How Do I Calculate the Total Cost of an In-House GEO Hire Versus an Agency Retainer?
To compare an in-house GEO hire with an agency retainer, calculate the fully loaded cost of each over the same period, usually the first year and a typical later year. Then divide by the productive hours each delivers. For a hire, add salary, employment costs such as taxes and benefits, recruitment, tools, training, the manager's time, and the productivity lost while the person ramps up. For an agency, add the retainer, set-up fees, your own time managing the agency, and anything outside the retainer, such as content production or PR. In the example below, the hire costs more in total every year but less per productive hour, because it delivers far more hours. The agency brings a team of skills, tools and contacts no single hire has.
What goes into the cost of an in-house hire?
| Cost item | How to estimate |
|---|---|
| Salary | Market rate for the role and location |
| Employment costs | Payroll taxes, pensions or retirement contributions, insurance and benefits, often 20–35% on top of salary, and higher in some countries such as France; use your payroll provider's figure |
| Recruitment | Recruiter fees (often a percentage of first-year salary) or internal hiring time and job ads |
| Tools | AI visibility tracking, SEO platform, analytics and content tools |
| Training | Courses, conferences, books |
| Management time | Share of a manager's time spent directing and reviewing |
| Ramp-up | Reduced productivity in the first months while learning the business |
| Equipment and overhead | Laptop, software licences, office or remote costs |
| Turnover risk | Cost of re-hiring if the person leaves |
What goes into the cost of an agency retainer?
| Cost item | How to estimate |
|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | From the proposal |
| Set-up or audit fee | Often charged in the first month |
| Your management time | Briefing, reviews, approvals, meetings: often 5–15% of a manager's time |
| Exclusions | Content writing, design, development, PR placements or tools not included |
| Internal implementation | Your developers or content team making the agency's recommended changes |
| Switching cost | Time lost if you change agencies later |
Check exactly what the retainer includes. Many agencies recommend changes that your own team must implement, which is a real cost.
What does a worked example look like?
An illustrative comparison for one year, using round numbers. Replace them with your own.
In-house hire - Salary: $85,000 - Employment costs at 25%: $21,250 - Recruiter fee at 20% of salary: $17,000 (year one only) - Tools: $6,000 - Training: $2,000 - Manager time at 5% of a $150,000 manager: $7,500 - Year one total: $138,750. Later years: $121,750.
Agency - Retainer: $6,000 a month, $72,000 a year - Your management time at 10% of a $150,000 manager: $15,000 - Content production outside the retainer: $12,000 - Annual total: $99,000
On cost alone, the agency is cheaper in year one here. Now look at what each delivers.
How do you compare cost per productive hour?
Assume about 1,600 productive hours a year for a full-time hire, after holidays, meetings and admin. With four months of ramp-up at half productivity, year one yields about 1,330 productive hours:
| Option | Annual cost | Productive hours | Cost per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-house, year one | $138,750 | About 1,330 | About $104 |
| In-house, later years | $121,750 | About 1,600 | About $76 |
| Agency, 40 hours a month | $99,000 | 480 | About $206 |
| Agency, 60 hours a month | $99,000 | 720 | About $138 |
Ask the agency how many hours the retainer covers, or estimate from its deliverables. Hours are not the whole story. An agency hour may come from a specialist, backed by tools and contacts. An in-house hour comes with deep knowledge of your business and immediate availability.
What matters beyond cost?
- Breadth of skills: GEO spans technical SEO, content, digital PR, reviews and analytics. One hire rarely covers all of them well; an agency team can.
- Existing tools and data: agencies usually already have tracking tools, benchmarks and publication contacts.
- Business knowledge: an in-house person learns your products, customers and internal politics, and can act faster.
- Continuity: agency staff rotate; in-house staff may leave. Both carry risk.
- Workload: if you need more than about 60–80 hours a month consistently, a hire often becomes better value.
- Hybrid options: an in-house coordinator with a smaller specialist retainer, for example for digital PR or technical audits, combines both advantages.
Whether to do it yourself, use a freelancer or hire an agency is covered in whether to do GEO yourself, hire a freelancer or hire an agency. Typical agency fees are covered in how much GEO and AEO agencies charge per month.
What do people ask about in-house versus agency costs?
When does an in-house hire pay off?
Usually when the workload is steady and large enough to fill a full-time role, and when implementation depends on close work with internal teams.
Should the in-house hire be senior or junior?
A senior hire can set strategy and work across teams; a junior hire needs direction, often from an agency or consultant.
Are agency retainers negotiable?
Often, especially on scope, reporting frequency and contract length. Tie the scope to outcomes and hours.
How do I include tools in the comparison?
Add tool subscriptions to the in-house side, and check whether the agency's retainer includes the tools it uses for you.
Published by The Kovmere Team · updated Sep 29, 2026 · More resources