In-house or agency? Run it on your own salary figure.
One in-house marketer costs their salary plus 13th month, statutory contributions, equipment, tools and management time — and gives you one person's skill set. An agency retainer from React Web Development Services runs ₱65,000 to ₱285,000 a month and gives you several specialisms, but never the context that comes from sitting in your office. Most Philippine businesses under about ₱5M a year in revenue are better served by an agency until there is enough steady work to keep a specialist busy. Use the calculator below with your own salary figure rather than ours — we do not publish one, because we have no sourced number and inventing it would make the comparison worthless.
The trade-offs, without the sales pitch.
| Factor | In-house hire | Agency retainer |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | Salary + ~1.3× loading | ₱65,000–₱285,000 depending on scope |
| Skills covered | One person's | Paid media, social, SEO, content, analytics |
| Context on your business | Deep — the real advantage | Learned, never as deep |
| Ramp-up | Hiring plus 1–3 months | Days |
| If they leave | Everything stops | Continuity is the contract |
| Scaling up or down | Slow, and personal | 30 days' notice |
| Tools & subscriptions | Yours to buy | Included in the retainer |
| Best fit | Steady volume, in-house context | Breadth, speed, variable load |
At your figures the retainer costs ₱1,500/mo less than employing someone — and covers several specialisms rather than one. The case for hiring anyway is context, not cost.
Your numbers, not ours. We publish no Philippine marketing salary because we have no sourced figure for one, and an invented anchor would decide this comparison for you. Retainer prices are our published rate card.
Cases where we’d tell you not to hire us.
There is enough work to fill the week
A marketer without enough to do is expensive idle capacity. If you can name forty hours of real weekly work, hire.
The context cannot be briefed
Complex products, regulated industries, long sales cycles. Someone in the room learns things no agency brief transfers.
You are building a durable capability
If marketing is a core competence rather than a channel, own it — and use an agency to train the hire rather than replace them.
And where it’s worth the difference.
You need five skills, not one
Paid media, social, SEO, content and analytics are different jobs. One hire covers one of them well and the rest badly.
The work is uneven
A launch quarter and a quiet quarter need different capacity. Headcount does not flex; a retainer does, with 30 days' notice.
You cannot yet manage a marketer
An unmanaged junior marketer produces activity, not results, and you will not know which until two quarters have gone.
The honest answer for most businesses our size of client: agency until the work is steady enough to justify a hire, then a hire supported by an agency, then in-house with specialists bought in. Anyone arguing one answer fits every stage is selling that answer.
Asked either way round.
Is it cheaper to hire a marketer or use an agency in the Philippines?
It depends on how much steady work exists. A single hire costs salary plus roughly 30% in 13th month pay, statutory contributions, equipment and tools, and covers one specialism. React Web Development Services' growth retainers run ₱65,000 to ₱285,000 per month and cover paid media, social, SEO, content and analytics together. Below about forty hours of real weekly marketing work, the retainer usually wins.
What does an agency retainer not give you?
Context. Someone sitting in your office hears the sales calls, knows which customers complain and why, and picks up the things nobody writes in a brief. No retainer replicates that, which is why the endpoint for most growing businesses is an in-house lead supported by outside specialists rather than one or the other.
When should a Philippine business bring marketing in-house?
When there is enough consistent work to occupy a specialist, when someone internally can manage and evaluate them, and when marketing is a durable capability rather than a channel you are testing. Hiring before those three are true generally produces activity without results.