are the core of most shops in one facet or another. How are hourly rates established? Typically, hours are compensated in one of two ways: monthly retainers or per-project estimates. A monthly retainer is an agreement to purchase a preset amount of hours every month. Pros Cons Cons FAQ’s Like this: Like Loading... The Social Media Salary Guide [INFOGRAPHIC] Social Media Week is upon us, so we thought it would be appropriate to delve into the social media industry and see how its salaries stack up.

Social media is an evolving and cutting-edge field, so it should come as no surprise that you can make a great living managing a brand's presence on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, Foursquare and other social platforms. In the infographic below, produced by OnwardSearch, you can see where the social media jobs are concentrated, the breakdown of job titles in the industry, and how much dough the average social mediate is bringing home each year. (The graphic shows the 25th and 75th percentiles for salary, pulled from Indeed). Does this stack up with what you've seen in the industry? Do you think these positions and the salaries make sense, given the rise of social media? How much does Social Media cost companies in 2011? UPDATE: If you would like to view my Social Media Consulting Rate Sheet to see what I charge for my services, please click here.

Click here to get the 2012 Price Update to this post. Last February I wrote a post about the prices companies could expect to pay for basic social media services. It ended up being the most viewed post here in 2010, by more than a 3 to 1 margin. And interestingly, it gets a TON of search traffic, terms like ‘social media cost’, ‘cost of a blog’, ‘social media fees’, etc. That tells me that there’s still a lot of confusion and a lack of clarity about what prices companies should expect to pay for basic social media services. So I wanted to update that post for 2011, with a bit more information, and greater clarity around the numbers. As I mentioned last year, when you are trying to set your social media budget for a project, there are several questions you need to ask yourself, such as:

SEO Pricing: 600+ Agencies Share Costs of Services & Pricing Models. Near the end of December 2011, we ran a survey on this blog asking consultants and agencies of all sizes and geographies to contribute their pricing models and cost structures.

I'm pleased to share the results of that survey in the hopes that it will give everyone in the search industry a better idea of the range of fees and the services provided. Obviously, this data is imperfect - SEOmoz is not a professional data surveying firm and our only tool was a basic list of questions on SurveyMonkey. That said, I'd be surprised if a professional surveyor found dramatically different data - there was enough participation to receive a trustworthy sample size and firms provided their personal/contact information (many of which I recognized while digging through the responses, but obviously will not be sharing identities publicly), which means we likely did not receive intentionally manipulative/misleading information. (via AYTM's infographic) Top 9 Takeaways Infographic from AYTM Data Dump Files.

How to Charge for Social Media Services. Know your value!

I've been through it myself. For New Social Media Managers starting out in the industry it can be difficult to work out how to price your services. OK, the industry isn't as established as SEO yet, but how much are companies willing to pay for Search Engine Optimisation? Some of the SEO companies I work with won't even look at a new client unless they have a minimum of 3 grand. Yet, Social Media Managers are charging on average 75% less for their services in comparison to the SEO costs for the SAME CLIENT!

But the tables are turning in 2012... Now is the time for Social Media Agencies and Freelance SM Managers. 1. Simply by offering nicely packed services in "Basic", "Standard" and "Premium" Packages makes it easy for the less decisive client but the main advantage is that you keep your service fixed to a particular set of activities. 2.