The short answer
For most small businesses spending less than about $30,000 a month on ads, an agency or a done-for-you service costs less than hiring in-house. Choose an agency if you need someone to own your strategy. Choose a done-for-you service if you know what you sell and want the campaigns run well for less. Hire in-house once your ad budget is big and steady enough to keep a specialist busy full time.
The rest of this post shows the math behind that, and when each answer changes.
What does each option really cost?
Every option has two costs: the ad spend, which goes to Google, Meta and the other platforms, and the help, which is what you pay someone to run it. The ad spend is the same whoever runs it. The help is where the options differ.
In-house. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median pay for market research analysts and marketing specialists at about $77,000 a year (May 2024). Benefits and payroll costs make up about 30% of total compensation for private-industry employers, according to the BLS. So one specialist costs roughly $110,000 a year, or about $9,200 a month, before software, training, or a single ad.
Agency. Small business retainers commonly run $1,500 to $4,000 a month for the fee alone, and percentage-of-spend deals often take 30% to 40% of your media. We break those numbers down in how much digital marketing costs for a small business, and line by line in what a retainer actually pays for.
Done-for-you service. One monthly price that covers planning, building, running and reporting on the campaigns. At DeepThought it costs a fraction of a comparable agency retainer, month to month.
The fee isn't the number that matters most. What matters is how much of your total spend reaches a customer. Our post on the working media ratio shows how to work that out from one invoice.
In-house vs agency vs done-for-you: side by side
| In-house hire | Agency | Done-for-you service | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical cost of the help | ~$9,200 a month per person, before tools | $1,500–$4,000 a month retainer, or 30–40% of spend | One monthly price, a fraction of a retainer |
| Who owns the strategy | You and your hire | The agency, with your input | You set the goals; the service plans the campaigns |
| Skills you need in the building | Enough to hire, manage and judge a marketer | Enough to brief an agency and question its reports | Enough to know your offer, area and budget |
| Channels covered | Whatever one person knows well | Several, depending on the team and package | Several, run by one team |
| Speed to launch | Weeks to hire, then setup | Typically two to three weeks of onboarding | Faster, because there's less back-and-forth |
| Switching cost | Hard: a hire is a person, not a contract | Medium: notice periods, handover | Low: month to month |
| Best for | Large, steady budgets; marketing as a core function | Open strategy questions; brand work; larger budgets | Owners who know what they sell and want it handled |
When is in-house marketing the right choice?
In-house works when marketing is central to the business and the budget keeps one person fully busy. That generally means well over $30,000 a month in ad spend, or a business that ships so much marketing (products, events, content) that someone needs to be in the room every day.
The catch for a small business is range. Paid marketing takes search, social, creative, tracking and analytics. One hire is often strong in one or two of those and learning the rest with your budget. When they leave, the knowledge often leaves with them.
If you do hire, keep every account and login in your business's name from day one, not the employee's.
When is an agency the right choice?
An agency is the right answer more often than a done-for-you company might admit. Hire one when:
- You need someone to own the strategy. You aren't sure what to say, who to say it to, or which offer to lead with.
- You're entering a new market or launching something new, and the plan matters more than the campaigns.
- You need brand work: naming, positioning, a new website, a campaign idea.
- Your budget can carry the fee and still leave enough for the ads to work. As a rule of thumb, a retainer should be well under half your total monthly spend.
Good agencies earn their fee on those questions. Before you sign, ask how much of your total will reach customers and who will actually work on your account. Seven questions before you let anyone touch your ad budget is a checklist for that conversation.
The model breaks when the retainer rivals the ad budget, which is where many local businesses end up. A $2,000 retainer on a $3,000 monthly budget leaves $1,000 for ads, and that's rarely enough for a campaign to learn what works.
When is a done-for-you service the right choice?
A done-for-you service fits when you already know the business decisions (what you sell, where, at what price) and you need the campaigns built, run and improved. You approve the plan; the service does the work.
It's the wrong answer if what you really need is someone to tell you what your marketing should say. Be honest with yourself about which problem you have.
It tends to work best for:
- Local service businesses like HVAC, plumbing, roofing and dental, where the offer is clear and the job is getting found.
- Budgets from about $1,500 to $30,000 a month, where a retainer takes too big a share and an in-house hire isn't affordable yet.
- Owners who want several channels (search, social, streaming TV) in one place, rather than a separate vendor for each.
What about doing it yourself or using a freelancer?
Both can work. Doing it yourself suits one channel and a small budget, if you have the time and you keep paying attention when the business gets busy. A freelancer suits one channel done well. The limit is hours and range: one person rarely covers search, social, video and reporting at once. We compare DIY honestly in One team or do it yourself.
What does it cost to switch later?
Switching is cheap or expensive depending on one thing: who owns your accounts.
If your Google Ads account, Meta ad account, analytics, tag manager and call tracking numbers are in your business's name, a switch mostly means changing who has access and rebuilding a few campaigns. If the provider or a former employee owns them, you lose the campaign history and audiences and start over. That can cost a month or two of weaker results.
Check this before you choose any option. Our ad account ownership checklist shows how, with wording you can copy.
A simple rule for choosing
Use your monthly ad budget as the starting point, then adjust for what you actually need:
- Under about $1,500 a month: one channel, run yourself or by a done-for-you service. A retainer would eat most of the budget.
- $1,500 to $30,000 a month: a done-for-you service to run the campaigns, plus paid strategy help when a real strategy question comes up.
- Over $30,000 a month: consider a small in-house team, with an agency for strategy and creative.
- At any budget: if you can't say what your marketing should say, hire an agency first.
Whichever you pick, judge it on cost per customer after three months, not on how busy the reports look.
Where DeepThought fits
DeepThought is a done-for-you service. Our AI recommends the channels, budget and audiences and drafts the ads. Our team buys the media, launches the campaigns and manages them across 22 advertising products, and you get plain-English reports. It costs a fraction of a typical agency retainer, month to month.
If you need an agency to own your strategy, hire one. We'd rather tell you that than sell you the wrong thing. For the bigger picture of channels, costs and timing, read our guide to what a full digital marketing setup includes.
Sources
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Market Research Analysts, median pay, May 2024.
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, benefits as a share of total compensation, private industry.
Is it cheaper to hire an in-house marketer or an agency?
For most small businesses, an agency or a done-for-you service is cheaper. A marketing specialist's median pay is about $77,000 a year in the US, and benefits push the total cost to roughly $110,000, or about $9,200 a month, before any ad spend. Small business agency retainers commonly run $1,500 to $4,000 a month. In-house usually only pays off once you spend well over $30,000 a month on ads.
When should a small business hire a marketing agency?
Hire an agency when you need someone to own your strategy: what you say, to whom and why. That includes entering a new market, rebranding, or not knowing which offer to lead with. An agency also makes sense when your budget can carry the retainer and still leave enough for the ads to work.
What is the difference between an agency and a done-for-you marketing service?
An agency sells strategy, creative and a team, usually through a monthly retainer or a percentage of your ad spend. A done-for-you service focuses on running the campaigns: it plans, buys, launches and manages the ads for one price. You bring the business decisions; it does the work.
What skills does in-house marketing need?
More than one person usually has. Running paid marketing well takes search ads, social ads, creative, tracking and analytics, and reporting. One hire is often strong in one or two of these and learning the rest on your budget.
How hard is it to switch from an agency to in-house or another provider?
It depends on who owns your accounts. If your Google Ads, Meta ad account, analytics and tracking are in your business's name, switching mostly means handing over access and rebuilding a few campaigns. If the provider owns them, you lose the history and audiences and start over.