What each option actually costs
A salary is only part of the cost of a hire. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for marketing managers was $166,790 in May 2025. For market research analysts and marketing specialists, a more junior role, the median was $78,760.
Benefits add a significant share. BLS employer cost data for June 2026 puts benefits at 30 percent of total compensation for private industry workers. Add recruiting, onboarding, software, training and the manager's share of office cost, and the real figure is well above the salary line.
PI does not publish prices because every engagement is different. We quote per project or as a monthly retainer after a free call. What you pay for is the work itself: campaigns, content, websites or agents, delivered by a team rather than one person.
| In-house marketing manager | PI | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost structure | Salary plus benefits, tools, recruiting and management time | Project fee or monthly retainer, quoted after a free call |
| Time to start | Typically months, including recruiting and notice periods | Weeks, after a discovery call and plan |
| Breadth of skills | One person's skill set, plus whoever they can hire or contract | Strategy, paid ads, social, video, web, software and AI agents from one team |
| Capacity | Fixed. One person, one workload | Scales up or down with the plan |
| Management load | You recruit, manage, review and retain them | You approve plans and reports; we manage the team |
| Presence in the company | Full time, inside your meetings and culture | A partner, not an employee |
| Best for | Companies that need a daily owner of marketing across the business | Companies that need execution and expertise without building a department |
Time to start
Hiring takes time. Writing the role, sourcing candidates, interviewing, negotiating and waiting out a notice period typically takes months, and a wrong hire restarts the clock.
An agency engagement starts with a call. After a free 30-minute discovery call we come back with a plan, and work usually starts within weeks. If a campaign deadline or a launch is already on the calendar, that difference matters.
Breadth of skills
A marketing manager is one person. A good one is strategic, organized and knows the business, but nobody is equally skilled at paid media, video production, web development and copywriting. They will need freelancers or an agency for the gaps, which brings you back to this comparison.
PI is a team. Paid ads, social media, UGC and video, websites, apps, software and custom AI agents come from the same people who built the plan. Our agents handle the research, monitoring, first drafts and reporting, so the senior team spends its time on judgment rather than busywork.
Management load
An employee needs a manager. Someone has to set goals, review work, run one-to-ones, handle development and cover absences. If marketing reports to a founder or an operations lead, that is time away from their own work.
With PI you approve the strategy and read the weekly report. We manage the team, the schedule and the quality. The trade-off is honest: you have less daily control over how the work is done, and more control over what gets delivered.
Choose an in-house manager if
- Marketing needs an owner inside the company who sits in leadership meetings every week.
- The job is mostly coordination across sales, product and customer teams rather than production.
- You have enough ongoing work to keep a full-time person busy, and the budget for the salary, benefits and tools around them.
- You want to build a marketing department over time and this is the first hire.
Choose PI if
- You need campaigns, content or a website delivered soon, without months of recruiting.
- The work needs several specialists, not one generalist.
- You would rather pay for output on a project or retainer basis than carry a fixed salary.
- You do not want to manage another person, and you want reporting you can read in five minutes.
- You already have a marketing manager and they need a team to execute.