LinkedIn Ads Freelancer vs Agency: Which is Right for Your Business?

When it comes to advertising on LinkedIn, you have 3 choices: do it yourself, hire a LinkedIn advertising agency, or hire a freelancer.

While we don’t recommend doing it yourself, as it is wise to leave this to someone who is seasoned within this field of advertising (not to mention freeing up time spent creating and managing your ads – time that could be better spent elsewhere!), there are benefits and challenges to hiring either the agency or the freelancer.

We know that every organization is unique and what’s right for one, may not be for the other. That’s why we’ve crafted a LinkedIn ads freelancer vs agency guide to help you make an informed decision.

1 – Hiring a freelancer to manage your LinkedIn Ads campaigns

There is no shortage of freelance marketers, and oftentimes, they can be the perfect temporary or intermittent fit for your organization. Let’s look at some of the benefits and pain-points that come with hiring a freelancer.

1.2 – Pros of Hiring a Freelance LinkedIn Ads Specialist

There are pros and cons to each solution. Let’s look at why hiring a freelance LinkedIn ads specialist can be auspicious for your marketing goals.

A Potentially Better ROI

The return on investment (ROI) should be the center focus when selecting a third-party marketing source, and while social advertising can be very fruitful, nothing is guaranteed, so you want to be sure all bases are covered to ensure the best results.

While launching paid campaigns is easy enough for the novice (LinkedIn deliberately makes it a straightforward process so any user can indulge in the feature), hiring an expert in the field is wise, as they will have the knowledge, skills, and experience to guarantee a better ROI.

Even if you have an in-house marketing team – unless one of them is a designated PPC expert, hiring a freelancer can be the best way to get a good return on your marketing budget.

Freelancers Tend to be More Affordable

Although prices will vary from freelancer to freelancer, you may find hiring one works out more cost effective than hiring an agency. This can be especially applicable to startups and SMEs (small and medium enterprises).

Also, if you’re looking to focus only on PPC for your marketing needs, a freelancer may work out best, as they will usually offer one service at a time, whereas with an agency, you may find they only provide marketing ‘packages’, which may mean you’re paying for additional services you do not need.

More Flexibility

One of the reasons why marketing freelancers are so popular is that there is a level of flexibility you may not necessarily get with an agency.

They can often work to tight deadlines or last-minute needs, as well as allowing you to work with them as and when you need, as opposed to committing to a set period of time, which you may have to with an agency.

Potentially Better Communication

Communication with one person often works out easier than with a team, resulting in a smoother collaboration. Many freelancers work on a remote basis, but owing to the power of Zoom, they can be brought on board for team meetings easily.

This is a level of familiarity that may not come with an agency rapport, and you may find the ease of this relationship positively impacts the work, and leaves less room for misunderstandings or breakdowns in communication.

One-on-One Expertise

Many freelance marketers will niche in the area of social media advertising to provide companies that specialized service that may not be available with a generic marketing agency.

This means they will be extremely experienced and knowledgeable on the subject of LinkedIn Ads and will be able to strategize a thorough and bespoke PPC plan for your advertising needs. They will also be well adept at monitoring the KPIs (key performance indicators) to tweak and optimize your campaign as needed.

1.2 – Cons of Hiring a Freelance LinkedIn Ads Specialist

Let’s look at some of the drawbacks of working with a freelancer to help you make an informed decision going forward.

Lack of Resources or Skills

Unlike a marketing agency, a freelancer may not come with all the resources needed to create a bespoke PPC strategy for your individual organization, which may result in your ads not getting the care and attention (and ultimately, the return on investment) that you had hoped.

Marketing companies often have a bigger budget than the average freelancer, which can lend itself to expert technology, software, and other resources required for whipping up a great paid marketing campaign. This may mean your organization will have to foot the bill for these additional tools, meaning your budget is being stretched further than initially intended.

There’s a Gamble

Hiring a freelancer (particularly one you’ve never worked with before) comes with a few risks.

Think about it; you’re putting your entire PPC marketing strategy needs onto the shoulders of one person – that person must not let you down. While it’s not in any freelancer’s best interest to let a client down – sometimes things happen beyond their control (illness, injury, personal issues, etc.).

This can be highly disruptive to your campaign’s productivity and can cause time delays with launching your campaign.

Accountability

99.9% of freelancers are reliable – they have to be because their business reputation depends on it. But sometimes you may come across one who isn’t as honest, reliable, communicative, and committed as they should be.

This is something you simply won’t experience when working with an agency. Agencies have a level of accountability that some freelancers don’t.

A Freelancer is Just One Person (At the End of the Day)

There’s only so much work one person can realistically take on, which can stretch out the production period to exceed your desired deadline, and larger projects may not be feasible for just one freelancer.

Oftentimes, PPC is only one area of a digital marketing strategy, so if you’re outsourcing different freelancers for different marketing areas, there will likely be a lack of unison in the timeline of your marketing plan to come into fruition – as well as spending more of your budget than needed.

Inexperience in Other PPC Areas

You may find with PPC freelancers that they have niched down in one particular area, such as Googl Ads. While this is ideal if that is the one (and only) channel you plan on utilizing for your strategy, it’s problematic if you plan on using several.

All PPC platforms aren’t born the same, so what works well for Google may not be so effective for Bing or LinkedIn, so if they insist that not being niche in the particular PPC field you desire isn’t a big deal, run – it is a big deal!

2 – Using a LinkedIn Advertising Agency for Your LinkedIn Ads

So, now that we’ve looked at the pros and cons of the PPC freelancer, let’s pull back the curtain to see what the ad agency has to offer.

2.1 – Pros of Hiring a LinkedIn Ads Agency

Weigh out the pluses to see if an agency is the right route for your organization.

Better Resources & Time Management

We touched on this earlier, but you will often find that an agency will come equipped with a generous toolbelt of resources.

Not only will an agency have a team of experts on hand to help you build and execute your paid social strategy, but they will also have the software and data monitoring equipment to enhance, record, and optimize your campaign on a daily/weekly basis.

Good Connections

Not only will the agency be made up of advertising professionals, they will also have a good address book of experts they can call in to aid a campaign. This includes:

Content/copywriters
AI specialists
Social media managers/influencers
Account managers
Graphic designers
SEO specialists
Ad buyers/sellers
Data analysts
And so much more!

Better Budget Management & Results

A marketing agency will know all about the importance of budget management and spend, so they will be able to use yours wisely to get the best results from your PPC campaign. And this includes getting the best ROI!

PPC advertising can be a risky game and it can come with a budget gamble, as it requires a daily spend, so having a team on hand who understands the importance of how the budget is handled will ensure you don’t go over budget, and that you will get the best conversion rate.

The Bespoke, Organic Approach

An ad agency will have ample experience working with all different sizes and manners of companies, which means they will be more than proficient at creating a tailor-made PPC strategy that is just right for your unique organization.

They will understand the importance of identifying your target audience, based on your buyer persona, the right tools and platforms to harness, keywords to drive the right traffic, and the best marketing methods to meet your advertising goals.

Peace of Mind

Hiring a company to manage your marketing will free up so much of your time and remove an extra burden from your shoulders because you know your advertising will be taken care of.

Ad agencies have a level of accountability that you may not necessarily find with a freelancer, as well as (oftentimes) free consultations, ‘try-before-you-by’ trial periods, and other resources to give you the peace of mind you need to focus on your other endeavors.

2.2 – Cons of Hiring a LinkedIn Ads Agency

Nothing is perfect, after all, and sometimes an advertising agency may not be the best fit for your business. Here are a couple of the downsides to consider before booking that consultation.

Not Always Doable for the SME

Many agencies have limits on the size of the marketing campaign/company they take on, so for SMEs or sole traders, this may not be doable. This is because many PPC ad agencies have a minimum spend, so if your budget isn’t in-keeping with that, they may not choose to work with you.

Lack of Communication/Attention

On occasion, a small company may experience a lack of attention dedicated to their project, owing to the ad agency prioritizing focus on larger companies, or if the dedicated account manager has a particularly large amount of projects on the go at the same time.

This may mean the attention you expect to receive on your campaign may not be present, which can be frustrating. Communication is the key to any good relationship, so make sure you opt for an ad agency that has a proven track record of consistency with clients.

Cost

As we mentioned earlier, chances are, an ad agency will have higher fees than a freelancer. While it’s very likely that your money will be going further with an agency, companies with a set/limited budget may have to bypass this option.

Restructured PCC Account/Limited Creative Control

For the organization that is used to doing these things themselves, hiring an agency (or even a freelancer, for that matter) means relinquishing an element of creative control, which can be daunting and means trust must already be established.

It’s possible that the ad agency will do a complete overhaul of your PPC account (if you’ve used this ad method before), and while that means you can look forward to a fresh, innovative campaign, taking the backseat needs to be accepted with grace!

Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork

Any agency worth its salt will want to do a bit of, and pardon the phrase, butt-covering, to protect themselves in the event of a problem/terminated contract.

This means paperwork must be signed and hoops must be jumped through. While this will protect you as much as it will them, it can slow the process down a tad.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it, folks. The complete low-down on everything to consider when debating a freelancer or agency for your next LinkedIn campaign.

While no one option is perfect or superior to the other, we hope this guide has given you everything you need to put your best foot forward. Good luck!

If you’d like to learn more about how we help B2B SaaS and Tech companies grow their MRR through LinkedIn advertising, contact us online or send us an email today at info@getuplead.com to speak with someone on our team.