Short answer
Check the licence first — social media agencies are not licensed in Australia, so check qualifications and public liability insurance instead. Then check that the business is who it says it is: of the 12 Australian social media agencies in this directory, only 16.7% publish an ABN you can confirm, and 0% list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website.
Social Media Agencies handle content, community management and paid campaigns on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, and the reporting that ties them to sales. This is what to check before you let one into your house, and what the evidence says about the category as a whole.
There is no social media agency licence — so check something else
There is no licence for social media work. Meta and TikTok run partner programs that confirm an agency manages real ad spend, which is a weak signal but a checkable one. The important things are contractual: the accounts stay yours, the content is yours to keep, and the report shows leads or sales rather than likes.
There is no national licence register in Australia — each state and territory runs its own. The regulator for your state is listed at the bottom of this guide, and checking a number takes about a minute.
What 12 Australian social media agencies actually publish
We check every business in this directory the same way, and publish the result whether it flatters the trade or not. For social media agencies:
| What we checked | Social Media Agencies | All trades |
|---|---|---|
| Publish an ABN we could confirm | 16.7% | 21.5% |
| Listed phone matches their own website | 0% | 59.2% |
| Listed phone contradicts their own website | 0% | 7.7% |
| Website responded when we checked | 0% | 81% |
| Corroborated by two or more sources | 0% | 81.1% |
| Median number of Google reviews | 29 | 39 |
What goes wrong with social media agencies
- Follower counts bought or inflated, which platforms detect and penalise
- Ad accounts and pages administered under the agency's own logins
- Engagement reports with no line that connects to revenue
What to ask before the work starts
- Will every account and ad account be owned by me, with the agency as a manager?
- Show me a month of posts and results for a client like me.
- What is in the monthly report, and which number do you expect to move?
A social media agency who answers all three of those without hesitating is telling you something useful. One who is vague about a licence number is telling you something too.
The median matters more than the average
The median social media agency in this directory has 29 Google reviews. That is the number to hold in your head when you see a perfect five-star rating: five stars from four reviews and 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable, and the second is almost always the safer hire.
It is also why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score. A business cannot buy its position, and a handful of glowing reviews does not move it far.
Where to check a licence, by state
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state where the work is happening.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICBuilding and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
Common questions
- Do social media agencies need a licence in Australia?
- No. There is no licence for social media work. Meta and TikTok run partner programs that confirm an agency manages real ad spend, which is a weak signal but a checkable one. The important things are contractual: the accounts stay yours, the content is yours to keep, and the report shows leads or sales rather than likes.
- How do I check a social media agency's licence?
- There is no national register. Each state and territory has its own regulator — NSW Fair Trading, the Building and Plumbing Commission and Energy Safe Victoria in Victoria, QBCC in Queensland, Building and Energy in WA, Consumer and Business Services in SA, CBOS in Tasmania, Access Canberra in the ACT, and the NT Government. Search the licence number the business gives you on the regulator for the state the work is happening in.
- What percentage of Australian social media agencies have a verifiable ABN?
- 16.7% of the 12 social media agencies in this directory publish an ABN we could confirm against the national register, against 21.5% across all trades.
- How many reviews should a social media agency have?
- The median social media agency here has 29. Treat a five-star rating from a handful of reviews with more caution than a slightly lower rating from hundreds.
Read next
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- What an ABN tells you about a tradie — and what it doesn'tAn ABN is free, public and takes a minute to check — and only 21.5% of 133,763 Australian trade businesses publish one. …
- When a tradie's phone number doesn't match their own website10,300 Australian trade businesses list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website. Sometimes it is a …