As a business owner, you’ll likely realise just how important marketing is. However, when it comes to executing an effective marketing campaign, one of the biggest decisions you need to make is whether you hire in-house or partner with an external marketing agency.
Given the long-term investment, hiring employees may seem like the best option at a glance. However, when you take into account more than just the salaries you’ll be forking out for - recruitment costs, training, management time, and specialist expertise ('more hours' aren't always better than a few hours from a specialist who knows how to execute) - the expense quickly adds up, and you might find that working with an agency is the better option, particularly if you're running multiple services that require different skillsets.
Now, this doesn’t mean that agencies are always the way to go. The right approach will depend on your goals, resources, and the stage of growth you’re at. But, by gaining a better understanding of how much it costs to build an internal team, you can make a more informed decision. So, here are the hidden costs of hiring in-house.
On average, it costs £6,125 to hire a new recruit, and £19,000 to fill a manager role.
Finding the right candidate is critical, especially when looking for a highly specialised role like SEO, PPC, or digital PR. But, securing top talent can take weeks or even months, and cost a considerable amount in recruitment fees, interview time, onboarding, training, and lost productivity.
Before a candidate even begins you’ve already made quite the investment, and if your hire turns out not to be the right fit or decides not to stay with you long-term, you’ll need to do it all over again. And the second time around, you’ll likely experience more significant project delays.
Plus, if you need multiple team members (for example you're running both SEO campaigns and PPC campaigns), this cost doubles before you've even started the work! This leads us onto our next point...
To get the job done right, marketing requires a wide range of specialisms. It’s rare that you will find an individual who can create content, manage Google Ads, run a successful social media account, secure coverage, maintain a website, and analyse data effectively, as these require wildly different skill sets and very few marketers are experts in every area.
If you want comprehensive marketing support, you will most likely need several employees and a marketing manager to ensure results are delivered across every channel.
Here are some examples of average annual salaries in the UK for experienced specialists:
Remember, most agencies employ a number of specialists, meaning you can access a broader range of expertise without paying several individual salaries. For this reason, an agency is likely to be cheaper for you.
After all, if you need both PR and SEO, using the example figures here we can see that you'd need to pay more than £12,000 to recruiters and then £90,000 in salary. This means your investment is more than £100,000 before we even consider pension, PAYE, and national insurance. By comparison, you may be able to engage an agency for a couple of thousand pounds per month and have flexibility on cancellation.
Keyword research, analytics platforms, project management tools, and media monitoring software all require monthly or annual subscriptions. When combined, these can significantly increase your overheads.
Many agencies offer access to these platforms built into the cost of the retainer, meaning you can benefit from all the tools you need without having to purchase the subscription yourselves. That being said, not all agencies operate in this way, so that is something to discuss if you meet with an agency.
Especially with the rise of AI, the shift in the way consumers search for things online, the frequent search engine algorithm updates, and the constant addition of new features from advertising platforms, the need for regular training is higher than ever.
In-house teams will require ongoing training, certifications, and access to industry events. Investing in people’s personal development is worthwhile, there’s no denying that, but it is another cost for your business to bear.
The average salary for an experienced marketing manager in the UK is £65,000 per year. This is a significant expense, especially for smaller companies. However, even the most skilled selection of experts need leadership.
Marketing managers set priorities, review performance, and oversee all campaigns and activity to ensure marketing efforts continue to align with the goals of the business.
While working with an agency does involve some collaboration, it isn’t nearly as demanding as day-to-day marketing management.
Whether you’re launching a new product or just experiencing a busy period, there will be times where you require more marketing resources than you normally would.
For this reason, when deciding between hiring in-house or engaging an agency, people often find that it's tempting to hire someone full-time because they're getting 'more hours' for the price and they think they'll encounter busy periods anyway.
However, before you make this decision, you need to consider whether you actually need someone on a full-time basis. If not, you're paying for hours you're not using. Plus, to make the costs balance, it's likely that this person will be junior and will require a lot more attention from you and senior leaders.
By contrast, agencies usually offer scalable retainers that allow you to ramp up activity when you need to and reduce it during your quieter months, meaning you won’t need to commit to additional internal team members who may not be needed for the entire year.
Plus, you're dealing with specialists, so there are very few demands on your time. Instead, there's just a team of trained experts executing in the background and reporting on KPIs.
Although it comes with additional costs, it does make more sense to build an internal marketing team in some cases:
You may benefit from having dedicated employees who have a deeper understanding of your products, customers, and company culture if your marketing requirements are extensive all-year round.
If close collaboration with sales, product, or customer service teams is essential, on-site employees may be more advantageous.
If you have the cashflow to invest in multiple specialists and you’d much prefer to build a team of people to manage your brand messaging, creative direction, and long-term strategy, then investing in employees may work better for you.
Every company is different, so whether you spend the time and money building an internal team or choose to partner with an agency is entirely down to what would be most beneficial for your business.
If you’ve considered all the costs of hiring an in-house marketing team and still feel it’s the most financially viable option for your business, then get recruiting. If you’d prefer to leverage a range of expertise for a fraction of the cost, then partnering with an agency could be the better move.
If you’re wondering what it would be like to work with a performance marketing agency, get in touch with us today and see what we can do for you.
.jpg)
