Marketing Agencies vs. Consultants: What’s the Difference?

Marketing agencies generally offer a large team of experts to handle your strategy and execution, while marketing consultants tend to provide more specialized strategic guidance. Compare the pros, cons, costs, and services to determine which is best for your business.

For business owners and marketing managers everywhere, there comes a time when you need extra support for your marketing initiatives.

At this point, you may consider a marketing agency or a consultant.

But what are the differences in their marketing services, and how do you choose the right option for your business?

Here, we break down the difference between digital advertising agencies and marketing consulting firms, with expert advice from digital marketing pro Hilary Sperley.

Marketing agency vs. marketing consultant

A marketing agency is a company with a team of specialists that provide a marketing strategy, execution, and ongoing management.

A marketing consultant is an individual marketing expert who advises businesses on their marketing plan and strategies.

Consultants may specialize in a particular area of digital marketing, such as SEO, paid media, content marketing, or branding, or provide broader strategic guidance and help with messaging.

Some also help execute their recommendations, but generally, these strategists advise a business’s in-house team.

An agency typically provides access to a team of professionals with expertise across multiple marketing disciplines. For a full-service agency, these services often include:

• Pay-per-click (PPC)
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Email marketing
• Social media marketing
• Content marketing
• Remarketing
• Copywriting
• Graphic design
• Market research and audits

Marketing consultants: Pros and cons

Marketing consultants offer specialized expertise, flexible engagements, and one-on-one support. However, working with an individual consultant can also mean more limited bandwidth, availability, and services.

Marketing consultant: Pros

For startups, small businesses, or companies with a limited scope of work, a marketing consultant can offer the flexibility to bring in specialized expertise without committing to a full-time partnership or broader range of services.

However, working with an individual consultant can also mean more limited bandwidth, availability, and services.

Some of the biggest advantages of hiring a marketing consultant include:

Flexible pricing: Consultants may charge hourly, by project, or on a monthly retainer, giving businesses flexibility to hire them for a specific initiative or level of support.

More one-on-one attention: “Working with a consultant usually provides more attention to the account or project as there is more time that can be devoted as it is not spread across multiple clients,” Sperley says.

Specialized expertise: A consultant can be a cost-effective way to bring in an expert when you’ve identified a specific challenge but don’t have the knowledge internally to solve it.

Good fit for smaller projects: Startups and smaller businesses may not need the full services an agency provides, making a consultant a better fit for a limited scope of work.

Flexibility: Independent consultants may be able to adapt their services, processes, and level of involvement more easily to your particular needs.

Marketing consultant: Cons

Potential drawbacks of hiring an individual consultant include:

Limited bandwidth: One person may be responsible for strategy, communication, analysis, and execution across multiple clients.

Less availability: Because a consultant works alone, they may not always be available for quick turnarounds or daily communication.

Strategy only: Generally, consultants only offer custom strategies and support for the beginning stages of a marketing campaign, but do not offer ongoing management.

Limited capabilities: You’re primarily relying on one person’s skill set rather than a team of specialists.

Harder to scale: As your marketing needs grow, one consultant may not have the capacity to manage multiple channels or increasingly complex campaigns.

Marketing agencies: Pros and cons

Marketing agencies provide access to a larger team and broader range of services, making them particularly useful for businesses with complex or growing marketing needs. The tradeoff is typically a larger investment and potentially less individualized attention.

Marketing agency: Pros

Some of the biggest advantages of working with an agency include:

Access to a team of specialists: Your account may be supported by experts across digital marketing specialties.

More resources and capacity: Agencies can typically handle larger workloads and execute across several marketing channels simultaneously.

Easier to scale: If you want to scale your company, agency partnerships can add services or resources as your marketing strategy and business grow.

Strategy and execution: Digital marketing agencies build and implement the strategy, so your team has more time to focus on other initiatives.

Broader industry knowledge: “Working with an agency usually provides more up-to-date understanding and knowledge of digital marketing trends,” Sperley explains, “as there is more knowledge sharing and prioritizing for professional development.”

Marketing agency: Cons

Potential disadvantages of working with an agency include:

Higher overall cost: Access to a larger team and broader range of services generally requires a larger investment than hiring a consultant for a limited project.

Less one-on-one attention: Agencies tend to offer a point of contact, like an account manager or strategist, instead of communicating with every specialist working on your campaigns.

More onboarding and access requirements: Because marketing agencies are so hands-on, they may require access to your CRM, analytics platforms, ad accounts, and other systems to effectively implement and measure their strategy.

Cost considerations: Agency pricing varies significantly based on the services, scope of work, ad spend, and level of expertise involved. However, an agency typically provides a roster of marketing team members focused on both strategy and execution. And that broader level of support can come at a higher cost.

Marketing agency or consulting firm: How to choose

When it comes to choosing between an agency or consultant, “I recommend [considering] the project or scope of work and what is needed,” says Sperley.

“Is it better to have an agency all-in-one manage, or is it easier to have a one-on-one approach with a consultant?”

To determine whether a marketing agency or digital marketing consultant is right for your business, consider the following:

• Scope of work: Do you need help solving one specific problem or managing several marketing channels?
• Resources: Do you have a team that can execute a consultant’s recommendations, or do you need campaign management and ongoing support?
• Expertise: Do you need one specialized expert or access to a range of specialists?
• Budget: Do you have the budget for agency costs, or do consulting services better align?
• Timeline: Do you need help with a short-term project or ongoing marketing efforts?
• Scalability: Will your marketing needs become more complex as your business grows?

A consultant may be the better fit if you need specialized expertise, strategic guidance, or help with a defined project and already have resources to execute the strategy.

An agency may make more sense if you need ongoing strategy and execution, support across multiple marketing channels, or additional bandwidth your internal team doesn’t have.

The bottom line

Marketing agencies and consultants both bring a valuable range of services to the table. Which one you choose depends on your specific needs and business goals.

“Both consultants and agencies are great with handling digital marketing, just keep in mind the skill level that is needed and the time you have to devote to your digital marketing needs,” says Sperley.

“Usually with a consultant, you need to provide more time and resources vs. working with an agency that most likely can take on more without your [ needing to be as] involved.”

Overall, the main differences between the two come down to budget, time, bandwidth, and goals.

If you have an in-house marketing department team with the skill sets to internally test and implement ideas from a consultant, that may be your best bet.

But if you’d rather have a team of experts to create and optimize strategies for you, you may want to look at an agency.

If partnering with a digital marketing agency is the next step, reach out to the experts at HawkSEM.

From strategy to execution, our team of experts yields an average 4X ROI from our marketing campaigns.

Let’s talk.

This article has been updated and was originally published in September 2019.