In-house marketing or an agency: which one fits a small business?
One in-house marketer costs about $5,300 a month. Sundayable does the production for $1,000. The honest answer depends on one thing — whether you need someone to decide what to do, or someone to do it. Most owners we meet already know the plan and are short the hours to execute it.
Hiring one in-house marketer costs a Canadian small business roughly $5,300 to $5,750 a month once employer contributions, vacation, benefits and equipment are counted on a $55,000 salary. A traditional agency retainer runs $1,500 to $5,000 a month before ad spend and buys strategy plus oversight rather than daily production. In-house wins when the work needs someone inside the building every day; an agency wins when you need a plan and a team you cannot staff. A done-for-you service sits between them: $1,000 CAD a month for the production, with the owner approving what ships.
What do the three options actually cost and cover?
Figures are Canadian, monthly, and exclude ad spend, which stays in your own account in every column.
| One in-house hire | Agency retainer | Done-for-you service | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $5,300–$5,750 | $1,500–$5,000 | $1,000 |
| What you are buying | Hours in your building | Strategy and oversight | The finished work |
| Who makes the posts | That one person | Usually a junior or a contractor | A team plus AI, you approve |
| Video editing | If they can edit | Extra line item | Included in Organic Growth |
| Fails when | They quit or take leave | You are the small account | You need someone on site |
| Notice to stop | Severance | 3–12 month contract | Month to month |
The employer-cost math behind the first column — CPP, EI, vacation, benefits, equipment, ramp — is broken out line by line in what a social media manager really costs, including the US version with FICA and health insurance.
When is hiring in-house the right call?
When the marketing cannot be made from outside the building. A restaurant group shooting the kitchen at service, a clinic that needs someone walking the floor for content, a retailer whose product changes weekly — those need presence, not a brief.
It is also right when marketing is a full function rather than a task list: paid media managed daily, a product launch calendar, a team to coordinate. At that point you are not buying content, you are buying judgment, and judgment should sit inside.
The limit is honest: one hire is one person. Writing, design, video editing and analytics are four different skills, and almost nobody is strong at all four. When that person takes two weeks off, the feed goes quiet.
When is an agency the right call?
When you need a plan you do not have and a bench you cannot hire — a rebrand, a market entry, a paid programme big enough that a specialist pays for themselves. Agencies are built for that, and the retainer is priced for it.
The failure mode is size. At $1,500 a month you are the smallest account in the building, and the smallest account gets the newest person and the last hour of the week. That is not malice, it is arithmetic.
Ask one question before signing: who makes the actual posts, and how many hours a month are they on this account. A retainer that cannot answer that is buying you oversight of work that has not been staffed.
Where does a done-for-you service sit?
It answers the third situation, which is the common one: you already know what your business needs, and the week ran out. We make the posts, reels, pages, replies and email; you approve them from your phone in about ten minutes a week; they go out. Nothing publishes without your yes.
Organic Growth is $1,000 a month with the website built and hosted and our team making the work by hand. Ads, sales email and automation are three separate lines you can add or skip. Month to month, and search still takes about 90 days to move — that part is the same whoever does the work.
What it is not: someone on site, and someone to own a decision you have not made yet. If the honest gap is strategy, an agency or a fractional lead is the better buy, and we will say so on the call.
Is an agency cheaper than hiring?
Usually, on paper. A $1,500 to $5,000 retainer sits below the $5,300 to $5,750 monthly cost of one $55,000 hire, and it comes with more than one skill set. What the retainer does not include is presence, and what the hire does not include is a second person.
What about hiring a freelancer instead?
A good middle for a single task. Canadian freelancers commonly charge $500 to $1,500 a month for posting alone, with no CPP, EI or vacation. The catch is coverage: one freelancer is one skill, and stitching together a writer, an editor and an ads contractor makes you the project manager.
Can I start in-house and move later?
People usually go the other way — outsource production first, hire once the volume and the plan justify a salary. Starting with a hire means committing to severance before you know what the work actually is.
What if I already have a marketing person?
Then this is production, not replacement. They keep strategy and the relationships; we make the volume so their week stops being a content shift. Several of our accounts run exactly that way.
How long until I can judge whether it worked?
You see what shipped every week from week one, and month one is exactly that: work you can look at. Search takes about 90 days. Ads are the only line built to move a number sooner, and they are priced separately. If nothing has moved by month three, that is the point to change direction rather than wait longer.
Bring the job description. We’ll price it honestly.
Book a free consultation. Tell us what the role would cover and we’ll say plainly which parts we should do, which parts need someone in your building, and what that leaves you paying.
Book a Free ConsultationIf the answer is hire, we’ll say hire.