If you’re trying to scale your business, you’ve probably asked yourself this question:
Should I hire a marketing agency or build a lean in-house team?
Agencies look attractive at first. They promise expertise, creative firepower, and an all-in-one solution. But agencies also come with high retainers, layers of overhead, and incentives that don’t always line up with your growth goals.
On the other hand, there’s a newer approach that more founders are waking up to: hiring remote performance marketers. These are data-driven growth specialists who live and breathe paid acquisition — Meta, Google, LinkedIn, TikTok — and their job is simple: maximize your ROI.
So, which is better for your business? Let’s break it down.
The Case for Agencies
Agencies bring breadth. They have all marketing talent – designers, copywriters, strategists, and media buyers – under one roof. For a business with no marketing infrastructure, this can feel like a shortcut: one contract, one monthly call, and everything is “handled.”
But that convenience comes at a cost.
Problems with Performance Marketing Agencies
1. You’re paying for overhead, not output
That monthly retainer doesn’t just cover the person managing your ads. It covers strategists, project managers, creatives, account directors, and the agency’s office lease. Out of your $15K bill, only a small slice goes to the people actually improving performance.
2. You’re one of many clients
Your campaigns are just one of a dozen accounts someone is juggling. That means fewer experiments, slower learning, and missed opportunities.
3. Execution is slow
Want to test a new creative? In an agency, it passes through an account manager, a strategist, a copywriter, a designer, and then finally a media buyer. By the time it launches, the algorithm may have already shifted.
4. No real skin in the game
Agencies are paid whether you win or lose. The retainer doesn’t change if your ROAS tanks. Their incentive is to keep you just happy enough not to cancel.
The Case for Remote Performance Marketers
A remote performance marketer isn’t a generalist. They’re growth operators focused entirely on ROI.
They:
- Build and scale campaigns across major ad platforms.
- Run creative and audience tests daily.
- Track CAC, ROAS, and revenue impact — not vanity metrics.
- Move fast, because they don’t need six layers of approval to launch a test.
With two A-players on your team, you cover acquisition, creative testing, CRO, and analytics. In other words, the exact functions you’d expect from an agency team — but leaner, sharper, and fully dedicated to your business.
That’s exactly what Pavago helps you achieve — your own dedicated team of elite performance marketing specialists without the hefty price tag.
Ready to see what that could look like for you?
How Two Remote Performance Marketers Can Beat an Entire Agency Team
They combine full-stack skills, hands-on execution, and real skin in the game — everything an agency promises but rarely delivers.
The Money
A local agency retainer can easily hit $10K/month, plus media markups. That’s $144K/year before ad spend. Two remote marketing specialists together cost around $5K/month or $60K/year. That’s an $60K difference you can reinvest in growth.
The Speed
Agencies move at the pace of bureaucracy. Two A-players performance marketing experts move at the pace of entrepreneurs. Idea → creative → launch in 48 hours, not weeks.
The Focus
Agencies spread their attention thin across multiple accounts. Two remote hires live and breathe your campaigns. Every optimization they make is for your bottom line, not their client roster.
The Skills
Between two proven performance marketing specialists, you get all the skills you’d expect from an entire agency team: paid media buying across Meta, Google, LinkedIn, and TikTok; landing page optimization; creative strategy and testing; and analytics/reporting. Same capability, less overhead.
Agencies vs Remote Performance Marketers: A Direct Comparison
| Factor | Agencies | Remote Marketers |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $100K+/month retainer + media markup (~$120K/year before ad spend) | $5K/month for two A-players ($60K/year) |
| Speed | Slow — campaign changes pass through multiple layers; weeks lost | Fast — idea to launch in 24–48 hours |
| Focus | Account manager split across 6–10 clients | 100% dedicated to your business |
| Incentives | Paid regardless of performance; priority = keeping the retainer | Slow — campaign changes pass through multiple layers; weeks are lost |
A Real-World Example
One of our clients was paying $8K/month to a local agency for Meta and Google ads. After eight months, their ROAS was stuck at 1.5, and CAC was climbing.
They switched to two remote performance marketers sourced through Pavago 3 months ago. Cost: $4.5K/month. Within 90 days, ROAS hit 2.3, CAC dropped 38%, and monthly revenue grew 42%.
Same ad spend. One-third the management cost. Dramatically better results.
But Aren’t Agencies Safer?
Some founders think agencies are “safer” because they have more people. But more people don’t always mean better results — it usually means more meetings and slower execution.
Others worry that two offshore marketers can’t cover everything. But when they’re true A-players, they’re cross-functional and supported by automation tools.
Remote doesn’t mean disconnected, either. With Slack, Asana, and live dashboards, you’ll have more visibility into your marketing than you ever got from an agency.
Frequently Asked Questions
Conclusion – What’s Better for Your Business?
So, is it better to hire remote performance marketers or an agency?
If you value overhead-heavy processes and long turnaround times, agencies will be happy to take your retainer. But if you want speed, focus, and ROI, a lean team of remote performance marketers is the smarter play — especially for SMBs and growth-stage companies.
And if you want access to the best of the best without the hiring headache? That’s where Pavago comes in.
How Pavago Fits In
- Top 1% Global Talent: We vet and deliver proven performance marketers who’ve scaled campaigns into 6–7 figures.
- Fast Hiring: You’ll see candidates in days and have them onboarded in 3 weeks.
- Full Support: We manage payroll, compliance, contracts, and even lifetime free replacements.
- Cost Advantage: Because they’re offshore A-players, you save 50–70% compared to local hiring or agency retainers and reduce your marketing costs drastically.
In just 3 weeks, you can replace your agency with high-performing remote marketers that actually grows your business.
