Monthly social media content packages in Chicago run $4,000 to $12,000 a month. That covers one or two batch shoot days, a library of edited short form videos cut for each platform, and photo content to fill the calendar between video posts. A photo-only package costs less. A video-led package sits at the top of that band.
We get some version of this question every week, and it almost always arrives the same way. Someone in Joliet or Orland Park has three proposals open in three tabs. One says $1,000 a month. One says $6,500. One just says custom. Nobody explains what changes between them.
So here is the breakdown we would give you on a call. What a retainer actually buys, why the cheap ones are cheap, and where the line sits between a package that fills a feed and a package that moves a business.
What Does a Monthly Content Retainer Actually Buy?
A retainer is not a pile of files. It is a production schedule. The unit you are buying is the shoot day, and almost everything else on the invoice is downstream of how many of those you get.
- Shoot days: One or two batch days a month, planned against a content calendar instead of booked whenever someone remembers.
- Pre production: Shot lists built before anyone shows up, so nothing gets filmed without a job to do.
- Edit and finishing: Color, captions, sound, and pacing on every cut. This is where most of the hours actually go.
- Platform cuts: Vertical, square, and horizontal versions per platform, exported at the right length and resolution for Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
- A revision round: Every batch includes one, so the content sounds like you and not like a template.
- Delivery: Three to five business days per batch, organized in a shared library instead of a zip file you lose in March.
If a proposal does not tell you how many shoot days you get, it is not a proposal. It is a price.
Why Does Per-Asset Pricing Mislead People?
Almost every cheap package on the market is sold by the piece. Twenty posts for $1,200. Thirty Reels for $2,000. It is an easy number to compare, which is exactly why everyone leads with it.
We are not knocking the math. We count deliverables too, and you should know what is landing in your library each month. But the count says nothing about what produced it.
Thirty Reels can mean thirty slices of an hour of phone footage you shot yourself, trimmed and captioned by an editor who has never been inside your business. It can also mean a full day with a camera operator, lighting, and a shot list built off the objections your salespeople hear on the phone. Same number on the invoice. Nothing else the same.
Chicago production rates are roughly 70% of New York and Los Angeles, which helps, but a crew day is still a crew day. Every market has a freelancer with a Sony A7 charging $1,500 a day, and some of them are genuinely good. The point is that the price is set by days and people, not by how many files get exported at the end. If you want the full anatomy of a production budget, our video production cost guide breaks the line items apart.
Asset count measures output. Shoot days measure input. Only one of those is a cost, and it is not the one on the front page of the proposal.
What Is the Difference Between a Photo-Only Package and a Photo Plus Video Package?
This is the single biggest fork in the pricing, and it is the one most quotes bury. A photo day and a video day look similar from the outside. They are not the same job.
| What you are comparing | Photo-only month | Photo plus video month |
|---|---|---|
| Shoot cadence | One half day or full day | One or two batch days |
| What lands | 30 to 75 edited images from a half day, 75 to 150 plus from a full day | The same photo library plus edited short form video cut for each platform |
| Crew on site | Photographer, sometimes one assistant | Camera operator plus lighting, and sound the moment anyone talks on camera |
| Turnaround | 5 to 7 business days | 3 to 5 business days per batch |
| Typical investment | Commercial photography starts at $1,500 and scales with scope and locations | $4,000 to $12,000 per month |
| Best for | Product, menu, space, and team imagery where the thing sells itself | Businesses where a person has to explain something before anyone buys |
Photo-only is not a downgrade. For a Mokena boutique or a Tinley Park med spa, a strong image library outperforms mediocre video every month of the year, and social-optimized versions of every frame are included at no extra charge on our photography work. The moment a human being has to say something on camera for the sale to happen, the price changes, because sound, lighting, and a second set of hands all enter the room. That is the jump from a photo line item to a real retainer, and it is also why short form deserves its own plan rather than leftovers, which we get into in our short-form video strategy guide.
What Should You Expect to Pay at the Low, Middle, and Serious End?
The low end: $4,000 a month
One batch shoot day. One location. A photo library plus a set of edited short form cuts, sized per platform, delivered against a calendar you actually follow. This is the right tier for a single-location business that is currently posting phone photos and knows it: a New Lenox dental practice or a Mokena contractor. It buys consistency, which is the thing most local feeds are missing.
The middle of the band
Still one shoot day, but the day is engineered instead of improvised. Two locations, or one location plus a talent block. More setups, more finishing, a strategy layer that decides what gets shot based on what is not closing. This is where most retainers settle once the first few months make it obvious which content is doing work.
The serious end: $12,000 a month
Two batch days, video as the primary format rather than the garnish, and a library deep enough to feed organic posting and paid media at the same time. Multi-location operators land here almost by default. If you run four locations across Joliet, Aurora, and the southwest suburbs, one shoot day a month cannot cover the ground.
Below $4,000 a month you are not buying a production team, you are buying someone's time. Sometimes that is the correct purchase. Just know what you bought.
Does It Cost More If You Are in the Suburbs?
A little, and not for the reason people assume. A shoot in Aurora, Oswego, or Lake Zurich burns an hour of crew time each way, and travel comes out of the same clock as the shooting. Push the drive far enough and a half day becomes a full day whether or not the camera runs longer.
The trade goes the other way too. Shooting in River North means a loading zone permit, a freight elevator reservation, and a long push with gear carts. Shooting in Orland Park, Tinley Park, or New Lenox usually means pulling the van up to your own door and starting. Suburban days often run more efficiently than city days, which is why we quote the drive as part of the day instead of tacking it on as a surprise line item.
If you want the local version of this, our Orland Park marketing page covers how we work across the southwest suburbs.
What Is Not Included in the Monthly Number?
Four things get left out of nearly every retainer quote, ours included, and every one of them has surprised somebody.
- Paid media spend: The retainer produces the content. It does not buy the placement. Ad budget is a separate line and it belongs to you.
- Talent and usage: If you need professional faces instead of your own team, day rates for SAG talent in Chicago start around $700, and usage terms are negotiated on top of that.
- Music licensing: A single year runs $200 for stock or $5,000 and up for premium tracks. Most social content lives fine on stock. Brand films do not.
- One-off productions: A brand film is not a retainer deliverable. Foundational video packages run $8,000 to $30,000 depending on scope, and they sit beside the retainer rather than inside it.
Extra revisions belong on that list too. Every batch includes a round. Past that, you will be billed hourly, and that is standard across the market rather than a trick.
How Do You Decide What You Actually Need?
Work backward from the calendar, not from the price. Count how many times a month you want to post something that required a camera. Then count how many of those posts need a person talking. Those two numbers tell you your shoot days, and shoot days tell you your tier. Everything else is negotiation.
The question is never how many posts can we get for $2,000. The question is how many days a month a camera needs to be inside your business, and what has to be true about those days for the footage to be worth putting up. Answer that and the pricing stops being confusing. It turns into arithmetic.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do monthly social media content packages cost in Chicago?
Monthly social media content packages in Chicago run $4,000 to $12,000 a month. The bottom of that band buys one batch shoot day, a photo library, and a set of edited short form videos cut for each platform. The top buys two shoot days, multiple locations, and video as the primary format. Photo-only work sits below the band, and commercial photography projects start at $1,500.
How many shoot days should a monthly content package include?
One or two batch days a month is the working standard in this market. One day covers a single-location business with one or two people on camera. Two days is what multi-location operators need, or any business posting daily on more than two platforms. Fewer than one day a month is not a content program, it is an occasional photoshoot with a subscription attached.
Do I need video, or is a photo-only package enough?
It depends on what has to be seen. If your product, space, or food is the pitch, photography carries most of the weight and photo-only is a legitimate answer. If a person has to explain something before a customer will buy, you need video. Most Chicago service businesses need both, which is why the standard package pairs a photo library with short form video from the same shoot day.
Why do some Chicago agencies quote $1,000 a month and others quote $10,000?
Because they are not selling the same thing. A $1,000 month usually means edited clips from footage you supply, or a one-person shoot with no lighting and no pre production. A $10,000 month means dedicated shoot days, a crew, a shot list tied to your sales cycle, and platform-specific cuts. Both can be honest. Compare shoot days and crew, not post counts.
Do you shoot in the southwest suburbs like Joliet, Orland Park, and New Lenox?
Yes. We shoot across the southwest suburbs including Joliet, Orland Park, Tinley Park, Mokena, New Lenox, Oswego, and Aurora, along with the city itself. Suburban shoot days often run more smoothly than city ones because load-in is easier and parking is not a line item. Travel time is built into the quoted day rather than billed afterward as a surprise.
How fast is content delivered each month?
Edited content from each shoot day is delivered within three to five business days per batch, and photography turnaround is five to seven business days. Posting calendars are locked in advance so deliveries land before the scheduled posts, and every batch includes a revision round. Detailed quotes go out within 24 to 48 hours of a strategy call.
Want a Real Number for Your Month?
Tell us how often you need a camera inside your business and what you are trying to sell. We will send back an itemized monthly plan with the shoot days, the deliverables, and the price. No bait pricing, no surprise upsells.
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