October 5, 2026
A Marketing Team With No Payroll Is Not a Promise, It Is a Different Way of Accounting for It
Hiring an in-house team is not the only way to have serious marketing. What a company gains (and loses) by outsourcing the whole department.
A marketing team with no payroll is not a promise; it is a different way of accounting for it. Outsourcing the marketing department versus building an in-house team is not a question of quality, it is a question of cost structure: a basic in-house department of 3 people costs between €72,000 and €100,000 a year in Spain, while the same team outsourced comes in at between €36,000 and €60,000.
What does outsourcing marketing mean compared with building an in-house team?
Outsourcing means delegating marketing functions, wholly or partly, to a specialised provider instead of hiring each profile onto the payroll. It is not “having less marketing”; it is turning a fixed structural cost into a variable cost that adjusts to what you need each quarter.
The difference is not only financial: an in-house team takes weeks to find and train each new profile, whereas an outsourced team already comes with that capability in place, ready to start from the first week.
The real cost of one middle manager versus an external team of seven profiles
A minimum viable department needs at least three specialised profiles: SEO, paid media and analytics, plus design and content if you want genuine coverage. Adding up salaries, Social Security contributions, tools and ongoing training for those profiles in Spain puts the annual cost between €72,000 and €100,000.
For €3,500-5,000 a month, a full-agency model gives you access to a strategist, designer, copywriter and community manager — a team of seven profiles for less than a single middle manager costs with the structure around them.
How an outsourced service is accounted for versus a salary (with tax nuances)
An outsourcing service is invoiced as a professional expense: deductible for corporation tax, with recoverable input VAT. A salary involves employer Social Security contributions, no such VAT treatment, and obligations that do not disappear even if the project slows down.
It is not just gross salary that needs comparing: you have to add Social Security, mandatory training, annually licensed tools, and the cost of absences. An in-house team of three accumulates, on average, 45 days of leave a year between sickness and personal matters — 45 days paying salary with no output, or double that if a temporary replacement is hired.
What you lose by outsourcing (and who it is not a good idea for)
An agency will never know the product as well as an in-house team that lives inside the company every day. And staff turnover within the agency itself can be a real problem if the knowledge built up by the account manager is lost with every change.
For businesses where marketing is literally the product — an advertising agency, a content platform — bringing it in-house usually makes more sense than outsourcing that core function. Outsourcing performs best when marketing is a growth lever, not the heart of the business.
How the start works: access, quarterly plan and the first two weeks
A serious outsourcing start begins with full access to the current accounts and tools, an audit of what exists and what is missing, and a quarterly plan with concrete objectives — not an open-ended contract with no review date.
The first two weeks are usually about auditing and tidying up rather than visible output: it is the time any team, internal or external, needs to properly understand an account before making decisions about it.
What happens if one day you decide to bring the team in-house?
A good outsourcing contract should not tie you down: the transition to an in-house team, if it ever makes sense, should be possible with an orderly handover of access, documentation and accumulated knowledge, with no lock-in clauses that turn leaving into a problem.
It is one of the questions least asked before signing and most regretted afterwards. If the agency’s answer about how that exit would work is vague, it is a warning sign every bit as relevant as the price of the service itself.
Table: approximate annual cost, in-house vs outsourced
| Model | Estimated annual cost (Spain) | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| In-house department (3 profiles) | €72,000 – €100,000 | Salaries, Social Security, tools, training |
| Outsourced department (equivalent) | €36,000 – €60,000 | Professional service, no fixed structural costs |
| Full-agency model (7 profiles) | €42,000 – €60,000 (€3,500-5,000/month) | Strategist, design, copy, community, paid, SEO, analytics |
Questions to ask before signing an outsourcing contract
- What happens if I decide to bring the team in-house within a year? Is there an orderly handover clause?
- Does the quarterly plan have measurable objectives, or is it an open-ended contract with no review date?
- Who exactly is the team that will work on my account, and what turnover have they had in the last two years?
- Do I have full access to my own accounts and data at all times, or do I depend on the agency to export them?
How we work on this at Impactiq
We offer a complete team of seven profiles for less than a middle manager costs, with an accounting treatment very different from a hire: no recruitment processes, no probation periods and no severance pay if the plan changes. The budget adjusts every quarter to what you actually need, not the other way round. You can see the full details on our digital marketing outsourcing page.
If you also need to train a small in-house team in parallel, we offer training subsidised through FUNDAE (Spain’s state training fund), which in many cases comes at zero real cost thanks to the credit your company has already paid in.
A team of seven profiles. No payroll, no lifelong commitments.
We do the real sums for you: what your marketing costs today (in-house or badly outsourced) versus a complete team with us.
See the figures in detail →30 minutes · No sales pitch · Reply within 24h
Frequently asked questions
How much does an in-house marketing department cost compared with an outsourced one?
A basic in-house department of 3 people costs between €72,000 and €100,000 a year in Spain; the same team outsourced comes in at between €36,000 and €60,000.
What tax advantage does outsourcing have over hiring?
An outsourced service is invoiced as a professional expense, deductible for corporation tax and with recoverable input VAT, unlike a salary, which involves employer Social Security contributions.
What do you lose by outsourcing marketing?
Closeness to the product and continuity if there is turnover at the agency. For businesses where marketing is the product itself, keeping it in-house usually makes more sense.
How much do absences cost in an in-house marketing team?
A team of three accumulates, on average, 45 days of leave a year — 45 days of salary with no output, or double that if a temporary replacement is hired.
Can you bring the team in-house after outsourcing?
Yes, if the contract provides for it with an orderly handover of access and knowledge. It is worth asking before signing, not when you already want to make the transition.
Sources
- Sempatiza, “Departamento de Marketing Interno vs Externo: Números Reales”, 2025.
- Jezz Media, “¿Agencia o inhouse? Claves para decidir en 2026”, 2026.