Agency, Freelancer or DIY? How to Choose the Right Marketing Services

Can you build a solid business without a growth strategy? Nope. Can you grow your business without digital marketing in 2024? Probably not. But can you do that yourself, or should you call in the experts?

That’s what we’re talking about in today’s podcast; whether to DIY, hire a freelancer or work with a marketing agency.

If you’re like 99% of other business owners, you’ve probably been doing it all yourself. No money, no choice; we get you.

But as your income grows and your time evaporates, you’ll likely start looking for freelance support. Now, if that freelancer really knows their stuff, you’ll see the value straight away.

And when you reach the point where you want more leads, more enquiries, more customers, and massive but sustainable business growth? That’s usually when you’ll come to us. Scaling businesses is our thing.

The benefits of bringing in a marketing agency

Using a decent-sized agency has a lot of benefits. Agencies have more resources, more manpower and a cross-section of expertise; you can bring in specialists where you need them. And when someone’s ill, another person can pick up the work, so there are no gaps.

But maybe you don’t need new leads. Maybe you want to grow awareness, to create a rapport with your audience, or simply to build your brand.

Here, you need to be wary of marketing agencies who claim they’re ‘full service’ and can do everything. Choose a supplier who specialises in what you need help with; whoever you bring on board should be honest about their limits.

So, back to our question. Should you DIY, find a freelancer or bring in a marketing agency? It depends on where you’re at in your business cycle, what support you need, how much profit each new client brings, where the gaps are and what you’re willing to spend on marketing services.

Knowing your supplier’s limits

We have a potential client right now who’s been working with a freelancer. That freelancer costs half of what we do, but I’m confident we can more than double his results. Yes, his investment will double, but so will his results.

His freelancer is at his limit but he’s been honest and said: “I don’t know how to reduce the cost of your leads.” We provided an audit and immediately saw opportunities for improvement. I wouldn’t expect the freelancer to know that; it’s just that there’s a ceiling.

Another example of where a freelancer might hit that ceiling is knowledge. No one person can know everything. Recently, we were driving Google ads to a website and noticed the session duration was 21 seconds, which is low. We made some tweaks, and it went up to one minute 25, but enquiries still weren’t coming in.

Then we used Hotjar on the site, so we could see where people’s cursors were, what they clicked on and read, and how long they spent on each section. We noticed that when the pop-up offering a lead magnet appeared, it put people off taking action based on the search campaign.

Where agencies and freelancers can mesh

There’s a lot of expertise that goes into that process. You wouldn’t get that level of insight without people who know how to run Google ads, edit a WordPress website, use Hotjar, and analyse GA4 for session durations.

Your typical freelancer isn’t going to know their way around all that. Besides, would you rather have four people on your side or just one?

In some cases, the best option is a combination. Say you’re using Codebreak for lead generation, but you need to follow leads up with a call. You can’t do it yourself. And we can’t either; it’s not what we do.

The best person in that scenario is a freelance sales consultant; forget about sales agencies, because we’re probably not talking about that kind of volume.

And we’ll tell you that straight, because we know that the faster you make that call after they sign up, the higher the chance of conversion.

This is where it all comes together; when an agency sits down with you like we do and says: “These are the resources you need, and this is the best way to make the most of the situation”.

The nuances of reporting results

Another way to figure out who you need is to look at what results you’ve been getting, and what’s not working. For example, clients sometimes come to us saying their previous agency just ran Meta ads and reported back on them.

Then they’ll say to us: “But what about my impressions?”

Impressions aren’t results. If I spend £1k and a thousand people hit my Meta profile, then what? What did they do after that? Where’s the context? If my website had been viewed by 1,000 of the right people, that’s useful. But if I haven’t had any enquiries, how is that working? It’s not.

Also, Meta metrics aren’t reliable; they even have a feature now to view ‘non-robotic impressions,’ which dramatically changes the numbers. Since GDPR developments and cookie law updates, metrics from GA4 and Meta offer an overall impression of what’s going on.

Yet we know our campaigns get more leads than Google or Meta report, not by hundreds but enough that it’s off. This difference applies to impressions and clicks as well.

You also have to bear in mind that if someone goes through a train tunnel while taking that action, the click might appear on one end but not the other. There’s a lot of nuance and monitoring required, which is why we check stats every day for every client.

Why honesty’s always the best policy

The chances are you’re not going to get that level of attention to detail with a freelancer unless you’re one of only two clients they have. How could they have the resources to do that? They’d have to be awake more than 24 hours a day, and that’s not possible.

Your agency or freelancer should have the knowledge and experience to advise you honestly and correctly, because nothing will work if you’re missing important steps.

For example, if you’re a service business, Google ads can work amazingly for you, but if your website sucks, it doesn’t matter how many people you drive there; they’re never going to convert.

Yesterday, I was speaking to a guy who had great photos on the bottom of his website but no ‘About’ page.

I told him: “You’re going into people’s houses to provide a service. The second most viewed page is the ‘About’ page because people are nosy and want to know who’s coming into their house.” Little things like that can have a huge impact on the results you’re getting.

It blows my mind when people say want to start doing Google search ads without having any reviews, or even an actual website – or they haven’t kept their Google My Business or Google Local page up to date.

Somehow, though, they’re willing to drop £5k a month with an agency on Google search? Mental. You’ve got to get the basics right, first.

Say you’re using Meta ads that link to your blog page as part of your organic search strategy, but you haven’t posted since October 2023. Well, you’re in trouble, because almost every industry right now is high in scepticism. Everyone’s aware and knows too much; they’ll click through and check.

And your freelancer or agency should be flagging that stuff.

Is marketing an investment or a cost?

The next big factor is what you’re willing to spend. I recently asked someone: “What’s a client worth to you in the first year?” They said £4k. I said: “If you walked into a warehouse full of £4k clients, how much would you pay for one?” It was £500. Then I asked: “How many new clients do you want a month?” Six, they said.

So I said: “You’re willing to spend £3k a month on marketing to get six new clients?” They came back later and said: “Yeah, we don’t think we can afford that.”

But that’s not what I asked; I asked how much they’d be willing to spend to buy those clients. It’s not that they can’t afford it – they just aren’t willing to scale their business at the moment.

And those are the conversations you should have with your freelancer or agency. You need to know your maximum cost per acquisition to bring someone in.

It doesn’t matter if you’re selling something for £10 or £10k. The mindset shift is not about whether to use a freelancer, do it yourself, or hire an agency. It’s about seeing marketing as an investment, rather than a cost.

If you’re a business owner wanting to scale and agency fees scare you, the question to ask is whether the cost scares you or whether you don’t have the resources. Because if you don’t have the money, cross an agency off your list. But once your business is ready for investment to grow, it’s time to sit down with an agency or freelancer and run through the numbers.

It should be a red flag if they can’t do that. You should roughly know your numbers: how many people you need to speak to, the conversion rate, and the amount you’re willing to pay for a lead to make it scalable.

Know what you want for your high-ticket product and your low-end product. If all you sell is the lower end, can it still be viable? Then you’ll have a focus rather than being led down a path of: “This is what I do well, so you should do this.”

So, let’s wrap it up. Know your numbers. Know your problems. Know your budget. And know the end goal. Figure all that out, and you’ll be in a much better position to find the right freelancer or agency to get you there. And if you’re going to do it yourself, don’t jump in without absorbing some basics.

Don’t miss the next episode of Stay Hungry – we’ll dive into straight-talking insights on business marketing, growth mindset, and the realities of running a business. And if you want to take the hassle out of your marketing, we’ve got you covered with our done-for-you service.