Is outsourced marketing worth it? Cost, ROI and trust

Many business owners don’t worry about outsourced marketing because of the price tag. They worry about two other things.

Will it pay back? And will they actually know what’s going on?

For many small businesses, outsourced marketing costs far less than a full-time hire and covers more skills. But it works only if you can see the return and see the work. Cost is the easy half of the decision. Visibility is the hard half.

The two fears behind every agency decision

Talk to any business owner who is thinking about outsourcing, and they'll probably have the same two worries.

Will I get a return on my investment? Marketing can feel like money going into a black box.

Will I know what’s happening? You hand over your brand, your budget and your customer relationships. Then you wait for a monthly report to see if it's working.

These aren’t irrational fears. A 2024 survey of 100 UK marketing managers found that 62% had stopped, or considered stopping, working with an agency because the reporting wasn’t transparent enough. Nearly all of them (95%) had seen an agency highlight the flattering numbers and play down the rest.

The research was commissioned by a reporting software company and the sample was small, so you shouldn't treat it as gospel. However, it does match what business owners tell us week in, week out, that they pay for marketing and can’t tell whether it’s working. They wait a month for a report, then have to chase for updates.

Our view is simple. The answer to both fears isn’t reassurance. It’s evidence you can see for yourself, at any time.

What an in-house marketer really costs

Let’s start with the numbers, because that’s where most comparisons stop.

Take one marketing manager on the UK average. PayScale puts base salary at £39,031 a year. On top of that come employer National Insurance, pension contributions and other employment costs, which add several thousand pounds a year.

Add around £1,800 for software (more on that below) and you’re at close to £47,000 a year after including additional employment costs. That’s before recruitment fees, training, equipment, holiday cover or the time it takes you to manage them.

The software nobody budgets for

A marketer is only as good as their tools, and one person needs a lot of them. Think SEO and keyword research software, an email platform, design software, a social media scheduler, analytics and reporting tools, stock imagery and a CRM.

Most are subscriptions, and many charge per user or rise as your email list and marketing activity grow. We’ve allowed around £1,800 a year as a conservative estimate, and your real figure could be higher.

What outsourcing costs, and what the fee covers

QBD Pulse plans start at £200 a month. Pulse 3 starts at £950 a month and covers 4 SEO-researched blogs, 12 social posts with Canva graphics, 4 emails and monthly reporting. That’s £11,400 a year.

The tools our team uses to research, design, send and report sit inside that fee. They aren’t an extra line on your card, and you don’t have to learn or manage any of them. Every plan also starts with onboarding, including keyword research, an SEO content plan and a brand Tone of Voice guide.

There’s a commitment, and we’d rather say so up front. Pulse runs for a minimum of 12 months, and we’d expect to see results after the first three months of activity. That’s exactly why the next two sections matter.

It’s not a like-for-like comparison, and that’s fine

One marketing manager and a Pulse plan aren’t the same thing. A full-time hire is someone in the building and in your sales meetings, working on whatever matters that week. A Pulse plan is a content engine, with a team of specialists in SEO content, social media, design and email marketing behind it.

So, in-house can win when you need a day-to-day marketing lead running your events, PR or several paid campaigns at once. Plenty of businesses end up with a bit of both – one person who owns your marketing plan, and a partner who delivers the content. We often work alongside existing marketing teams for that reason.

If you’re weighing up doing it all yourself, our Pulse comparison sets DIY against a Pulse plan.

Fear one: will I get a return?

Nobody can promise a return on investment in month one. Marketing takes time to build, and anyone who says otherwise is guessing.

What you can ask for is proof that it’s building. That’s what the Pulse Score is for.

The Pulse Score tracks the signals your contacts give off, such as emails opened, links clicked, website visits. It turns them into a single score for each person. The higher the score, the warmer they are.

Atlas then ranks your most engaged contacts on a leaderboard, warmest first, and shows who has heated up in the last seven days. So, the return stops being a feeling and becomes a list of names. You can see who's warming up, call them first, and see whether the content you pay for is moving people towards a sale.

The Pulse Score isn’t a revenue figure, and we won’t pretend it is. It’s a leading indicator. It shows engagement building before the sale happens, which is the part most reports skip. Your revenue still depends on someone picking up the phone and closing the sale.

So, if your agency quotes a precise ROI figure after month one, ask how they worked it out.

Fear two: will I know what’s going on?

This is where most outsourced marketing loses people. The work happens somewhere you can’t see, and the proof arrives as a monthly PDF.

We built Atlas so you don’t have to wait. You can open the app and everything you need is there:

• Stats: website, search, email and social performance in plain English, translated out of Google Analytics.
• Content Mode: the blogs, emails and social posts being prepared for you, before they go out. Preview them, approve or hold them with a swipe, and send a brief when you have an idea.
• Insight Reports: a monthly report written by your growth specialist, explaining what the numbers mean and what happens next.
• Your whole team: you decide who sees what, so your salesperson gets the Pulse Score leaderboard and your finance lead gets the invoices.

Atlas is available on both Apple and Android devices.

If you’d rather have reporting as a standalone service, we also offer KPI reporting and Google Analytics support.

Five questions to ask before you sign with any agency

Whoever you choose, ask these questions. They work as well on us as on anyone.

• Can I see my results without asking you for a report? If the answer is a monthly PDF, that’s your answer.
• What do I get each month, in numbers? Blogs, emails, posts. 'Ongoing support' isn’t a plan.
• Who owns my accounts, content and data? You should know before you start, not when you leave.
• What’s the minimum commitment, and when should I expect results? You should get a straight answer to both.
• What will you tell me when something isn’t working? An agency that only shares good news isn’t a partner.

How can QBD help?

If you’re weighing this up, start with a free website and content audit. A growth specialist will have a short discovery call with you first, then review your website, your content and your quickest wins.

It costs nothing, there’s no commitment, and it’s yours to keep whether we work together or not. Get your free audit, or talk to our team about which Pulse plan fits your business.

Related reading

• Should you outsource your email marketing, or hire in-house? - the same cost question, looked at through email, if that’s where your biggest gap is.
• Email marketing: why you still need it in 2026 - the case for email, and how the Pulse Score works inside an email programme.