In short
Should a construction company hire a marketing person, use freelancers or bring in one agency? A hire suits firms with a clear plan and someone senior to manage them. Freelancers work only if someone owns the whole picture. One accountable agency suits firms that need several skills at once. Many contractors end up with a hybrid: an in-house coordinator plus a partner who sets the strategy. An experienced marketing manager on £65,000 costs about £75,000 a year once employer National Insurance and minimum pension are added, before tools. Our Preferred Contractor Programme is £2,500 + VAT a month. Choose the setup by who will be accountable for results, not the headline cost.
On this page
- The quick answer
- When your marketing is spread across freelancers and nobody owns the picture
- Option 1: hire an in-house marketing person
- What the in-house option really costs
- Option 2: a specialist construction marketing agency
- One accountable partner: what “under one roof” should actually mean
- Option 3: multiple suppliers
- Option 4: a generalist agency
- The hybrid model: an in-house coordinator plus an agency
- Creative agency vs marketing agency (for building products firms)
- Cost and risk comparison
- When to hire in-house
- When to use an agency
- Questions to ask before choosing
- Where to go next
At some point, most growing construction companies ask the same question: should we hire a marketing person, use an agency or keep working with separate suppliers? There is no one-size-fits-all answer. An in-house hire can be brilliant if you already have a clear strategy and the right support around them. An agency can be faster if you need several skills at once. Multiple suppliers can work, but only if someone is managing the whole picture. This guide gives you the plain-English comparison so you can choose the setup that fits your business, not just the one that sounds cheapest.
It is written for directors of construction, civils and building products firms with roughly ten or more staff, where marketing has outgrown the MD’s evenings. We run one of the options below, an agency programme, so I have set out the costs of the others from public sources and said plainly when a hire is the better call.
The quick answer
The right setup depends on four things: the skill gaps you need to fill, your budget, how fast you need results, and who is accountable for them.
- Skill gaps. One channel to fix, or the whole system to build.
- Budget. What you can commit each month, and what a contract is worth to you.
- Speed. How quickly you need the pipeline filling.
- Accountability. Who owns the strategy, the reporting and the result.
Get those four straight and the choice usually makes itself. Before you decide, it helps to know what good marketing looks like for a construction company so you are hiring against a plan, not a hunch.
When your marketing is spread across freelancers and nobody owns the picture
If your website is with one person, SEO with another, ads with a third and LinkedIn with whoever has time, the fix is usually not another supplier. It is one owner for the plan. That owner can be a senior hire, or an agency that takes responsibility for the whole programme, but it has to be someone.
The signs are familiar. Reports arrive in three formats and none of them mention tenders won. Each supplier is busy and none of them can say what the others are doing. New ideas get added because a peer mentioned them, and old ones get dropped before they have had time to work. I see this constantly with contractors and trades firms: a scatter of tactics, none given long enough to prove itself, so the business never finds out which one would have paid.
Before you change anything, write down:
- Every supplier, what they do and what they cost each month
- Who briefs them, and how often
- What each one reports on, and whether any of it links to shortlists or won work
- Who would notice first if one of them stopped
If the answer to the last two questions is “me” or “nobody”, you have found the gap.
Option 1: hire an in-house marketing person
Bringing marketing in house gives you someone who lives and breathes your business. They know the projects, the team and the customers, and they are there every day.
- Best for: companies with a clear strategy that need someone to run it day to day.
- The catch: one person is strong in one or two skills and average in the rest. Marketing needs strategy, website, SEO, ads, content, video and reporting, and few people do all of that well.
- The real cost: salary plus National Insurance, pension, holiday cover, tools and management time. It is more than the advertised figure.
An in-house hire works best when they have support around them, whether that is freelancers, an agency or a clear brief from you.
What the in-house option really costs
The salary is the start, not the total. Here is a worked example using public figures, checked on 26 October 2026:
- Salary. The National Careers Service gives an average of £30,000 a year for a starter marketing manager and £65,000 for an experienced one.
- Employer National Insurance. 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year for 2026 to 2027 (HMRC rates and thresholds).
- Workplace pension. At least 3% from the employer on qualifying earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 under automatic enrolment (GOV.UK).
| Starter marketing manager | Experienced marketing manager | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary | £30,000 | £65,000 |
| Employer National Insurance | £3,750 | £9,000 |
| Minimum employer pension | £713 | £1,321 |
| Total a year | about £34,460 | about £75,320 |
| Per month | about £2,870 | about £6,280 |
That is before recruitment, software, a laptop, training, holiday and sick cover, and the time a director spends managing them. Some smaller employers can reduce their National Insurance bill through the Employment Allowance, so check with your accountant.
For comparison, our Preferred Contractor Programme is £2,500 + VAT a month on a 12-month minimum term, with ad spend on top. It includes a strategy day, a procurement-ready website, a LinkedIn programme for your directors, case studies, a CRM, ads management and a company film. A starter hire costs about the same per month and brings one person’s skills. An experienced hire costs more than twice as much and brings judgement you would value, but still one person. The fuller cost picture for agencies is in construction marketing packages.
Option 2: a specialist construction marketing agency
A specialist agency that only works with construction and civils gives you a team of skills for one monthly fee. They already know your sector, so there is less to explain.
- Best for: owners who want the whole system built and run without hiring a team.
- The advantage: several specialists at once, sector knowledge on day one, and cover if someone is away.
- The catch: you need to pick a partner who reports on won work, not clicks. Our guide to choosing a trades marketing agency covers what to look for, and our list of top UK construction marketing agencies compares eight specialists.
For construction and civils, our Preferred Contractor Programme is £2,500 + VAT a month and joins up strategy, website, SEO, ads and follow-up as one system. For smaller trades businesses, the Booked Solid System is £1,500 + VAT a month.
One accountable partner: what “under one roof” should actually mean
Plenty of agencies say they do everything under one roof. Ask what that means in practice, because the phrase only helps you if it comes with accountability. A partner worth the name gives you:
- One strategy and one plan, agreed with you, that every channel works to.
- One named person who answers for the results across all of it.
- One report that covers shortlists, invitations to tender and won work, not five dashboards.
- Specialists who work to the same brief, whether they are employees or trusted partners. Ask who actually does the work.
- Ownership you keep. Your website, ad accounts, content and data stay yours if you leave.
What it should not mean is a single supplier switching on every channel at once, or reselling freelancers you never meet without telling you. If an agency cannot name who writes your case studies or runs your ads, the roof is doing less than the pitch suggests.
Option 3: multiple suppliers
Using separate suppliers means picking a web person, an SEO person and an ads person, each chosen on merit. It can work well, and it spreads your risk across a few relationships.
- Best for: companies with someone in-house to brief and coordinate them.
- The advantage: you buy each skill from a specialist and can swap any one out.
- The catch: nobody owns the whole picture. The strategy drifts, reporting does not join up, and the coordinating usually lands on you.
Option 4: a generalist agency
A generalist agency covers every sector and can turn its hand to most channels. If you have a clear plan already, they can execute it.
- Best for: businesses with a defined strategy that just need delivery.
- The advantage: breadth of skills under one roof.
- The catch: you often pay for their learning curve on construction. They may not understand your seasonality, your lead quality or how you actually win work.
The hybrid model: an in-house coordinator plus an agency
For many contractors the answer is not either-or. An in-house marketing coordinator or manager handles the day-to-day: site photos, project updates, award entries, the bid library and answering the team’s requests. An agency sets the strategy and brings the specialist skills one person rarely has, such as video, LinkedIn for directors, CRM set-up and paid ads.
This is how we work with PKB Civils. Their marketing manager runs the day-to-day, and we provide the marketing strategy, specialist skills and accountability. Ben Duffy, a director at PKB, put it this way: “Steve has been working with our Marketing Manager to help execute the strategy and plan.” Within the first two years, marketing brought in £850k of new booked business. The full story is in the PKB Civils case study.
The hybrid works when roles are written down: who owns the plan, who signs off content, who reports to the board. It fails when the agency and the in-house person each assume the other is in charge.
Creative agency vs marketing agency (for building products firms)
If you make or distribute building products, you will meet two kinds of agency and they solve different problems.
- A creative agency is built around brand, design, campaigns, photography and film. It makes you look and sound right. It may not run the channels or report on what sold.
- A marketing agency is built around reaching buyers and measuring the result: search, ads, email, content, CRM and reporting. It may lean on someone else for big creative work.
For a building products firm selling to installers, merchants and specifiers, ask which problem is bigger this year. A tired brand with good distribution needs creative help first. A strong brand that installers have never heard of needs reach and follow-up. Either way, ask to see work for a firm like yours, not just a well-known consumer brand. Our guide on how to market building products to trades and contractors covers the channels in detail.
Cost and risk comparison
Prices are typical and vary by scope. Use this to compare the shape of each option, not to fix an exact figure.
| Option | Typical monthly cost | Skills covered | Main risk | Who is accountable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In-house marketer | About £2,870 (starter) to £6,280 (experienced) including on-costs, plus tools | One or two done well | Gaps in the other skills | You and the hire |
| Specialist construction agency | From £1,500 + VAT (trades) to £2,500 + VAT (civils) | Full system | Choosing the wrong partner | The agency |
| Multiple suppliers | Varies, often several small fees | Broad, but siloed | Nobody owns the whole picture | You |
| Generalist agency | Varies by retainer | Broad, sector-light | Learning curve on construction | The agency |
| Hybrid: coordinator plus agency | A junior salary plus an agency fee | Full system with daily presence | Unclear roles | Shared, if written down |
For a fuller breakdown of the numbers, see what a construction marketing agency costs.
When to hire in-house
Bringing marketing in house makes sense when:
- You already have a clear strategy and know what needs doing each week.
- You have enough steady work to justify a full-time salary.
- The role is mostly one or two skills, such as content and social, that one person can own.
- You have someone senior to manage them and fill the gaps.
When to use an agency
An agency tends to be the better fit when:
- You need several skills at once and cannot justify hiring for each.
- You want results faster than a hire, an induction and a ramp-up allow.
- You want one team accountable for the outcome, not a set of suppliers to chase.
- You want sector knowledge from day one rather than teaching it. A specialist knows what your website needs to convert without being told.
Questions to ask before choosing
Before you commit to any option, get clear answers to these:
- What skills do we actually need, and which are missing today?
- Who will own the strategy and hold it together?
- How fast do we need results, and can this setup deliver in that window?
- How will we measure success: shortlists, tenders won and cost per won contract, or just activity?
- If this does not work, how easily can we change course?
Where to go next
Whichever way you lean, the setup matters less than the plan behind it. A good 2026 marketing plan tells you what needs doing first, and that in turn tells you whether a hire, an agency or a mix is the right way to get it done.
If you are not sure where the gaps are, start with our free Website & AI Readiness Audit. It reviews your website, Google presence and AI visibility and gives you a 90-day plan, which makes a useful brief whichever route you choose. If you would rather talk it through, book a call and we will help you weigh the options against where your business is now.
Frequently asked questions
Is it cheaper to hire a marketing person or use an agency?
It depends on the range of skills you need. One in-house marketer costs a salary plus tools, National Insurance and pension, and typically covers one or two skills well. An agency spreads a team of specialists across a monthly fee, so for the same money you often get more skills at once. The real question is not the headline cost, it is the cost per won contract and whether the setup keeps the pipeline full.
Can one in-house marketer do everything a construction company needs?
Rarely. Marketing spans strategy, website, SEO, paid ads, content, video and reporting. One person is usually strong in one or two of those and average in the rest. That works if you already have a clear plan and support around them, but many owners end up filling the gaps with freelancers or an agency anyway.
What is the risk of using several separate marketing suppliers?
The main risk is that nobody owns the whole picture. A web person, an SEO person and an ads person can each do good work while the overall strategy drifts. Someone has to brief them, join up the reporting and hold them to results. If that person is you, it becomes another job on top of running the business.
Should a construction company use a specialist or a generalist agency?
A specialist that works with construction and civils already understands your customers, your seasonality and how you win work, so there is less to explain and less wasted spend. A generalist can still do good work, but you often pay for their learning curve on your sector before you see results.
What should 'one agency under one roof' actually mean?
One strategy, one plan and one named person accountable for results across every channel, with reporting on shortlists, tenders and won work in one place. It does not have to mean the agency does every task itself, but it should tell you who does the work and take responsibility for all of it. You should still own your website, ad accounts and data.
Can an agency work alongside our in-house marketing person?
Yes, and for many contractors that is the best setup. The in-house person handles day-to-day execution and knows the projects and the team. The agency sets the strategy and adds specialist skills such as video, LinkedIn, CRM and ads. That is how we work with PKB Civils, whose marketing manager runs the day-to-day while we provide direction and specialist support.
