Cost comparison · in-house vs. agency
Honest side-by-side. Fully-loaded cost, time-to-ship, risk profile. We don't flatter ourselves.
Free Calculator
Agency vs In-House: What Does Marketing Really Cost?
Most companies underestimate in-house marketing costs by 40-60%. Select the roles you would need, adjust salaries, and see the true cost comparison.
Select In-House Roles
Toggle on the roles you would need to hire. Adjust monthly salaries to match your market.
Marketing Strategist
Plans campaigns, manages budget, reports on ROI
/month
Content Writer
Blog posts, case studies, email sequences, social copy
/month
Graphic Designer
Ad creatives, social graphics, landing pages, presentations
/month
Ads Manager
Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, retargeting
/month
Data Analyst
Tracking setup, dashboards, attribution, reporting
/month
Tools & Subscriptions
CRM, analytics, design tools, ad platforms, email marketing, etc.
Brandon Digital Retainer
Select the retainer level that matches your marketing scope.
In-House (est.)
$32K/mo
Brandon Digital
$7K/mo
The Costs Most Companies Forget
Benefits & Taxes
25-30% on top of base salary for healthcare, retirement, insurance
Tools & Software
$500-2,000/mo for CRM, analytics, design, ad platforms, email
Management Time
15-20% overhead for supervision, meetings, coordination
Recruitment & Training
2-3 months salary to hire, 3+ months to full productivity
Three steps. No surprises.
Each calculator is a thin layer over a single number. Here's how this one earns it.
Salaries, benefits, tooling, recruiting. The hidden costs of in-house are usually 30% above headline.
Positive delta = in-house costs more annually. Negative = agency costs more. Neither is automatically right.
Time to ship, single-point-of-failure, ramp time. Numbers don't capture this — write it down separately.
Other tools in this set.
Plug in spend, leads, close-rate, deal size. Get a payback period and a floor-CPL you shouldn't cross.
Take our 30-question audit. Identify gaps in your marketing across measurement, channels, and operations.
Seven-step funnel diagnostic. Finds the drop-off nobody was watching — usually a 10–40% leak between lead and SQL.
The calculator gives you a number. An operator gives you a plan.
Have us run this on your account with your real numbers. Free 14-day audit, written, yours to keep whether we end up working together or not.