When should you outsource your marketing?

You’re driving a growing business. You’ve navigated the startup curves, you’ve picked up speed, and you are ready to put your foot down. But you’ve hit a bottleneck: capacity.

You know you can’t keep doing the marketing yourself. It’s time to bring in help.

This brings up the big question we get asked all the time here at Refuel Creative. Do I hire a full-time marketing manager or do I outsource to an agency?

It’s not an easy choice. It’s often an emotional one. There’s a certain comfort in having someone sitting at a desk five metres away from you. But I have worked on both sides of the fence. I worked in-house for large organisations and agency-side here at Refuel.

I can tell you this. The comfort of a visible employee often hides some uncomfortable inefficiencies.

We’ve written before about why you shouldn't take shortcuts with your business foundation. Making a hasty hire just to fill a seat is one of the biggest shortcuts you can take.

To help you decide what fits your current setup, we’ll look at the financials. We’ll also explore the unicorn myth and see why the best solution may be a mix of in-house and agency.

The unicorn problem: why even directors can't do it all

First, we need to address the elephant (or the mythical horse) in the room.

Most SME owners write their first marketing job description like a wish list for a superhero:

• Must be great at high-level marketing strategy and copywriting.
• Proficient in Google Ads, Meta Ads, and LinkedIn Ads.
• Graphic design skills (Adobe Suite expertise).
• Video production and photography.
• Web design and development (HTML/CSS) is a plus.
• CRM implementation (HubSpot expert).

Essentially, what you are looking for is a unicorn.

The harsh reality is that while they do exist, they are incredibly rare.

I know they exist because I’m one! That unique mix of skills is exactly why I started this agency. Finding one person with that specific blend of creative, technical and strategic skills is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Marketing has fractured into a dozen highly technical specialisations. Expecting a recent graduate or a mid-level manager, to be an expert in everything is unfair to them and risky for you. It’s like hiring a Formula 1 driver and expecting them to also design the engine, change the tyres, and negotiate the sponsorships.

When you force a generalist to carry the weight of an entire department, you set them up to fail. They will naturally focus on what they are good at (usually content or social media) and struggle with the technical side of SEO or data analytics.

The cold hard cash: agency vs employee

Let’s talk numbers. This is usually where the decision gets made.

There are plenty of operational reasons to outsource. Check out our 10 benefits of outsourcing your digital marketing for a deeper dive. But right now, let's look strictly at the financials.

There is a misconception that agencies are expensive and hiring a junior employee is cheap. But when you peel back the layers of employment costs, the math tells a different story.

The cost of an employee

Let’s say you hire a mid-level marketing coordinator. You offer a salary of $80,000.

But that isn't the real cost to your business. When you break it down, there’s:

• Superannuation (11.5%): +$9,200
• Recruitment fees (15%): +$12,000 (one-off, but real)
• Laptop & hardware: +$2,500
• Software licenses: You need Adobe Creative Cloud, a CRM seat, SEO tools (SEMrush/Ahrefs), stock photo subscriptions, project management tools. Conservatively: +$5,000/year.
• Leave loading & sick days: You pay for 4 weeks of holidays and 10 days of sick leave where zero output is produced.
• Training & development: +$2,000

Total first year cost: Easily $110,000+.

And remember, if they resign after 8 months, you start that recruitment cost all over again.

The cost of an agency

Now, compare that to a robust agency retainer.

Let’s say you engage Refuel for $5,000 per month.

• Annual cost: $60,000.
• Overheads: $0. We pay for our own laptops, super, and electricity.
• Software: Included, to a point. We bring our own enterprise level tools to the table.
• Training: Included. It’s our job to stay up to date, not yours.

The result: For roughly half the cost of a mid-level hire, you secure a full marketing department.

At $5,000 a month, you aren't just buying hours. You’re buying output. You aren't paying for downtime, annual leave, or the natural ebb and flow of a workday. You are paying for deliverables, strategy, and results.

The grant advantage

There is a financial factor many businesses overlook. If you are looking to grow into international markets, you might be eligible for the Export Market Development Grant (EMDG).

Under the rules, you generally cannot claim the wages of your internal staff for marketing activities. However, you can often claim the costs of expert consultants and agencies.

This means hiring an agency doesn't just save you on overheads. It could be subsidised by the government in a way an employee never will be.

The benefit of multiple client accounts

This is a subtle but massive advantage that agencies have. I learned this quickly when moving from in-house to agency land.

In-house marketers live in an echo chamber. They look at one set of data. Yours.

If traffic drops, they panic. Is it the industry? Is it the algorithm? Is it just a bad month? They often have no external benchmark to compare against.

Agencies operate across many clients.

At Refuel, we work with companies across Australia, from startups to established companies. We have access to a massive aggregate dataset.

• If we see CPA (cost per acquisition) rise for one client, we check our 20 other clients. If it’s rising everywhere, we know it’s a platform trend (like a Google algorithm update) and adjust the strategy accordingly.
• If a specific tactic works brilliantly for a client in the construction industry, we can cross-pollinate that idea to a client in the manufacturing sector.

An internal hire simply cannot achieve this level of exposure. They don't have anyone to bounce ideas off. At an agency, when a strategist is stuck, they can seek input from the web developer, designer, and ads specialist. That watercooler talk at an agency solves problems instead of just passing time.

Keeping pace with the tech giants

Marketing technology changes faster than almost any other industry. Google changes its search algorithm thousands of times a year. HubSpot releases new features weekly.

For a solo in-house marketer, keeping up is drowning work. They are usually too busy with daily tasks to spend 4 hours a week reading release notes and testing new features.

We get the cheat codes.

As partners with HubSpot and Canva, we don't just read the release notes. We often get early access. We get direct lines to their support and strategy teams. We are trained on the new features before they even hit the public market.

When you outsource to Refuel, you are plugging your business into a grid that is always current. You don’t need to worry about privacy laws or iOS updates because we’ve got it covered.

The AI equation: does it replace the agency?

We can't write a blog these days without asking: "Can't I just use ChatGPT for copy and Gemini Nano Banana for images?"

We explored this in detail in our article ChatGPT is on the rise: Should copywriters be worried?, concluding that AI is a tool, not a replacement.

AI makes a generalist faster, but it doesn't make them smarter. If you don't know what good copy looks like, you won't know if ChatGPT has written a hallucinated mess. If you don't understand brand positioning, you won't know how to prompt the AI to capture your voice.

At Refuel, we use AI as it allows us to move faster, analyse data quicker, and prototype ideas instantly.

But it is a power tool. Put a power tool in the hands of a novice and they might build a shed. Put it in the hands of a master carpenter and they’ll build a cathedral.

AI doesn't change the maths on outsourcing. It reinforces it. You want the team that knows how to wield these new tools effectively to give you a competitive advantage.

Why we love hybrid teams

So, does this mean you should never hire internally? Absolutely not.

In fact, our favourite clients are the ones who have both.

At a certain scale, you absolutely should make an internal hire. But you need to be realistic about that role. They are there to support the business and work with the agency, acting as the brand guardian on the ground.

They can contribute to the overall strategy, but they can't be expected to expertly implement and deliver on SEO, paid search, and automation simultaneously.

Stretching in many directions

There is another reality we see constantly with internal roles: the distraction factor.

Internal marketers are readily available. They get pulled into last-minute sales meetings, asked to help with internal presentations or directed to launch sudden initiatives by management.

When the business drags them in different directions, the tasks that require consistent, quiet focus, like optimising paid search or monitoring social ad performance, are the first to suffer. They get left to run in the background and the business gets less value from them.

This isn't because the internal marketer isn't capable. It’s because they have too many competing demands placed on them.

Delegating these specialised, high-maintenance channels to genuine experts is incredibly beneficial. It ensures those channels are immune to the daily chaos of your office. We don't get tapped on the shoulder. We just focus on the performance.

The hybrid model is the best of both worlds

The hybrid model is the ultimate growth tactic:

• The internal marketer: Owns the brand voice, manages internal stakeholders, captures content on the ground (photos/videos) and acts as the project lead.
• The agency (Refuel): Handles the heavy lifting. We run the technical ads, manage the complex HubSpot automations, build the landing pages and provide high-level strategy.

We love working with internal marketers because they speak our language. They provide better briefs. We make them look like rockstars to their boss by providing the data and results they need to justify their budget.

The final call

If you are a growth-stage SME, you need to be honest about your needs.

Hire internally if:

You need a dedicated internal champion to manage strategy and stakeholders. An internal hire is perfect for updating your agency partners, capturing content on the ground and giving the external teams the tools they need to deliver. They act as the vital link between your internal operations and your external growth engine.

Outsource if:

You need revenue growth. If your goal is to get more leads, better sales processes and a professional digital presence, you cannot afford to rely on a generalist.

For the cost of one internal hire, you get immediate access to a team of specialists. Experts you simply couldn't afford to hire full-time individually. You need the data, the tech partnerships and the strategic depth that only an agency can provide.

Ready to upgrade your engine? You don’t have to race alone. Whether you need a full marketing team or a strategic partner for your team, Refuel Creative is ready to help.

Let’s discuss your current setup and find the gaps.