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In-house team or agency

| Article: 2 min read | Team

An in-house team is people on staff who work only for your store. An agency is an outside company that takes on a function (advertising, SEO, development, design) under a contract. The choice is rarely either-or: most stores combine both.

What to compare


In-house team

Agency

Knowledge of the store

Deep, builds up

Must be handed over and maintained

Speed of tasks

Depends on the person's queue

Depends on the contract terms

Cost

Salary, taxes, tools, vacations

An invoice per project or per month

Flexibility

Hard to cut and to grow

Easy to change the volume

Skills

Whatever this person has

A team of specialists

Risk

The person leaves

The contract ends or the team changes

There is no fresh data

Studies on the ratio of in-house teams to agencies usually concern large advertisers. For a small or mid-sized Ukrainian store there are no fresh comparisons. So below are criteria, not statistics.

How to decide

  1. Is the work constant or in bursts? Daily work (catalog, orders, support) is better kept on staff. Irregular work (redesign, audit, launch) goes out as a project.
  2. Can you check the result? If no one understands what you are buying, an agency may sell you reports instead of results. At least one person on staff must be able to set tasks and accept the work (ecommerce manager).
  3. What it costs in total. Compare not the rate but the full cost: for a person it is salary, taxes, tools and management time. According to Work.ua (November 2026), the median salary of an ecommerce manager is UAH 55,000 (Work.ua); cost of ownership will help count the rest.
  4. Who owns the result. Access to ad accounts, analytics, the domain and the code must be with you, not with the agency.

Common mistakes

  • Handing the agency everything and having no one who can read the report.
  • Judging an agency by the volume of work, not by the number you agreed on together.
  • Hiring a staff specialist for one task lasting a few months.
  • Not writing down how knowledge is handed over if the person or the agency leaves.

FAQ

What is cheaper: an in-house marketer or an agency? It depends on volume. For small but constant work, a staff person is usually better value; for sporadic work, an agency. Count the full cost, not the salary or the rate.

Can they be combined? Yes, it is a common model: your own person sets tasks and accepts the work, the agency handles narrow functions.

How do I vet an agency? Ask for cases with numbers in a similar niche, client contacts, and a list of what exactly the monthly fee includes. Agree on access separately.

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