Paid social in-house vs agency: who should run your ads?

Key takeaways

Managing paid social in-house vs with an agency depends on ad spend. A paid social specialist on £35,000 costs about £40,400 a year, which only makes sense on large budgets. Most UK SMEs spending £300–£3,000 a month on ads get better value from an agency or a managed service with a clear management fee.

• In-house: a £35,000 specialist costs about £40,400 a year before ad spend.
• Agency: a management fee scaled to spend, with ad spend separate.
• In-house: justified when spend and testing volume are high.
• Agency: suits £300–£3,000 a month, with accounts in your name.

What does running paid social involve?

Running paid social means planning campaigns, building audiences, producing ad creative, setting budgets and bids, checking tracking, and reviewing results against cost per enquiry or sale. Most of the value comes from creative, targeting and honest measurement, not from constant fiddling with settings.

• In-house vs outsourcing: which model is more cost-effective?
• Paid social budgets for UK small businesses

What does an in-house paid social specialist cost?

A specialist on £35,000 costs about £40,363 a year in employment costs using 2026/27 rates, before tools, creative production and recruitment. If your ad spend is £1,000 a month, the specialist costs more than three times the ads they manage.

• What a social media manager costs in the UK

How do agencies charge for paid social?

Agencies charge a flat monthly management fee, a percentage of ad spend, or a mix, often with a minimum fee and a set-up charge. Ask what the fee covers: creative production, landing page advice, reporting and how often campaigns are reviewed. Ad spend should be paid directly from your own ad account.

When does paid social in-house make sense?

When ad spend is large enough that small improvements are worth a full salary, when you run many campaigns and creative tests each week, or when paid social is tightly linked to product and pricing decisions made daily in-house. E-commerce brands with significant monthly spend often reach this point.

• When is in-house cheaper than outsourcing?

When is an agency better?

When spend is modest, when you need creative production as well as account management, or when nobody in-house has time to review campaigns weekly. An agency spreads specialist skills across clients, so you pay a fraction of a salary.

• Facebook ads versus boosted posts
• Social Media Marketing for UK businesses

How do you keep control with an agency?

Own the ad accounts, pixels and pages yourself and give the agency partner access, so you keep the data if you part ways. Agree the target, such as cost per enquiry, and review it monthly. Make sure ads follow the ASA's rules on clearly identifiable advertising.

• ASA rules for social media advertising in the UK
• How to measure social media ROI

What should you check in your ad account each month?

Even with an agency, spend 20 minutes a month in the account yourself. It keeps you in control and makes review meetings sharper.

• Spend against budget, by campaign.
• Cost per enquiry or sale, and the trend.
• Which ads and audiences drove results.
• That tracking is still recording conversions.

• Set up UTM tracking for social media

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see in UK trades and home services businesses: the owner boosts posts when work is quiet, with no tracking. A managed campaign to the service area with enquiry tracking and one monthly review gives a clear cost per enquiry, which the owner can then decide to scale.

• See client work

Paid social checklist

Use these steps to decide.

• Set your monthly ad spend and target cost per enquiry.
• Compare a specialist's cost with your ad spend.
• Get agency quotes with fees and scope in writing.
• Keep ad accounts and pixels in your name.
• Review cost per enquiry monthly.

Next step

Tell us your ad spend and what an enquiry is worth. We will say whether a hire or a managed service fits in a 30-minute call.