We had a client come to us after spending over $300,000 in a single year on an in-house marketing team of three. A marketing manager, a designer, and a content creator who doubled as the general dogsbody. Between salaries, KiwiSaver, ACC levies, software subscriptions, annual leave, sick days, and the time it took to manage all three of them, the cost was staggering. The output? Inconsistent social media, a handful of EDMs that went nowhere, and a brand that still looked like it had been built in 2015.
They replaced that entire team with us for a third of the cost. Not because we’re cheap. Because outsourced marketing doesn’t carry the overhead that in-house teams do, and when it’s done right, you get a deeper bench of skills than any three hires can offer.
So let’s talk real numbers.
What outsourced marketing costs in New Zealand right now
There’s no single answer because the scope varies wildly, but here’s what businesses in New Zealand are typically paying for outsourced marketing in 2026.
At the entry level, you’re looking at around $1,200 to $2,000 a month. That usually covers social media management across one or two platforms, maybe eight to twelve posts a month, some community management, and basic reporting. For a lot of small businesses, that’s the starting point, and it works well if social media is the main channel that needs attention.
Mid-range sits between $2,000 and $5,000 a month. This is where you start getting strategic input alongside execution. Social media, email marketing, ad campaign management, content creation, maybe some SEO work. You’re not just getting someone to post on your behalf. You’re getting someone thinking about where your marketing is heading and making sure each piece connects to the next.
Then there’s the full department model. We run one of these right now for a client at around $10,000 a month. For that, they get everything. Strategy, social media, advertising, email campaigns, website content, SEO, reporting, and a dedicated team that functions as their entire marketing department. Their internal project manager coordinates with us, and from the outside looking in, you’d never know we weren’t sitting in their office. That’s the point.
The maths most business owners don’t do
Here’s where it gets interesting. Let’s say you want to hire the equivalent of what a full outsourced department gives you. You’d need, at minimum, three people. A marketing manager to run strategy and keep everything on track. A designer to handle the visuals. And a content creator slash general dogsbody to write the copy, send the emails, update the website, manage the socials, pull the reports, and do the hundred other things that land on the desk of whoever’s lowest on the org chart.
In New Zealand in 2026, a decent marketing manager costs $90,000 to $110,000. A graphic designer runs $60,000 to $75,000. A content creator sits around $55,000 to $65,000. That’s $205,000 to $250,000 in salaries alone. Now add KiwiSaver at 3%, ACC levies, software licenses for Adobe Creative Suite, Mailchimp, scheduling platforms, analytics tools, annual leave, sick leave, and the time it takes to recruit, onboard, and manage three separate humans who all need direction.
You’re realistically looking at $250,000 to $310,000 a year. And you’re still short. None of those three are likely specialists in paid advertising, SEO, email strategy, and analytics all at once. You’ll end up outsourcing the gaps anyway.
Our full department client pays $120,000 a year and gets a strategist, a designer, a content writer, an ad specialist, and someone managing their email marketing. Five skill sets for less than half the cost of three in-house staff. No recruitment fees. No leave cover to arrange. No performance reviews. No software to license. They scale up when they need to and scale back when things are quieter, which is something you can’t do with permanent employees without three very uncomfortable conversations.
What you should actually be asking
The question isn’t “how much does outsourced marketing cost?” The real question is “what do I need it to do, and what’s the return?”
A $1,200 a month social media retainer isn’t expensive if it’s keeping your brand visible and feeding enquiries. A $10,000 a month full department isn’t expensive if it’s replacing $200,000 worth of salaries and delivering measurable results against clear KPIs.
It’s expensive when it’s not working. When you’re paying for activity but can’t point to a single lead, sale, or brand shift that came from it. That’s the real cost, not the number on the invoice.
The trap of going too cheap
Every industry has a race to the bottom and marketing is no different. You’ll find agencies and freelancers offering social media management for $500 a month or full marketing packages for $800. The work matches the price. You get templated content, stock images with your logo slapped on top, and a strategy that’s the same one they’re running for thirty other businesses.
Cheap marketing doesn’t save you money. It costs you time, because six months later you’re back to square one looking for someone who actually understands your business and can produce work that moves it forward. We’ve had clients come to us after two or three rounds of bargain-bin marketing, having spent more in total than if they’d just invested properly from the start.
How to know what level you need
If you’re a small business doing under $500,000 in revenue, a focused social media and content retainer in the $1,200 to $2,500 range is usually the right starting point. Pick the channels where your customers actually are, do them well, and build from there.
If you’re between $500,000 and $2 million and marketing is becoming a bottleneck, a mid-range engagement that includes strategy, execution, and some paid advertising is where most businesses get the best return.
If you’re above $2 million and you’re either replacing an underperforming in-house team or you’ve outgrown doing it yourself, the full department model is what makes the numbers work. You get a complete team without the overhead, and you can hold them accountable to results in a way that’s much harder to do with employees who are embedded in your business and harder to move on.
The right investment depends on where you are, where you want to go, and how fast you need to get there. The wrong investment is the one where you can’t answer any of those questions and you’re just spending because you feel like you should be doing something.
Let’s build your marketing department together.
One conversation is all it takes to see whether this model is the right fit for your business. No agenda, no hard sell. Just a straight-talking session about where your marketing is now, what a smarter structure looks like, and what’s possible when the right team is running it.
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