Agency vs. In-House
3-Year Financial Model
Enter your current agency setup below. See exactly what you’re paying vs. what you’d pay running it in-house.
Inputs: Adjust to your Situation
Annual ad spend$12.7M
Agency media mgmt fee17%
Undisclosed media rebates8%
Agency monthly retainer$25k/mo
Ongoing model after transition
Internal hiresMarketSpire mgmt fee
You build and own an internal team. Higher ongoing cost, full independence.
Internal hires3 hires@ $140k loaded each$420k/yr
Year 1 savings$2.81M
3-year total savings$8.87M
Transition cost payback2 mo
Agency total cost — yr 1$3.48M
MarketSpire total cost — yr 1$666k
Avg % of ad spend saved / year23.3%
Book your 30-minute assessment
We’ll run this model against your actual agency contract and invoices.
Agency fees — year 1
Media mgmt fee (17% of spend)LYFE, Foxwell$2.16M
Undisclosed media rebates (8% of spend)ANA 2016/2024$1.02M
Agency monthly retainerWhatagraph$300k
Total year 1$3.48M
MarketSpire costs — year 1
Project fee (months 1–6)Typical$240k
SaaS toolsTypical$216k
Internal hires — 3 × $140k (months 7–12)Loaded$210k
Total year 1$666k
$8.87M
Estimated 3-year savings vs. agency — internal team runs operations post-transition.
3-year Cost Comparison
Agency total cost
MarketSpire cost
Annual savings
$4M$3.5M$3M$2.5M$2M$1.5M$1M$500k$0k
$3.48M
$666k
$2.81M
$3.62M
$652k
$2.97M
$3.77M
$668k
$3.1M
Year - 1Year - 2Year - 3
Over three years, at $12.7M in annual ad spend, the in-house model costs $8.87M less than the agency model — before accounting for the compounding value of owned data and audience infrastructure.
Book your 30-minute assessment — free, no commitment
We’ll run this model against your actual agency contract and invoices.