Should You Outsource Digital Marketing Services? A Costed Comparison for Australian Businesses
Outsourcing digital marketing services makes sense when you need several skills, steady output and your own time back, but can’t justify a full team. A single in-house hire suits a business with one main channel and someone to manage them. Freelancers suit a business that needs one or two specific jobs done well.
This guide compares the three routes side by side: total cost, skills covered, the time it takes you to manage them, and what happens when someone leaves. Digital marketing services cover the work of winning customers online, such as search, ads, social media, email and the website.
Star Digital Marketing is a full-service digital marketing agency in Spring Hill, Brisbane, that works as an outsourced marketing department for small and medium businesses across Australia. We’re one of the three options here, so we’ve tried to say plainly where the other two are the better fit.
The three ways to get marketing done
When you look at whether to outsource digital marketing services, most small businesses choose between hiring a marketing coordinator, building a set of freelancers, or outsourcing the whole function to an agency. Each is a fair choice for some businesses.
In-house coordinator | Freelancers | Outsourced agency | |
Total cost | Salary plus super and other on-costs, paid every payday | Each freelancer’s rate, usually by the hour or project | A monthly retainer, plus ad spend |
Skills covered | Usually one person’s strengths | Strong in each specialist’s area | Several specialists under one strategy |
Your management time | Day-to-day direction and reviews | Coordinating each person and joining up their work | One point of contact and a monthly report |
When someone leaves | Recruitment, handover and a gap | You replace one piece and brief again | The work continues; the agency covers the gap |
Tends to suit | One main channel, steady workload, someone to manage them | One or two defined jobs | Several channels, little time to manage |
How much does it cost to outsource marketing in Australia?
Outsourcing costs a monthly retainer, plus any ad spend, and the retainer depends on how many channels are covered and how much work each needs. The fair comparison is against what the alternatives cost in total, not against a salary alone.
What a hire really costs
A salary is the starting point, not the total. A worked example, purely to show the arithmetic: if a coordinator’s salary were $70,000, the super guarantee at 12% would add $8,400, bringing the total to $78,400 before anything else. [INSERT: a current marketing coordinator salary figure from a recognised Australian salary guide, with source and year, to replace or sit beside the $70,000 example.]
On top of that come leave, workers compensation, recruitment, a computer, software subscriptions and, for some businesses, payroll tax. Then there’s the time you spend managing and training them.
The timing has changed too. Since 1 July 2026, under Payday Super, employers pay the super guarantee with each payday instead of quarterly, with contributions due to the fund within 7 business days, as the ATO explains. An employee’s on-costs now leave your account every pay run, which is worth knowing when you plan cash flow. How these costs are treated for tax depends on your business, so check with your accountant.
What freelancers cost
Freelancers charge for their time or by the project, and you only pay for the work you order. The hidden cost is coordination: someone has to brief each one, connect their work and decide what matters most. Usually that someone is you.
A worked example, again purely illustrative: if three freelancers each billed $1,000 a month for SEO, ads and social media, that’s $3,000 a month in fees, plus the evenings you spend making their work fit together.
What an outsourced agency costs
An agency charges a monthly retainer for the agreed scope, and ad spend is paid to the platforms on top. [INSERT: Star’s typical monthly retainer range in AUD, as one sentence. The brief asks for “Star’s side of the table”, and readers comparing costs will leave without a number.]
Whatever you’re quoted, ask what the retainer includes, what’s billed separately and what the contract commits you to.
Is an agency cheaper than hiring a marketing coordinator?
An agency can cost less than a hire once on-costs and management time are counted, but not always. If you need one channel run full-time and have someone to manage the person doing it, a hire may be better value.
When you outsource digital marketing services, an agency tends to come out ahead if you need several skills at once. One coordinator is rarely an expert in search, paid advertising, social media, copywriting and the website. Hiring all those skills separately would cost far more than one salary.
There’s also the question of joining things up. Because one team runs every channel for our clients, the channels inform each other: ad data shows which keywords convert, and those get priority in SEO.
Weighing a hire against an agency right now? Call 1300 859 066 or email sales@stardigitalmarketing.com.au and tell us what you’d want the role to do.
What does an outsourced marketing department do?
An outsourced marketing department plans and runs your marketing across channels, as an in-house team would, under one strategy and one point of contact. You get the specialists without hiring them.
At Star, that means seven services: SEO, paid advertising on Google and Meta, social media marketing, copywriting, email marketing, website hosting and security, and domain registration. You take only the services you need. A typical month covers:
- Running the agreed channels and adjusting what isn’t working.
- Writing the ads, pages, posts and emails.
- Reporting in a short plain-English monthly summary: what we did, what it produced and what’s next.
What marketing should stay in-house?
Keep the decisions, the customer knowledge and the ownership of your accounts in-house, even if you outsource the doing. Nobody outside knows your customers, your margins or your capacity as well as you do.
In practice, keep these with you:
- Goals and budget. The business.gov.au guide to a marketing plan is a useful place to set them down.
- Approval of what’s said in your name, especially offers and prices.
- Ownership of your accounts. Ad accounts, analytics, domain and website should be registered to your business.
- Customer conversations. Your team handles the enquiries the marketing produces.
Our clients own their ad accounts, analytics, domain and website, and they stay theirs if we part ways.
Want to see what outsourcing would cost for your business? Book a free strategy call and quote, or call 1300 859 066. The call runs 30 minutes with no obligation, and you get a written action plan to keep whether or not you go ahead.
Should I outsource my digital marketing?
You should outsource your digital marketing when you need more than one skill, your own time has run out, and freelancers’ work isn’t joining up. Hire in-house if one channel is the whole job and you can manage the person doing it.
Some common worries, answered plainly:
- “We’ve been burned by an agency before.” Keep the accounts in your name and ask for reporting in enquiries and dollars. Then you can always see the results and leave with your history.
- “I’ll be locked in.” Ask any agency for its term and exit conditions in writing before you sign.
- “We’re too small.” We tailor the work instead of selling bronze, silver and gold packages, and we say so when something isn’t worth doing.
- “How long until it works?” SEO takes months, while ad campaigns take weeks to optimise. Be wary of anyone who promises faster.
You’d be working with a team led by a director who runs businesses of his own, so recommendations start from your margins, capacity and cash flow.
See what it would cost to outsource digital marketing services
The first conversation is diagnostic. We ask what a customer is worth, how many more you can handle and where your enquiries come from now. Then we tell you whether to outsource your digital marketing services, hire or use a freelancer.
Book a free strategy call and quote, call 1300 859 066, or email sales@stardigitalmarketing.com.au. It’s 30 minutes with no obligation, followed by a written, plain-English action plan that’s yours to keep whether or not you proceed.