This page collects in-house vs agency marketing statistics from the ANA, WFA, ISBA, Gartner, Forrester, The CMO Survey and BLS, and says which model each figure measures. Cite freely with a link.
In-house vs agency marketing statistics at a glance
| Category | Statistic | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Adoption | 82% of ANA members have an in-house agency, up from 78% in 2018 and 42% in 2008 | ANA, 2023 |
| Adoption | 66% of multinationals have an in-house agency; 21% more are considering one | WFA, 2023 |
| Hybrid | 92% of ANA members with an in-house agency also use external agencies | ANA, 2023 |
| Hybrid | In-house agencies do an average 61% of the work, up from 58% in 2018 | ANA, 2023 |
| Hybrid | External agencies run 33.59% of US companies' digital marketing in 2026 | The CMO Survey, 2026 |
| Scope | 58% of in-house agencies handle social media, 37% influencer marketing and 35% SEO | ANA, 2026 |
| Cost | Median pay for US marketing specialists is $78,760; for marketing managers $166,790 (May 2025) | BLS OEWS, 2026 |
| Cost | Benefits are 30.0% of private-sector compensation (June 2026) | BLS ECEC, September 2026 |
| Cost | A median specialist costs $112,500 a year fully loaded, before office and software costs | Computed from BLS OEWS and ECEC |
| Budget | Labor takes 24.5% of marketing budgets in 2026, up from 21.9% in 2025 | Gartner, June 2026 |
| Results | 93% of UK brands expected more agility from in-housing; 40% got it | ISBA, 2023 |
| Budget | 39% of CMOs plan to cut agency budgets in 2025 | Gartner, 2025 |
| Jobs | US advertising agency employment fell 11.1% between July 2023 and July 2026 | Computed from BLS CES |
| Jobs | Forrester estimates agencies cut headcount 8% in 2025 and forecasts a 15% cut in 2026 | Forrester, October 2025 |
How many companies have an in-house marketing agency?
82% of ANA members had an in-house agency in 2023, the latest edition of a study the Association of National Advertisers runs every five years. That's up from 78% in 2018, 58% in 2013 and 42% in 2008.
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| 82% of ANA members report having an in-house agency, from 162 respondents surveyed in February and March 2023, against 78% in 2018 (412 respondents), 58% in 2013 and 42% in 2008. The ANA defines an in-house agency as a department, group or person doing work usually done by an external advertising or marketing communications agency, and excludes internal PR teams. | ANA, May 2023 |
| 35% of the 404 jurors of the 2026 ANA In-House Excellence Awards say marketers are in-housing more than ever, and 7% think marketers are pulling back. The jurors are brand-side marketers, agency staff and consultants, not a sample of advertisers. | ANA 2026 State of In-Housing Report, June 2026, as reported by IHALC, July 2026 |
| 66% of multinationals had an in-house agency in 2023 and 21% were considering one, from 45 companies with about $60 billion in combined yearly ad spend. That's a 16% rise on 2020. | WFA and The Observatory International, December 2023 |
| 79% of UK brands in ISBA's sample in-house some marketing work and 11% are considering it. Two-thirds of respondents work at companies with 10,000+ employees; the report doesn't print a respondent count. | ISBA, Alchemists and CvE, February 2023 |
| 55% of creative and marketing teams say they're moving toward an in-house agency model, up from 2024, in a survey of what the staffing firm calls hundreds of professionals. | Cella by Randstad Digital, May 2025 |
Two cautions before anyone quotes these. The ANA's 82% is three years old, and the 78% that still circulates is eight years old; on its five-year cycle the next member edition would land in 2028. The ANA's 2026 report polled award jurors, not members, so it shows direction, not a new adoption rate. The ANA also counts a single person doing agency-type work as an in-house agency, so "82% have one" counts one-person set-ups too. The ANA doesn't publish its exact question wording on the public release, only the definition above.
The adoption question is settled. Somewhere between two thirds and four fifths of large advertisers have in-house capacity, depending on who's counting and how small a team counts. What matters now is scope: how much of the work those teams own outright, and the next section shows it's less than the headline suggests.
Do in-house teams replace agencies or work alongside them?
In-house teams work alongside agencies at almost every large advertiser: 92% of ANA members with an in-house agency also use external agencies, and the in-house team does an average 61% of the work.
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| 92% of ANA respondents with an in-house agency also work with one or more external agencies. | ANA, 2023 |
| In-house agencies handle an average 61% of all the agency-type work for their company in 2023, up from 58% in 2018. | ANA, 2023; ANA, 2018 |
| 49% of the 2026 ANA jurors say AI lets the in-house team do more work while external spend stays the same; 19% say AI now lets the team produce work that was previously outsourced. | ANA, June 2026 via IHALC |
| 83% of multinational in-house units run a fully in-house resource model, 28% use external agency staff embedded on site and 24% draw on a freelancer pool. Respondents could pick more than one. | WFA, 2023 |
| External agencies, partners and services perform 33.59% of US companies' digital marketing activities (median 25%), and marketing leaders expect 34.27% two years from now. The survey reached 308 US marketing leaders in January 2026. | The CMO Survey, 2026 |
| US marketing leaders put 59.5 of 100 points on building new capabilities by training or hiring employees, against 15.5 on partnering with marketing agencies and 10.4 on consultancies (162 answers, January 2026). | The CMO Survey, 2026 |
| 34% of the 2026 ANA jurors see in-house agencies expanding their scope, with work moving from external partners. | ANA, June 2026 via IHALC |
These figures measure different things, so keep them apart. The ANA and WFA numbers describe big advertisers that already have an in-house agency; the CMO Survey's 33.59% covers all US companies in its panel and only digital activities. The ANA's 2026 figures come from award jurors, a different group from its 2023 member sample, so don't subtract one from the other.
Hybrid is the default model, and it's a stable one. The share of work done inside moved three points in five years at ANA members, which tells you in-housing grows by nibbling. If you're planning a big-bang move of everything inside, you're planning something almost nobody in these samples has done.
Which marketing work moves in-house first?
Social, content and analytics move in-house first, and paid media follows more slowly: social media is the most common in-house function at 58% in the ANA's 2026 report, while 54% of ANA in-house agencies handled some media planning or buying in 2023.
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| 65% of ANA respondents moved some established business from an external agency to their in-house agency in the past three years, down from 70% in 2018. | ANA, 2023 |
| 54% of ANA in-house agencies handle some media planning or buying. | ANA, 2023 |
| Social media is the function in-house agencies most often handle (58%), followed by influencer and creator marketing (37%) and SEO (35%), among the 2026 ANA jurors. | ANA 2026 State of In-Housing Report, June 2026, as reported by IHALC, July 2026 |
| 37% of multinational in-house units buy social media today and 83% expect to within three years. 56% expect to bring more digital production in-house. These are plans, not outcomes. | WFA, 2023 |
The media numbers need care. The ANA's 54% counts any media planning or buying, however small, and the WFA's 83% is a plan, not an outcome. Neither tells you how much of the media budget an in-house team controls.
My read: in-housing starts where volume is high and briefs are short. Social posts, product content and reporting fit that profile; a national TV buy doesn't. The drop from 70% to 65% of ANA members moving new business inside is small, but it's the first sign the easy transfers are done.
What does an in-house marketer cost compared with an agency?
An in-house US marketing specialist costs about $112,500 a year fully loaded at the median, based on the BLS May 2025 median wage of $78,760 for occupation 13-1161 and a wage share of 70.0% of private-industry compensation in June 2026. A marketing manager at the median costs about $238,300.
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| Market research analysts and marketing specialists (occupation code 13-1161) numbered 899,580 in May 2025, with a mean annual wage of $89,490 and a median of $78,760. | BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 |
| Marketing managers (occupation code 11-2021) numbered 395,240 in May 2025, with a mean annual wage of $177,770 and a median of $166,790. | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| 41,070 marketing specialists (13-1161) worked inside the advertising, public relations and related services industry (NAICS 541800) in May 2025, at a mean annual wage of $82,580 and a median of $76,660. | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| Private-industry employers paid $46.89 per hour worked in total compensation in June 2026: $32.82 in wages (70.0%) and $14.07 in benefits (30.0%). | BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, September 2026 |
| SEO agencies charge $3,209 a month on average; across all SEO providers the average is $2,917 and the average hourly rate is $111. 78.2% of providers work on a monthly retainer. The survey covered 439 providers. | Ahrefs, August 2024 |
| 82% of ANA members pay agencies with fee-based compensation, up from 68% in 2016, from 101 client-side marketers covering 336 agency relationships in the second quarter of 2022. | ANA Trends in Agency Compensation, December 2022 |
| 53% of advertisers spending $500 million or more a year use fixed or output-based agency fees, up from 5% in 2016; 76% of smaller advertisers still pay labor-based fees. | ANA, 2022 |
The loaded-cost formula is simple: annual wage divided by the wage share of compensation, so $78,760 ÷ 0.700 = $112,514. The ECEC benefits share covers paid leave, insurance, retirement and legally required costs, but not desks, software, recruiting or management time, so the true in-house figure is higher. I've kept the Ahrefs retainer as a separate fact on purpose. It comes from a 2024 global survey of SEO providers, and a retainer buys part of a team for one channel, so dividing a salary by it would compare two different purchases.
The same BLS survey shows a gap inside the occupation. Specialists who work at ad and PR agencies earn a mean of $82,580, 7.7% below the $89,490 mean for the occupation as a whole; on medians the gap is 2.7% ($76,660 against $78,760). Only 4.6% of the occupation works in that industry at all. Code 13-1161 bundles market research analysts with marketing specialists, and our marketing research industry statistics use the same $78,760 median.
Headcount is the expensive way to buy marketing, and it's still the right way for work you do every week. A $3,209 monthly SEO retainer doesn't mean agencies are cheap; it buys a slice of a team for one channel. Compare cost per output, and include the overhead the BLS benefits share leaves out, before you cancel a contract to save money.
Why do brands in-house, and does it deliver?
Brands in-house mainly to cut cost and move faster: 83% of WFA members cite cost efficiencies and 76% cite quicker processes. ISBA's UK survey found that 93% expected more agility and only 40% achieved it.
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| 83% of multinationals cite cost efficiencies as a motivation for in-housing and 76% cite quicker, more agile processes. | WFA, 2023 |
| Cost savings is the most used KPI for in-house agencies at 62%, down from 69% in 2018. Business performance rose from 45% to 59%. | ANA, 2023 |
| 93% of UK brands expected more agility from in-housing and 40% achieved it. 60% achieved cost efficiencies and 53% achieved greater control. | ISBA, 2023 |
| 86% of multinationals report high satisfaction with in-house work, and 33% are completely satisfied, up from 23% in 2020. | WFA, 2023 |
| 88% of ANA respondents say their in-house agency's workload increased, 67% by a lot. | ANA, 2023 |
| 9% of the 2026 ANA jurors see cost saving as the primary role of in-house teams today. In the ANA's 2023 edition cost efficiency was the top answer at 30%; the two samples differ. | ANA, June 2026 via IHALC |
Satisfaction runs high everywhere, which is partly because the people answering built the teams. The ISBA expectation gap is the more useful number, though the sample is small and UK-only.
The KPI shift is the story here. When cost savings drops as a measure and business performance climbs, the in-house team has stopped being a procurement project and become a department. That's healthy, and it also means the team now has to defend itself the way an agency does, on results rather than on the invoice it replaced.
How are agency budgets and agency jobs shifting in 2026?
Agency budgets and agency jobs are both shrinking: 39% of CMOs planned to cut agency budgets in Gartner's 2025 survey, and US advertising agency employment fell 11.1% between July 2023 and July 2026.
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| 39% of CMOs plan to cut agency budgets and 39% plan to reduce labor spend, in a survey of 402 marketing leaders in North America, the UK and Europe fielded in February and March 2025. | Gartner CMO Spend Survey, May 2025 |
| 22% of CMOs say generative AI has reduced their reliance on external agencies for creativity and strategy. | Gartner, 2025 |
| US marketing leaders expect marketing hires to rise 2.64% on average next year (median 0, 168 answers), down from 4.97% a year earlier. | The CMO Survey, 2026; 2025 |
| US marketing organisations grew 2.49% on average in the year to January 2026 (median 0), against 5.37% in the 2025 edition. | The CMO Survey, 2026; 2025 |
| Labor took 24.5% of marketing budgets in 2026, up from 21.9% in 2025, in Gartner's survey of 401 marketing leaders in North America, the UK and Europe fielded January to March 2026. | Gartner CMO Spend Survey, June 2026, confirmed via Marketing Dive |
| Full-time employees make up 77.9% of planned marketing hires; independent subcontractors make up 17.7% (9.9% part-time, 7.8% full-time). | The CMO Survey, 2025 |
| US advertising agencies (NAICS 54181) employed 202,000 people in July 2026, not seasonally adjusted and still preliminary. | BLS Current Employment Statistics, 2026 |
| Forrester estimates agencies cut headcount by an average 8% in 2025 and forecasts a 15% reduction in 2026. The blog post doesn't publish a method. | Forrester, October 2025 |
| 19% of B2B marketers name agency and outsourcing as a 2026 investment area, against 45% for AI-powered marketing tools and 9% for people (salaries, training and development). The survey covered 1,015 B2B marketers in mid-2025. | Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, October 2025 |
| The average client-agency relationship lasts 7 years, more than double the figure reported in 2016. | 4As and ANA, April 2025 |
Note what's moving and what isn't. Clients cut agency budgets and agencies cut staff, yet the relationships that survive last longer than ever. The money is leaving agencies without most clients switching agency, and Gartner's labor line, which covers marketing's own staff, rose to 24.5% of budgets in 2026. That matches the hybrid picture above. For how AI tools are changing output per marketer, see our marketing productivity statistics; for how long the people making these calls stay in the job, see CMO tenure statistics.
The 2026 squeeze isn't in-house beating agency. Both sides are being asked to do more with fewer people, and budgets are flowing to tools. CMOs plan fewer hires, and the 22% who say AI replaced some agency work are the leading edge, not the median.
How we calculated the original numbers
Four figures on this page are computed here from the verified inputs above. The arithmetic is below so you can check it or swap in your own numbers.
- $112,500: the loaded cost of a median US marketing specialist. BLS OEWS puts the May 2025 median (not mean) annual wage for occupation 13-1161, market research analysts and marketing specialists, which BLS reports as one code, at $78,760 (series OEUN000000000000013116113). BLS ECEC for June 2026, released September 2026, puts private-industry wages at 70.0% of total compensation and benefits at 30.0% (series CMU2020000000000P and CMU2030000000000P). Loaded cost = wage ÷ wage share = $78,760 ÷ 0.700 = $112,514. On the mean wage of $89,490 it's $127,843; for a median marketing manager (11-2021, $166,790) it's $238,271. These exclude office, software and recruiting costs.
- 4.6%: the share of US marketing specialists who work at agencies. The same May 2025 OEWS release counts 899,580 people in occupation 13-1161 across all industries and 41,070 in advertising, public relations and related services (NAICS 541800). 41,070 ÷ 899,580 = 4.6%. Most of the occupation already works client-side or in other industries, which is the in-house model in headcount form.
- -11.1%: US advertising agency employment, July 2023 to July 2026. BLS Current Employment Statistics series CEU6054181001, advertising agencies (NAICS 54181), all employees, not seasonally adjusted: 227,100 in July 2023, 202,000 in July 2026. (202.0 − 227.1) ÷ 227.1 = −11.1%, about 25,100 jobs. Comparing the same month avoids the seasonal swing. The wider advertising, PR and related services industry (series CEU6054180001, NAICS 5418) fell 4.7%, from 502,400 to 479,000. BLS flags July 2026 as preliminary, so the figure can be revised.
- 7.7%: the agency-side pay gap for marketing specialists. In the same May 2025 OEWS release, occupation 13-1161 in NAICS 541800 earns a mean $82,580 against $89,490 for the same occupation across all industries. $82,580 ÷ $89,490 = 0.923, a 7.7% gap on means. On medians ($76,660 against $78,760) the gap is 2.7%, so part of the mean gap comes from high earners in other industries.
What the 2026 numbers say
In-house won the adoption fight years ago, and hybrid won the operating model. Over 80% of ANA members have in-house capacity and over 90% of those still pay agencies. Any "in-house vs agency" framing that forces a single choice doesn't describe how large advertisers work.
The cost case for in-housing is weaker than the pitch deck says. A loaded specialist costs $112,500 before overhead, only 40% of UK brands got the agility they expected, and cost savings is fading as the main KPI. In-house makes sense for steady, high-volume work you'd otherwise buy every month; it rarely makes sense as a pure saving.
The pressure in 2026 is on headcount everywhere. Agency employment is down 11.1% in three years, CMOs expect slower hiring and budgets are moving toward AI tools. I'd plan for a smaller in-house core with specialists outside it, and I'd measure both by output, not by who signs the timesheet.
FAQ
What percentage of companies have an in-house marketing agency?
82% of ANA members had an in-house agency in 2023, according to the Association of National Advertisers' five-yearly study of 162 members. The WFA found 66% of multinationals in its 2023 survey of 45 companies. Both are large-advertiser samples, so smaller firms will run lower.
Do companies with in-house teams still use agencies?
92% of ANA members with an in-house agency also work with external agencies (ANA, 2023). The in-house team does an average 61% of the work. The ANA's 2026 jurors add a twist: 49% say AI lets in-house teams do more work while external spend stays the same.
How much does an in-house marketer cost compared with an agency?
A median US marketing specialist costs about $112,500 a year fully loaded, computed from the BLS May 2025 median wage of $78,760 and the 70.0% wage share in BLS ECEC data for June 2026. Ahrefs' 2024 survey puts the average SEO agency retainer at $3,209 a month. The two buy different things, one full-time person against part of an agency team for one channel, so compare them by output, not as a ratio.
Is in-housing cheaper than using an agency?
Only 60% of UK brands that in-housed achieved cost efficiencies, in ISBA's 2023 survey. At ANA members, cost savings fell from 69% to 62% as an in-house KPI between 2018 and 2023. In-housing saves money on steady, high-volume work; it isn't a reliable saving on its own.
Are brands cutting agency budgets in 2026?
39% of CMOs planned to cut agency budgets in Gartner's 2025 CMO Spend Survey of 402 marketing leaders. 22% said generative AI had reduced their reliance on agencies for creativity and strategy. US advertising agency employment fell 11.1% between July 2023 and July 2026 on BLS data.
What marketing work is most often moved in-house?
Social media is the most common in-house function at 58%, ahead of influencer marketing at 37% and SEO at 35%, in the ANA's 2026 State of In-Housing Report. 54% of ANA in-house agencies handled some media planning or buying in 2023. Social media buying is next: 83% of WFA multinationals expect to do it in-house within three years.
Sources
- ANA, The Resilient Rise of the In-House Agency: 2026 State of In-Housing Report (June 2026, gated; figures via IHALC, ANA report finds IHAs more capable, more strategic, July 2026)
- ANA, In-House Agencies No Longer a Trend, They're Here to Stay (May 2023)
- ANA, Number of In-House Agencies Rising Rapidly, Workloads Increasing (October 2018)
- ANA, Labor-Based Fees Remain Dominant Form of Agency Compensation (December 2022)
- WFA and The Observatory International, In-housing set for rapid and continued growth at major multinationals (December 2023)
- ISBA, Alchemists and CvE, State of In-Housing Report 2023 (February 2023)
- The CMO Survey (Duke Fuqua, Deloitte, AMA), Topline Report 2026 (2026, fielded January 2026)
- The CMO Survey, Topline Report 2025 (2025, fielded January to February 2025)
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS: Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists, median annual wage (May 2025 data)
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS: Marketing Managers, median annual wage (May 2025 data)
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS: Marketing Specialists in Advertising, PR and Related Services, mean annual wage (May 2025 data)
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026 (September 2026)
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, CES: Advertising Agencies employment (July 2026 data)
- Ahrefs, How Much Does SEO Cost? (August 2024)
- Gartner, Marketing Survey Finds Awareness and Conversion Account for 62.6% of Total Media Spend (June 2026; labor share confirmed via Marketing Dive)
- Gartner, 2025 CMO Spend Survey (May 2025)
- Forrester, Predictions 2026: Marketing Agencies Resign Their Agency (October 2025)
- Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, B2B Content and Marketing Trends: Insights for 2026 (October 2025)
- 4As and ANA, Client Agency Relationship Tenure Report (April 2025)
- Cella by Randstad Digital, 2025 Cella Intelligence Report release (May 2025)
Methodology. These in-house vs agency marketing statistics were collected in September 2026 and checked against the original publisher's page, report PDF or dataset, not against statistics roundups. BLS wage and employment figures were pulled from the BLS public data API for the series linked above. Each figure is labelled by what it measures: in-house agencies, in-house media, hybrid models or fully outsourced work. Old but essential figures, including the ANA's 2023 and 2018 in-house editions, are marked with their year. The ANA's 2026 report is gated, so its figures come from the ANA summary page and IHALC's July 2026 write-up. Forecasts are labelled as forecasts, and vendor figures without a stated sample were excluded. Last updated 24 September 2026.