How to Choose a Social Media Agency in Egypt

Say you own a restaurant in Sheikh Zayed. You meet three agencies. The first shows you a gorgeous portfolio of international brands and quotes 30,000 EGP a month. The second promises 10,000 new followers in sixty days. The third asks you how many orders come through WhatsApp on a Thursday night and who answers them. Hire the third one.

Picking a social media agency in Egypt is mostly about finding people who care about how you sell, not how the feed looks in a pitch. Pretty designs are easy to buy. A team that understands your customers, plans properly, makes good video, replies on time and tells you the truth about results is harder to find. The questions and checks below will sort them out. For reference, here's how we describe our own scope on the social media management page.

Here's what this covers:

• Decide what you need before you meet anyone
• Look at the work, not the pitch deck
• The questions to ask in the first meeting
• Red flags in a proposal
• Who owns the accounts and the content
• Price, scope and contracts
• Run a trial month the right way
• If you only do three things

Decide what you need before you meet anyone

Before you talk to any agency, write down three things. Your goal: more messages, more bookings, more store visits, a launch, or brand awareness. Your platforms: for most Egyptian businesses that's Instagram and Facebook, often TikTok, sometimes LinkedIn for B2B. And what you already have: a brand identity, photos, a team member who answers DMs, an ad budget.

This stops agencies from selling you everything. A clinic in Heliopolis might need clean content, fast replies and modest ads. A fashion brand launching for White Friday needs heavy video and a creator plan. Different jobs, different agencies.

Also be honest about what's broken. If your WhatsApp replies take a day, no agency can fix your sales with content alone.

Look at the work, not the pitch deck

Ask to see live accounts they manage now, not just a portfolio PDF. Open the pages on your phone, in front of them if you can. Look for:

• Consistency: is the page posting regularly, or did it go quiet two months ago?
• Variety: do the Reels, posts and Stories feel like the brand, or like a template?
• Video: are there real filmed Reels, or only designs and stock clips?
• Copy: are captions written for the audience, in proper Egyptian Arabic or clean English, or are they generic?
• Replies: scroll the comments. Are customers getting answers?

Ask for work in your industry or something close. An agency that's great at fashion may not get how a real estate buyer thinks. Then ask what changed for the client: more leads, more orders, more bookings. A good agency will speak about it plainly, and won't invent numbers.

The questions to ask in the first meeting

These questions tell you a lot in thirty minutes:

1. Who exactly will work on my account? Names and roles: account manager, designer, writer, video, ads.
2. How many other accounts does that person manage?
3. What does a typical month look like for a client like me, in numbers?
4. How do you plan content, and when do I approve it?
5. Who replies to comments and messages, during which hours, and on Fridays?
6. How do you make video? In-house, freelancers, or stock?
7. What will the monthly report show, and can I see a sample?
8. What happens in Ramadan and other peak seasons?
9. What do you need from me every month?
10. What would you change on my page first, and why?

The last question is the most revealing. Good agencies come with an opinion. If the answer is vague, so will the work be.

Red flags in a proposal

Walk away, or at least slow down, when you see:

• Guaranteed follower numbers. Followers can be bought. That's not growth.
• A price with no scope. "Full management" without post, Reel and reply numbers means nothing.
• No content approval step before posting.
• Ad spend mixed into the fee with no breakdown.
• A twelve-month lock-in with no exit after a trial.
• Reports that only show likes and reach.
• Pressure to decide today.
• Content in the proposal that's clearly copied from another brand.

Who owns the accounts and the content

This is the one people forget, and it causes the worst fights later. You should own:

• Your Facebook page, Instagram account and TikTok account
• Your Meta Business portfolio (formerly Business Manager) and ad accounts
• Your domain and any website
• The designs, final videos and, ideally, raw footage made for you

The agency gets partner access through Meta's business tools, not your password. If they leave, you remove their access and keep everything. Put this in the contract.

Price, scope and contracts

Social media management fees in Egypt vary widely, from a few thousand pounds a month for basic packages to 25,000 EGP and more for full-service teams with video and ads. Our breakdown of social media management cost in Egypt covers the typical ranges and what moves them.

When you compare offers, compare scope, not price. Count the posts, Stories and Reels. Check whether Reels are filmed. Check the reply hours. Check whether ads management is included and whether ad spend is separate. A cheaper offer with no video and no replies is often more expensive in lost sales.

It also helps to understand what you're buying. Some agencies only manage content and community; others plan the whole marketing side, including ads and campaigns. If that difference is fuzzy, read our piece on social media management vs social media marketing.

Keep the contract simple: scope in numbers, payment terms, notice period (thirty days is common), account ownership, content ownership, and confidentiality.

Run a trial month the right way

A trial only works if you set it up properly. Agree on a full first month, or a three-month starting period with an exit after month one. In the first two weeks, the agency should audit your page, propose a content plan and set up reply routines. By the end of the month you should see better content, faster replies and a first report.

Don't judge the trial on follower count. Judge it on quality, reliability and communication. Did they deliver what they promised, on time? Did they ask good questions? Did the report tell you something useful? Did messages or bookings start moving? At HOK we'd rather a client judge us on a clear first month than on a promise in a proposal.

If month one goes well, give them until month three for the numbers to show a real trend. Social media rarely turns around in four weeks.

If you only do three things

Open their live client pages on your phone and scroll the comments. Get the names of the people who'll work on your account, and the scope in numbers, on paper. And make sure every page and ad account stays in your name before anyone touches it. The trial month will tell you the rest.

If you'd like to see how we'd approach your page, take a look at HOK's social media management service and send us a note. We'll tell you what we'd change first.