Agency or in-house? Here's when each one is right.
If you're deciding between hiring a marketer and hiring an agency, the honest answer is that it depends on what you've already got. This page gives you the real UK costs, the cases where the hire is the better call, and the cases where it isn't. We're an agency, so read it knowing that. We've also told plenty of people to hire instead.
It comes down to whether you need thinking or hands.
Usually it's both. An in-house hire gives you one person, full time, inside the business. An agency gives you several people, part time, outside it. Which is better depends on which of those you're short of.
- If you have a strong marketing lead and no one to execute, hire the hands, or hand the execution to an agency and keep the lead.
- If you have people who can execute and nobody deciding what to execute, that's a strategy gap, and a fractional director may fit better than either.
- If you have neither, which is where most of the businesses we speak to are, one hire has to be good at six things, and one person rarely is.
When you should hire, not us.
Hire in-house when marketing is central enough to the business that you want someone in every meeting, when the work is mostly one channel you'll run for years, or when you already have an agency doing the specialist work and need someone to own the relationship and the brand day to day. About a third of our clients have someone in-house we work alongside, and it works well. We define who owns what in the first month so nobody's guessing.
In-house marketing vs agency: what each really costs.
6 to 10 weeks
The typical UK marketing hire cycle.
Source: Hays Salary Guide 2026
65%
UK marketers who plan to move jobs in the next year.
Source: Hays 2026
We're not going to put a salary on this page. What the right person costs is different in Newcastle than it is in London, and different again for the person you actually end up hiring. What we can tell you is what a salary leaves out: employer national insurance, pension, kit, training, the recruiter's fee and a desk. Add those and the real number is well above the one in the job advert.
Then there's time. Two to three months to fill the role, a few more before the person is useful, and on Hays' own figures around two thirds of UK marketers expect to move jobs within the year. When one does, what they learned about your business goes with them. An agency is priced as a monthly fee covering several specialists, and what they know about you sits with a team instead of one person. What you give up is the desk in your office. What you keep is continuity.
What you should get from an agency, if it's any good.
Specialists, plural.
Someone who runs paid search all day, someone else who runs paid social, someone who writes, someone who designs. A hire is one of these. An agency should be all of them.
Your business known, from outside it.
The point isn't only knowing the business; it's knowing it while staying outside it, so the advice isn't defending anyone's job.
Continuity.
When one person's on holiday or leaves, the account doesn't. The knowledge sits with a team.
A number, not a report.
If the monthly report doesn't open with what you sold, the agency is reporting activity, and you're paying for activity.
People to chat with that know our business yet are not in our business, so offering an impartial service based on best practice in the industry.
Esther Russell
Inky Thinking
A knowledgeable and supportive team that genuinely feels like an extension of our own marketing department.
Nathan Wadwell
Digital Marketing Manager, Centre for Life
The expensive option is deciding neither.
The hire that never gets made and the agency that never gets called both cost the same thing: another year of the marketing done in the gaps, by you. Decide. Either way is better than that.
See how we workIf you want to talk it through.
- 01
A 20-minute call
Tell us what you've got in-house and what's not working. We'll say which shape fits, including if it's a hire.
- 02
A written plan, if it's us
What we'd do, what it costs, how we'd report it. Before anything runs.
- 03
Start with one channel
Add the rest as each pays for the next. Or keep your in-house lead and hand us the execution.
Agency or in-house, answered.
Is an agency cheaper than hiring a marketing manager?
Usually, once you count the whole cost of the hire rather than the wage. On top of the salary there's employer national insurance, pension, recruitment, kit, training and a desk, then two to three months to fill the role and a few more before the person is up to speed. An agency fee covers several specialists from the first month. The honest comparison is cost per outcome, not cost per head, and we'll do that comparison with your numbers on the call.
When is in-house better than an agency?
When marketing is central enough that you want someone in every meeting, when the work is one channel you'll run for years, or when you have an agency for the specialist work and need someone to own the brand day to day. Plenty of businesses run both.
Can we have an in-house marketer and an agency?
Yes, and about a third of our clients do. The in-house person owns the brand, the relationship and the internal decisions; the agency owns the channels. Define who owns what in the first month.
What should an agency actually give us?
Several specialists, knowledge of your business held by a team rather than one person, continuity when people are away, and a monthly report that opens with what you sold. If you're getting a report that opens with impressions, you're paying for activity.
How do we know an agency won't just hand us to a junior?
Ask who does the work, and whether you keep them. At Mira the people on the proposal are the people on the account, and you can ring them. Any agency should be able to answer that in one sentence.
Tell us what you've got, and we'll tell you what fits.
A 20-minute call. If the answer is "hire someone", we'll say so. If it's us, you'll have a written plan before anything runs.