In-House vs. Influencer-Marketing-Agency: 18 Pors & Cons for Brands

Your brand may be managing events, social media, and website content in-house. You already have the marketing staff, so why not manage influencer marketing (IM) campaigns in-house as well? We’ll dive into the eightteen pros and cons for brands to working with an influencer marketing agency and managing influencer marketing campaigns in-house.

As an influencer marketing agency, of course our position is that agencies are the best choice. At Kingfluencers, we’re all doing a job we believe in. But that doesn't mean we won't present a fair assessment of the issues, including the advantages of running campaigns in-house.

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6 Pros of Working with an Influencer Marketing Agency

Working with an agency for influencer marketing brings you the following six advantages.

1. Expertise in Managing Influencer Marketing Campaigns

First and foremost, working with an agency gets you access to industry expertise. Even if your in-house team includes someone with IM knowledge, it's unlikely for one individual to have both the breadth and depth of expertise that an agency will provide. Agencies take a well-structured, proven approach, with expert teams for every step.

Kingfluencers was founded in 2016 to professionalize the influencer marketing sector in Switzerland and has evolved into a full-service digital storytelling agency, having successfully executed more than 2,100 projects and campaigns with partners like BMW, Migros, L'Oréal, Sunrise, Tudor, Henkel, PostFinance, and Miele. While we work to inform readers of the latest trends and best practices through our blog and guides, we can’t publish the sum total of our expertise. But when running client campaigns, we apply all of those insights to best create stories that move people and brands together.

In October 2024, Kingfluencers hosted its first-ever Swiss Influence Marketing Forum (SIMF). This milestone event brought together 350+ attendees and 30+ speakers from the worlds of influencer marketing, brand management, and digital culture. 

2. Existing Relationships with a Large Community of Influencers

Influencer marketing agencies actively partner with many influencers, increasing the odds that you can find a great match for your campaign. Selecting influencers that are a great fit for your brand is vital. 

Agencies such as Kingfluencers conduct careful screenings before admitting influencers into their exclusive influencer network. Kingfluencers has a community of 3,800+ storytellers, content creators, influencers, and community voices that stretches across the entire content creator universe and sectors, from micro to macro influencers, and from lifestyle to finance.

3. Trustworthy, Reliable Influencers

In addition to finding good influencer matches, agencies can assure you that you’re working with creators who are reliable, professional, and worthy of trusting with something as important as your brand.

Kingfluencers ran a successful campaign for SBB, showcasing the Friends Day Pass and GA Night as the keys to spontaneous adventures and unforgettable experiences, aiming to boost awareness among Gen Z. Selected influencers highlighted their passion for exploring Switzerland on a budget. By capturing the thrill of last-minute trips and the hidden gems waiting to be discovered, the creators positioned SBB as the ultimate enabler of freedom, fun, and spontaneity.

• Collaborators: 5 micro, 7 mid-tier, & 4 macro influencers
• Posts: 40 total on Instagram & TikTok
• Campaign duration: 4 months, 2 phases
• Impressions: 6.4M
• Reach: 4M
• Engagement Rate: 11.32%

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4. Access to Proprietary Technology & Advanced Tools & Analytics 

It’s likely that you already have some great tools, such as Google Analytics and HubSpot marketing automation. But some influencer marketing agencies have unique technology that can boost efficiency. 

IM agencies use data-driven strategies and can optimize performance with real-time tracking and AI. For example, here at Kingfluencers, we have a proprietary campaign management platform with innovative AI forecasting, real-time tracking, and optimization. In addition to housing the data from our extensive influencer network to best match brands with influencers, our software incorporates intelligence from the more than 2,500 campaigns we’ve run. 

5. Less Risk, with Reduced Chance of Hitting IM Landmines

We don’t want to scare our readers and claim that influencer marketing is “risky.” But the fact is that the risk level is not zero. We've written before about what to do when influencer marketing goes wrong. 

Research by Statista shows that brands in DACH are concerned about IM risks, with 34% stating that “manipulated influencer data” is a concern, while 29% are worried about “fraud and fake interactions.” 

Agencies know the best practices for reducing risk, such as how to negotiate and write contracts and briefings carefully. Reducing your risk of any negative backlash is another reason it’s worth it to hire an influencer marketing agency.

6. Avoid Unpleasantness, such as Writing Contracts & Rejecting Influencer Posts 

Many of the components of running influencer marketing campaigns can be great fun, such as brainstorming amusing campaign ideas. But there are also numerous tasks that most marketers find unpleasant and would vastly prefer to avoid, such as: 

• Tediousness of writing contracts
• Administrative follow up to confirm accuracy of influencers’ posts
• Denying approval to a post & informing an influencer their content doesn’t adhere to your brand guidelines or campaign directives

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Agencies have a well-structured process, such as Kingfluencers’ below workflow. They diligently apply their expertise to take care of tasks for you, such as:

• Contract negotiations with influencers
• Onboardings & guidelines
• Influencer & client communications
• Influencer briefings
• Scheduling campaign content pieces across influencers
• Post controlling
• Performance boosting & reporting

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An agency will handle this “dirty work” for you.

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3 Cons of Working with an Influencer Marketing Agency

7. Advanced Notice & Time Required to Launch Campaigns 

Sure, agencies can be nimble and responsive. But generally, you can't necessarily place a phone call on Monday and have a campaign up and running by Wednesday – especially if you aren't actively engaged with the agency. Great agencies are going to be working with multiple clients and will need some time to turn things around.

8. Higher Costs

In addition to paying your selected influencers, you'll have to pay the agency for their efforts managing your campaign. 

9. Less Direct Brand Control

Hiring an IM agency means your brand has less direct control over your campaigns, with the agency serving as an intermediary between your brand and the influencers. You must rely on the agency to execute your brand’s vision correctly. If the agency doesn’t fully understand your brand identity, the resulting messaging may not be precisely what you’re aiming for.

(Of course, this risk can effectively be avoided if you work with an agency that delivers detailed campaign briefs for your review and approval prior to kick-off.)

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In-House Pros

10. No Added Expense of Agency Fees

It's important to note that there is no added expense when having in-house staff manage your IM campaigns. Of course, that doesn't mean that there are no “costs” involved.

11. Direct Relationships with Influencers

When you manage influencer marketing without an agency, your team has the opportunity to build relationships with your chosen influencers. Direct collaboration – with no intermediaries – can create stronger brand advocacy.

12. Existing Knowledge of Your Brand

Your team deeply understands your brand, including brand voice, competitive differentiators, key values, and goals. This existing in-house knowledge can help ensure authenticity, making it another pro.

On the other hand, if you have these things clearly documented in style guides, it won’t be difficult to bring an agency up to speed on all the necessary knowledge. And if you don’t have current style guides, an agency can help with that too. ;)

13. Gaining Internal Expertise

Doing the work in-house necessarily means your team gains experience. If they’re diligent in monitoring and measuring campaigns to adapt and improve, they can hone their skills. The expertise they earn can help to improve your future campaigns.

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In-House Cons

14. Risk of Lower ROI

Considering in-house brand marketing teams lack the expertise of agencies, they may struggle with many of the challenging components of managing IM campaigns.

Brands may struggle with strategy and influencer selection, which can be especially time-consuming. Agencies often have exclusive influencer agreements with better rates, making it more likely that even the best in-house team will achieve a comparatively lower ROI.

Once selected, influencers must be given a briefing with guidance to accurately promote your brand, but yet enough freedom to be creative and connect authentically with their audience. This is a tricky balancing act. Once campaigns are launched, your team will need to handle performance tracking, optimizations, negotiating additional content pieces, and more.

With all of these challenges, your brand can end up with a lower ROI than you might achieve working with an agency.

15. Lack of Time for Other Marketing Initiatives

Time spent managing IM campaigns necessarily means less time available to spend on everything else, from PR and events to customer outreach to get testimonials and UGC.

In particular, finding influencers that are an ideal fit for your brand is very time-consuming and requires in-depth knowledge of the market. Once suitable influencers are found, it takes significant time and effort to negotiate, manage, and supervise ongoing campaigns.

Don’t forget such opportunity costs in deciding if it’s worth it to hire an influencer marketing agency.

16. Challenges Scaling the Growth of Your IM Campaigns

If you find that influencer marketing has a positive ROI, as most brands do, you will likely want to continue and even expand these efforts. Unfortunately, influencer marketing without an agency can quickly become overwhelming, when your scope expands to include:

• Multiple influencers
• Various platforms
• Promoting numerous products & services
• In different regions and languages

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Scaling smoothly is a challenge. 

17. Need for Additional Reporting

If your company is new to influencer marketing, you may not have all the necessary reports and dashboards set up to monitor the progress of your campaigns. According to Statista, ROI measurement of campaigns is one of the biggest IM challenges for 49% of brands in DACH.

No one wants to “fly blind,” so you’ll need to build all the analytics required to gather prompt insights. 

Ad spending in the influencer advertising market in Switzerland is expected to reach US$120.68M in 2025. It’s a marketing channel many brands find highly successful, so achieving the highest possible return for your investment makes it worth hiring an influencer marketing agency.

18. Finding Influencers

Searching for influencers and selecting the best matches is a challenging and time-consuming task. Additionally, it’s often an ongoing challenge, considering 61% of brands collaborate with ten or more influencers. Most agencies have exclusive influencer databases, putting in-house staff at a disadvantage. 

There are also risks, such as working with an untrustworthy influencer or miscommunications resulting in promotions that don't properly align with your brand.

What About a Hybrid Model?

It’s possible to do a combination of influencer marketing in-house along with using an agency. Some brands will generate campaign concepts in-house, then have an agency manage influencer selection and negotiation, as well as campaign management and adaptations.

This hybrid approach is often taken by brands who view IM as merely a tactical activity, rather than a strategic brand initiative. When an agency isn’t involved early in the overall brand strategy, it poses unique challenges. 

It can be tempting to cut costs by reducing the scope of your engagement with an agency. But we advise against this, since it inhibits the ability of the agency to contribute their expertise to the broader scope, optimizing all aspects. It’s also less likely to significantly lower your total costs, considering an agency can get you better rates with influencers when the sourcing and creative strategy are part of the overall strategy.

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Conclusion: Should Brands Hire an Influencer Marketing Agency or Do It In-House?

Your brand must weigh multiple factors to determine the best fit, but to boil it all down, we advise:

1. Choose in-house if you have the internal expertise, time, and resources to build strong influencer relationships and manage campaigns effectively.
2. Choose an agency if you want expert execution, scalability, better influencer access, reduced risk, and higher efficiency—especially for larger or multi-market campaigns. Also, choose an agency if you want to keep your in-house team focused on other, existing initiatives.

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You want to combine both worlds? We’ll work with you to find the setup that fits best. Looking forward to hearing from you!