Agency, in-house or freelancer: who should run your paid media?

There is no default answer

Who runs your paid media is a resourcing decision, not a contest between models. Each option buys a different mix of cost, expertise, control and continuity. The right one depends on how much you spend, how many channels you run, how quickly you need to move and what your team can already do.

Here is a fair look at each model, including when an agency is the wrong choice.

Option one: in-house

An in-house specialist works only on your business. They sit close to product, sales and finance, learn your margins and seasonality in depth, and can react the same day when stock, pricing or lead quality changes.

When in-house is the right call

• Your spend is high and steady enough to keep at least one specialist fully occupied.
• Paid media is central to how you grow, not a side channel.
• Campaigns need to respond to internal information daily, such as inventory, pricing or sales feedback.
• You have a senior person who can hire, manage and judge the quality of the work.

What it really costs

The salary is only the start. Add superannuation, which is 12% under the super guarantee, plus recruitment, onboarding, leave cover, training and the tool stack for reporting, creative and analytics. Expect a ramp-up period before a new hire is fully productive.

The bigger hidden cost is breadth. One person rarely has deep, current skills across Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, tracking and conversion work at the same time. A single hire is also a single point of failure: when they leave, a lot of account knowledge can leave with them.

Option two: a freelancer

A good freelancer gives you hands-on, often senior, expertise without the overhead of a hire. You usually deal directly with the person doing the work, and fees are often lower than an agency retainer.

When a freelancer is the right call

• Your spend is modest and focused on one or two channels.
• You need a specific job done, such as an account rebuild or a tracking fix, rather than ongoing multi-channel management.
• You are testing paid media before committing to a larger investment.

The trade-offs

Capacity and continuity are the main risks. A freelancer has finite hours, can be unavailable through illness or holidays, and may not cover analytics, creative or other channels. Ask who covers for them when they are away, and make sure every account sits in your business's name, not theirs.

Option three: an agency

An agency gives you access to several specialists across channels, measurement and strategy, plus pattern recognition from working across many accounts. It also removes hiring risk: if the fit is wrong, you change provider rather than restructure a team.

When an agency is the right call

• You run, or plan to run, several channels that need to be planned together.
• You need senior expertise now and cannot wait months to recruit it.
• Your spend is meaningful but does not yet justify a full in-house team.
• Your internal team is strong on some channels and needs depth on others.

When an agency is not the right choice

This happens more often than agencies like to admit. Think twice if:

• Your budget is small. If the retainer is a large share of your total ad spend, too little money is left working in the market. A freelancer or a careful do-it-yourself setup is usually better value.
• You need someone in the room every day. If paid media feeds into daily decisions across the business, an internal hire who sits in those conversations may serve you better.
• Your product needs deep internal knowledge. Highly technical or regulated products can take any outsider a long time to learn well.
• The people who pitch are not the people who do the work. If seniors win the account and juniors run it, you are paying for expertise you are not getting.

The options side by side

The hybrid model

Plenty of businesses do not pick just one. A common pattern is an in-house marketing lead who owns strategy, budget and internal relationships, with outside specialists on the channels that need depth. Another is in-house day-to-day management with an outside partner for planning, measurement or periodic audits.

Hybrids work when responsibilities are written down. Decide who approves budget changes, who edits campaigns, who owns tracking and who reports results. Overlap without clarity is how an account gets changed by two people on the same day.

Questions to decide with

1. How much do we spend each month, and what share of that is reasonable to spend on management?
2. How many channels do we run now, and how many will we run in 12 months?
3. Do we have someone senior who can manage and judge the work, whoever does it?
4. How quickly do we need the expertise in place?
5. What happens to our accounts, data and knowledge if the person or provider leaves?

Be honest about the answers. If nobody inside the business can judge whether the work is good, that is a gap to close whichever model you pick, because you will be relying entirely on the provider's own reporting to tell you how they are doing.

Whichever model you choose, one rule holds. Your ad accounts, analytics, pixels and data should always be owned by your business, with access granted to whoever runs them. That keeps every option open if you need to change later.

Sources

• ATO - Super guarantee rates