In-house, freelancer or agency for paid ads: how to decide in the UAE

The question usually arrives from one of two directions. Either an agency has just sent a proposal and someone asks whether it would be cheaper to hire a person, or a person has just resigned and someone asks whether an agency would be safer. Both are reasonable starting points, and both lead to a comparison of two numbers that do not measure the same thing. This page is the order in which I would work through it if I were the one deciding.

A note on who is writing. This site is published by Web Marketing International FZCO, which sells Google Ads management and consultancy, so I stand to gain if you choose an agency or a consultant. I have written the comparison so that it works the same whichever option comes out best for you, and I put no figures of my own on any option. The hiring cost comparison takes your numbers and adds them up.

Start with the job

Write down what paid ads must do for the business in the next twelve months, what you can spend on advertising each month (separately from whoever manages it), and which platforms are involved. Add the surrounding work: who writes the ads, who builds or edits the landing pages, who sets up the tracking and who reports. Those jobs belong to someone under every option, and the size of the list can decide the question before any price does. A single campaign on one platform is a different job from several campaigns across several, and the answer may differ.

What each option is

An in-house hire is an employee. You are the employer, with the obligations that come with that. One example I can source: for full-time private sector workers who have completed one year or more of continuous service, the UAE Government portal describes an end of service gratuity paid on the basic salary^[6]. It is one cost among several that sit outside the salary line, and I go through the rest in the full cost of an in-house paid ads hire.

A freelancer is usually one person working for several clients. That can mean direct access to the person who does the work. It also means one point of failure when they are ill, on leave or busy, which is why the comparison asks about cover explicitly.

An agency is a company with a team. That can mean more skills and cover, and also more layers between you and the person in the account. Titles such as PPC specialist, Google Ads consultant or freelance digital marketer describe what someone does, and none of them is a qualification in itself. The guide to hiring a PPC specialist or Google Ads consultant covers what to ask whichever title is used.

Count the whole cost

A salary, a freelancer’s monthly fee and an agency’s monthly fee are three different kinds of number. Put each on the same footing: the monthly running cost, any one-off cost in the first year, the software that option needs, and the advertising spend, which is the same whichever option you choose. Then add the costs people forget, such as recruitment for a hire or a set-up fee for a supplier, and VAT where you cannot reclaim it. The tool does the addition and shows the equation behind each total, using only the figures you enter. I do not give typical salaries or fees here, because I have no source I could stand behind and a number I cannot source would only anchor you.

Compare what each covers

Totals only compare what you have included. The more useful question is what each option leaves out: who writes the ads and produces any images or video, who builds the landing pages, who sets up the tracking, who covers leave, who reviews changes, and who pays for the software. The tool has a list of those jobs for each option, so the gaps are visible next to the totals. A cheaper option that leaves three jobs unowned is not cheaper until someone owns them.

What credentials tell you

Two Google credentials come up in this decision, and they measure different things. A Google Ads certification is taken through Skillshop by an individual. Google says you need a score of 80 percent or more on the assessment, that the certification is valid for one year, and that you must retake and pass the assessment to renew it^[2]. So it tells you a person passed an assessment within the last year, and nothing about how they would run your account.

Partner status belongs to a company. Google lists requirements for performance, spend and certifications that are checked daily: a minimum optimisation score of 70 percent on the registered manager account, a 90-day ad spend of USD 10,000 across managed accounts, and certified account strategists. Premier Partner status additionally requires being in the top 3 percent of participating companies in a country, decided annually^[1]. Those are thresholds on spend and scores across a company’s accounts. My view is that they say little about whether a particular supplier suits a business of your size.

Settle who owns the accounts

Whichever option you choose, the advertising account should belong to your business. In Google Ads a client account can have only one owner, and an administrator of the owner can transfer ownership or turn it off^[3]. Only users with administrative access on a manager account can invite or remove users^[4]. Agree before work starts who holds those roles, and test that you can log in and see the data yourself.

Agree how success is counted

Google defines a conversion as an ad click or other interaction that leads directly to a behaviour valuable to you, such as a purchase or a phone call^[5]. What counts as valuable is a decision, and it decides what every report shows. An employee, a freelancer and an agency can all report a healthy number that your business would not call a result. Write the definition down first. The mistakes to avoid when comparing the options goes further.

Decide, and where I would be careful

• I would not compare a salary with a fee without adding the costs around each.
• I would not hire one person into a job that needs several skills and call it covered.
• I would not read a certification or a badge as a promise about my account.
• I would not sign anything before I knew who owns the account and what I receive if the arrangement ends.

Employment, tax and contract questions depend on your emirate, your licence and your free zone. This site gives general information naming the federal authority where it can, so take professional advice on your own position. If a Google Ads consultant is one of the options you are weighing, I describe how I work on my own site. Remember that I sell that service.