Agency, freelancer, or in-house media buyer?
By Moisés · Updated October 2026
The label matters less than two answers: who will be inside your account every week, and who will make your ads. An agency, a freelancer, and an in-house hire answer both in different ways. Here is what each one gives you, when it fits, and how to check before you sign.
What changes between the three?
- Agency: a team with strategy, account management, and often creative under one roof. You get more hands and more process. The person who sells you the work is often not the person who does it.
- Freelancer: one person, usually hands-on and cheaper than an agency. Quality varies a lot, and a busy freelancer may be juggling many clients at once.
- In-house media buyer: an employee who works only on your business. You get full attention, but you pay a salary, benefits, and tools, you manage the hire, and they only ever see one account: yours.
When does an agency make sense?
- You need your ads made and run in the same place.
- You run many platforms or markets at once, with a budget that needs a team.
- You want coverage when someone is sick, on vacation, or leaves.
Before you sign, ask who will run your account day to day, by name, and whether the contract says so.
When does a freelancer make sense?
- You make your own ads, or someone on your team does.
- Your budget is below what most agencies want to take on.
- You want to talk directly to the person doing the work.
Before you sign, ask how many accounts they run, and what happens when they are away.
When does an in-house hire make sense?
- Paid ads are a core channel, and your budget is big enough to justify a full salary.
- You need someone in your daily meetings, working with sales, product, and the rest of marketing.
- You can recruit, train, and manage a specialist.
Hiring takes months, and a junior hire learns on your budget. If you go this way, hire for experience, not for the lowest salary.
Who actually runs your account?
One complaint comes up again and again with agencies: a senior strategist sells you the work, then a junior runs the account, and the results drop. It can happen with any option. These questions catch it before you sign:
- Who will be inside my account every week?
- Can I talk to that person directly, without going through an account manager?
- How long have they been running paid media, and on which platforms?
- How many accounts do they handle today?
- Does the contract name who does the work?
What if no one on your team makes ads?
On Meta and TikTok, the ad itself now does most of the targeting, so a media buyer without new creative has little to work with. If no one on your team makes ads, you have two good paths:
- Bring in someone who makes them: a designer, a content creator, or someone on your team with a phone. Then any of the three options above can run the ads.
- Work with a studio that does both: the same team makes the pieces and runs the ads, so the creative and the numbers stay in one conversation.
The second path is what Pomposa does: a creative studio with a membership that covers the pieces, the website, and the ads. I'm a partner at Pomposa and run the ads there, so I know the work firsthand. If you'd rather not make your ads yourself, that's where I'd send you.