A social media budget template you can fill in

Key takeaways

A social media budget template needs only eight lines: people time, outside help, content production, tools, ad spend, reserve, total and cost per enquiry. Fill in planned figures for 12 months, add actual figures each month and compare. If the template has more lines than that, nobody will keep it up.

• 8 lines cover every social media cost a small business has.
• Plan 12 months ahead, then record actuals monthly.
• Hold a 10% reserve line for what works unexpectedly.
• End every month with cost per enquiry, not just spend.

Which lines should the template include?

Use the same lines every month so the totals compare. People time is your hours and staff hours at a cost per hour. Outside help is freelancer or agency fees. Production is photography, video and design. Tools are subscriptions. Ad spend is paid reach. Reserve is held back. Then add enquiries and cost per enquiry.

• People time (hours × hourly cost).
• Outside help (freelancer or agency).
• Production (shoots, video, design).
• Tools (scheduling, design, analytics).
• Ad spend (by platform).
• Reserve (around 10%).
• Total.
• Enquiries and cost per enquiry.

• Social media budget for a UK small business

What does a filled-in month look like?

Illustrative month: 16 owner hours at £40 is £640, a freelancer at £500, tools at £50, ad spend at £400 and a £160 reserve. The total is £1,750. With 25 enquiries, cost per enquiry is £70. The people line is the biggest, which is normal and usually ignored.

• What social media tools cost a small business each month

How do you compare planned and actual spend?

Put planned and actual side by side for each line and note the difference. Small gaps are normal. A line that runs over two months in a row needs a decision: change the plan or change the behaviour. Ad spend under plan often means campaigns stopped, which is worth knowing.

• Track social media spend in one simple sheet

When is a template not enough?

A template records money but does not decide it. If you do not yet know your cost per enquiry or close rate, the template will fill with guesses. Set the budget with a method first, such as working back from your sales target, then use the template to hold yourself to it.

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: a business tracks ad spend to the penny but has no line for the hours spent creating posts. Once those hours are costed, the real social media budget is often two or three times what the owner thought, and decisions about outside help change.

• See client work
• Social Media Marketing for UK businesses

Template checklist

• Create the eight lines in a spreadsheet.
• Fill in planned figures for 12 months.
• Set a realistic hourly cost for your own time.
• Record actual spend and enquiries on the first working day of each month.
• Review the gaps every quarter.

• Fixed or flexible: how to hold a social media budget
• The maximum cost per lead your business can afford

Next step

Build the eight-line sheet today and fill in last month's actual figures. The numbers you cannot find are the ones to start tracking.