Stop Over Paying for External Services that Don't Drive Revenue & Trap your Data.
You're spending real money on paid media. Your agency takes 12–18% off the top, keeps your data, and runs campaigns you can't see into. There's a better way — and you don't need a 20-person internal team to get there.
- Typical agency commission on media spend — before monthly retainer
- 15–18%
- Agency fees on $5M spend — enough for a full in-house team with budget to spare
- $750K
- Of U.S. brands now operating in-house media units, up from 42% in 2019
- 54%
- Typical CPM efficiency gain when programmatic buying comes in-house
- 30–45%
Solutions
Four Ways We Replace What You're Overpaying For
- AEO vs SEO
AI Search
Be the answer, not the tenth blue link. Integrated SEO + AEO built from one content investment.
- See the method
Automation
The right AI-to-human balance, a rationalized stack, and workflows rebuilt for AI velocity.
- See the output
Dashboards
Clean data, real pipelines, multi-touch attribution — on infrastructure you own.
- Run the numbers
Fee Reductions
Stop paying 15–18% off the top. Model your savings, then take the seat and the data back.
Why now
The technology shift removed the last real barrier.
What once required full agency infrastructure can now be automated or self-served. The moat was never expertise — it was access to platforms, data pipelines, and reporting layers too complex to set up without dedicated staff. That barrier is gone.
Paid media automation
Smart bidding, Performance Max, and Advantage+ eliminate 80% of manual optimization work. The routine labor agencies billed hours for now runs automatically.
Unified dashboards
Cross-channel reporting tools now centralize every platform's data without agency intermediaries — no more waiting for the monthly PDF to understand last week's performance.
AI-assisted creative
Ad copy, variants, and landing page tests can be generated and iterated internally at a fraction of agency production cost, with faster turnarounds and tighter brand control.
Budget pacing tools
Automated spend pacing, anomaly alerts, and dayparting remove the need for daily manual account oversight — the operational burden that justified large agency teams is now tooling.
Attribution platforms
Multi-touch and marketing mix modeling are now accessible to brands without agency-grade data science teams. You can finally know what's actually driving revenue.
Audience & CRM integration
Direct integrations between your CDP, CRM, and ad platforms eliminate reliance on agency-managed audience segments. Your first-party data is your competitive advantage — own it.
The Philosophy
AI does the heavy lifting. Humans make the calls that matter.
The biggest AI failures in marketing happen when companies go too far in either direction. We help you find the productive center.
What AI handles
- Content drafting & variation testing
- Data analysis & reporting
- Audience segmentation
- Scheduling & distribution
- AI search visibility (GEO)
- Performance monitoring
What humans keep
- Brand voice & tone decisions
- Campaign strategy & creative direction
- Customer relationship management
- High-stakes messaging approval
- Vendor & partner relationships
- Ethical oversight & final review
Optimal AI : Human mix by function
Data Analysis85%
Reporting80%
Content draft70%
Segmentation75%
Distribution90%
Brand Voice20%
Campaign Strategy30%
Crisis response10%
% represents AI automation share — calibrated to your team & category.
3-year financial model
Adjust to Your Situation. See what you'd keep.
- Year 1 savings
- $4.45M
- 3-year total savings
- $13.8M
- Agency — yr 1
- $5.45M
- In-house — yr 1
- $758k
- Payback
- 17.0%
How it works
Three steps from agency-dependent to fully owned.
Waste Audit
Real dashboards. Incrementality testing. MTA modeling. You'll finally know which channels are actually driving performance — not what your agency's reporting tool says.
Weeks 1–2 · Paid engagement
Transition Blueprint
A detailed plan covering tech stack, team structure, data migration, agency offboarding, and a month-by-month handoff schedule with clear ownership milestones.
Weeks 2–4 · Included in project fee
Managed Transition
Six months of co-managed media buying, infrastructure buildout, and team training. You go live with your own seat, your own data, and a team that knows how to run it.
Months 2–6 · Project fee
How We Engage
We come in. We build it. We hand it over. We leave.
No retainer dependency. No escalating fees. No incentive to keep you needing us. Our model is built around one outcome: your team owning this without us.
Weeks1–2
Assess & Diagnose
Stack audit, data layer review, team capability map, opportunity prioritization
Weeks3–4
Select & Plan
Tool shortlist, workflow redesign, implementation roadmap, success metrics defined
Weeks5–10
Implement
Phased rollout, integrations, dashboard build, data cleanup, team onboarding
Weeks11–20
Train & Oversee
Role-specific training, live campaign support, performance review, playbook documentation
Month06
Hand Off & Exit
Full knowledge transfer, documented systems, optional 90-day check-in — then you're on your own
The math, by spend level
What brands are actually paying vs what in-housing costs.
Agency cost includes management fee, undisclosed media rebates, and monthly retainer. In-house cost includes MarketSpire's transition fee, SaaS tools, and ongoing operations.
| Annual ad spend | Agency — year 1 est. | In-house via MarketSpire | Annual savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500K | ~$215K | ~$175K | ~$40K+ |
| $2M | ~$516K | ~$310K | ~$200K+ |
| $5M | ~$1.08M | ~$580K | ~$500K+ |
| $10M | ~$1.82M | ~$980K | $840K+ |
| $25M | ~$3.73M | ~$1.6M | ~$2.1M+/yr |
Sources: Agency mgmt fee — LYFE Marketing 2025, Foxwell Digital 2026; undisclosed media rebates — ANA 2016/2024; retainer benchmarks — AMW 2025, Whatagraph 2025; internal hire costs — Glassdoor / Salary.com 2026.
Why the shift is happening now
The data is undeniable.
$22B
Wasted in programmatic supply chains annually
The ANA's 2023 study found only 36 cents of every dollar entering a DSP reached a real consumer. By 2024, improved to 43.9 cents — still more than half diverted before reaching your audience.
ANA Programmatic Transparency Benchmark, 2024
$100M
Saved annually by AT&T after bringing media in-house
AT&T eliminated agency markups and gained direct data access. Bayer cut $10M in costs within six weeks of a similar move. Both cited data ownership as the primary driver.
ANA In-Housing Report, 2024 · Basis Technologies, 2024
66%
Of major global brands now have in-house agencies
The WFA and Observatory International surveyed multinationals in 2023 and found rapid growth in in-house capabilities — cost control and data ownership as the two primary drivers.
WFA & Observatory International, 2023
Waste audit
Find Out Exactly What You Could Save This Year.
We analyze your agency contract, media invoices, and platform setup — and show you precisely where your budget is going, what's recoverable, and how fast an in-house transition pays back.