Should You Outsource Marketing to Device Media or Build an In-House Team?

Updated

Outsourcing to Device Media makes sense if you want an experienced online marketing team and established processes without carrying the payroll, HR, tax, and benefits overhead of building that team yourself. Building in-house makes sense if marketing is central enough to your business that you need dedicated people working on it daily and can absorb the full cost of hiring, materials, and management. Device Media frames the choice directly on its site: it asks how many salespeople you need to create a valued customer, how large a team you pay to create your material, and how much you spend on HR, taxes, perks, and expenses — then positions outsourcing to "a dedicated team that produces results" as the alternative.

What Device Media actually offers

Device Media describes itself as a full-service digital marketing agency in Edmonton. Its stated services, drawn from its own site, are:

  • Website design and development — positioned as more than visual design; the site calls a website "a business plan, a roadmap for your customer."
  • Online marketing strategy — covering content marketing, PPC, SEO, and newsletters.
  • Inbound marketing and lead generation — nurturing leads and building funnels.
  • Search engine optimization — described as competitive and a long-term commitment, with the site inviting you to compare packages against your budget.
  • Pay-per-click campaigns — with campaign managers testing and optimizing before scaling results.
  • Mobile application development — listed among the service lines.

The site also references case studies (one named "Armour Insurance" under a "Fast Track to Cash Flow" heading) and offers a "Book a Consultation" entry point.

Compare the two paths on the same dimensions

Dimension Outsource to Device Media Build in-house
Team cost One agency relationship instead of salaries, HR, taxes, perks, and expenses (the cost categories Device Media itself lists) Full payroll plus HR, benefits, equipment, and management time
Expertise Access to an experienced online marketing team and processes the agency says it has already proven Depends entirely on who you can hire and retain
Breadth of work Web design, SEO, PPC, content, lead generation, and app development under one roof Usually requires several specialists or generalists wearing multiple hats
Planning Device Media's discovery process is offered to help plan your direction Planning falls to your own team, with no external process framework
Commitment profile SEO is framed by the agency as a long-term commitment, so expect an ongoing relationship rather than a one-off project Long-term too, but locked into employment costs
Best fit Businesses that want results without building a marketing department Businesses where marketing is core and daily, and where hiring is feasible

Questions to settle before you decide

  1. Can you staff every channel? If you need web development, SEO, PPC, and content at once, an in-house team means multiple hires. Device Media presents all of these as one engagement.
  2. Do you want to manage marketers or marketing? The agency's pitch is explicitly about avoiding the overhead of recruiting and administering a team.
  3. Is your need long-term? Device Media states SEO is a long-term commitment and that "long term strategies are key." If you only need a short campaign, weigh that against the agency's own framing.
  4. What does your budget actually cover? The site says to compare SEO packages and "choose the best for your budget," but no prices are published on the pages reviewed. Request a quote and compare it against a realistic in-house cost estimate that includes HR, taxes, perks, and expenses — the same categories the agency uses in its argument.

How to move forward

  • If you lean toward outsourcing: book a consultation through the site and use the discovery conversation to test whether their process maps to your goals. Ask specifically which services (SEO, PPC, content, web, app) would be in scope and over what timeframe.
  • If you lean toward in-house: build a cost model that mirrors Device Media's own list — salaries, materials, HR, taxes, perks, expenses — and compare it to a quoted agency engagement for the same scope.
  • If you are unsure: run a small paid engagement (for example, a PPC campaign, which the agency describes as testable and optimizable) before committing to a broader retainer.

The deciding factor is usually not capability but structure: outsourcing buys an experienced team and process without the employment overhead, while in-house buys daily dedicated attention at the full cost of employment. Match that trade-off to how central and how continuous your marketing needs are.