Key takeaways
- List the work first. Remodeling marketing spans at least five specialist skills, plus photographing finished projects.
- Price each role with your own local numbers, then add management time, tools and ramp-up.
- In-house wins for anything that happens on your jobsites: photos, video, project stories and partner relationships.
- A hybrid of an in-house coordinator and an outside team suits many remodelers.
Choosing between a marketing employee vs an agency for a remodeling company starts with the work, not the salary. Your marketing has to cover search, a Google profile, a project gallery, paid ads, a CRM and proposal follow-up. One hire rarely covers all of it. Price each role with your own local costs, then compare.
What the work actually requires
Remodeling marketing is six jobs, and most owners hiring one person are hoping for all six. Here is what each one involves for a remodeler:
- Search and Google profile
- Categories such as Kitchen remodeler and Bathroom remodeler, service-area setup, monthly project photos, review requests, and pages that rank for the rooms you build.
- Website and gallery
- Project pages organized by room, cost-range and timeline pages, and a consultation form that pre-qualifies. Someone has to build them and keep them current.
- Paid ads
- Google and Meta campaigns aimed at homeowners planning a remodel, timed to late winter planning season and measured against signed projects (conversion tracking).
- CRM and automation
- Instant replies, consultation reminders, proposal follow-up and past-client campaigns, connected to Buildertrend or JobTread.
- Content and photography
- Before-and-after photos, short videos of finished rooms, and the story behind each project. This happens on your jobsites.
- Reporting
- Qualified consultations, proposals and signed contracts by source, each month, so you know what to keep.
In-house, agency or hybrid
| Question | In-house | Agency | Hybrid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skills covered | What one or two hires know | A team of specialists | A lead in-house, specialists outside |
| Your management time | High: you manage people | Low: one partner | Some: one hire and a partner |
| Account ownership | Yours | Insist it stays yours | Yours |
| If someone leaves | Their knowledge goes too | The team covers it | Partly covered |
Cost comparison framework
Use this framework with your own local numbers. Salaries for these roles vary widely by market and experience, so the figures should come from your area, not from a national average.
- List the roles you would need to cover the six jobs above. For most remodelers that is a marketing manager or coordinator, an ads specialist, a web developer or designer, and someone to run the CRM.
- Fill in the full cost of each. Salary or contract rate, payroll taxes and benefits, software and ad tools, and a laptop and phone. The SBA's marketing guidance is a useful checklist for what a marketing function involves (SBA).
- Add management time. Estimate the hours a month you or your office manager would spend directing and reviewing the work, and value those hours honestly.
- Add ramp-up and turnover. A new hire needs months to learn your services, season and software. If they leave, the knowledge often goes with them.
- Price the outside option for the same scope. Ask agencies to quote the same six jobs with dated outcomes.
- Compare on cost per signed project, not on monthly cost alone.
A worksheet to fill in:
| Role | What they would own | Your local annual cost | Months to ramp up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing coordinator | Photos, social posts, gallery updates, partner relationships | ||
| Ads specialist | Google and Meta campaigns, tracking, budgets | ||
| Web designer or developer | Gallery, project pages, forms, site speed | ||
| CRM and automation admin | Follow-up sequences, integrations, list hygiene | ||
| Your management time | Direction, review, approvals |
When in-house makes sense
In-house makes sense when the work happens on your jobsites or depends on daily relationships. A coordinator who photographs every finished kitchen, collects before shots on demolition day, writes the project stories and keeps in touch with the realtors and designers who refer you will do that better than any outside team.
An in-house hire also makes sense when you have enough steady work for one role and someone with time to manage it. If you sign only a handful of large projects a year, a full-time marketing salary may not pay back, and a part-time coordinator or a project-based outside team is likely the better fit.
Hybrid models
A hybrid splits the work by where it happens: jobsite and relationship work in-house, technical and specialist work outside. Here is how the three options compare:
| In-house team | Agency | Hybrid | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Control | Highest; you direct daily work | Lower; set by scope and reporting | You direct content, the team handles systems |
| Cost shape | Fixed salaries, benefits and tools | A monthly or project fee | One salary plus a smaller outside scope |
| Your management time | High | Low, if reporting is clear | Moderate |
| Skill coverage | Limited to who you hire | Several specialists | Specialists where needed, local knowledge in-house |
| Continuity | At risk when someone leaves | At risk if accounts are not in your name | Strongest, if accounts stay yours |
Whichever you choose, keep the website, Google profile, ad accounts and CRM in your company's name. That protects you in every model. The marketing agency guide for remodelers covers what to demand from an outside team.
How VETS Growth Marketing helps
We give remodelers the output of several marketing specialists for about the cost of one senior hire, and we work well alongside an in-house coordinator who owns the jobsite photos and partner relationships. Every account stays in your name, work is scoped as projects with dates, and we report in qualified consultations and signed projects. Book a growth consultation and we will help you fill in the worksheet with your own numbers.
Sources
- Marketing and sales, U.S. Small Business Administration
- About conversion measurement, Google Ads Help