How to price a social media retainer in India

Price a social media retainer from the bottom up. List what the client gets each month in countable units (static posts, carousels, reels, stories, community management hours, a report), estimate the hours each unit takes by role including the revision rounds you allow, cost those hours at each role's loaded cost rate, add the hours nobody lists (account management, calls, chasing approvals, reporting), then divide the total cost by one minus your target margin. That gives the monthly fee before GST. Use the same per-unit costs to set an overage rate for anything above the allowance, and write both into the contract.

Why "₹X a month for social" goes wrong

Most social media retainers in India are sold as a monthly fee for "managing" one or more platforms. The fee is set by what the client said their budget was, or by what a competitor charged, and the scope is a paragraph. Three months in, the client is getting more reels than anyone priced, every post goes through four rounds, and the account manager spends a day a week on calls and approvals that were never in the fee.

None of that is visible in the fee. It only shows up in the hours, which is why the price has to be built from them.

Step 1: write the scope in countable units

If a unit cannot be counted, it cannot be priced, and it cannot be enforced. Replace "social media management" with a list like this:

• Static posts: 12 a month, two revision rounds each.
• Carousels: 4 a month, two revision rounds each.
• Reels: 4 a month, edited from footage the client supplies or from stock, two revision rounds each. A shoot is not included.
• Stories: 12 a month.
• Content calendar: one monthly plan, approved by the client before production starts.
• Community management: replies to comments and messages for up to one hour each working day.
• Reporting: one monthly performance report and review call.

Platforms, posting frequency and response times belong in the same list. So do the exclusions: shoots, influencer fees, paid media budget, stock licences beyond a set number, and anything in a language you have not agreed to.

Step 2: estimate the hours for each unit, by role

Estimate each unit from your own past work if you have the records, because a guess made in a pitch meeting is almost always low. Include the revision rounds the contract allows, not just the first draft. The hours below are illustrative.

Step 3: add the hours nobody lists

The work the client sees is not all the work. Weekly calls, briefing the team, chasing approvals on WhatsApp, re-sending files, internal reviews and invoicing all take time, and they almost never appear in a scope. Put a line in for them. In this example, the account manager spends 12 hours a month on the account. Track it for a quarter and replace the guess with your real figure.

Step 4: cost the hours at a loaded rate

A loaded cost rate is what an hour of a person costs the agency: salary and benefits, plus a share of tools, rent and overheads, divided by the hours they can realistically bill in a year, not the hours they are at work. The billable rate calculator works it out from your own figures, and the rate card guide explains the method.

Step 5: add your margin (margin, not markup)

Divide the cost by one minus the margin you want. For a 35 percent target margin, ₹79,550 ÷ 0.65 = ₹1,22,385. Rounded to a fee you can say out loud, the illustrative retainer is ₹1,25,000 a month + GST, a margin of about 36 percent.

The common mistake is to add 35 percent to the cost instead. ₹79,550 × 1.35 = ₹1,07,393, which is a 26 percent margin, not 35. Against the ₹1,25,000 fee, that is about ₹17,600 a month, or ₹2,11,000 over a twelve-month retainer, in this example. The project margin calculator shows the difference with your own numbers.

Step 6: set the overage rate from the same numbers

Every unit in the scope now has a cost, so every unit can have a price for when the client wants more. Use the same margin as the retainer.

Agree these before the retainer starts. A price for an extra reel is easy to agree in month zero and awkward to raise in month seven, after the reel has been delivered.

Step 7: see what scope creep does to the margin

Suppose in one month the client gets 6 reels instead of 4 and three extra revision rounds on static posts, and none of it is billed. The extra cost is 2 × ₹3,750 + 3 × ₹550 = ₹9,150. Cost rises to ₹88,700 against the same ₹1,25,000 fee, and the margin falls from about 36 percent to 29 percent in that month. Nobody decided to give that margin away; it went because nobody counted.

That is why the allowance has to be counted as the work happens, line by line, not reviewed at the end of the quarter. The margin leak check runs this on last month's tracker.

Step 8: GST, TDS and what lands in the bank

GST at 18 percent goes on top of the fee: CGST and SGST at 9 percent each for a client in your state, IGST at 18 percent for a client in another state. TDS is deducted by the client on the fee before GST. Using the illustrative fee:

The GST is due on the invoice date, not when the client pays, so a retainer billed in arrears and paid late means paying the tax out of your own cash first. Billing the retainer in advance avoids that. The GST and TDS guide covers the detail, including which TDS section clients use.

Keep ad spend or boosting budget out of the retainer fee. Bill it as a separate line, and confirm the GST treatment of media you pay for on the client's behalf with your CA.

The clauses that protect the price

• The allowance, in units, per month, per platform.
• Revision rounds per unit. Two is common; say what counts as a round.
• The overage rates, from Step 6, attached to the contract.
• Rollover: whether unused units carry into the next month, and a cap if they do.
• Approval turnaround: how long the client has to approve before the calendar moves, so their delay does not become your weekend.
• Exclusions: shoots, talent and influencer fees, media spend, paid tools.
• Payment terms: in advance where you can; the day of the month; interest on delay. If your agency is registered on Udyam as a micro or small enterprise, the MSMED Act's 45-day rule applies; the retainer structures guide explains it.
• A price review date, for example every twelve months, so the fee keeps up with salaries.

Common mistakes

1. Pricing from the client's budget. Start from the cost, then decide whether to change the scope to meet the budget. Do not cut the price and keep the scope.
2. Forgetting the account manager. The hours spent talking to the client are real hours.
3. Pricing one round and allowing four. Price the rounds you allow, and count them.
4. Adding margin as a markup. 35 percent on cost is a 26 percent margin.
5. Never re-checking the estimate. After three months, compare the hours you priced with the hours logged, and fix the next renewal.

Frequently asked questions

How much should an agency charge for a social media retainer in India?

There is no reliable public benchmark, and fees vary widely by city, platform mix and how much video is involved. Work it out from your own numbers instead: list the deliverables in countable units, estimate the hours each takes including revision rounds, cost those hours at each role's loaded cost rate, add the hidden hours (account management, calls, reporting) and divide by one minus your target margin. GST at 18 percent goes on top of the fee.

Should a social media retainer be priced by hours or by deliverables?

Most clients buy deliverables, so quote in deliverables: a number of static posts, carousels, reels and stories a month, with a set number of revision rounds. Build the price from hours underneath, so you know what each unit costs you, and use those per-unit costs to set the overage rate for anything above the allowance.

Should ad spend or boosting budget be included in the retainer fee?

Keep it separate. Media spend changes month to month and is not your fee, and mixing it into the retainer makes the fee look larger than it is and muddles the GST on the invoice. Bill your management fee as one line and any media you pay for on the client's behalf as another, and confirm the GST treatment of the pass-through with your CA.

What should an overage rate be?

The per-unit price of each deliverable at the same margin as the retainer, worked out from the hours it takes. If an extra reel costs you about Rs 3,750 in people time and your target margin is 35 percent, the overage price is about Rs 5,800, rounded to Rs 6,000. Put it in the contract before the work starts.

What GST and TDS apply to a social media retainer?

Agency services carry 18 percent GST: CGST plus SGST for a client in your state, IGST for a client in another state. The client deducts TDS on the fee before GST, usually 2 percent under section 194C for a company or firm (1 percent for an individual or HUF), or 10 percent under 194J if they book it as professional fees. This is general information; confirm with your CA.

More definitions are in the agency finance glossary.