In-house wins when the work is repetitive
Community management, weekly email sends, product marketing tied to a shipping roadmap — anything that recurs weekly is cheaper in-house once you're past ~$3M ARR.
A marketing agency wins on senior firepower
A $12K/month retainer buys you strategy, creative direction, SEO leadership and a producer. Hiring those four heads in-house is $600K+/year fully loaded. Read our pricing breakdown to compare.
This is why most Series A and B brands run a small in-house team plus a lead creative agency — the Lightdrop way.
Freelancers work — until they don't
A single freelance designer or SEO can carry you to $1M ARR. Past that, the coordination cost eats the savings. If you're already emailing three freelancers to ship one campaign, you've outgrown the model.
The hybrid pattern that actually scales
One in-house marketing lead + one marketing agency of record + specialist freelancers for peaks. This is what 8 of our last 10 clients look like. If that resonates, start a project with Lightdrop.