Marketing is a beast. It’s complex, always changing, and demands a whole team of specialists to do it right. For many businesses, especially startups and lean teams, building that team internally is a slow, expensive process. That’s where the decision to outsource marketing comes in. It’s a strategic move to tap into expert talent on demand, and it’s incredibly common. In fact, nearly half of marketers surveyed said they had to outsource an element of marketing in 2024.

This guide breaks down everything you need to know about how to outsource marketing, from the basic models and benefits to the nitty gritty of choosing partners and managing them for success.

The Basics of Outsourced Marketing

What is Outsourced Marketing?

To outsource marketing is to hire a third party firm or professional to manage some or all of your marketing activities. Instead of relying on a full time in house team, you delegate tasks like digital advertising, content creation, social media, and SEO to outside experts. This can range from hiring a freelancer for a specific project to engaging an agency that acts as your entire marketing department.

The practice is widespread. Nearly two thirds of B2B companies outsource a portion of their marketing, and it’s popular across all company sizes. About 91% of medium to large businesses and 83% of small businesses bring in external help.

The Benefits of Outsourced Marketing

Why do so many companies choose this path? The advantages are compelling.

• Access to Specialized Expertise: One of the top reasons is gaining skills you lack internally. A survey found that almost 49% of marketers outsource because they don’t have the right skills on their team. Agencies bring deep knowledge in specific areas like SEO or data analytics.
• Significant Cost Savings: Building an in house team is expensive. A full team with an SEO specialist, PPC manager, writer, and designer can cost over $400,000 per year. Outsourcing those same functions might cost under $60,000 annually, a huge difference that helps businesses stay lean.
• Scalability and Flexibility: Outsourced marketing lets you scale your efforts up or down quickly. Need to ramp up for a product launch? An external team can add resources instantly. In one survey, 61% of businesses said they value the flexibility outsourcing provides.
• Faster Speed to Market: Expert agencies come with established workflows and tools, allowing them to execute campaigns much faster than an internal team that needs to be built from scratch.
• Focus on Your Core Business: Handing off marketing lets your team concentrate on what they do best, whether that’s product development, sales, or operations. This frees up founders and managers from wearing too many hats.

Potential Risks of Outsourced Marketing

While powerful, outsourcing isn’t without its challenges. Being aware of the risks helps you mitigate them.

• Loss of Control Over Brand Voice: When outsiders create your messaging, there’s a risk it won’t perfectly match your brand’s tone and values. Clear guidelines and communication are essential to prevent this.
• Quality and Performance Issues: If you choose the wrong partner, you could face subpar work, missed deadlines, or poor results. One company famously spent $51,000 with an agency over six months and saw zero return.
• Hidden Costs: The sticker price isn’t the full story. Your team will still spend time managing the relationship, attending meetings, and providing feedback. These internal coordination costs can add up.
• Reliance and Continuity Risks: Over relying on a single agency or freelancer can be risky. If they leave, you could be left with a major gap in your marketing capabilities and a loss of institutional knowledge.
• Data Security Concerns: Outsourcing often requires sharing access to sensitive customer data and company accounts. It’s crucial to vet your partners’ security practices to avoid potential breaches.

Getting Strategic: When, Who, and How

When to Outsource Marketing

Timing is everything. Certain situations are perfect triggers to look for external help.

• You Lack Specific Skills: If you need expert level SEO or video production and don’t have it in house, outsourcing is the fastest way to fill that gap.
• Your Team is Overstretched: If your current team is at capacity and can’t take on more, outsourcing specific tasks can prevent burnout and keep your marketing engine running. About 29% of marketers outsource simply because their team can’t handle the workload.
• The Role Isn’t Full Time: You might need a strategist or a designer, but not for 40 hours a week. Outsourcing lets you pay for just the fraction of work you need, a reason cited by nearly 29% of firms.
• You Need to Move Fast: If you need to launch a campaign quickly to capitalize on a market opportunity, an experienced agency can get you there faster than hiring. For example, see how a digital health campaign hit 13%+ CTR on a $300/month budget in one month.
• You’re Testing a New Channel: Want to experiment with TikTok ads or a PR campaign? Outsourcing is a low commitment way to test new strategies before investing in building the capability internally.

Who Should Outsource Marketing?

While any company can benefit, outsourcing is particularly effective for certain types of businesses.

• Startups and Small Businesses: With limited budgets and small teams, startups can get professional marketing execution without the high cost of full time hires.
• Resource Strapped Medium Businesses: Even midsize companies with marketing teams have skill gaps. Outsourcing allows them to augment their in house staff with specialized talent.
• B2B Companies: Business to business marketing often requires niche expertise in areas like account based marketing or complex lead generation, which specialized agencies provide. Over half (53%) of B2B marketers outsource some marketing, compared to about 41% in B2C.
• Companies Without a Marketing Leader: If you don’t have a CMO, a fractional CMO or a strategic agency can provide the high level guidance you need.
• Founder Led Brands: Founders are often the face of the brand but are short on time. Outsourcing tasks like social media management or content creation can maintain marketing momentum while the founder focuses on running the company. For these situations, a service like AgentWeb’s Growth Ops can act as a founder’s dedicated execution team.

Outsourced Marketing Maturity Levels

Companies approach outsourcing with different levels of strategic intent. The Outsourcing Maturity Model helps frame this journey in five stages.

1. Ad Hoc: Outsourcing is reactive and done case by case to fix a problem or cut a cost. This approach often leads to inconsistent results.
2. Basic: The company starts using basic processes, like standard contracts or vendor selection criteria.
3. Intermediate: A formal outsourcing program is established, with dedicated managers and governance to align external partners with strategic goals.
4. Advanced: Outsourcing is highly integrated, and external partners are treated as a true extension of the in house team, becoming a source of competitive advantage.
5. Strategic Partnership: The line between in house and outsourced blurs. Partners are involved in innovation and long term value creation.

Choosing Your Model and Partners

Freelancer vs. Agency

You generally have two options for help: hiring independent freelancers or partnering with a marketing agency.

• Freelancers are specialists in a specific skill (e.g., copywriting, graphic design). They are great for one off tasks and tight budgets, often charging between $25 to $50 per hour. The downside is that you have to manage and coordinate each freelancer yourself.
• Agencies are full service firms with a team of experts. They can handle complex, multi channel campaigns and provide strategic oversight. They cost more, with monthly retainers often starting at $5,000, but they handle all the project management for you.

The verdict? If you need a specific task done, a freelancer is efficient. If you want to outsource an entire marketing function, an agency provides a more complete, managed solution.

Offshoring Marketing

Offshoring involves outsourcing marketing tasks to providers in other countries to leverage lower labor costs. It can lead to significant savings, but it comes with its own challenges, including time zone differences, potential language barriers, and the need for tight quality control. It works best for technical or production tasks like data analysis or banner ad design.

Hybrid vs. Fully Outsourced Models

How much should you hand over? There are two common approaches.

• Hybrid Outsourcing Model: This is the most common model, where a company blends in house staff with external partners. For example, you might keep a marketing manager in house to oversee strategy while outsourcing content creation and digital ads. This gives you the best of both worlds: internal control and external expertise.
• Fully Outsourced Marketing Model: In this model, a business hands over its entire marketing function to an external agency. This can be extremely cost effective, with an outsourced team costing a fraction of a $400,000+ in house department. It allows founders to focus completely on their product and operations. Modern AI powered services are making this model even more efficient, acting as a complete AI marketing automation platform for startups.

What Can You Outsource? A Breakdown by Function, Role, and Channel

You can outsource nearly any part of your marketing. Here’s a look at the most common areas.

Outsourcing by Function

• Marketing Research: Hire external firms to conduct customer surveys, focus groups, and competitive analysis. About 45% of businesses outsource their market research and data analysis.
• Marketing Strategy: Bring in a consultant or fractional CMO to develop your high level marketing plan, positioning, and campaign concepts.
• Creative Production: Outsource the creation of assets like graphic design, video production, and copywriting to specialized creative agencies or freelancers.
• Marketing Training: Hire external trainers or enroll your team in outside programs to keep their skills sharp and up to date on the latest marketing trends.
• Marketing Operations: Delegate the technical side of marketing, like managing your marketing automation software, setting up campaign workflows, and tracking analytics.
• Marketing Analysis: Hire an external analyst to dig into your data, create performance dashboards, and provide actionable insights to improve your ROI.

Outsourcing by Role

Instead of a function, you can outsource a specific role on your team.

• Fractional CMO: An experienced marketing executive who works with you part time to provide strategic leadership at a fraction of the cost of a full time hire. Not sure what that entails? What is a fractional CMO?
• Growth Marketer: An external specialist focused on rapid experimentation across marketing, product, and data to scale customer acquisition. A dedicated B2B SaaS growth marketing platform can fill this role by shipping multi channel campaigns weekly.
• SEO Marketer: A specialist who manages all aspects of search engine optimization, from technical audits and keyword research to link building.
• PPC Specialist: An expert who manages your paid ad campaigns on platforms like Google and Facebook, optimizing your budget for the best possible return.
• Social Media Manager: A professional who handles your social media presence, including content creation, scheduling, community engagement, and follower growth.
• Email Marketer: A specialist who designs and manages your email campaigns, automation workflows, and list segmentation to drive engagement and conversions.
• Marketing Analyst: A data expert who tracks your marketing KPIs, analyzes performance, and provides data driven recommendations to guide your strategy.

Outsourcing by Channel

Many companies choose to outsource the management of specific marketing channels.

• SEO Outsourcing: This involves handing off keyword research, on page optimization, technical fixes, and link building to an SEO agency to improve your organic search rankings. See the SEO for founders guide for the 80/20 that moves the needle.
• Paid Advertising Outsourcing: An agency manages your paid media spend across platforms like Google Ads and Meta, continuously optimizing campaigns to lower your cost per acquisition.
• Social Media Outsourcing: Hire a firm to run your social media channels, creating a consistent stream of engaging content and interacting with your community.
• Content Marketing Outsourcing: Contract with writers, designers, and video producers to create a steady flow of high quality blog posts, ebooks, videos, and other content assets. For a blueprint, see this SaaS content marketing strategy guide.

Making It Work: The Practical Guide to Successful Outsourcing

Choosing to outsource marketing is just the first step. Success depends on how you manage the process.

Budget Planning

Before you start, determine what you can afford. Costs vary wildly, from a few hundred dollars a month for a single freelancer to over $10,000 a month for a comprehensive agency retainer. A good rule of thumb is to compare the cost of outsourcing to what it would cost to hire for the same role or function in house, including salary, benefits, and overhead.

Selection Criteria for Agencies and Freelancers

Finding the right partner is critical. Use this checklist to vet potential candidates.

For Agencies:

• Do they have proven experience and case studies in your industry?
• Is their team structure and process clear?
• Do their communication style and culture fit with yours?
• Are their pricing and contract terms transparent?

For Freelancers:

• Does their portfolio showcase high quality work relevant to your needs?
• Do they have positive reviews and references?
• Are they responsive and professional in their communication?
• Do they have the bandwidth to take on your project?

Integrating Your In House and Outsourced Teams

For a hybrid model to work, seamless collaboration is key.

• Establish a Single Point of Contact: Designate one person on your in house team to be the main liaison with your external partners.
• Use Shared Tools: Use project management software like Asana or Trello, and communication tools like Slack, to keep everyone on the same page.
• Hold Regular Meetings: Schedule weekly or bi weekly check in calls to review progress, discuss challenges, and align on upcoming priorities.

Reporting and Accountability

Set clear expectations from the start.

• Define KPIs: Agree on the key performance indicators that will define success for each outsourced function.
• Require Regular Reports: Your partner should provide regular, easy to understand reports that track progress against your KPIs.
• Schedule Performance Reviews: Hold quarterly reviews to discuss overall performance and make strategic adjustments to the partnership.

Structuring Your Outsourced Marketing Department

An outsourced marketing department doesn’t mean chaos. It can be structured with clear roles. You might have an in house marketing manager or founder who acts as the strategist and a fractional CMO for high level guidance. They then coordinate a team of external specialists for execution, like an SEO agency, a freelance content writer, and a PPC contractor.

The Outsourcing Decision Question Set

Ready to make a decision? Ask yourself these questions.

1. What specific marketing goal are we trying to achieve?
2. Do we have the skills and bandwidth to achieve this goal internally?
3. Would outsourcing be faster or more cost effective than hiring?
4. What is our budget for this initiative?
5. Do we need a single specialist (freelancer) or a coordinated team (agency)?
6. How will we measure the success of this engagement?

Answering these will give you a clear path forward on whether to outsource marketing and how to approach it. If you are a startup founder looking for a clear path, you can start by getting a free GTM discovery report.

Final Thoughts

To outsource marketing is a powerful strategy for businesses that want to grow faster and more efficiently. By tapping into a global pool of specialized talent, you can execute professional, multi channel campaigns without the cost and complexity of building a large in house team. Whether you start small with a single freelancer or partner with an agency to run your entire department, the key is to choose the right partners and manage them with clear communication and shared goals.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the first step to outsource marketing?

The first step is to clearly define your goals. Determine what you want to achieve (e.g., more leads, higher brand awareness) and identify the specific marketing functions or roles you need help with. This will guide your search for the right type of partner.

2. How much should I budget for outsourced marketing?

Budgets vary widely. A simple freelance engagement might cost a few hundred dollars a month, while a full service agency retainer can be $5,000 to $20,000 or more. A good starting point is to benchmark the cost against hiring a full time employee for the same role.

3. Can I still outsource marketing if I have a very small team?

Absolutely. In fact, outsourcing is ideal for small teams. It allows you to access a wide range of marketing skills immediately without having to make multiple full time hires, making it a very capital efficient way to grow.

4. How do I maintain brand control with an external team?

Create a detailed brand style guide that covers your mission, voice, tone, and visual identity. Hold a thorough onboarding session to immerse your new partner in your brand culture. Also, establish a clear approval process for all content and campaigns before they go live.

5. What is the difference between outsourcing a role and a function?

Outsourcing a function means delegating a whole area of work, like “content creation” or “paid advertising,” to an agency that manages the entire process. Outsourcing a role means hiring an external individual, like a “fractional CMO” or a “freelance social media manager,” to fill a specific position on your team.

6. How long does it take to see results from outsourced marketing?

It depends on the channel. Paid advertising can show results within days. Social media and content marketing might take a few months to build momentum. SEO is a long term strategy, often requiring six months or more to see significant gains in organic traffic.