what does a social media package cost in dubai?.

a monthly fee tells you almost nothing on its own. what matters is what the number contains and who does the work.

— 01what really drives the cost of a social media package.

four things set the price: how many finished assets a month, whether production is included or you supply the material, whether strategy and reporting sit in front of and behind the work, and who actually does it — a senior operator or a junior working from a template.

the last one is where the market varies most and discloses least. two packages at the same fee can mean a senior planner with a production team, or one junior scheduling stock. ask who does the work and how much of their week you get.

community management is the line brands cut and then miss. replying to comments and messages within the hour is where a feed turns into enquiries, and it is labour — it does not fit in the gaps of someone else's day.

— 02three package tiers.

freelancer, boutique studio and full agency each trade off range, reliability and price. there's no universally right answer, only the right one for your stage, your budget and how much you want to own in-house.

there is a floor worth naming. below roughly the cost of a competent part-time person, a package cannot contain planning, production, community handling and reporting — something is being left out or done by someone very junior. that is fine if you know which; it is expensive if you assume otherwise.

a light package — planning, scheduling and a modest number of assets from material you supply — suits a business with an existing photographer or a founder who shoots. it is cheap and it depends entirely on you delivering material on time.

a full package includes production: a monthly shoot day, editing, publishing, community handling and reporting. it costs more and removes the dependency, which for most businesses is the reason to buy it.

paid media usually sits outside the package fee, and it should. management of spend is work; the spend itself is not the agency's revenue and should never be bundled invisibly into one number.

— 03comparing two proposals honestly.

compare exactly what ships each month, not just the headline retainer. ask for recent work in your category, a clear scope, and how success is measured. a good partner is specific; a weak one is vague.

ask both suppliers what they would do in the first thirty days. a serious answer starts with access, a look at existing enquiries and a fix to the conversion path. a weak answer starts with a content calendar.

convert every proposal to the same four lines: finished assets a month, production days, community hours, and who is on the account. then compare cost per finished asset. proposals become legible immediately and the expensive one is often the cheaper buy.

and check the exit terms before the creative. notice period, ownership of accounts and content, and whether you get the files. those three lines matter more in month twelve than anything in the pitch deck.

— 04what a package should always include.

a named owner, a monthly plan agreed before the month starts, one number you both judge the work by, and a report on the first working day that opens with a written verdict rather than a screenshot of reach.

ownership is the fifth thing, and it belongs in the contract rather than the conversation: the accounts, the ad account, the raw footage and the finished files are yours. suppliers who resist that line are telling you something useful about how the relationship ends.

if any of those four are missing, the package is a content-delivery arrangement rather than a marketing one. that can be exactly what you need — but price it as production, not strategy.

— 05the number to agree in the first fortnight.

one figure that would tell you honestly whether the arrangement is working — enquiries a month, cost per acquisition, appointments booked — with its current value written down before work starts. without that, month six becomes a discussion about whether the feed feels better.

then review it quarterly rather than monthly. one month of social data is noise; three months is a trend you can act on, and it is long enough for production to have found its rhythm.

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