Honest comparison · no pitch
123 Web Mobile vs In-House Marketing Hire
Should you hire a marketing person full-time or work with an agency? Total cost is closer than most owners think. Here is the breakdown.
Side-by-side comparison
| Factor | 123 Web Mobile | In-House Marketing Hire |
|---|---|---|
| Cost type | Fixed monthly cost | Salary + taxes + benefits |
| Real cost (Miami) | Known monthly | $65K-$95K/yr + 30% loaded |
| Time to productive | Immediate | 3-6 months |
| Expertise | 3-specialist team | Generalist |
| Tools included | Yes | $300-$800/mo extra |
| PTO / sick days | Never stops | 15-20 days + paid |
| Bilingual | EN+ES team | Hard to find |
| Contract | Month to month | Permanent, severance |
When to pick In-House Marketing Hire
- You have $150K-$200K/year to spend on marketing salary + tools + training.
- You want full control over the marketing person daily.
- You have specific knowledge that takes a year to teach (proprietary product, regulated industry).
- You plan to scale to 20+ employees and need an internal team eventually.
When to pick us
- You are a small business under $5M revenue and a full hire is overkill.
- You need multi-discipline expertise (web + SEO + ads + social) immediately.
- You want to skip the 3-6 month productivity ramp of a new hire.
- You want to keep your fixed costs low while growing.
- You do not want to deal with hiring, training, and managing a marketing person.
Honest summary
An in-house hire makes sense once you cross around $5M in revenue and need someone embedded in the business daily. Below that, an agency delivers more expertise per dollar with zero hiring risk. Most Miami small businesses see better ROI with an agency until they are large enough to need both — an in-house director plus an external agency for execution.
Let's talk about what fits your case.
30 minutes. We'll recommend what makes sense — even if it isn't us.