The Owner's Guide to Hiring Your First Marketing Help

Last year, an HVAC company owner in Phoenix told me about the worst $52,000 he ever spent.

He hired his first marketing person. Smart kid. Marketing degree. Knew all the latest tools. Within six months, the owner had a beautiful website redesign nobody asked for, an Instagram account with 340 followers (mostly bots), and exactly zero new customers he could trace back to marketing.

The hire was not lazy or incompetent. He just was not the right kind of help for where the business actually was.

Here is what nobody tells you about hiring marketing help for your small business: this decision sets your trajectory for the next 2-3 years. The right choice compounds your growth. The wrong choice burns cash, burns time, and burns you out on marketing altogether.

Most owners get it wrong because they're asking the wrong question. They ask "should I hire in-house, use freelancers, or get an agency?" But that is like asking "should I buy a sedan, truck, or SUV?" without knowing whether you're hauling lumber or commuting downtown.

This guide will show you the five real options for hiring marketing help, what each one actually costs (not the sticker price—the real cost), and a framework for figuring out which one fits your specific situation. We work with small businesses between $500K and $10M in revenue, and we have seen every version of this decision go right and wrong.

Let us get into it.

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Quick Decision Framework: The TL;DR

If you're short on time, here's the cheat sheet based on your monthly marketing budget:

Under $3,000/month: DIY with occasional freelancer help. You cannot afford meaningful outside help yet. Focus on learning fundamentals yourself. $3,000-$7,000/month: Choose between specialized freelancers OR a focused agency partnership. Not both. Pick one channel and get good at it. $7,000-$15,000/month: This is fractional CMO territory. You need strategic leadership, not just execution. A senior marketing leader working 10-20 hours/month plus execution support. $15,000-$30,000/month: Hybrid approach works here. Part-time strategic leadership plus dedicated execution resources (agency, in-house junior person, or both). $30,000+/month: In-house marketing leadership becomes viable. You can afford a Director or VP-level hire, potentially supplemented by agency specialists.

These are rough guidelines. Your specific situation might be different. The sections below explain why these thresholds exist and how to think through your actual needs.

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Option 1: Full-Time In-House Hire

The fantasy: A marketing person who lives and breathes your business. Someone who shows up every day, knows your customers, attends your team meetings, and treats your growth like their mission.

The reality is more complicated.

The True Cost Breakdown

That $55,000 salary you budgeted? Here's what it actually costs:

Base salary: $55,000

Payroll taxes (employer portion): $4,200

Health insurance (employer contribution): $7,200

401k match (if offered): $2,200

Equipment (computer, software, tools): $3,500 first year

Training and professional development: $2,000

Management time (your time): 5-10 hours/week

Fully loaded cost: $74,000-$80,000 per year

And that's before you factor in the cost of a bad hire. Industry data suggests 20-30% of marketing hires don't work out within the first year. If yours doesn't, you're looking at severance, recruiting costs (typically 15-25% of salary), and another 3-6 months of ramp-up time for the replacement.

When In-House Works

In-house hires work when:

When In-House Fails

Here's where I've seen in-house hires go sideways:

One business owner I know calls this "expensive loneliness." You're paying full-time rates for someone who doesn't have the support structure to do their best work.

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Option 2: Freelancers and Specialists

Freelancers seem like the obvious answer when you don't need full-time help. Pay only for what you use. Access specialized skills. Keep costs variable.

In theory, perfect. In practice, it gets messy fast.

The Coordination Tax

Here's what nobody tells you about managing freelancers: you become the project manager.

Let's say you hire three freelancers:

Content writer: $75/hour

Facebook ads specialist: $100/hour

Web developer: $125/hour

Their hourly rates are reasonable. But who's:

Making sure the content writer knows what the ads specialist is promoting?

Ensuring the landing page matches the ad creative?

Coordinating timelines so the email goes out when the page is live?

Maintaining brand consistency across all three workstreams?

Quality checking everyone's output?

You are. That's 5-10 hours of your time per week minimum—time you're not billing, not selling, not running your business.

At a conservative $150/hour value for your time, the "cheap" freelancer approach is costing you an extra $3,000-$6,000/month in hidden coordination overhead.

The Specialization Problem

Freelancers are specialists. That's their strength and their limitation.

A Facebook ads freelancer will run great Facebook ads. But they won't tell you that Facebook is the wrong channel for your business. They won't notice that your website is killing conversions. They won't suggest that you should be on LinkedIn instead.

When you hire specialists without strategic oversight, you get tactical excellence in service of the wrong strategy.

When Freelancers Work

Freelancers are the right choice when:

When Freelancers Fail

Freelancers usually disappoint when:

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Option 3: Traditional Marketing Agency

The pitch sounds great: "We're a full-service agency. We'll handle everything. Just focus on running your business."

Some agencies deliver on that promise. Many don't.

The Traditional Agency Business Model

Here's how most agencies actually make money:

On the front end: They invest heavily in sales. Impressive pitch decks. Senior partners in the meeting. Case studies that sound amazing. They're optimized to win clients. On the back end: Your account gets handed to junior staff. The senior person you met? You'll see them at the quarterly review. Maybe. The profit model: Many agencies are playing a volume game. They need 40, 50, 100+ clients to hit their numbers. That means each client gets a slice of attention, not the whole pie. The churn expectation: Here's the uncomfortable truth—many agencies budget for 30-40% annual client churn. They expect to lose you within 2-3 years. Their model doesn't require keeping you forever; it requires winning your replacement before you leave.

The Red Flags to Watch For

From our research on transparent marketing practices, here are the biggest warning signs:

They own your ad accounts, not you. If you leave, you lose everything—the campaigns, the audience data, the performance history. This is hostage-taking disguised as convenience. Bundled pricing with no breakdown. If your invoice says "$6,000 - Marketing Services" with no detail on ad spend vs. management fees, they're hiding something. Long contracts upfront. Good agencies don't need to trap you. Twelve-month minimums before you've seen any results protect underperformers. Vanity metrics in reporting. Impressions and reach sound impressive. But if they can't tell you your cost per lead and cost per customer acquisition without consulting a spreadsheet, they're not actually tracking what matters. The same playbook for everyone. If they didn't ask deep questions about your specific customers, margins, and competitive position, they're running template strategies.

When Agencies Work

The right agency relationship can be transformative. It works when:

When Agencies Fail

Agencies usually disappoint when:

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Option 4: Fractional CMO / Marketing Leadership

This option didn't exist for small businesses until recently. Now it's often the right answer—but most owners don't understand what they're actually buying.

What "Fractional" Actually Means

A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who works with your company part-time, typically 10-40 hours per month. You get executive-level marketing strategy and oversight without the $200K+ fully-loaded cost of a full-time CMO.

The key difference from an agency: a fractional CMO is working *for* you, not *on* you. They're embedded in your business. They attend your leadership meetings. They understand your margins, your competition, your operational constraints.

An agency manages a client. A fractional CMO leads a function.

Cost Comparison: Fractional vs. Full-Time CMO

Full-time CMO:

Salary: $150,000-$250,000

Benefits and overhead: +40%

Fully loaded annual cost: $210,000-$350,000

Fractional CMO (10-20 hours/month):

Monthly retainer: $5,000-$15,000

Annual cost: $60,000-$180,000

For businesses doing $1M-$10M in revenue, the full-time CMO is almost never the right answer. You don't need 40+ hours weekly of strategic marketing leadership. You need 10-20 hours of very senior thinking applied to your specific situation.

What You Actually Get

A good fractional CMO provides:

What a Fractional CMO Doesn't Do

This is important: most fractional CMOs are not execution resources.

They won't write your blog posts, build your ad campaigns, or design your landing pages. They'll tell you what needs to be built, oversee the people building it, and measure whether it's working.

If you need execution, you need execution resources (freelancers, agency, in-house) in addition to strategic leadership.

When Fractional Works

Fractional CMO arrangements work when:

When Fractional Fails

This approach doesn't work when:

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Option 5: The Hybrid Approach

Most successful marketing setups for growing small businesses aren't one thing—they're combinations. Here's what actually works at different stages.

The $5K-$10K/Month Setup

Strategic layer: Fractional CMO or senior consultant (8-15 hours/month): $2,500-$5,000 Execution layer: One specialized agency OR 2-3 freelancers focused on your primary channel: $2,500-$5,000

This setup gives you strategic direction plus focused execution. The fractional person provides strategy and oversees the execution resources.

The $10K-$20K/Month Setup

Strategic layer: Fractional CMO (15-25 hours/month): $4,000-$8,000 Execution layer: Agency retainer for primary channels plus ad spend: $6,000-$12,000

At this budget, you can afford real attention from an agency plus strategic oversight to make sure that attention goes in the right direction.

The $20K-$40K/Month Setup

Strategic layer: Fractional CMO evolving toward in-house Director: $6,000-$12,000 (or $80K-$120K salary) Execution layer: Agency partnership for specialized channels plus junior in-house support for day-to-day: $14,000-$28,000

This is the transition zone. You're probably ready to bring someone in-house for day-to-day execution, supplemented by agency expertise for channels requiring deep specialization.

The $40K+/Month Setup

Strategic layer: In-house marketing leadership (VP/Director level): Full-time hire Execution layer: Mix of in-house team members plus specialized agency partners

At this level, you can build an actual marketing department. But even large companies keep agency relationships for specialized work—you don't need to bring everything in-house.

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The Real Decision Framework: 4 Questions That Matter

Forget "agency vs. in-house." Here's how to actually think through this decision:

Question 1: Do You Have a Strategy?

If you don't know what channels to prioritize, how to position your business, or what differentiates you from competitors, you need strategy before execution.

Hiring execution without strategy is like paying carpenters to build before you have blueprints. You'll get something. It just won't be what you need.

If you need strategy: Start with strategic help (fractional CMO, strategy-focused agency, or senior consultant). Then add execution.

Question 2: How Much Can You Actually Spend?

Not your ideal budget. Not what competitors spend. What can you actually commit for 12 months without panicking?

Marketing takes time to work. If you hire help in January and pull the plug in April because cash is tight, you've wasted everything. Underfunded marketing fails.

Be honest: Add up what you can realistically spend monthly, then commit to that number for a year. If that number is under $3,000, you probably can't afford meaningful outside help yet.

Question 3: How Much Time Can You Invest?

Every marketing option requires some of your time. The question is how much.

Managing freelancers: 8-15 hours/week coordinating, reviewing, providing direction Working with an agency: 4-8 hours/week on calls, reviews, and feedback Partnering with a fractional CMO: 2-4 hours/week in strategic discussions Managing an in-house hire: 5-10 hours/week in supervision, training, and direction

If you don't have the time a particular option requires, that option will fail regardless of how good the marketing help is.

Question 4: What Do You Actually Need?

Separate what you need from what you think you need:

"We need a social media presence" might actually mean you need customers from somewhere—and social media may not be the answer

"We need better branding" might actually mean your positioning is unclear—logos won't fix that

"We need more leads" might actually mean you need better lead conversion—more leads into a broken funnel just accelerates waste

The right marketing help starts by questioning your assumptions, not validating them. If potential partners just agree with everything you say, that's a red flag.

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10 Questions to Ask Before Making Your Decision

Before you sign anything or make any hire, get honest answers to these:

1. What's the one marketing activity that would most move the needle right now? (If you can't answer, you need strategy first.)

2. What have I tried before and why didn't it work? (If the problem was always the vendor, maybe the problem is actually you.)

3. How will I know if this investment is working? (If you can't define success, you can't measure it.)

4. What's my realistic timeline for results? (Marketing compounds—most wins take 6-12 months.)

5. Who will this person/agency report to, and how often? (Unmanaged marketing resources drift.)

6. Do I have the internal capacity to support this hire? (They'll need assets, approvals, and information from you.)

7. What happens if this doesn't work? (Define your exit before you need it.)

8. Am I hiring for what I need now, or what I'll need in two years? (Hire for now—your needs will change.)

9. What's my backup plan if this person/agency leaves? (Dependency on any single provider is dangerous.)

10. Why do I think I need marketing help right now? (Sometimes the answer is "because competitors have it" rather than genuine business need.)

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The Mistakes to Avoid

After working with dozens of small businesses on this exact decision, these are the patterns I see destroy the most value:

Mistake 1: Hiring Execution Before Strategy

"We need someone to run our ads" assumes you know ads are the right channel. Often, they're not.

Execution before strategy produces random acts of marketing—activity without direction. The Facebook ads might be beautiful. But if your customers are on LinkedIn, beautiful doesn't matter.

Fix: Make sure someone (you, a consultant, or your fractional CMO) has done the strategic work before you invest heavily in execution.

Mistake 2: Underfunding, Then Blaming the Help

Marketing has minimum viable budgets. Below certain thresholds, nothing works—not because the marketing help is bad, but because the math doesn't work.

Running $500/month in Facebook ads won't generate enough data to optimize. A $2,000/month agency retainer won't buy meaningful attention. A $40K/year marketing hire won't attract senior talent.

When underfunded marketing fails, owners blame the help. But no marketing professional can make physics work differently. Some budgets are just too small.

Fix: Either fund marketing properly or wait until you can. Half-measures produce zero results at half the cost—which means they're infinitely worse than waiting.

Mistake 3: Expecting Instant Results

Marketing compounds. The blog post you publish today might not generate leads for six months. The brand awareness campaign doesn't convert immediately—it makes future campaigns convert better.

When owners expect Q1 investment to produce Q1 results, they kill initiatives before they have a chance to work. Then they conclude "marketing doesn't work for our business" and underfund the next attempt.

Fix: Set expectations based on your specific channels. SEO takes 6-12 months. Paid ads can show signal in 30-60 days. Brand building takes years. Different timelines require different patience.

Mistake 4: Not Defining What Success Looks Like

"We want more leads" is not a success metric. How many leads? At what cost? With what conversion rate? Leading to how much revenue?

Without clear definitions, you can't evaluate whether your marketing investment is working. And you can't have an honest conversation with your marketing help about performance.

Fix: Before starting, agree on: What are we measuring? What does success look like at 90 days, 180 days, 1 year? What would cause us to change course?

Mistake 5: Changing Too Fast

Some owners give up on marketing approaches too quickly. Others stick with failing approaches too long. The mistake is changing without understanding why the current approach is or isn't working.

"It's been three months and we don't have results" might mean it's not working—or might mean you're 60% of the way to results that take five months to materialize.

Fix: Before changing, understand: What did we expect? What actually happened? Is the gap due to strategy (wrong approach) or execution (right approach, poor implementation) or timeline (right approach, just need more time)? ---

Frequently Asked Questions

How much should I pay for marketing help for my small business?

Typical ranges for small businesses ($500K-$10M revenue):

Freelancers: $50-$150/hour depending on specialty

Agencies: $3,000-$15,000/month for meaningful attention

Fractional CMO: $4,000-$12,000/month for 10-25 hours

In-house marketing manager: $50,000-$80,000 salary ($70,000-$112,000 fully loaded)

Budget 7-12% of revenue for total marketing spend (including people, tools, and ad spend) during growth phases. If you're spending less than 5%, you're probably underfunding. More than 15% during early stages is usually overfunding.

What is the difference between a fractional CMO and a marketing agency?

A fractional CMO is an individual senior marketer who works inside your business part-time as your marketing leader. They set strategy, direct execution, and are accountable for outcomes. They work *for* you.

An agency is an external company that provides marketing services. They execute campaigns and report on results, but they work *on* you as one of many clients. They typically don't integrate into your leadership team.

The simplest distinction: a fractional CMO tells you what to do and oversees it getting done. An agency does what you tell them.

When should a small business hire its first marketing person?

Consider hiring in-house when:

You have $30,000+/month marketing budget

You have 40+ hours of marketing work weekly

You can provide management and direction

Your marketing needs are stable and ongoing

If those conditions aren't met, external help (agency, freelancers, or fractional CMO) usually makes more sense.

Should my first marketing hire be a generalist or specialist?

For most small businesses: generalist, but with depth in your primary channel.

You need someone who can see the full picture, but who's particularly strong at the one or two things that drive your growth. A "T-shaped" marketer—broad knowledge with deep expertise in key areas.

Avoid hiring pure specialists as your first marketing hire. You'll end up over-investing in one channel while ignoring others that might be more important.

How do I know if my marketing agency is doing a good job?

Ask yourself:

1. Do I own all my ad accounts and data?

2. Can I clearly state my cost per lead and cost per customer?

3. Does my agency proactively tell me when things aren't working?

4. Are they showing me business results or vanity metrics?

5. Do I understand what they're doing and why?

If the answer to any of these is "no," you don't have enough transparency to evaluate performance. That itself is a red flag.

What should I look for in my first marketing hire?

Top priorities:

1. Relevant experience: Have they done this for businesses like yours?

2. Analytical mindset: Do they talk about data and measurement unprompted?

3. Strategic thinking: Can they explain *why* they would do something, not just *what*?

4. Communication skills: Marketing requires internal selling—can they bring others along?

5. Humility: Do they acknowledge what they don't know?

Avoid candidates who guarantee results, dismiss the need for measurement, or can't explain their thinking in plain language.

How long does it take for marketing to start working?

Depends on the channel:

Paid search (Google Ads): Initial data in 30-60 days, optimization over 90-180 days

Paid social: Similar to paid search

SEO/Content: 6-12 months for meaningful organic traffic

Email marketing: Immediate if you have a list, 6+ months to build a list

Brand building: 18-24 months for measurable impact

Anyone promising faster results is either oversimplifying or misleading you.

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Where to Go From Here

If you've made it this far, you're serious about getting this decision right. Here's my honest advice:

If your budget is under $5,000/month: Invest in learning first. Read, take courses, do some marketing yourself. You'll make better hiring decisions when you understand the fundamentals. If your budget is $5,000-$15,000/month: Consider a fractional CMO arrangement to get strategic direction before you invest in execution. For home services and trades businesses, this is often the sweet spot. If your budget is $15,000+/month: You have options. The question is which combination of strategic leadership and execution resources fits your specific situation.

We help small businesses figure this out. Even if PathOpt isn't the right fit for ongoing work, a conversation about your specific situation usually provides clarity on the path that makes sense.

One caveat: We're not right for everyone. We specialize in businesses doing $500K-$10M in revenue, particularly in trades and home services. If you're a startup looking for brand strategy or an enterprise company needing a full agency team, we're not your answer—and we'll tell you that upfront.

But if you're a small business owner staring at a marketing decision that feels overwhelming, we've probably helped someone in your exact situation before.

Either way, stop letting this decision paralyze you. Make the best choice you can with the information you have, commit to it for 6-12 months, and adjust based on what you learn.

Marketing help is not magic. But the right help, applied consistently over time, changes trajectories.

Let's get yours pointed in the right direction.