Google Ads Agency vs. In-House: The $100k Decision Guide (2024)

It is the most common debate in marketing: "Rent vs. Buy."

Should you "rent" an Agency for $3,000-$5,000/month? Or should you "buy" a full-time employee for $80,000/year (plus taxes, benefits, and equity)?

There is no single right answer, but there is a right Mathematical Answer based on your ad spend and company maturity.

In this guide, we provide the framework we use when advising companies on their org charts.

Phase 1: The "Founder-Led" Stage (Spend: $0 - $10k/mo)

The Setup: The Founder or a Generalist Marketing Manager runs the ads. Verdict: Keep it In-House.

• Why: At this stage, you are searching for Product-Market Fit. You need to iterate messaging daily. You don't have enough data or budget to justify an expert. The "Agency Fee" would be 50% of your total spend, which is inefficient.
• The Risk: The founder gets busy and forgets to check the account for 3 weeks.

Phase 2: The "Freelancer / Agency" Stage (Spend: $10k - $200k/mo)

The Setup: You hire a specialist firm. Verdict: Agency Wins.

• Financial Math:

  • Agency Fee: ~10-15% of spend. At $50k spend, you pay $5k-$7.5k/month.
  • Employee Cost: A Senior Media Buyer costs $120k/year ($10k/month).
  • Savings: You save $30k-$50k/year hiring an agency.

• The "T-Shaped" Advantage:

  • An in-house employee sees one account (yours). They get stale.
  • An agency manages 50 accounts. They see trends across the industry. If "Performance Max" breaks in Q4, the agency knows instantly because they see it across 20 clients. Your employee won't know until they read a blog post 2 weeks later.

• The Tooling:

  • Agencies pay for expensive tools (ClickCease, Optmyzr, Supermetrics, Semrush) that cost $5k/mo total. You get access to this stack for free as part of your fee.

Phase 3: The "Hybrid" Stage (Spend: $200k - $500k/mo)

The Setup: You have an internal Marketing Director managing an external Agency. Verdict: Hybrid Wins.

• At this scale, you need someone internal to coordinate Strategy, Creative, and CRM data. But you still need the Agency for "Execution" (bidding, structure, beta features).
• The Agency becomes the "Hands," the Director is the "Brain."

Phase 4: The "In-House Empire" (Spend: $500k+/mo)

The Setup: You build a dedicated PPC team. Verdict: In-House Wins.

• Math: At $500k spend, a 10% agency fee is $50k/month ($600k/year).
  • For $600k/year, you can hire a VP of Growth ($200k), a Senior Buyer ($120k), a Creative Designer ($100k), and a Data Analyst ($100k).
• Deep Integration:
  • At this scale, the ads need to be perfectly synced with product inventory, sales team capacity, and daily PR events. An external agency is too slow. You need people in the Slack channel.

Hidden Risks to Consider

1. The "Bus Factor" (In-House Risk)

If you hire one PPC Manager, and they get hit by a bus (or poached by Amazon), your account operation stops instantly. An Agency has redundancy. If your Account Manager quits, the Agency Director steps in.

2. The "Junior Trap" (Agency Risk)

Be careful. Many agencies sell you with the CEO in the pitch meeting, then hand your account to a 22-year-old intern.

• Question to Ask: "Who exactly will be touching the keyboard on my account?"

Summary Decision Matrix

| Monthly Spend | Strategy | Why? | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | $0 - $10k | Founder / Generalist | Speed & Cost. | | $10k - $200k | Agency | Expertise & Economies of Scale. | | $200k - $1M | Hybrid | Best of both worlds. | | $1M+ | In-House Team | Deep Integration & Cost Savings. |

Do not hire In-House too early. A mediocre employee is far more expensive than a premium agency.