Should I Run Google Ads In-House Or Hire An Agency?

Jesse Heslinga
Jul 14
10 min read

You're spending real money on Google Ads every month, and the question keeps coming back: do I hire someone to run this in-house, or do I bring in an agency? It usually shows up right when the account gets too big to run in your spare time and too important to leave on autopilot.

Both routes can work. I've seen in-house teams run tight accounts, and I've seen agencies quietly coast on a client for two years. The good news is this is a decision you can actually reason about, because it comes down to a few concrete things: how much you spend, whether you can keep a specialist busy and supported, and how much of someone's real attention your account gets. Let me walk through the honest version, including the parts most "hire an agency" articles skip.

The Short Answer

Under roughly €3k/month in ad spend, you usually don't need either. Run it yourself or use software until the account earns full-time attention.
Agencies are almost always cheaper than a good in-house hire until your spend is north of about €30k to €50k/month. Below that, the loaded cost of a competent specialist (salary, taxes, tools, training, ramp-up) is hard to justify for one account.
In-house buys control and full focus on your business. An agency buys senior expertise across many accounts, tools included, and continuity if someone leaves.
The real question is who actually touches your account each week, and how much of their attention you get. A €3k agency retainer where a junior handles 25 clients can be worse than a sharp freelancer, and vice versa. Ask that before you sign anything.

The honest answer: it depends on your spend and your team

There's no universal winner here, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling one of the two options. The decision turns on two questions.

First, your spend. Google Ads management is a fixed amount of skilled work whether you pay a salary or a retainer. At low spend, that work is expensive relative to the budget it's managing. At high spend, it's cheap relative to what's at stake. That's why the answer flips as you grow.

Second, your team. An in-house specialist only pays off if you can keep them busy, supported, and learning. One Google Ads account, even a big one, is rarely 40 hours a week of skilled work. If that's all they'd do, you're paying a full-time salary for part-time expertise, and they'll stagnate because they only ever see one account.

Verdict: small spend and a single account point toward doing it yourself or hiring out. Large spend and enough marketing work to keep a specialist sharp point toward in-house. Most lead-gen businesses I talk to sit in the middle, which is exactly where an agency or a senior freelancer fits best.

Pro Tip: don't benchmark the decision on the management fee alone. Benchmark it on cost per qualified lead. A cheaper option that produces worse leads is the most expensive choice you can make.

What "in-house" really costs

This is where most owners get the math wrong. You see an agency quote of €2,500 a month and think "I could hire someone for less than €30k a year." The salary is the visible tip. The rest of the iceberg:

Loaded salary. A competent Google Ads specialist is roughly €45k to €70k a year all-in, once you add payroll taxes (usually 15 to 20% on top), benefits, and holiday. A cheap hire costs less and usually shows it in the results.
Tools. Call tracking, reporting, bid or script tooling, competitive research. A few hundred euros a month on top.
Training and certification. Google changes the platform constantly. Keeping someone current is real time and money.
Ramp-up. Expect two to three months from hire to genuinely productive, and that's if they're good.
Single point of failure. If your one person quits, gets sick, or goes on holiday, the account has nobody. You're recruiting again from zero.

Verdict: in-house isn't "the salary." It's the loaded cost of a person plus tools plus the risk of that person being your only line of defence. It only makes sense when the account (or your wider marketing) is big enough to keep them fully occupied and worth that fixed cost.

What an agency really costs

Agency pricing in 2026 lands in a few predictable shapes. Knowing them stops you overpaying or, worse, buying a cheap retainer that doesn't include the work you actually need.

Model	Typical range	What to watch for
Flat monthly retainer	€1,000 to €5,000/mo (mid-market €2,500 to €7,500)	What's actually included. Cheap retainers often exclude tracking setup, landing pages, and creative
Percentage of ad spend	10 to 20% of monthly spend, usually a €1,000 to €3,000 minimum	Your fee rises when you spend more, even if the work doesn't change
Hybrid (base + small %)	A base fee plus a smaller % of spend	Often the fairest structure for serious budgets
Setup / audit fee	One-off €500 to €5,000	Normal for real onboarding, but ask what it buys

Two things worth naming. A small-business retainer (roughly €1,000 to €2,500) usually covers campaign management and reporting, but often not conversion tracking, landing pages, or creative. If your tracking is broken, that's the first thing that needs fixing, so check it's in scope. And percentage-of-spend pricing quietly rewards the agency for pushing your budget up, whether or not the extra spend improves results.

Verdict: an agency bundles the person, the tools, and continuity into one predictable fee, and it's usually cheaper than in-house until your spend gets large. Just read what the fee actually includes, and be aware of what the pricing model incentivises.

Keep in Mind: the average agency account manager handles somewhere between 10 and 30 clients. Do the math on a €2,500 retainer split across that many accounts and you get a few hours of real attention a week. That's fine for a simple account. It's not fine for one that needs senior thinking.

The question nobody asks: who actually does the work?

The part that matters more than the in-house-versus-agency label, and almost nobody asks it before signing:

In-house or agency, your results come down to one thing: how experienced is the person touching your account, and how much of their attention do you get? A big agency name means nothing if a junior runs your campaigns between 24 other clients. A cheap in-house hire means nothing if they're learning on your budget. And a "cheap" retainer often buys exactly the least experienced person and the least time.

So flip the whole thing around. Instead of asking "agency or in-house," ask: who, specifically, will be in my account each week? How senior are they? How many other accounts do they carry? Do I talk to them, or to an account manager who relays messages? The honest answers to those questions predict your results better than the org chart does.

Verdict: the choice that actually moves your numbers is seniority and attention, not the label on the invoice. Pick the option, in-house or agency, that puts an experienced person on your account with time to think.

In-house vs agency, side by side

Dimension	In-house hire	Agency
Cost at low-to-mid spend	High (fixed salary + overheads)	Lower, scales with the work
Cost at high spend (€30k+/mo)	Becomes competitive	Fee can climb, especially on % pricing
Attention on your account	Full focus, one account	Shared across their client book
Breadth of experience	One account's worth	Sees patterns across many accounts
Business context	Deep, sits inside your company	Has to be briefed, but learns fast
Tools included	You buy them separately	Usually bundled into the fee
Ramp-up time	2 to 3 months to productive	Days to a couple of weeks
Continuity risk	High: one person, single point of failure	Lower: team covers holidays and exits
Control	Maximum	Shared, depends on the relationship

Read that table as a set of trade-offs, not a scoreboard. In-house wins on focus and control. Agency wins on cost-efficiency, breadth, tools, and continuity. Which set matters more depends entirely on your size and stage.

When in-house is the right call

Bring it in-house when the numbers and the workload both support it:

Your spend is large, roughly €30k to €50k a month or more, where a salary is small next to the budget being managed.
There's enough marketing work to keep a specialist fully busy and growing, not just one account they'll plateau on.
You want maximum control and someone who lives inside the business, deep in your context, sitting next to sales.
You can support and retain them, including covering the gap when they're out or they leave.

Verdict: in-house is a strong choice for larger advertisers with enough work to justify and sustain a full-time specialist. For a single mid-sized account, it's usually paying full-time money for part-time expertise.

When an agency is the right call

An agency (or a senior freelancer) fits most lead-gen businesses in the middle, and specifically when:

Your spend is in the roughly €3k to €50k/month band, where a good agency is the best balance of cost, expertise, and effort.
You want senior expertise without a full-time salary, plus the tools and the cross-account pattern-matching that come with it.
You need continuity, so a holiday or a resignation doesn't leave your account unattended.
You'd rather stay focused on running your business than manage, train, and cover for a hire.

Verdict: for most service businesses spending under about €50k a month, an agency gives you senior attention and resilience for less than a loaded in-house cost. The catch is choosing one where a senior person, not a stretched account manager, actually runs the account.

The third option: software and "autonomous" tools

In 2026 there's a third path being pushed hard: PPC software and "autonomous" AI tools that promise to run the account for you at a fraction of an agency fee. Worth being clear-eyed about it.

For very small or simple accounts (under roughly €3k/month), software or careful DIY is often the right, cheapest choice. The tools genuinely help with bid management, alerts, and reporting. What they don't do well yet is the judgment: deciding what a good lead is, spotting that Performance Max is quietly optimising to a junk landing page, restructuring an account around how your business actually makes money. That's the senior thinking a lead-gen account lives or dies on, and it's exactly what "set it and forget it" tools skip.

Verdict: use software to remove grunt work, not to replace judgment. Below a few thousand a month it can stand alone. Above that, on a lead-gen account, it's a helper for a skilled human, not a substitute for one.

Common mistakes

Comparing the agency fee to the salary alone. The real in-house number is salary plus taxes, tools, training, ramp-up, and single-point-of-failure risk.
Buying the cheapest retainer, then wondering why it's junior work. A low fee usually buys the least experienced person and the least time. Ask who's actually in the account.
Ignoring what the retainer includes. If tracking, landing pages, or creative aren't in scope and your account needs them, the "cheap" option isn't cheap.
Hiring in-house for one account. Unless the spend is large or there's broader marketing work, you're paying full-time money for part-time expertise, and they'll stagnate.
Judging any option on cost per lead instead of cost per qualified lead. The cheapest leads are usually the worst ones.

How I think about this for lead-gen businesses

I run a deliberately small agency, so my honest bias is on the table: for most lead-gen businesses in the roughly €3k to €50k/month range, a small senior operation beats both a stretched big agency and a solo in-house hire. What drives that is the thing that actually matters: an experienced person with real attention on your account, and direct access to them with no account-manager layer in between.

That's the whole model at Groove Media. Few clients, senior attention on each, you talk to the person doing the work. If your spend is small, I'll tell you to run it yourself or use software. If it's very large with enough work to justify a team, in-house can be the better answer. Everywhere in between, this is where a good agency earns its fee.

If you're weighing in-house against an agency and you're not sure which the numbers point to, I'll give you an honest read on where your account actually is and what it needs. No pitch if an agency isn't the right call for you.

Book a free account review

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it cheaper to run Google Ads in-house or hire an agency?

For most businesses, an agency is cheaper until your ad spend passes roughly €30k to €50k a month. Below that, the loaded cost of a competent in-house specialist (salary plus payroll taxes, tools, training, and ramp-up) is hard to justify for a single account. Above it, a salary starts to look small next to the budget being managed.

How much does a Google Ads agency cost in 2026?

Most agencies charge either a flat retainer, commonly €1,000 to €5,000 a month, or 10 to 20% of your ad spend with a minimum around €1,000 to €3,000 — see the full breakdown of what Google Ads agencies actually charge. Premium agencies go higher. Watch what's included: cheaper retainers often exclude conversion tracking, landing pages, and creative.

How much does an in-house PPC specialist cost?

Budget €45k to €70k a year all-in for a competent hire, once you add payroll taxes (usually 15 to 20% on top of salary), benefits, and holiday. Then add tools, training, and two to three months of ramp-up before they're fully productive. And they're a single point of failure if they leave.

At what ad spend should I bring Google Ads in-house?

As a rough guide, in-house becomes defensible once you're spending north of €30k to €50k a month, or when you have enough broader marketing work to keep a specialist fully busy and growing. For a single mid-sized account, an agency or senior freelancer is usually the better value.

What should I ask before hiring a Google Ads agency?

Ask who specifically will run your account, how senior they are, and how many other accounts they carry. Ask whether you talk to them directly or through an account manager. Ask what the fee includes (tracking, landing pages, reporting) and how they define a good lead. The answers predict your results better than the agency's size does.

Can software or AI tools replace an agency for Google Ads?

For small, simple accounts (under about €3k/month) software or careful DIY can be the right, cheapest choice. Tools handle bid management, alerts, and reporting well. What they don't do yet is the judgment: defining lead quality, catching a campaign optimising to junk, restructuring around how your business makes money. On a lead-gen account, treat software as a helper for a skilled human, not a replacement.

Is a small agency better than a big one for Google Ads?

It depends on who touches your account. Big agencies have resources but often hand your account to a junior managing 20-plus clients. A small senior agency or freelancer can give more experienced attention for the same fee. Judge on seniority and attention per account, not on the size of the name.

About the author

Jesse Heslinga | Google Partner | 7+ Years Google Ads | Lead-Gen Expert

I run Google Ads for lead-gen service businesses at Groove Media across clinics, home services, and professional services, working with clients directly, no account-manager layer. I build every account around one question: is this spend turning into real customers, not just cheap form fills?