In-House Marketing vs Agency: The Pros and Cons
Your marketing strategy directly impacts how your business performs. In fact, companies with stronger and more developed marketing programs are four times more likely to hit targets than those that treat marketing as an afterthought.
With stakes that high, it's no surprise that businesses keep on asking the same question: Should we hire and build our own marketing team or trust an agency to run with it?
It's tempting to decide solely based on cost, but the decision goes far beyond numbers. Let's break down what each approach really means for your business.
The Advantage of an Internal Team
An internal marketer is closer to your day-to-day operations, understands your product or service on a deeper level, and can respond quickly to small tasks that pop up throughout the week. Since they work directly with the brand, they easily develop a strong feel for the brand's voice, culture, and internal process. For companies with highly technical offerings or niche industries, having someone internal to translate product knowledge into content can be valuable.
But these strengths alone don't tell the whole story. To understand whether in-house is truly the best fit, you also need to look at the total cost behind it.
How Much Does In-House Marketing Cost?
On the surface, an in-house marketer looks like the cheaper and more convenient option. With most US businesses running on teams of fewer than five people, hiring one person to "handle everything" feels even more practical. You hire them once, train them, and rely on them for every upcoming campaign. Compared to agency partnerships that operate on shorter contracts, it feels like the more stable option.
But that assumption leaves out a long list of expenses most leaders forget to factor in:
1. Salary, Benefits, Training, and Tools
Payroll is only one part of the actual cost of building an in-house marketing team, and it's not exactly cheap. For perspective, here are the average salaries for common marketing roles:
- Digital Marketing Manager: ~$65,000
- Digital Marketing Specialist: ~$49,000
- SEO Specialist: ~$48,000
- Social Media Specialist: ~$48,000
That's even before you factor in benefits, taxes, bonuses, PTO, training, and the software they'll need to do their jobs. Once all of that is included, each role costs significantly more than the base salary.
2. Potential Skill Gaps
After seeing the salary and overhead costs, some business owners try to simplify the problem by asking, "Do we really need more than one marketing person?"
It's a fair question, and many companies have tried having a one-person marketing team. However, it's extremely hard to make that model work.
Modern marketing is too broad for one person to cover everything. Design, copywriting, print coordination, and even fulfillment — each one requires its own training and expertise. No single marketer, no matter how talented, can master all of them at a high level. Even top performers can only specialize in two to three areas. Forcing this model on your business can result in rushed outputs, delayed campaigns, and even unreached quotas.
3. Limited People = Limited Output
Even if you hire an excellent marketer, there's only so much one person can produce in a week. If your employees wear so many hats, their output naturally slows down. The risks become even more obvious during peak seasons, tight deadlines, or busy quarters. Work piles up faster than one person can manage, which leads to multiple delays.
If you have a small internal marketing team, their productivity can also be affected if one of them takes a vacation, gets sick, or goes on leave. Unexpected absences can even push you to pause campaigns or halt content production. Despite these, building an in-house team can still work for some companies, given that you can support the role with the time, budget, and resources it truly requires.
What A Marketing Agency Does
After understanding the true costs and limitations of an internal team, it's easier to see why many still turn to agencies. An agency isn't just your "extra hands"; they're an entire marketing system ready to plug into your business.
A marketing agency gives you access to:
1. A Team of Specialists
Instead of relying on one generalist to juggle everything, an agency connects you to a team of dedicated experts for each part of your marketing. Since they're not hired as employees, you skip the long onboarding, training, and trial-and-error phase entirely.
On top of that, agencies already know what they're doing. They bring years of experience working with diverse brands and industries, so they can jump in and deliver quality work right away. You no longer need to troubleshoot because they come with established workflows, project management systems, and communication processes.
2. Faster Problem Solving Through Pattern Recognition
Agencies work with many clients, industries, and campaigns, so they spot patterns quickly. They've already seen most of the challenges a business will face — underperforming campaigns, glitches, and even shifting audience behavior. Since these situations are no longer new to them, they can diagnose issues faster and apply solutions that have already worked elsewhere. This guarantees fewer surprises, fewer costly mistakes, and faster course corrections.
3. Tools and Technology
Working with an agency means gaining access to tools and technology without paying for them separately. Most agencies already have premium access to analytics suites, design platforms, social management systems, etc. You benefit from them without carrying the subscription costs or the learning curve.
We covered this idea in more detail in a previous post on How a Creative Marketing Agency Sparks Results. If you're curious how all these pieces come together in real campaigns, it's worth giving that article a read.
Which One Is Best for Me?
If you're still unsure between building an in-house marketing team or partnering with an agency, here's a quick decision checklist you can use. Answer these questions honestly — no overthinking.
- Do you need support that can be adjusted based on demand? (Busy seasons, product launches, or last-minute projects)
- Do you need access to multiple skills but cannot hire multiple full-time employees?
- Do you have projects that require quick turnarounds?
- Do you want your marketing to stay consistent, even when internal priorities shift?
- Do you have the budget for the full cost of an employee?
- Do you prefer a marketing setup where tools, expertise, and execution are already included? (No need to pay for subscriptions!)
- Would you rather have your team focus on core operations than marketing efforts?
If You Mostly Answered "YES"
Working with a marketing agency is the right choice. You need broader expertise, reliable support, higher output, and a system that keeps working — even when your internal team gets stretched thin.
If You Mostly Answered "NO"
An in-house marketing team could work for you. This usually means your needs are simple, predictable, and best handled by someone deeply familiar with your everyday operations.
Still Stuck in the Middle? Go Hybrid!
If your answers still feel confusing, consider going hybrid. This setup lets you keep an in-house marketing expert who knows your brand inside out, while letting an agency handle tasks that require more time, skill, or capacity.
Your internal marketer can focus on building strategies, getting approvals, and ensuring that all assets are aligned with your brand identity. On the other hand, an agency takes care of creative work, execution, production, fulfillment, and scaling campaigns during busy seasons. This approach reduces burnout, keeps timelines on track, and ensures your marketing never slows down. It's one of the most common setups for growing companies.
Build The Marketing Puzzle
Marketing works a lot like a puzzle — you need multiple pieces that fit together to see the full picture. Strategy, design, content, web, print, production, and fulfillment each play their own role, and you can't complete the puzzle if even one of them is missing.
At Roundhouse, this is the type of structure we've been building and refining for years. Instead of treating every piece as a separate vendor or separate workflow, we keep everything under one roof. In this way, all the pieces connect naturally. It reduces the handoffs, avoids the usual coordination headaches, and makes the whole process feel smoother for the teams we support.
Need help completing your marketing puzzle? Connect with us today!