Digital marketing is quickly emerging as the advertising of the future. Unlike print, television, and radio, the financial barrier to entry is lower and the ROI is always trackable thanks to tools like Facebook and Google’s analytics. As such as more businesses look to get their feet wet with digital marketing, a common question arises: should we hire a digital marketing agency or a new in-house?

If You Hire a Digital Marketing Agency:

A growing number of companies are going to the route of outsourcing their digital marketing needs to agencies rather than trying to hire an in-house specialist. However, why is that? 

Here are some of the reasons companies turn into digital marketing agencies:

Lower cost:

Simple and plain, you will commonly get more for your money by going with an advertising agency. When comparing the cost of an ad agency and a full-time employee, think of them both in terms of monthly expenses. 

A full-time digital marketing employee starts around $35,000 a year if they have minimal experience up to $90,000 a year that comes out to just under the $3,000 or up to $7,500 a month plus other advantages. This also does not include the money you will spend on the advertising itself. 

In other words, a digital marketing agency may cost anywhere from $500 a month up to $5,000 or more depending on the firepower you want. Therefore, rather than one person’s expertise and experience, you can get an entire team’s worth of talent for the costs. 

More Specialization:

One key is difference between hiring a digital marketing agency and an in-house employee is that with the agency, you can get a package deal of the talent. 

Sometimes, if you hire an excellent digital marketing specialist in-house, they are likely to be jack-of-all-trades, master of none. They can be decently familiar with tools like Facebook ads, google ads, SEO best practices, social media marketing, and user experience, but their knowledge of these tools is often not as deep as someone who spends all of their time using a specific tool. Like, your employee may know the basics of SEO, but they do not know how to optimize your site for the rapidly emerging market of voice search? Do they know how to make seamless websites, which provide exceptional user experience so that google boosts your rankings? Generally, those will be a stretch for a single employee.

By hiring a digital marketing agency, you can include a digital advertising specialist, a user experience specialist, an SEO specialist, and a social media specialist to your team for less money than it will cost to have an in-house marketer. 

If you hire an in-house employee:

Many companies elect to bring on a new team member full time to handle all of their marketing needs. After all, marketing is not a part-time need for a company that is serious about the growth of business, more cash flow and new customers are a must. Bringing on in-house help also has its benefits. 

There are common reasons as bellow, business bring on a new employee to handle their digital marketing needs:

Full-time attention:

According to the digital marketing agency you may pick, you do not importantly have the guarantee that you will get all the attention your digital marketing goals need. If they are distracted by other clients or not well structured, there is a risk that digital marketing agencies will not provide the work hours you need. 

A strong full-time employee will be further constantly than an agency, but again, that is also based on the quality of the digital marketing agency you will otherwise bring on to help you in your digital marketing. 

One important thing to keep in your mind when comparing the two is that you really are not getting further work hours out of a single employee. By a single employee, you may get one 40 hour week, but by the team of digital marketing specialists, you are more likely to get 4 to 5-8 hour weeks collectively. Additionally, you are still getting roughly the same amount of work hours devoted to your digital marketing. 

Culture familiarity and better brand:

Many times, businesses decide to hire in-house because they feel a full-time employee will have a good chance at really understanding the company’s goals, brand, and voice. Traditionally, this is true, as an individual who spends every day in immersed company culture will pick it up effectively than a remote employee or team. 

The best digital marketing agencies overcome this challenge through frequent communication and by listening to your needs and vision, but there is not a guarantee that they will nail it. 

Closer communication:

One of the final reasons businesses may choose to hire a marketer in-house is that they expect communication to be smoother and faster. In some cases, it is true, but it is not a guarantee. Some employees can be more disorganized, and a strong digital marketing company will meet and excel all your communication needs. 

Making your decision:

At the end of the day, the most necessary number is your ROI. Accordingly, your decision should be made depending on what will get you the best ROI and grow your business. between the two options, determine that approach will result in the most successful advertising efforts. While you cannot know for sure ahead of time what your ROI will be, you can do a cost-benefit analysis which will help you figure out that one is most likely to produce better ROI.

Whether you go in-house or build out your team will come down to your unique situation. You will have to consider all the variables such as cost, your market, and even your ability to build a great team. Keep in your mind also that it may not have to be a binary decision. The b best route forward can be a combination of some in-house hires supplemented with a digital marketing agency.