In-house marketing vs agency: Which should you choose?

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Many businesses have had the age-old debate — which is better, in-house marketing or agency? Naturally, both arguments have positives and negatives, but what do they look like?

To help you settle the debate and make your decision easier, we’ve mapped out the pros and cons of each in different areas so you can make the best choice for your business.

Cost
Inbound expertise
Industry trends
Time
Responsibility
So, what’s the answer?

Cost

Let’s cut to the chase. Usually, the top of the agenda when discussing in-house marketing vs. agency is the same thing — budget.

Surely, paying an agency to do your marketing for you is more expensive, right?

Not necessarily.

The answer is never as clear-cut as that. There are several factors to consider, such as salary costs, recruitment expenses and limitations to scalability. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the pros and cons of each.

In-house

Agency

✅ Pros

Fixed costs: Get an accurate picture of your budgets and salary expenses
Invest in your future: Building an in-house team powers your future growth and resources
More freedom: You can usually react more quickly, such as altering ads daily or re-strategising without wasting money

✅ Pros

Scalability: Agencies have the resources to scale with you and support you with your growth plans
Flexibility: Pay for services as and when you need them, adjusting retainers and contracts to meet your current needs without adjusting your in-house headcount
Expertise: Access marketing minds that are updated on current trends without paying for salaries, overheads or training

🚫 Cons

Recruitment costs: Finding the right people can take time and money — plus the salaries you need to pay
Training costs: Marketing is rapidly evolving, which may require expenditure on training to keep your team up to speed
Overheads: Maintaining an in-house team doesn’t come cheap. There’ll be office space, equipment, licenses and more to pay for

🚫 Cons

Service fees: These can change and be difficult to budget for
Shortfalls: It’s rare, but there can be shortfalls in understanding, which can be costly to rectify

Wondering what it costs for marketing services from an agency? Check out our price guide here.

Inbound expertise

A fully effective inbound strategy relies on the latest understanding of user habits, trends and analytics. You can't rest on your laurels at the best of times, especially in inbound marketing.

You’ll need to consider what software your in-house team will have. How will they manage their contacts and leads? Will you nurture leads manually or autonomously via a platform like HubSpot?

Software such as this comes with a price, and you may or may not have the internal budget, especially if it won't be worked on continuously.

When working with an agency, you can be sure you’re getting the most out of your inbound marketing. Thorough strategies will be in place with the expertise to match, from content and SEO to PPC and CRM.

In-house

Agency

✅ Pros

Potential cost savings: Limitations in knowledge are offset by potential cost savings (but less effective ROI)

✅ Pros

Unparalleled knowledge: They're inbound experts for a reason

Software: Access to the best software and technology to boost your campaigns
Continuous improvement: Agency teams constantly learn, adapt and experiment, meaning you harness those benefits

🚫 Cons

Compromise: In-house staff may offer cost savings, but it could be at the expense of quality and effectiveness

Software: Additional software licenses can be expensive when not factored into an all-in-one price
Training: It takes continuous learning and time to get up to speed on the latest inbound methodology

🚫 Cons

Cost: Expertise comes at a cost

Industry trends

Take AI, for example. It can do so much more than generate an image. The best agencies will already be five steps ahead of many in-house teams when harnessing its power.

What about the latest HubSpot updates? Or using automation to its full potential? Researching, developing and deploying these skills can take in-house teams' valuable time, resources and training.

With agencies, you have a whole wealth of bright minds at your disposal.

In-house

Agency

✅ Pros

Develop in-house knowledge: Having industry knowledge under your own roof is always beneficial
Decision-making: This knowledge can help to inform overall business planning

✅ Pros

Boundless knowledge: Agency teams have a wider breadth of knowledge from events, talks, certifications and specialisms
Cost-effective: You’ll have access to this knowledge through your service fees rather than having to train and develop your in-house teams

🚫 Cons

Time: It takes time to consume, develop and share this knowledge
Training: A lot of it comes from training, which comes at an expense
Keeping up: In marketing, things change in the blink of an eye. Keeping up with the trends is a role in itself, which could take time away from day-to-day tasks

🚫 Cons

There are none!

Time

Time — it’s something we all wish we had more of, and we all know the famous saying — time is money.

So, based on that, who comes top in the in-house marketing vs agency debate here?

In-house

Agency

✅ Pros

Control: Go at your own pace, with your own deadlines. You aren't at the mercy of a third party but there's extra pressure to deliver

✅ Pros

Save time: Let others do the work for you
Security: Contracts are in place to ensure you get what you pay for with clear deadlines and updates through robust project management systems

🚫 Cons

Development: Building an in-house team takes a lot of time and investment, which is where you need them to be
Security: Even after spending all that time, employees could leave and you’re back to square one again
Delays: In-house processes often aren’t as smooth as agency-side due to the lack of skills and software available

🚫 Cons

Less control: Agencies aren’t managed as closely as in-house teams

Responsibility

This is probably the most straightforward. Which of the two options is the bigger responsibility to the business: an agency or an in-house employee? Obviously, the latter.

However, you’ll need to decide whether an in-house employee has the knowledge, tools and time to execute inbound marketing to the same standard as a professional, trusted agency.

If so, it might be worth foregoing the option of a rolling contract with an agency and taking on a full-time in-house inbound team.

In-house

Agency

✅ Pros

Control: Can be managed closely

✅ Pros

Competitive price: Agencies need to offer favourable prices to beat the competition
Negotiation: Can negotiate contracts more frequently than permanent in-house staff
Quality: Less risk concerning quality of work

🚫 Cons

Risk: It's impossible to know how a hire will perform in the long run
Expensive: Training costs, salaries, overheads etc
Legalities: Hard to terminate contracts if things aren’t going well

🚫 Cons

You get what you pay for: So beware of seemingly too-cheap-to-be-true agencies

So, what's the answer?

We might be biased, but we’d always advise picking an agency over an in-house time. While the initial expenditure may feel high, you get what you pay for and see a much better ROI.

Access to a vast amount of information, topical knowledge, skills, specialisms and dedicated experts in each field at your fingertips is arguably priceless, particularly when it comes to marketing your business effectively.

Want to kickstart your agency journey today? Speak to a member of our team who'll be happy to help you out.