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Agency to in-house
Hey, I’ve been managing paid accounts for a few years working for agencies. I love ppc but I’m sick of having multiple clients, some are nice to work with but others are a nightmare and want to micromanage etc.
I’m thinking about going in-house because I’d like to have more time to get in-depth on higher spend accounts and not have multiple clients.
How have people who have moved from agency to in-house found things. Is it much easier and u have more time or is there more pressure to perform because you’re just doing ppc for one company?
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10 Replies
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I’m considering this too. I’m thinking to represent myself more of a digital strategist with a specialisation in PPC and say that I’m data focused and performance enhancing due to that background versus looking exclusively for PPC only roles. I agree too – I just want one client that I can make really good. Not to have zero time to do a proper job and manage a bunch of annoying people lol
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I have personally always worked in house. But in my current job I have many workmates who came from agencies, and I can tell you they are all very happy. In general they told me they make more money and have more time. And also, coming from agencies, they have skills that people who’ve always worked in house like me lack (like, say, more experience with programmatic and that kind of stuff), and so they have added a lot of value to the team, and are very valued for it.
If you have the chance you should definitely try it.
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I’ve moved from agency to in-house about 3 years ago. In the agency, I’ve worked with small businesses and moved to an international financial company.
It’s not easier, but you can do much more interesting tasks, experiment with more features, etc. You have more data, so you can optimize your campaigns better. With more budgets, you can participate in more beta-tests from ad systems and it’s a great experience.
I would say there is more pressure, because in the agency if you lose one client it’s not such a big deal as if you’d lose your job.
There are much more office politics in-house than it’s in agencies and you’ll need to communicate with people who have zero ideas about marketing and not directly interested in the development of business.
I’d say overall it’s an interesting experience and worth it.
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What is stopping you guys from going freelance?
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I went from agency to in-house almost two years ago.
My disclaimer is that I already worked with big clients by that point so I didn’t have as many accounts as co-workers that worked with small and medium-sized businesses.
Pros of In-house:
In general you get paid better
If you go to a company with a dedicated BI or BA team (which would be my recommendation) the amount of data and analysis experiments you can do and go through is so much better. My favourite part.
Since you have more time for the accounts, you can focus on an area you want to get better at.Pro of Agency:
The diversity of the knowledge your co-workers have. If you are in a medium to large size agency. You can almost always find someone with experience in a type of account, market, product, test, Campaign type, tracking, etc. And that expertise helps you grow and avoid useless tests or traps yourself. Basically, While everyone it’s an expert or knowledgeable on PPC, by having different backgrounds you tend to have better choices when it comes to getting knowledge about something new.
Based on this I think starting in an agency could be good for learning fast. But it makes sense to move in-house unless you are really agency-driven because Idk, your favourite part is dealing with clients or I’ve heard people say they would find boring to work with only one client.
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I have never done the agency side just from stories like yours, I 100% love in the house as you know the products better and are focused on the campaigns more. It does get repetitive and mundane though if the company only has a handful of services to advertise.
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Life changing
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Moving agency to in-house was the best decision I ever made. I worked agency side for four years before moving to an in-house role. I will never go back to an agency or an office if I can help it. The pay is way better, the stress is much lower and not dealing with nightmare clients is a real game changer. Anecdotal experiences but my friends have seen similar shifts with the same move.
My job now is way more relaxed even though I’m dealing with larger budgets and increased responsibility. My day to day is similar but I have freedom to focus on what I want. Not spending half my day on clients calls is also nice.
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I was in-house to agency back to in-house happy to answer anything you need.
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I like spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on one product man. You get into some really cool shit with the data and tactics.
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