Mistakes when comparing in-house, freelancer and agency

These are the places I would check before trusting any total, none of which needs special knowledge, followed by the measurement habits that hold whichever option you choose.

Mistakes in the comparison

1. Putting ad spend inside one option and not the others. Advertising spend goes to the platforms whichever option you choose. Keep it as a separate line so a fee that includes it is not set beside a fee that does not. The hiring cost comparison shows totals with and without it.
2. Comparing a salary with a fee. One has employer costs around it and the other may carry VAT. The checklist in the full cost of an in-house paid ads hire lists them.
3. Ignoring the jobs nobody owns. If the ads need images, landing pages or tracking and no option includes them, the gap is still there and you will pay for it somewhere.
4. Treating one person as a team. A single hire or a single freelancer has no cover and no second opinion unless you arrange them.
5. Reading a credential as a guarantee. Google says a Google Ads certification stays valid for one year and is awarded to individuals^[1]. It is evidence of an assessment passed, not of results.
6. Leaving ownership until the end. In Google Ads a client account can have only one owner, and an administrator of the owner can transfer ownership^[2]. Settle it before work begins.

Measuring whichever option you choose

Agree one definition of success before the work starts. Google defines a conversion as an ad click or other interaction that leads directly to a behaviour valuable to you, and gives a purchase and a phone call as examples^[3]. A form submission, a phone call and a sale are all conversions on that definition and they are worth very different amounts to you. Decide which one you are buying, and ask for it in writing.

• Ask to see each reported figure in your own account, not only in a report.
• Compare periods using the same definition. If the definition changed, say so in the report.
• Separate enquiries from qualified enquiries, and qualified enquiries from sales, using your own records.
• Judge a month by what changed and why, as well as by the headline figure. One month is a small sample.

When to review the choice

The right option today may not be the right one in a year. Put a date in the diary to review it: when the advertising budget changes materially, when you add a platform, or when the person or supplier leaves. Come back to the cornerstone guide and re-run the comparison with new figures. If you would like a second opinion on a proposal or an account, I offer a free ads audit, and I say plainly that I sell the services it can lead to.