Understanding The Difference Between An In-House And Agency Model

Digital marketing is the prime fuel and running force behind your business’s expansion and revenue growth. The more people you reach, the more leads your business generates, and so on.

As a business owner, it is essential to settle on a marketing plan as you are scaling your business. You have two options—in-house and agency model. 

What Is The In-House And Agency Model?

In-House Model: An in-house model is about developing internal teams and departments to manage crucial tasks and processes of your business or agency. 

Agency Model: Agency model is the adoption of an outsourcing business process in which you hire an external agency business to carry out your marketing campaign. 

Before you invest in either of the two options, it is important to understand that an in-house marketing team is not a miniature version of a marketing agency. There are several other differences between an in-house and an agency model. Let’s understand them! 

The Difference Between An In-House And Agency Model

From operations to execution, an in-house team and an agency model work in distinguished ways. The use case for both should come down to your business needs at the moment. 

The difference between an in-house and agency model can be understood through the following points:

Brand Familiarity

If you have an in-house agency that’s already in touch with your brand’s vision, mission, and business practice, you don’t have to worry about getting a marketing campaign right. The internal marketing team knows your business already, and that impacts every decision they make.

Whereas an agency that’s not up-to-date with your brand will have a hard time getting into the groove of your business practices. Asynchronous communication in the form of Loom videos and textual briefs only helps so much. It will take time for them to get in touch with your company’s tone and core values. Regardless, if you’re getting the results, then the time taken is worth it.

Cost

Several costs come with building an in-house marketing team. At the very least, here are the positions you will need to fill immediately, and their average annual salaries:

• Social Media Marketing Specialist: $56,000
• SEO Specialist: $53,000
• Digital Marketer: $61,000
• Digital Marketing Specialist: $61,000

Hiring and nurturing a talented team is just one column of expense. The next step is acquiring the tools and skills tools that are essential to a full-fledged marketing operation. 

Whereas agency marketing services charge nearly $2000 to $12000 per month for inbound marketing services. Even the lengthiest and most comprehensive marketing campaigns don’t tally near $300k in expenses per year. 

Control

Control is another major area of difference between an in-house and agency model. An in-house advertising agency is when you have an internal marketing team that you can control and guide as per your requirement. Through in-house advertising, the decisions run through a different chain of command.

Whereas, the agency model for SEO allows you to outsource your marketing. This means you will relinquish control and command over your business’ marketing strategy. 

Communication 

When you have an in-house agency model, communication is a piece of cake. You just have to walk over to the team and talk it out. This comes in handy if you have any urgent changes or edits that you need to communicate immediately. When it comes to digital marketing, an hour-long delay can turn out to be catastrophic.

However, an external agency isn’t exactly an arm’s length away. Most well-established marketing agencies have remote teams. And their communication occurs in emails and Zoom calls, which causes obvious hindrances and delays in transferring time-sensitive information.

Focus

A glaring difference between an in-house and agency model is the focus on marketing operations. With an in-house team, the area of focus remains on your business projects and campaigns. This has a direct impact on the planning, execution, and everything else in your business.

On the other hand, an agency naturally has a ton of clients. Yours is just one of the projects on their roster. Although agencies dedicate time and teams to each client, they can never achieve the same level of attention and priority to your business.

Expertise

The talent, abilities, and operations of an in-house team are limited. Since most hires are location sensitive, you have a small talent pool to work with. Whereas an agency is filled with talented individuals who are experts in the field. 

Employee Status

With an in-house team, you are essentially working with your employees and subordinates. With a small team, no resources are disposable. Hence, employee turnover will hurt your marketing operations.

This is not the case with an online agency that consists of many team members who can take up the task and keep your project moving. 

Level Of Operation

Most in-house teams have limited resources, which leads to limited output. Unless you can scale your team, you will not be able to fire on all cylinders.

Whereas marketing agencies are often considered to be the jacks of all trades. They offer diverse specialties such as social media management, email, conversion rate optimization, SEO, copywriting, paid advertising, and so much more. 

It’s All About Cost, Talent, And Expertise! 

The dependence on external agencies has increased in the past decade, and the reasons behind this range from cost-effectiveness to expertise and so on. However, investing in an in-house marketing team has its perks and long-term benefits. 

Now that the difference between an in-house and agency model is clear, the decision between choosing the two comes down to your business needs. 

If an agency suits your business needs right now, then RankJacker can help you. Our team of marketers, SEO specialists, and dedicated experts can create a comprehensive marketing plan that is right for your business. 

Get on a call with us today and let’s figure it out together.