Should you pay social media agencies to pitch?

Key takeaways

For most small businesses, a social media agency proposal is free: a scope, approach and price. If you want agencies to produce creative ideas, sample posts or a strategy as part of the pitch, offer a pitch fee, often a few hours of work at £75–£100 an hour. Ideas in an unpaid pitch usually stay the agency's property.

• Standard proposals are usually free.
• Creative pitches deserve a fee.
• Pitch ideas usually belong to the agency.
• Limit pitches to three agencies.

What does a free proposal include?

A free proposal covers the agency's understanding of your goals, the proposed scope, an outline approach, the team, timings and price. It shows how the agency thinks without giving away finished work. That is enough for most small businesses to choose.

• Social media agency pricing in the UK
• What a good social media agency proposal contains

When should you pay a pitch fee?

When you ask for creative concepts, sample posts, a detailed strategy or a campaign plan before appointing anyone. That is real work, often a day or more. A pitch fee, even a modest one, attracts better agencies and makes ownership of the ideas clear.

• Free: scope, approach, team and price.
• Paid: concepts, sample posts, detailed strategy.
• Fee: often a few hours to a day of time.
• Agree ownership of ideas in writing.

• A social media brief that gets comparable quotes

Who owns the ideas in a pitch?

Unless agreed otherwise, the agency usually keeps copyright in work it creates for a pitch. Using an unsuccessful agency's ideas without permission is unfair and may infringe their rights. If you want to own pitch work, pay for it and say so in writing.

When is a big pitch overkill?

For a retainer of a few thousand pounds a month, a full creative pitch from many agencies wastes everyone's time. A clear brief, three proposals, a call with each and references is usually enough.

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: a business asks six agencies for free campaign ideas and gets thin responses. Asking three for a proposal and a short call usually produces better comparisons in less time.

• See client work
• Social Media Marketing for UK businesses

Pitch process checklist

• Write one clear brief for all agencies.
• Invite no more than three to propose.
• Pay a fee if you want creative work.
• Agree who owns pitch ideas.
• Give feedback to unsuccessful agencies.

• Non-solicitation clauses: hiring your agency's staff
• Award-winning social media agencies: worth the premium?

Next step

Decide whether you need ideas or just a proposal to choose. That decides whether a pitch fee is needed.