5 High-Paying Social Media Side Hustle Ideas For 2024

Did you know that the global spend on social media advertizing is projected to reach a market worth of $255.8 billion by 2028, with three-quarters of this amount forecasted to be spent by the end of 2024?

With more than half of the global population using social media, this shouldn’t come as a surprise, especially since artificial intelligence has opened up new pathways for companies to be able to sell and promote their brand presence, and products, more effectively.

But what’s in it for you?

If you’re looking for flexible work, to be able to earn something extra on alongside your main job, or simply as a way to flex and challenge your skill set, the soaring interest and expenditure in social media advertizing presents you with the challenge:

Why not turn this buzz into a side hustle?

And no, you don’t need to be an influencer to start.

Check out these five amazing side hustle ideas—which don’t even require you to be a social media influencer if that’s not your thing—so you can take advantage of the advertizing boom:

(Pay rates listed are extracted from salary comparison sites Comparably, Salary.com, Search Engine Land, and should be taken as an indication only of earning potential. The exact rates will vary depending on your chosen market, research, professional expertise, and time and resources expended.)

1. Social Media Advertising Consultant

As a social media advertising consultant, you would be advising businesses on how to craft effective and engaging content to promote their brand presence, products, and services, and you would consult on the best social media campaign strategy for their business you would usually be working as an extension of the team, but you have the freedom of being a freelancer.

Average you can expect to earn: $95,000 per annum

2. Social Media Manager

Fancy managing the social media profiles of businesses or individuals seeking to establish their personal brand? Social media managers take the social media strategy a step further, and are focused on its execution, through content writing and creation, managing and scheduling content calendars in line with trends, and community management (engaging with followers and responding to DMs for example), across multiple platforms.

Average you can expect to earn: $60,918 per annum

3. YouTube Channel Manager

YouTube channel managers are responsible for editing, uploading, and generally managing the content upload and broadcast schedule of YouTube channels for companies or personalities. In this freelance side hustle, you might also be involved with responding to comments, and you’ll be ensuring video titles and other related data are fully optimized to drive high traffic from Google and YouTube itself.

Average you can expect to earn: $109,000 per annum

4. PPC Campaign Manager

PPC (pay-per-click) is a form of advertizing in which an advertizing business pays a fee to promote their services or product, every time an ad is clicked on the host site (in this case, on social media platforms such as Facebook).

As a PPC campaign manager, you would advise and help businesses by crafting effective ad campaigns that will drive high results and yield them more clicks, in turn leading to more clients and warm leads. You might also decide to specialize with Google Ads to expand your expertise and earning potential.

Average you can expect to earn: $156,000

5. LinkedIn Profile/Content Writer

There are many individuals at the brink of their careers or at an intersection of career paths, who could use a makeover for their LinkedIn profile. Giving their profiles a lift means that you would be optimizing each section and ensuring it is targeted to attract the right professionals on LinkedIn’s platform—whether the client is seeking new employment, transitioning careers, or using their profile for business and sales.

You can also take it a step further and design and edit company profiles on LinkedIn as part of your service offering, and continue managing their LinkedIn presence and writing content to drive traction to their page on LinkedIn.

Average you can expect to earn: $96,000

As you can see, there’s more to making money in the social media advertizing space, than what initially meets the eye. Through utilizing your skills in content writing, social media analytics and trends tools, and creative, out-the-box thinking, you can earn just as much—or even more—than you make at your 9-5 job.