Deciding between hiring an in-house advertising and marketing manager or partnering with an ad agency is a crucial choice that can significantly impact your dealership's bottom line. At first glance, having a dedicated employee may seem appealing, but a deeper dive reveals that an agency offers not just cost savings but a wealth of experience, a diverse skill set, and long-term stability. Let's objectively explore why an agency-managed approach provides better value, reduces risk, and allows for more strategic reinvestment in your marketing efforts.

1. Cost Comparison: A Clear Advantage with Agencies When considering the cost of hiring an in-house marketing manager, the numbers quickly add up. A base salary of $65,000 is just the beginning. Once you factor in benefits, taxes, and overhead, the true cost of an in-house hire often reaches $81,250 per year. 
   
   Contrast this with an ad agency, where you typically pay a percentage of your monthly digital marketing spend. For a business spending $5,000 per month on digital ads, an agency fee of 20% would amount to only $12,000 per year. This makes the total annual cost of partnering with an agency $72,000—a savings of $69,250 compared to managing the work in-house.

Cost Comparison Between Employee-Managed & Agency-Managed Marketing

2. More Than Just Cost Savings: Access to a Team of Experts The benefits of working with an agency extend beyond cost efficiency. When you hire an in-house marketing manager, you’re getting one person’s skill set, which may be limited to specific areas like social media management or essential digital marketing. In contrast, an agency brings a team of seasoned professionals to the table.
   
   Imagine having access to a graphic designer who creates compelling visuals, a video editor who crafts engaging video content, a copywriter who specializes in persuasive ad copy, a data analyst who fine-tunes your campaigns, and a sales trainer who enhances your team’s ability to convert leads.
   
   This diverse expertise is invaluable in today’s competitive digital landscape, where the effectiveness of your campaigns relies on the combined power of creative, analytical, and strategic minds working together. The estimated value of this team could easily be $40,000 or more annually, a benefit that cannot be matched by hiring a single employee.

3. No Risk of Employee Turnover: Consistency and Stability One of the most overlooked costs of an in-house hire is the risk of turnover. Employees come and go, and when they leave, they take with them the knowledge of your business, brand, and strategies. The process of recruiting, hiring, and training a new marketing manager is not only time-consuming but also costly. Additionally, during the transition, your marketing efforts could suffer, leading to inconsistent messaging and potential revenue loss.

With an agency, the risk of turnover is significantly reduced. Agencies provide continuity; even if team members change, the agency retains the knowledge, strategy, and understanding of your dealership’s goals. This stability ensures that your marketing campaigns remain consistent and effective, allowing you to focus on growth rather than dealing with disruptions.

4. Potential for Reinvestment: Maximizing Your Marketing Spend By choosing an agency, the money saved from reduced overhead costs can be directly reinvested into your marketing campaigns. For instance, with the $69,250 saved annually, you could increase your monthly ad spend by nearly $5,770. This additional budget could be allocated to high-performing channels like Google Ads and Meta (Facebook/Instagram) campaigns, potentially leading to a significant increase in impressions, clicks, and conversions.

Potential Additional Ad Spend from Cost Savings

5. Real-World Impact: More Impressions, Clicks, and Conversions with Additional Spend To understand the impact of reinvesting the additional $5,770 monthly spend, let’s break it down with some typical performance metrics for Google and Meta campaigns:

• Google Ads Example:
  • Average Cost-Per-Click (CPC): $1.50
  • Current Monthly Budget: $5,000
  • Current Clicks: 3,333 clicks (with $5,000 spend)
  • Additional Budget: $5,770
  • Potential Additional Clicks: 3,847 clicks (with extra $5,770 spend)
  • Total Potential Clicks: 7,180 clicks
    
    
• Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Campaigns Example:
  • Average Cost-Per-Impression (CPM): $10 per 1,000 impressions
  • Current Monthly Budget: $5,000
  • Current Impressions: 500,000 impressions (with $5,000 spend)
  • Additional Budget: $5,770
  • Potential Additional Impressions: 577,000 impressions (with an extra $5,770 spend)
  • Total Potential Impressions: 1,077,000 impressions

Reinvesting the savings from using an agency can significantly boost the reach and effectiveness of your Google Ads and Meta campaigns. With the extra budget, you could achieve 7,180 clicks on Google Ads (an increase of over 100%) and over 1 million impressions on Meta platforms (doubling your reach).

6. Access to Advanced Tools and Technologies Another advantage of working with an agency is access to advanced marketing tools and platforms that would be too expensive for most businesses to maintain independently. Agencies invest in premium tools for SEO, analytics, social media management, and programmatic advertising, ensuring that your campaigns are data-driven, optimized, and effective. This access allows your dealership to leverage the latest in digital marketing technology without the overhead of managing these tools in-house.
   
   
7. Scalability and Rapid Adaptation With an in-house hire, scaling up your marketing efforts can be a slow process that requires additional hiring and training. Agencies, however, are built for scalability. They can quickly ramp up your campaigns, adapt to market changes, and provide additional resources as needed. This level of flexibility is essential in a fast-paced digital environment where staying ahead of the competition is crucial.

The Total Value of Partnering with an Agency: When you add up the cost savings, access to a team of experts, reduced risk of turnover, the ability to reinvest savings into ad spend, and advanced tools, the value proposition of choosing an agency becomes clear. By saving $69,250 per year and gaining an estimated $40,000 in additional value, the total benefit reaches $109,250 per year. For dealerships looking to maximize their marketing budget and achieve sustainable growth, partnering with an experienced ad agency is the smarter choice.

Ready to maximize your marketing efforts with a dedicated team of experts? Contact us today to learn more about how our agency can help your dealership achieve its goals.

 By: Terry MacCauley, Founder & CEO

Thrive Under Pressure 

This week's Monday Motivation centered on the concept of pressure and how it differentiates the champions from the rest.

The message was clear: pressure is what shapes the great from the good. Alpha, Ronald Braxton emphasized that most people crumble under pressure, but winners thrive because they see challenges not as barriers but as opportunities for growth.

He encouraged us to look in the mirror and realize that we are the ones responsible for our own success. When things get tough, when we feel overwhelmed, that's the moment to dig deeper, resist the urge to quit, and keep pushing forward.

Persistence, preparation, and perseverance are what separates those who achieve their goals from those who fall short.

Pressure builds diamonds, and greatness cannot be achieved without it. The call to action is simple yet powerful: face your challenges head-on, push through the pressure, and earn your right to shine.

This week and going forward, let’s embrace pressure, use it to fuel our drive, and push ourselves to new heights.