The Good, The Bad & The Ugly of In-housing 

With so much noise in the marketing-sphere regarding in-housing vs. outsourcing, it can be difficult to make an informed decision that is right for your business. Whether it be due to some frustrations with your incumbent agency, or wanting to build more efficiencies and skills in-house, this hot topic is becoming an ever-growing topic for advertisers.  

In order to make the best choice for your organisation, it is important that you understand the potential benefits and pitfalls of in-housing and assess whether any of these would have impact on your marketing as it is today, whether that be for better, or for worse. 

Let’s start with the drawbacks of in-housing: 

1. Although agency costs are high, hiring an FTE can be still expensive. Also, an outsourced partner is contractually signed to deliver a scope of work, however a full-time employee can leave at any moment, so this comes with a risk.  

2. Another disadvantage is potential burnout for your employees. Asking for too much from your team may cause exhaustion, where an outsourced partner can charge additional for extra time/work, an FTE can’t and this could trigger a poor work-life balance.  

3. Last, but not least, is your in-house capabilities, is your team skilled enough? Do you have the tools/equipment to deliver great marketing? Upskilling your teams and enhancing your tools and tech can be timely and costly, and therefore may take you a while to achieve your marketing goals. Flock’s Skills Assessment Tool can help upskill your teams and highlight the gaps to support you in enhancing your team’s capabilities. 

Now onto the positives: 

1. With budgets slowly but surely shrinking, CMOs are focused on how to save money whilst still delivering great marketing outputs and it is no secret that agency costs can be expensive, and the length of commitment means the cost extends over a period of time. If you are looking for savings on your agency relationship, The Flock Agency Scoping Tool can help with this. 

2. If you do have the budget to own the latest tech and tools, this can be a great benefit of in-housing. Advertisers are seeking more control over their data with the rise of First-party data, having this ownership within your business can provide you with great insights and allows you to develop better targeting and marketing strategies. 

3. Building a team of internal experts who know your brand can encourage business success and drive brilliant marketing campaigns. You are able to select the best resource for a project that are able to apply their brand knowledge and expertise to all of their work. 

Overall, the choice to in-house depends on your objectives as a business and what you are trying to achieve. We recommend thinking about what you have read above, and taking the time to truly understand if it would be beneficial to you. Flock have supported some of the world’s largest advertisers in assessing whether in-housing would be beneficial, if you would like to learn more about how we could support you with this, please get in touch below.