We are living in a time where social media marketing drives a vast majority of the success businesses have ranging from airlines to luxury brands to the oddballs like Geico who took something as mundane as insurance and morphed it into a social media phenomenon. But how do you find ninjas with the skills needed to emerge victorious in battles like this?

Taking things back to earth, behind the best social media campaigns there are savvy marketers that devote their lives to understanding social networks, specific industries, and discovering what makes people tick. Through their research they learn about you (potential audiences/customers) and have the power to deliver results via targeted content and social media karate.

But with deep expertise comes high costs, and businesses sometimes find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place wondering if the cost of hiring social media consultants is actually worth it. In a nutshell the answer is yes, however that’s if you hire the right consultants.

When it comes down to what you should expect to pay for top social media consultants or consulting firms, many either charge by the hour (anywhere from $200-$400 is common) or on a per-project basis and the rates vary depending on a variety of factors, including industry and location (e.g. a consultant located in Los Angeles or San Francisco versus those in smaller cities).

Think about it this way: If your company has an internal marketing team with limited expertise, even a small team, you’re essentially spending well over $100k per year (over a million for most companies looking for consultants) but the team’s performance is limited by their experience.

This is where bringing in seasoned social media consultants at a high cost initially ends up saving money and making you more money in the long run. So yes, social media consultants are worth the money but you must choose wisely.