What social media marketing actually costs a Ugandan business

Every week somebody asks us what they should be paying for social media, and every week the honest answer surprises them: the accounts are free, the setup is cheap, and most of the money being spent in Kampala is being spent wrong.

Start with what costs nothing. A Google Business Profile is free, and for a business that serves customers in one city it does more than any advert: it is what appears when somebody searches your name, your product, or "near me". Most Ugandan businesses have not claimed theirs, which means Google is showing customers an address and opening hours nobody checks. Claiming it, verifying it, and keeping photos and hours current is an afternoon of work. It is the first thing we do on any engagement, and if you do nothing else, do that.

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn pages are also free. What costs money is doing them properly: a pixel wired to your website so you know which posts bring buyers rather than likes, a catalogue connected so your products appear in the shop tabs, and somebody posting consistently in the language your customers use. That is set-up work once, and a retainer or a trained member of your own staff after that.

Then there is advertising spend, and one rule matters more than budget: never let an agency run your adverts from their own account. The page, the Business Manager, the pixel, the audience that builds up over months of spending — those are assets. If they sit in the agency's account, you are renting your own customers, and the day you part ways you start from zero. Everything we set up is owned by the client, with the client's recovery details, and we work inside it. The day you leave us, you leave with everything. If that sounds like how we sell software, it is.

The last cost is the one to refuse. Anyone promising you the first position on Google is selling something they do not control. What can actually be done is this: pages that answer what searchers type, a profile and reviews that all point the same way, and a monthly report of positions, clicks, calls and what each enquiry cost, taken from the platforms rather than from us. That is the whole service, and it is written up plainly at digital marketing, SEO and social media for Ugandan businesses.