Social media marketing agency

The claim

“I made a list of the 75 BEST niches to for SMMA that can EASILY scale to $1,000/day”

@CharlieImperium, 10 October 2023, 32,302 views¹

”… I bought a $1500 smma iman gadzhi course on a credit card

and built a 10k/m business in a few weeks …”

@orangie, 18 October 2024, 30,014 views¹. “10k/m” means $10,000 a month.

Two more tweets, from a small account we do not name, set a goal of $10,000 a month from an agency on two hours a day¹.

“SMMA” means social media marketing agency: a small business that runs other businesses’ social accounts or adverts for a fixed monthly fee²³. This page judges the scheme, not the people who tweeted.

The sums

The 10 tweets we collected give no client fee or client count¹. At $750 a month, on one US agency’s price list, $10,000 a month takes 14 clients². At $2,547, the average contract in a survey of 145 agency owners, it takes 4 (our sums)⁵.

That is sales, before any cost or tax. Clients also leave, so the list needs refilling: the broker-checked agency below reports stays of 7 to 8 months⁸.

Getting clients is the hard step, and we found no measured figures for this trade. One study of general business-to-business selling found a median of 0.34% of leads booked a meeting from cold email (email to businesses that did not ask for it)¹². With general closing rates of 13 to 25 clients per 100 first sales calls, one client takes about 400 to 2,300 contacts¹²¹⁴. That is our rough estimate: the study holds about 97 meetings (our sum), and both rates come from companies that sell sales services¹²¹⁴.

What happens to most people who try

No source gives the share of starters who ever sign a client. The US Census Bureau counted 207,863 advertising firms with no paid staff in 2023⁹. Of them, 60.1% took in under $25,000 and 13.9% took in $100,000 or more (our sums)⁹. $10,000 a month is $120,000 a year, so the share reaching it is somewhat below 13.9%⁹. The first tweet’s $1,000 a day is $365,000 a year; 4.9% took in $250,000 or more⁹.

Across all US firms without staff, 13.2% took in $100,000 or more, about the same (our sum)⁹.

These are sales, not profit, and the count takes only firms with receipts of $1,000 or more, of every age, so it overstates a starter’s chances⁹¹¹. It includes side businesses and leaves out agencies with staff, so it understates what full-time and larger agencies make⁹.

Nothing we found supports “a few weeks” or two hours a day for a beginner. The only two accounts that time a first client, both unproven, say 3 and 17 months³⁷⁴¹.

The upside

• Checked by a broker. Empire Flippers, which says it reviews businesses it lists, listed an ads agency founded in April 2023 with revenue of $374,532 and net profit of $170,308⁸. The period is not labelled; total revenue of over $500,000 in 2.5 years fits the latest 12 months⁸. We did not see the records. The agency signs 4 to 5 new clients every month and has a team of eight⁸. It is one winner, not a sample.
• A founder’s own statement, not checked. Base Coat Marketing reported $30,000 in monthly recurring revenue about three months after starting; its founder had run an earlier agency for 13 years and used its team and capital⁴⁴.

A good first year for a competent person starting cold, on our estimate: a first client after about three months or more of daily outreach, then two to five clients at $1,000 to $2,500 each by year end, at far more than two hours a day.

What it takes to compete

The clear successes sell a measurable result in one trade, such as ads for medical spas⁸⁴⁴. Several documented founders came from marketing jobs or an earlier agency⁴²⁴⁴. One newcomer with no past results could not give sample work away³⁹. First check, on our judgement: if you have never run ads or grown an account that brought a business customers, you are selling something you cannot yet deliver.

In a 2024 survey of 612 agency owners and consultants, 66% said their top source of new business was referrals from existing and past clients⁷¹. A newcomer has none, so they sell daily for months.

Tools cost about $240 to $390 a month (our sum)²⁰²¹²². One tweet names a $1,500 course; a reviewer who promotes a competing programme gives $1,499, and we did not find the seller’s own price¹²⁴. Nothing we found shows a course is needed. The main cost is months of unpaid selling.

Who else makes money from it

Four of our 10 tweets ask readers to comment a word to be sent a PDF, playbook, script or list, and hold about 80% of the views (our sum)¹.

@CharlieImperium’s profile links to Imperium Acquisition, whose site offers a free community, then paid programmes sold through a booked call, no prices shown²⁷³⁴. Neither course seller we checked publishes typical results²⁶²⁸.

We found no regulator or court action about an agency course or anyone quoted here.