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In-house vs agency: the honest checklist.
Twelve questions to answer before you hire. If more than seven point in-house, build the team — we'd rather you did than hired us badly.
| Click This Agency | In-house hire | |
|---|---|---|
| Fully loaded annual cost | $42k–$120k retainer | $180k+ salary, tools, benefits |
| Time to first optimisation | Week one | 3–6 months to hire and ramp |
| Channel coverage | Google, Meta, ChatGPT, AEO, funnel | Usually one specialism |
| Creative production | In-house studio included | Separate hire or freelance budget |
| Tracking & analytics engineering | Included | Contracted out or unfilled |
| Benchmarks across accounts | Live view of 20+ accounts | One account's data only |
| Cover for leave and turnover | Whole team | Account goes dark |
| Institutional knowledge | Documented, transfers on exit | Walks out with the hire |
When to build in-house
Three cases where
hiring wins.
- Spend is over $500k a month on a single channel — at that scale a dedicated team beats a shared one
- The product is genuinely complex and context takes months to transfer
- You already have analytics engineering and creative production in-house, and only need the media buyer
Outside those three, the maths usually favours a team you can start next week and stop in 90 days.
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