A Dubai business should budget for the complete activity it needs: content and account management, any additional production, paid campaign management and media spend where advertising is part of the plan. The agency's monthly fee may cover several of these jobs, but it should not be assumed to cover them all.
For practical planning, these Lunasol examples show three different funding needs. All amounts are monthly, excluding VAT, applicable extras and any one-off work:
- Organic management with your own footage: AED 2,500 for Essential, when your business can supply usable material and does not need commissioned filming or paid advertising.
- Managed content with Dubai filming: AED 6,000 for Growth, when you want production and ongoing social management together.
- Social management plus paid advertising: AED 12,000 in the worked example below, combining Growth at AED 6,000, Essential advertising management at AED 3,000 and an illustrative AED 3,000 media allocation.
These are Lunasol planning scenarios, not Dubai market averages. The media allocation is a chosen example, not a recommended minimum.
Your own budget should follow the objective, the work already covered by your team and the amount you can sustain while testing the plan. A business buying organic management alone has a different funding need from one commissioning filming and paid acquisition together.
Set a spending ceiling before choosing the activity
Start with the amount the business can comfortably fund without depending on immediate sales from an untested campaign. Then decide what that amount must achieve.
Maintaining a credible, active presence is a different brief from generating new enquiries for a specific service. Both can be worthwhile, but the second also requires a clear offer, a way to reach prospective customers and someone to handle the response.
Avoid choosing a percentage of revenue and treating the resulting number as a complete plan. Revenue alone does not tell you what production you need, how much a new customer is worth or whether your team can handle more demand.
Write down the budget ceiling, the objective and the next decision the activity should help you make. This gives the agency a useful constraint when recommending what to fund.
Put each cost in the budget once
Build the budget around the work, then check which costs are already included in a package.
Content and account management: planning, editing, publishing, agreed community responses and review. Some packages also include filming. Adding a separate production allowance for the same included work would count it twice.
Additional production: anything the brief needs beyond that package, such as an extra shoot, presenter, paid venue or additional language. For a Dubai business, whether filming can happen at its own premises can change the production requirements.
Paid campaign management: the work of planning, running and reviewing advertising, if commissioned. This is separate from the money used to distribute the ads.
Media spend: the amount paid to the advertising platform. An agency management fee is not automatically a funded ad campaign.
Initial work and other essentials: any required setup, website work, tools or content usage rights that the chosen services do not already cover. Ask for these before approving the monthly allocation.
Also allow for your team's time. Approvals, business information and sales follow-up need an owner. Existing staff time may not create a new invoice, but it still affects whether the plan can run.
A worked Lunasol monthly budget
Consider a business that wants ongoing social management with Dubai filming and a separately managed Meta advertising campaign. It already has a suitable destination for enquiries and content cleared for the intended advertising use.
The example below combines current Lunasol service fees with a hypothetical media allocation. It shows an ongoing month, rather than a first invoice or a forecast of results.
| Budget item | Monthly amount, excluding VAT | What the amount represents |
|---|---|---|
| Lunasol Growth social management | AED 6,000 | The managed social package, including Dubai filming within its scope |
| Lunasol Essential advertising management | AED 3,000 | Management of the Meta campaign in this example |
| Illustrative Meta media allocation | AED 3,000 | A chosen platform spending amount for the example |
| Subtotal for the listed items | AED 12,000 | Before applicable extras and any one-off work |
Of that subtotal, AED 9,000 covers the two services and AED 3,000 funds advertising delivery. The media spend is paid directly by the client through client-owned advertising accounts. Facebook and Instagram together count as one Meta advertising channel in this offer.
The Growth package's included filming and editing should not be added again as a second production charge. However, the budget must still cover anything extra the campaign needs. Lunasol's advertising management includes creative testing and ad variations using existing assets within the agreed scope; it does not automatically include new filming or a new landing page.
If the brief needs an actor or presenter, studio or paid venue, additional language or other production beyond the package, add the relevant quoted cost. Confirm that the content can be used in the intended ads before allocating media spend to it.
Keep launch costs separate from the ongoing budget
A monthly programme can be affordable while its initial requirements still need separate funding. Ask for the launch costs and the ongoing monthly amount as two clear figures.
For example, a new enquiry page or additional creative preparation may be necessary before advertising starts. Treating that work as an afterthought can leave the campaign funded but unable to launch properly.
Keep some uncommitted budget for a defined potential need, such as replacing an unsuitable creative approach or adding a necessary asset. There is no need to assign an arbitrary percentage: identify what might change and what you could afford to do about it.
If AED 12,000 is your entire available amount, the worked example uses it before VAT, extras or initial work. It therefore does not fit an all-inclusive AED 12,000 ceiling without adjustment. That simple check is more useful than approving the headline fee and discovering the gap later.
Check whether the commercial goal supports the spend
For acquisition campaigns, look beyond the cost of a click or enquiry. An enquiry is not yet a paying customer, and media spend is only part of the cost of acquiring one.
Include the work needed to win the customer when judging affordability, then compare that cost with the money left after delivering the product or service. The plan still needs to contribute to overheads and profit. Avoid relying on repeat purchases you have not yet seen.
If you do not have reliable conversion history, fund a bounded test. Agree the objective, spending limit and what evidence would justify another allocation. A guessed conversion rate should not turn into a promised number of customers.
For work aimed at credibility, awareness or existing customers, agree suitable measures for that purpose. Do not force every piece of social activity into a new-customer calculation or credit the same sale to several campaigns.
If the budget is tight, narrow the plan
A smaller, fully funded plan is easier to operate than a broad brief with essential work missing.
Start with the audience and service that matter most. Consider fewer channels, a more focused content brief or a staged launch. Use suitable existing assets where their quality and usage rights fit the job.
If your team can reliably supply usable footage, a managed service based on client-supplied material may fit better than commissioning filming. That footage can show products, services or another suitable format; it does not need to feature the owner speaking to camera.
If you already have content and competent account management, the gap may be a specific campaign rather than a complete replacement of everything. Equally, you do not have to add paid advertising to an organic management plan unless it serves the objective.
Ask what should be postponed and what remains essential. Cutting every budget line equally can leave the original promise intact while removing the resources needed to deliver it.
Where Lunasol makes the budget easier to plan
Lunasol can bring content planning, Dubai filming, editing, social management and separately commissioned paid advertising together through one team. Optional actors or presenters can be added to Growth and Authority when you want presenter-led content without appearing on camera yourself.
That makes it easier to coordinate the production and campaign work, see what is already funded and identify any additions before committing the budget. You have a connected plan with visible service fees and media spend, rather than separate suppliers whose work you must fit together yourself.
Your business still needs to provide approvals and handle sales qualification, bookings and customer cases passed to it. Fund that responsibility too, whether through existing capacity or additional support.
Ask Lunasol to scope your social media budget. Share your spending ceiling, business objective, existing content, filming needs and whether paid advertising is required. The useful outcome is a complete plan you can afford, with clear choices about what to include now and what to add later.
Written by LunaSol