We kicked off an engagement with a company spending about $1 million a year on paid media.

During onboarding, their in-house media buyer mentioned a newsletter sponsorship they were about to run. We offered to take a look.

They declined—said they had it under control.

A few weeks later, we learned they had paid $50,000 for a single placement—with vague targeting, no segmentation, and zero conversions.

And worse, it was the highest CPM we’ve seen in over 30 years in advertising.

They paid the price—and so did their media buyer.

B2B companies spending less than $2 million a year on paid media have no business bringing media buying in-house.

And honestly? Even after that threshold… most still shouldn’t.

Because when you trade media leverage, strategic oversight, and creative firepower for a couple of in-house hires, you don’t just risk performance drops—you create a blind spot.

What looks like savings today becomes bloated customer acquisition costs (CAC), slower iteration, and missed opportunities you’ll never see on a spreadsheet.

The irony? It’s often the companies trying hardest to cut waste that end up paying the most for it.

🧠 It’s Tempting, Logical—and Almost Always a Mistake

For SaaS companies spending between $500K and $2M on paid media, advertising spend is always under review.

It’s a big number. And because the work is usually managed outside the organization, the day-to-day mechanics aren’t visible.

So, when finance or the board starts looking for ways to cut or consolidate, advertising is one of the first places they look.

The instinct: hire a couple of people, cut the agency fee, bring it all in-house.

It makes sense in theory—until performance starts slipping and no one knows where (or how) to fix it.

Advertising is your growth engine.

You can’t hit today’s revenue targets through organic reach or by adding more reps to cold-call lists. Paid campaigns generate demand, keep the pipeline full, and power the growth you’re after.

It’s your direct line to the right buyers with the right message—prompting them to act. When it’s dialed in, growth follows. When it’s off, the entire funnel slows and results erode.

You need strategy, creative direction, oversight, negotiation, testing, and a team that’s been through the paces across multiple markets and campaigns. Without that combination, you miss key signals, optimize too slowly, and waste spend on tactics that should have been killed weeks ago.

We saw it happen with a client who had pegged $300 as their target cost-per-lead—based on historical referral costs.

It wasn’t a bad assumption, but it was the wrong benchmark.

Once we realigned the strategy and creative, we brought CPL to just above $200 for Google pay-per-click and just over $100 on Meta.

Those efficiencies don’t come from AI hacks or platform tools. They come from experienced operators who’ve run the gauntlet—and know where not to waste a dollar.

When companies try to replicate that internally, they usually end up trading results for overhead.

And by the time anyone notices, their customer acquisition costs are out-of-whack.

⚠️ The Logic Is Tempting. The Reality Is Expensive.

When companies decide to bring media buying in-house, they’re often responding to pressure to cut costs and gain control.

And when a $1M–$2M media budget is on the table, that pressure can feel intense.

So they imagine a cleaner model: a couple of hires, internal comms, no markup. It feels smart—until results start to fade.

And what they’re actually doing is removing the very things that make advertising work at this scale.

It’s not just about setting budgets and launching campaigns. It’s about navigating platforms, negotiating rates, building messaging that converts, and testing everything until something breaks through. In-house teams rarely have the capacity—or the pressure—to operate that way.

In-house buyers get pulled into meetings, stuck in feedback loops, and dragged into internal distractions that stall performance. No one’s holding them to a CAC target, and nobody’s asking the hard questions.

Over time, they learn how to work the politics, mask underperformance, and bury mistakes—while decisions drift, budgets drift, and results quietly taper off.

🦄 The Unicorn You’re Looking to Hire Doesn’t Exist

The thinking is: bring someone in who can handle all the platforms—Google, Meta, LinkedIn, maybe even Reddit or programmatic. Someone who understands targeting, creative strategy, bid management, attribution, reporting, and can collaborate with product marketing, sales, and the executive team.

But that person doesn’t exist.

And if they did, they wouldn’t be applying to your in-house role. They’re consulting. Or they’re at an agency—surrounded by platform specialists, collaborating across verticals, and building deep expertise on dozens of accounts. They want the challenge—and the volume—that keeps them sharp.

You’re not going to find them. You’re not going to attract them. And even if you could, you wouldn’t retain them.

The agency isn’t some magic unicorn factory—we don’t have mythical creatures roaming the floor. But we do have something you can’t hire for: depth.

People who know what platforms will overcharge for—and how to push back. People who’ve tested hundreds of ads and know what’s worth tweaking and what needs to be tossed.

And they’re not doing this work as a stepping stone. They’re not chasing titles or angling for their next promotion.

They do it because they’re wired for it—the challenge, the constant puzzle, the satisfaction of making the numbers move in the right direction.

So, no—you’re never going to hire someone better at this than us. Or any top-tier agency, for that matter.

📞 If You're Questioning CAC, It’s Time to Talk

If your paid media budget is in the six or seven figures and

performance is flat—or worse—it’s worth asking what’s really going on.

You don’t need to rebuild your funnel or chase the latest attribution fad. You need to stop bleeding money and start buying media like every dollar matters.

Start with a quick self-diagnosis: We’ve built a 5-minute Ad CAC Leak Check — 15 pointed questions that reveal where your budget is leaking, whether it’s targeting, channel mix, or creative performance.

👉 Take the quiz now — you’ll see your score instantly, plus ideas for quick wins.

We help SaaS companies spot the inefficiencies that in-house teams are too close to see: media buys that are overpriced, channels that aren’t pulling their weight, and creative that’s not leading to qualified sales conversations.

Whether you hire us or not, you’ll leave with clarity — and maybe a few wins you can act on right away.