Best Social Media Agencies in Melbourne (2026)

Introduction

Melbourne has a deep bench of social-first agencies, and the 8 below cover the main ways brands buy social in 2026: always-on channel management, short-form content made in-house, and creator programmes that run from a handful of names to hundreds of micro-influencers. They were chosen for recent work, 2025 and 2026 news, and the strength of their client rosters.

The creator end of the market has been consolidating. Amplify bought Melbourne’s Snack Drawer in June 2026, and Akcelo, which runs a social practice from Collingwood, acquired POPULA in late 2025 before winning Virgin Australia’s social account. Melbourne Social Co, one of the city’s longest-running social specialists, made three senior hires in October 2026 as it expanded to the Gold Coast. Much of the work sits with local clients in FMCG, retail, health and the Victorian Government.

Every agency here has an active Melbourne office or studio in 2026. The list is unranked, since the right choice depends on whether you need a content engine, a community team or a creator network.

The best social media agencies in Melbourne

1. Melbourne Social Co

Independent · CBD · melbournesocialco.com.au

Melbourne Social Co was founded in 2011 and describes itself as a social-first production agency. Shelley Friesen runs it as founder and director, and the team works from a studio on Collins Street, where it shoots trend-led content for TikTok most days. In October 2026 it added a senior account strategist, a senior account director and a senior project manager, and opened a presence on the Gold Coast. It also works alongside a sister agency, ATTN.CTRL, launched in 2026 for international clients.

Recent clients include Ascott’s Australian hotel brands (lyf, Quest and Citadines), SkinKandy, Bonds, WhiteGlo and City Fertility. It has managed TikTok for Playside’s Dumb Ways To Die account and handled social for DoorDash in Australia and New Zealand. Services run from strategy and content to channel management, paid social and influencer campaigns.

2. Snack Drawer

Part of Amplify · Melbourne · snackdrawer.com.au

Snack Drawer is a culture-led social and creator agency co-founded by Jamie Searle and Hannah McElhinney, whose earlier roles included Thinkerbell, Brave Bison and VICE. Amplify, the creator agency behind work for P&G, TikTok and Tinder, acquired it in June 2026. Its “Fandomination” research, published in 2025, sets out how brands can earn a place in fan communities.

In January 2026 it won Priceline Pharmacy and atomica (both Wesfarmers Health) after a pitch, covering always-on social, community management and creator collaborations across Meta, TikTok and YouTube. It also built a creator-led TikTok strategy for Chartered Accountants ANZ aimed at Gen Z. Netflix, the Victorian Government, Pappa Flock and Orygen are on the roster. Ask how the Amplify deal changes team structure and creator access.

3. We The People

Social-first agency · Collingwood · wethepeople.com.au

We The People is a social-first agency with teams in Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland, and its Melbourne office is on Gipps Street in Collingwood. It covers social strategy, creative, paid media, content and influencer work, and it was the first Australian communications agency to set up a dedicated TikTok team, back in 2021. It publishes a monthly trend briefing, #Now-Trending.

Its client list includes adidas, KFC, TikTok, Target, Cotton On, Arnott’s, Asahi Beverages and Amazon Prime Video, with recent work shown for 7-Eleven, De’Longhi, Cobram Estate and BankVic. It suits brands that want one partner for organic, paid and creator work across Australia and New Zealand.

4. Milkbar Digital

Founder-led · Prahran · milkbardigital.com.au

Milkbar Digital is a social media and content agency focused on FMCG and retail brands. Founder and director Sam Sidney spent around 15 years in the industry, including roles with Priceline Pharmacy and Pedestrian.tv, before building the agency. Its Prahran base includes a kitchen studio, prop library, green screen and podcast set, so most recipe, beauty and product content is shot in-house.

Portfolio clients include Chobani, a2 Milk, Capilano Honey, Russell Hobbs, Priceline Pharmacy, Sportsgirl and Nando’s. Food brands are a strength, and the in-house studio keeps production costs predictable for brands that need a steady volume of short-form posts.

5. Sticki

Creator and UGC agency · Prahran · sticki.com.au

Sticki started as an idea in 2021 and became an agency in 2022, and it now runs influencer, UGC and mass-micro creator campaigns from Prahran. Managing director Shai Roitman leads the team. B&T’s 2026 Best of the Best list of creator agency leaders reported that Sticki’s revenue grew 105% and its team 225%, with retainers rising to 65% of revenue, and Meta selected it for its Innovation Exchange in Singapore.

Partners include Mattel, Bondi Sands, John Frieda, Vinnies, Lyka, Yumi’s and Bega Group. The agency claims more than 1,600 campaigns, and it also builds content libraries that brands can reuse in paid social.

6. RISER Collective

Privately held · Armadale · risercollective.com.au

RISER Collective specialises in product sampling, seeding and UGC at scale, matching lifestyle brands with micro-influencers on Instagram and TikTok. It reports more than 440 campaigns and 23,000 creators activated. In 2026 it was a finalist at the AMI marketing awards and the B&T Women in Media Awards.

Case studies include 7-Eleven’s coffee blend launch, three campaigns for Mars (M&M’s, Maltesers and Extra), Dove with 250 creators, MCoBeauty, Thankyou, Rosella and Grill’d. It is a good fit for consumer brands that want volume and reviews around a launch or retail promotion, rather than a small group of headline talent.

7. alt/shift/

Independent · Collingwood · altshift.com.au

alt/shift/ is an independent creative communications agency that blends PR, social, content production and paid digital, and it adds behavioural scientists to the mix for behaviour change briefs. Its Melbourne office is on Gipps Street in Collingwood, with further teams in Sydney and Brisbane.

The client list leans Victorian: TAC, the Departments of Health and Education, Museums Victoria, Sustainability Victoria and Wine Victoria, alongside Boost, Bakers Delight, Tinder, Leggos, Cadbury and the AFL. Recent work includes TAC’s “Dear Driver” and “The Hardest Share”, and “See you at the W” for AFLW. It suits briefs where social sits alongside earned media and public campaigns.

8. Akcelo

Brand experience agency · Collingwood · akcelo.com

Akcelo is a brand experience agency with offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Vancouver, London and Los Angeles, and Social & Content is one of its core practices. Its Melbourne office is on Langridge Street in Collingwood. Social director Ben Mayor was named in B&T’s 2026 list of top creator and influencer agency leaders, and the agency won two B&T Awards in 2025.

It acquired social agency POPULA in late 2025 and won Virgin Australia’s social account in June 2026, which now also covers Velocity Frequent Flyer. Other social clients include McDonald’s and World Rugby. Akcelo also runs campaigns, experiential and retail work, so check which team will lead a social-only brief.

What to look for in a Melbourne social media agency

Decide first what you are buying. Some agencies here run your channels day to day, posting, replying and reporting. Others make content in bulk, and a third group recruits and manages creators. Many do all three, but each has a centre of gravity, and it usually shows in the case studies they lead with.

Ask where the content is made. Agencies with their own studio, such as those in Prahran and the CBD, can turn around trend-led posts in a day or two. That matters on TikTok, where a format can come and go within a week. Ask how many posts a month the retainer covers and who films them.

For creator work, ask how creators are found, vetted and paid, and who owns the content afterwards. Usage rights for paid social, whitelisting and exclusivity periods are where costs tend to grow. Melbourne’s creator market moved quickly in 2025 and 2026, with acquisitions and new specialist teams, so confirm who will run your account after any change of ownership.

Finally, look at how approvals work. A social team can produce dozens of assets a week across several platforms, each with captions, cut-downs and creator drafts. Agencies that keep the latest versions in one shared place, with comments and sign-off visible to the client, lose less time to version confusion and missed deadlines.

How Fabric helps social media agency teams

Fabric gives a social team one workspace for its content, client feedback and planning, with AI search across all of it. The setup for social content agencies keeps each client’s briefs, raw footage, edits and reports together.

Short-form video adds up quickly. Fabric’s cloud drive streams files on demand, so they take no local disk space, and editors can open heavy files without a full download. Audio and video transcription makes interviews, vox pops and creator clips searchable by what is said, with clickable timestamps. Search works by meaning and by colour, which helps when a client asks for “the pink shoot from last spring”.

A content calendar can live in Kanban, where any folder becomes a board and each card is the asset itself, so a post moves from draft to approved without being copied anywhere. There is more on this in content planning with Fabric.

Clients and creators can leave threaded comments through a shared link without signing up. Reviewers can highlight and comment on PDFs and documents, and leave timestamped comments on video. Monthly reports or campaign recaps can be published as a web page, and link analytics shows when each named recipient opened them.

Link analytics and password protection are included on Pro and Team plans. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best social media agency in Melbourne?

It depends on the brief. For an always-on content team, Melbourne Social Co and We The People have long track records. For creator and UGC programmes, Sticki and RISER Collective work at scale, and Snack Drawer combines social and creator work for brands such as Priceline Pharmacy and Netflix.

How much does a social media agency in Melbourne cost?

Most agencies here quote per brief rather than publishing rates. Retainers usually depend on the number of platforms, posts per month, community management hours and whether paid media or creator fees are included. Ask for a sample scope with deliverables listed so quotes can be compared.

What is the difference between a social media agency and a content studio?

A social media agency plans and runs a brand’s channels, community and creator programmes, and makes content to suit. A content studio focuses on producing branded and social content, often for agencies as well as brands. Our list of content studios in Sydney shows how studios work at the production end.

Who bought Snack Drawer?

Amplify, the creator agency co-founded by Alex Reid and Tom Maynard, acquired Melbourne-based Snack Drawer in June 2026.

Do Melbourne social agencies handle influencer marketing?

Most do. Some, such as Sticki and RISER Collective, specialise in it, while Melbourne Social Co, We The People and Akcelo offer creator campaigns as part of wider social retainers.

Related lists

Social media agencies in other cities: Sydney · New York · London · Los Angeles · Toronto

More in Melbourne: Creative agencies · Marketing agencies · Content studios · Video production · Advertising agencies · Photography studios

Run your agency on Fabric: Fabric for agencies · Fabric for TikTok agencies · Fabric for Instagram agencies