Are you seeing the performance of your organic and AI marketing efforts? Is your in-house team spread too thin? Could they use the support of a SEO agency?
We understand that Authority SEO offers Internet Marketing Services. Our goal is not to sell services as to educate the benefits of an agency working with your existing team. Through two decades selling online, we’ve learned the best clients ask hard questions before they sign anything.
This article offers a choice between keeping your existing team, hiring an agency, or a hybrid approach. We cover what each option deliver and where each one doesn’t perform. So, you can decide the best path for your business.
What’s the ROI from Hiring an SEO agency Alongside Your Marketing Team?
Return on Investment (ROI) does vary between different business models. A recent industry study found that from 2021 through 2025 and found a median SEO ROI of 748%. However, e-commerce businesses ROI is lower around 317%. This data gives an idea of what is possible when your in-house team and SEO agency get it right. (Read the First Page Study)
- Technical SEO alone averages 117% ROI
- Content paired with link building outperforms content-only work by 73%
How have we gotten greater results from working with a marketing team?
Authority SEO worked with a Gold and Silver e-commerce website. We built the strategy and technical SEO processes. Their team implemented it. Implementation faster than an agency. The results were immediate increasing sales by over $200,000 in the first 60 days.
Do you want to compare costs between in-house marketing vs an SEO agency? Our calculator shows a 3 year cost projection. Checkout the In-house vs Agency Cost Comparison.
Should I Hire an SEO Agency if I Already have an In-House Marketer?
We recommend this hybrid model. Most in-house marketers are doing everything right with the time and specialization they have. The gap is that one person can’t be a technical SEO, a content strategist, and an AI search specialist at the same time.
- If growth has plateaued despite consistent effort?
- If your marketer is doing SEO as one of six responsibilities?
- If nobody on your team can explain why you’re not showing up in AI Overviews?
What “underperforming” actually looks like vs. what “under-resourced” looks like?
Underperforming looks like effort without direction. We find content with no keyword strategy and technical issues nobody’s tracking. Too many decisions made on gut feel instead of data. With under-resourced, here just aren’t enough hours to execute the strategy.
On your last quarter, did your marketer spent more time on emails, social posts, and ad hoc requests than on SEO? You don’t have a performance problem. You have a bandwidth problem.
Do you know how much to budget for SEO services? We show the differences between local SEO and national brand costs. Checkout our SEO Budget Calculator.
How do You Work with Someone Who’s Already on Staff?
We are not here to replace your marketing team. We build them a strategy their calendar had no time for. Then we fill in the bandwidth issues. We work together and decide who is responsible for each action items. Then add responsibility and accountability to the SEO deliverables.
- We build the technical SEO roadmap and keyword strategy
- Your marketer implements it
- We handle the AEO/GEO, technical audits, and competitive tracking
We create a partnership. We are a revenue-focused agency and understand that maximizing each company’s talents is the fastest way to performance.
Will we replace your marketing hire? No, we make them better. Now, the strategy delivers greater results than any group working alone.
Do you know why your organic marketing efforts are not working? We share different reasons your SEO and AEO have room for improvement. Checkout Why Your SEO Isn’t Producing.
Should You Hire an Agency, Keep Your Marketer, or do Both?
For most companies with an existing marketing team, the answer is both. One person covering technical SEO, content strategy, and AI search optimization at an expert level doesn’t exist. Often the in-house team is understaffed or underpriced.
Every month you wait, a competitor is closing the gap. The most synergistic teams with both in-house marketing and agency expertise pull ahead of their competition. In some cases, it can be hard to ever catch up.
Start with your marketer’s calendar. Check the last quarter of tasks and mark what’s EO versus what’s everything else that landed on their desk. The answer tells you whether you have a strategy problem or a bandwidth problem.
Running our own e-commerce business meant paying for agencies that never delivered. Then figuring out what worked with our own money on the line. If your team needs a strategy, more hands, or both, we’re here.
