Costs and pricing
Part of How to build a paid-social budget from dated evidence, not benchmarks
Blank UK paid social campaign cost template
This paid social agencies budget template is a blank UK register for recording quoted platform spend, agency fees, VAT and campaign payment timing.
Use this blank paid social campaign cost register: create one row for each purchased item or internal task. Do not begin with a lump sum. The template is intentionally blank because each UK campaign needs its own dated quotes, contract, media authority and internal cost evidence. The England paid-social agencies cost and budget guide is England-specific; use it only where relevant to the campaign.
What to take away
- Build the budget from individual line items rather than a single lump sum.
- Record net, VAT and gross cash separately.
- Allocate every invoice, renewal and exit payment to its contractual month.
- Keep internal time and opportunity cost in a separate economic view from bank cash.
- Approve the template only when every material amount has evidence or a stop.
Line-item register
Create these columns:
Line-item register fields
- Cost ID and stage
- Description and owner
- Currency and VAT
- Unit, quantity, period
- Evidence and expiry
- Scope and exclusions
- Confidence and review trigger
Field / Required entry
- Cost ID and stage
- Unique reference plus discovery, setup, creative, media, measurement, control, operation, correction, renewal or exit
- Description and owner
- Exact work or asset and the person accountable
- Currency and VAT
- Original currency; net, VAT and gross cash fields; review status
- Unit, quantity, period
- Defined unit, approved volume and dates
- Evidence
- Supplier or internal source, quote date, expiry and document location
- Scope
- Product or edition, inclusions, exclusions and pass-through items
- Confidence and trigger
- Contracted, quoted, internal record, scenario or unknown; event requiring review
Blank template (copy and paste)
| Cost ID and stage | Description and owner | Currency and VAT | Unit, quantity, period | Evidence | Scope | Confidence and trigger |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Illustrative paid-social cost lines: Add the quoted amount, unit and period for each applicable item; these examples do not assume a fee or rate.
| Cost ID | Description | Unit or basis |
|---|---|---|
| MEDIA-META | Facebook and Instagram media through Meta Ads Manager | Platform spend, as quoted |
| MEDIA-TIKTOK | TikTok media through TikTok Ads | Platform spend, as quoted |
| AGENCY-RET | Agency retainer | Contract period |
| AGENCY-COMM | Agency media commission or percentage of spend | Contracted basis and authorised spend |
| AGENCY-HOUR | Additional agency hours | Hourly, as quoted |
| ONBOARD | Onboarding, setup or pitch fee, if charged | One-off, as quoted |
| CREATIVE | Creative production or adaptation | Deliverable or round, as quoted |
HMRC lists invoice content such as a clear service description, supply date, invoice date, amount and VAT where applicable on its business invoicing page. Its VAT records page explains why valid invoices matter to VAT records. A tax reviewer must determine recovery and treatment for this buyer; the spreadsheet should not guess.
The standard UK VAT rate is 20%. The VAT registration threshold is £90,000 of taxable turnover in a rolling 12-month period. Check current HMRC guidance before you rely on these figures.
For an invoice from a non-UK supplier, check the supplier's legal entity, the buyer's VAT status and the supply's VAT treatment rather than assuming the brand name determines it. Qualifying business-to-business services supplied from outside the UK may require the UK buyer to account for VAT under the reverse charge. If an invoice names Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, have a tax reviewer confirm the treatment and record VAT accounting separately from cash paid.
Whole-life sections
- Discovery:research, scope definition, claim evidence and evaluation design.
- Setup:account ownership, access, billing, recovery and integrations.
- Creative:formats, production, licences, captions, review rounds and version control.
- Media:use a separate row for each platform, payer, currency and authorised period. Name the platform and billing system, such as Facebook or Instagram through Meta Ads Manager, TikTok Ads or LinkedIn Campaign Manager; X Ads, Snapchat Ads and Pinterest Ads may also be relevant.
Whole-life cost sections
- Discoveryresearch, scope, claim evidence, evaluation
- Setupownership, access, billing, recovery, integrations
- Creativeformats, production, licences, captions, versions
- Mediaone row per platform, payer, currency, period
- Measurementevents, tracking, reconciliation, reporting
- Controlprivacy, PECR, advertising, security, accessibility
- Operationstrafficking, monitoring, meetings, invoice checks
- Exitcorrection, withdrawal, renewal, deletion, revocation
- Measurement:event definitions, tracking assessment, reconciliation, analysis and reporting.
- Control:privacy and PECR, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the CAP Code, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR), UK GDPR, advertising, regulated products, security and accessibility.
- Operation:trafficking, monitoring, meetings, invoice checking, leave cover and changes.
- Correction:correct errors or withdraw items.
- Renewal:renew contracts or licences.
- Exit:include contractual notice periods, termination fees and committed media where applicable. Budget time for campaign and billing exports; check ownership and any required transfer or deletion of pixels, datasets, audiences and other campaign data; and remove agency partner or user permissions and payment access from the relevant platform accounts. Record the platform-specific steps and completion.
For processor services, compare contracted work with the ICO's Article 28 content guidance. The regulator marks that material under review, so assign a qualified privacy check and publication-day update. This review effort belongs in the cost register.
Formulas and cash profile
For each entry:
Line net = approved unit cost x approved quantity x approved periods
Line gross cash = line net + stated pass-through charges + applicable VAT
Worked example (illustrative figures):
A paid-social media line for a campaign managed in Meta Ads Manager has an approved unit cost of £1,000 per month for three months, so line net is £3,000. Stated pass-through charges are £250. If those pass-through charges form part of the same taxable supply, VAT at 20% is £650. Gross cash is £3,900.
Do not calculate a missing field as zero. Use unknown and block approval if it could materially change the decision.
Create one column for each payment month. Allocate invoices, media funding, annual renewals and exit payments to their contractual dates. The total row should reconcile to the whole-life register. Keep a separate economic-cost view for internal time and opportunity cost so it is not confused with bank cash.
Add a funding check beside every month. It should name the bank or platform payment owner, approval date, authorised ceiling and evidence that the billing profile matches the contracting arrangement. Show a credit or refund as its own evidenced line rather than rewriting the original charge. That preserves the trail when finance compares budget, invoice and payment.
Approval and reforecast record
Give every budget version an owner, date, scope baseline and approver. Set change thresholds for creative volume, media authority, supplier terms, inaccessible outputs, incident response or unexpected data work. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) supplier assurance questions include security and exit matters that may create review or remediation tasks.
File evidence against the cost ID in the budget workbook or a shared folder. Retain VAT records for six years from the end of the VAT period, as HMRC requires. Retain other contract and payment records under your own policy and any longer statutory rule.
At each review, preserve the prior version, reconcile actual invoices and explain variances by cost ID. Record whether the decision is continue, restrict, pause or stop. Finance, tax, commercial, legal or privacy, security and accessibility reviewers should approve their own fields. The template is ready only when every material amount has evidence or an explicit unresolved stop.
Before you act
- Create one row per purchased item or internal task.
- Enter cost ID, stage, owner, currency and VAT status.
- Add separate quoted lines for platform spend and applicable agency fees.
- Attach quote date, expiry and document location as evidence.
- Add a funding check beside every payment month.
- Record contractual notice periods, termination fees and platform-specific exit tasks where applicable.
- Preserve the prior budget version and explain variances by cost ID.
- Assign qualified tax, privacy, security and accessibility reviewers.
Common questions
Why is the template left blank?
A UK campaign needs its own dated quotes, contract, media authority and internal cost evidence. A blank template forces each item to be supported by its own documents rather than a lump sum, so the register can be reconciled to invoices and payments later.
How should VAT and cash be handled in the formulas?
Each line uses approved unit cost times quantity times periods for net. Gross cash adds stated pass-through charges and applicable VAT.
What belongs in the approval and reforecast record?
Give every budget version an owner, date, scope baseline and approver. Set change thresholds for creative volume, media authority, supplier terms, inaccessible outputs, incident response and unexpected data work. At each review preserve the prior version, reconcile invoices, explain variances by cost ID and record continue, restrict, pause or stop.
