Prism Digital vs Hiring In-House
Why scaling businesses choose a full-service agency over building an internal marketing department. Compare costs, expertise, and time-to-results side by side.
Full team. Fraction of the cost.
Feature-by-feature breakdown
Click any row to see a detailed explanation of each difference.
A single mid-level marketing manager in the UK costs £45K-£60K in salary alone. Add employer NI, pension, benefits, equipment, and office space, and you are looking at £120K+ before they have produced a single campaign. With Prism, you get an entire team for a fraction of that investment.
Modern digital marketing spans at least 8 disciplines. No single hire or even a small team can cover SEO, PPC, web development, design, CRO, social media, email, and analytics at a specialist level. Our team includes dedicated experts in each area, all working on your account.
The average UK hiring cycle for a marketing role is 6-8 weeks. Add onboarding, tool setup, and strategy development, and you are looking at 3-6 months before anything goes live. Our onboarding process takes 2 weeks, and campaigns launch immediately after.
Business needs fluctuate. With an in-house team, scaling down means redundancies and scaling up means another hiring cycle. Our month-to-month model lets you adjust your investment as your business evolves without employment law headaches.
Enterprise marketing tools are expensive. SEMrush, Ahrefs, HubSpot, Google Ads scripts, design software, heatmapping tools, and more add up to thousands per month. All of these are included in your Prism retainer at no extra cost.
Digital marketing evolves rapidly. Keeping an in-house team current on Google algorithm updates, new AI tools, and platform changes requires constant investment in training. Our team stays on the cutting edge as part of our business model, not yours.
An in-house marketer takes holidays and sick days like any employee. During those periods, campaigns stall, leads go unfollowed, and ads keep spending without optimisation. With Prism, every account has backup team members who know your business.
In-house teams often lack the time or tools to build comprehensive reporting. You get 24/7 access to live dashboards, monthly written reports, and regular strategy calls with senior team members who provide objective analysis and actionable recommendations.
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Why each difference matters
A closer look at what these differences mean for your business growth and marketing ROI.
Annual Cost
A single mid-level marketing manager in the UK costs £45K-£60K in salary alone. Add employer NI, pension, benefits, equipment, and office space, and you are looking at £120K+ before they have produced a single campaign. With Prism, you get an entire team for a fraction of that investment.
Expertise Breadth
Modern digital marketing spans at least 8 disciplines. No single hire or even a small team can cover SEO, PPC, web development, design, CRO, social media, email, and analytics at a specialist level. Our team includes dedicated experts in each area, all working on your account.
Ramp-Up Time
The average UK hiring cycle for a marketing role is 6-8 weeks. Add onboarding, tool setup, and strategy development, and you are looking at 3-6 months before anything goes live. Our onboarding process takes 2 weeks, and campaigns launch immediately after.
Scalability
Business needs fluctuate. With an in-house team, scaling down means redundancies and scaling up means another hiring cycle. Our month-to-month model lets you adjust your investment as your business evolves without employment law headaches.
Tool & Software Costs
Enterprise marketing tools are expensive. SEMrush, Ahrefs, HubSpot, Google Ads scripts, design software, heatmapping tools, and more add up to thousands per month. All of these are included in your Prism retainer at no extra cost.
Training & Development
Digital marketing evolves rapidly. Keeping an in-house team current on Google algorithm updates, new AI tools, and platform changes requires constant investment in training. Our team stays on the cutting edge as part of our business model, not yours.
Holiday & Sick Cover
An in-house marketer takes holidays and sick days like any employee. During those periods, campaigns stall, leads go unfollowed, and ads keep spending without optimisation. With Prism, every account has backup team members who know your business.
Reporting & Analytics
In-house teams often lack the time or tools to build comprehensive reporting. You get 24/7 access to live dashboards, monthly written reports, and regular strategy calls with senior team members who provide objective analysis and actionable recommendations.
The Verdict: Agency Wins on Cost, Speed, and Breadth
Hiring in-house makes sense when you need a single point of contact for brand-level decisions. But for execution across multiple channels, an agency model delivers more expertise, faster results, and significantly lower total cost.
“We spent 18 months trying to build an in-house team. Two hires later, we had spent over £140K with very little to show for it. Within 3 months of switching to Prism, our lead volume doubled and our cost-per-lead dropped by 45%. I wish we had made the move sooner.”
See the Prism difference for yourself
Book a free strategy call. We'll audit your current setup and show you exactly what we'd do differently and what results to expect.
Month-to-month · No lock-ins · 90-day results guarantee