Choosing Between a Marketing Agency, In-House Hire, or Independent Creative

Feb 15

At some point, most growing e-commerce and CPG brands hit the same plateau. The marketing and growth strategies that got you to a certain point just aren’t working the same.

Maybe your paid ads are working, but your organic presence feels underdeveloped. Maybe your brand voice is inconsistent across product pages, email, and social. Maybe you’re launching new SKUs and realizing your content ecosystem isn’t built to support them long-term.

The question becomes less about “Do we need marketing support?” and more about: “What kind of marketing partner actually fits the way we build?”

I’ve worked in-house for a brand. I’ve collaborated alongside agencies. And I now operate as an independent strategist and creative partner.

From that vantage point, I don’t think this is a simple cost or capability decision. It’s about alignment with your growth stage, your internal culture, and the kind of brand you’re trying to become.

Let’s unpack it thoughtfully.

The Structural Difference: Agency vs. In-House vs. Freelancer

At a high level, the three options differ in how knowledge, communication, and execution are structured.

A marketing agency is a multi-person team offering cross-channel services. You’ll typically work through an account manager while strategists, copywriters, designers, and media buyers execute behind the scenes. Agencies excel at coordinated campaigns across channels.

An in-house hire is someone embedded inside your company, often a marketing manager, content lead, or head of growth. They work solely on your brand and build institutional knowledge over time.

An independent creative (freelancer) is usually a specialist. You’re working directly with the person doing the thinking and execution. The scope is narrower than an agency, but often deeper.

From my experience, the biggest difference isn’t capability. It’s proximity.

How close do you want your marketing partner to your internal decision-making? How much context do they need to do their best work? How important is long-term narrative consistency versus cross-channel volume?

Those questions matter more than labels.

Pros & Cons of Working with a Marketing Agency

Where agencies shine

Agencies bring structure. If you’re juggling multiple stakeholders, investor expectations, or aggressive quarterly targets, that structure can be invaluable.

They also bring breadth. If you need paid media, influencer coordination, granular performance analytics, and lifecycle email all at once, agencies can deploy across disciplines quickly. For brands scaling fast with strong budgets, that orchestration can create meaningful momentum.

I’ve seen agencies execute complex launches with impressive coordination. When speed and channel complexity are the priority, that infrastructure helps.

Where agencies can create friction

The tradeoff is depth of immersion. Agencies, by design, manage multiple clients. Even excellent ones must distribute attention. Your brand becomes one of several active accounts.

Communication is often layered. You may speak primarily to an account manager rather than the strategist shaping your messaging. That doesn’t inherently reduce quality, but it can reduce nuance.

For culture-forward brands, especially founder-led ones, nuance is often the difference between “functional marketing” and meaningful differentiation.

Agencies also rely on repeatable frameworks. That’s how they scale. But occasionally, that can make messaging feel optimized before it feels distinctive.

Pros & Cons of Hiring In-House

Where in-house excels

An in-house hire builds deep institutional knowledge. They sit in on product meetings. They understand operational constraints. They absorb brand evolution in real time.

Over time, that proximity creates cohesion. Messaging stays consistent because the strategist is inside the ecosystem. For brands committed to building a long-term marketing department, this can be a strong investment.

And as a former full-time in-house marketer, I’m always going to root for hiring in house. You can’t beat that first-hand experience. But it’s not always attainable for small businesses, especially startups.

The tradeoffs

Hiring in-house isn’t just salary. It’s benefits, onboarding, management overhead, and long-term commitment. You’re betting that this role will remain fully utilized and strategically necessary.

In-house hires also bring a specific skill set. If you need broad specialization—SEO strategy, CRO, paid media, content architecture—one person may not cover all disciplines equally. Everyone is looking for a unicorn, and they’re rare for a reason.

In early-stage or lean CPG brands, that can create skill gaps unless you supplement with external partners.

Pros & Cons of Working with a Freelancer

Where freelancers create leverage

Freelancers have the ability to specialize, and that specialization is the key to unique messaging.

As an independent strategist, I focus heavily on brand voice architecture, SEO content ecosystems, and conversion-aware storytelling. That focus allows me to think structurally about long-term growth rather than just campaign output.

You’re also working directly with the person shaping your narrative. There’s no intermediary. That allows for faster iteration and more candid conversations. In my experience, that direct line creates stronger strategic clarity, particularly for founder-led brands still refining positioning.

Independent creatives also tend to be more flexible. We can pivot quickly. We can experiment. We can build unconventional plays that don’t neatly fit a quarterly campaign template.

The real constraints

Freelancers have finite capacity. We don’t have departments behind us. If you suddenly need a multi-market paid media expansion plus a video series launch, that’s likely outside scope.

We also may not have access to enterprise-level proprietary tools that larger agencies house internally.

But for many culture-forward ecomm and CPG brands, the goal isn’t omnichannel blitzing. It’s clarity, differentiation, and long-term organic equity. In those cases, depth often outweighs breadth.

When to Choose an Agency

In my view, agencies make the most sense when:

You need coordinated, multi-channel execution immediately.
You have a substantial marketing budget.
You require consistent reporting structures and internal documentation.
You’re scaling quickly across markets and channels.
Your primary growth lever is performance marketing at scale.

Before choosing an agency, I would encourage founders to ask:

Who will I actually communicate with weekly?
How many accounts does my strategist manage?
What does your process look like from discovery to execution?
How do you ensure messaging stays distinctive rather than templated?
What happens if priorities shift mid-quarter?

I’ve collaborated with agency teams I deeply respect and I’m always happy to refer brands when that structure makes the most sense.

When to Hire In-House

An in-house hire may be the right move if:

Marketing is becoming a core operational function, not just a growth lever.
You want daily strategic presence inside the company.
You’re ready to build internal marketing infrastructure long-term.
You have the leadership bandwidth to manage and mentor this role.

Questions to consider:

Do we have enough consistent marketing workload to justify full-time salary?
Are we prepared to train and invest in this person’s growth?
What gaps will still require external specialists?
Is this a tactical executor role or a strategic leader role?

Many brands underestimate how much internal clarity is required to hire well.

When to Choose a Freelancer

From what I’ve seen and experienced, freelancers are often the right fit when:

You’re refining positioning and need strategic depth.
Brand voice and differentiation matter deeply to you.
You’re investing in long-term SEO and content equity.
You value direct collaboration with the person doing the work.
You want a strategic partner without building internal headcount.

Before hiring a freelancer, founders should ask:

What is your repeatable process for strategy development?
How do you measure success over 3–6 months?
How many active clients do you manage?
How do you handle capacity if our needs grow?
Where do you draw the line on scope?

A strong independent creative should be able to articulate methodology clearly, not just talk about “great content.”

A Measured Perspective

I don’t believe one model wins universally. Agencies can execute at impressive scale. In-house hires can build long-term cohesion. Freelancers can provide focused, high-touch strategic depth.

The right choice depends on whether your current growth challenge is:

Operational complexity
Internal capacity
Or narrative clarity

Those are very different problems, and the solution should always match the problem.

If You’re Exploring the Independent Route

If you’re a culture-forward e-commerce or CPG brand thinking seriously about voice, SEO architecture, or long-term content systems, I’m always open to a thoughtful conversation.

Not to convince you away from an agency or replace an internal hire, but to help you evaluate what structure makes the most strategic sense for where you are right now. Because the right marketing partnership shouldn’t just drive growth, it should feel aligned with how you build.

Drop me a line →