Brief for a social media agency: the ten parts to include, a template, and how to read the replies

A good brief for a social media agency fits on two pages and answers ten things: the business goal, the audience, the channels, what already exists, the voice, the approval route, the rules you work under, account ownership, the budget, and how success will be measured. Send the same brief to every agency you are talking to. Their replies then become comparable, and the questions each agency asks back tell you more about them than any pitch deck.

Most weak proposals come from weak briefs. An agency that is told "we need more engagement" will price posting, because posting is the easiest thing to count. An agency that is told "we need 40 booked demos a quarter from LinkedIn, and here is our sales cycle" will price the work that might produce them, and will tell you if the target is unrealistic.

The ten parts of the brief

1. The business goal, in one sentence

Name the outcome the business needs, not the social activity. "Fill weekday tables at our second location", "recruit 15 nurses before March", "get the new product line in front of existing customers". If there are two goals, rank them. Agencies plan differently for awareness, sales, hiring and customer service, and a brief that asks for all four at once gets a plan that does none of them well.

2. The audience

Describe the people you want to reach as your sales team would: who they are, where they live, what they already believe about you, and what stops them buying. Add the customer questions your staff hear every week. Those questions are the cheapest content research you will ever get.

3. The channels, and why

List the platforms you use now, the ones you want to add, and the ones you have ruled out. Say why. If you are open to the agency's view, say that too. Ask each agency to tell you which channel it would drop first, and why.

4. What already exists

Give the agency the starting point: follower counts, the last 90 days of platform analytics, the posts that worked, the posts that went wrong, and any paid campaigns running. Share the brand guidelines, photo library and video you already own. An agency that knows what exists will not quote you for a shoot you do not need.

5. Voice and limits

Give three words for how the brand should sound, two accounts you admire, and a short list of things you will never post. Name any topics that need a senior person's sign off, such as prices, competitors, politics or anything about a customer.

6. The approval route

Say who approves posts, how fast, and who can stop a post that is already live. Approval time decides how topical the content can be and how many hours the agency spends waiting. If legal or compliance must see every post, say so in the brief. It changes the price.

7. The rules you work under

Every brief should carry the US Federal Trade Commission's endorsement rules, because the agency will be the one writing captions. Under 16 CFR 255.5, a connection between an endorser and the seller that "might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement" must be disclosed "clearly and conspicuously", and that includes free products, not only payment. Under 16 CFR 465.8, buying fake indicators of social media influence, such as fake followers or likes, is an unfair or deceptive practice. Put both in writing so nobody can say they did not know.

If you are in a regulated field, such as healthcare, finance, alcohol or law, attach your own rules too. Agencies that work in your field will recognise them. Agencies that do not will ask, and that is useful to learn before you sign.

8. Account ownership and access

Say plainly that every account, page and ad account stays in the company's name, and that the agency works through each platform's own access tools, not shared passwords. LinkedIn, for example, has separate Page admin roles: a super admin can add and remove admins and deactivate the Page, while a content admin can create and manage posts and events. Keep the super admin role in house and give the agency the role the work needs.

9. The budget

Give a range, and split it into the agency's fee and the money for ads and production. Agencies that do not know the budget either pitch the most expensive version or guess low and add costs later. A range lets each one show what it would do at the bottom and the top.

10. How you will measure it

Name one or two numbers the business already cares about, such as enquiries, bookings, applications or sales, and say how they are tracked today. Then say what you want in the monthly report. Reach and engagement are useful to the people running the account. They are not the goal.

A brief template you can copy

Section	What to write
About us	What we sell, to whom, where, and what makes us different, in five lines
Goal	One business outcome, with a number and a date if you have them
Audience	Who they are, what they believe now, the questions they ask
Channels	Current, wanted, ruled out, and why
Starting point	Analytics for the last 90 days, best and worst posts, assets we own
Voice	Three words, two examples, the never-post list
Approvals	Who approves, how fast, who can take a post down
Rules	FTC endorsement and fake-influence rules, plus our industry rules
Access	Accounts stay in our name, roles granted through each platform
Budget	Fee range, plus ad and production money
Measurement	The business number, how it is tracked, what the monthly report shows
What we want back	Approach, team, sample month, price by line, and two references
Timeline	Reply date, decision date, start date

What to ask for in the reply

The last two rows of the template matter most. Ask every agency for the same things so you can lay the replies side by side:

• A one-page approach: what they would do in the first 90 days and what they would not do.
• The named people who would run the account, and how many other accounts each one runs.
• A sample month: how many posts, on which channels, in which formats, and who makes them.
• A price broken into lines: strategy, content creation, publishing, community management, ads management, reporting.
• Two references from clients like you, with a phone number.

Our page on what a social media agency costs in the US explains how those lines are usually priced by each kind of supplier.

Reading the replies

A good reply restates your goal in its own words, questions at least one of your assumptions, and tells you what the plan will not do. A weak reply repeats your brief back to you with a price at the end. Watch for promises of follower numbers or viral reach: nobody controls a platform's feed, and an agency that promises it either has not read your goal or plans to buy the numbers, which the FTC rule above forbids.

Count the questions each agency asked before replying. The ones that asked about your sales process, your approval route or your customers are the ones that were already doing the job.

Questions about briefing a social media agency

How long should a social media agency brief be?

Two pages is enough for most businesses. Put the detail, such as analytics exports and brand guidelines, in attachments.

Should I tell agencies my budget?

Yes, as a range. Without it, the replies cannot be compared, because each agency is pricing a different size of job.

How many agencies should I send the brief to?

Three to five is a workable number. Fewer gives you little to compare. More means you cannot give each reply a proper reading.

Do I need to give the agency my passwords?

No. Keep the accounts in your company's name and grant the agency a role through each platform's own access settings, so you can remove it in one step if you part ways.

What is the difference between a brief and a contract?

The brief describes the problem and asks for a proposal. The contract fixes the scope, price, ownership and notice period once you have chosen. Copy the measurement and ownership sections of the brief into the contract.

The question your brief can add for next year

More customers now ask an AI assistant which local business or brand to choose before they ever open a social app, and assistants often draw on public posts, reviews and articles when they answer. It is worth adding one line to the measurement section: when someone asks an assistant for the best option in our category, are we named? A social agency will not usually report on that, and that is fine, because it is a different measurement. It is the one AI Knows Us runs, and having a baseline before the agency starts shows whether a year of public content changed what the assistants say about you.