For agency owners & marketing directors

Your next Google Ads hire costs more than their salary.

Before you commit to a full-time specialist, see the whole receipt: the loaded cost, the months of ramp, and the blind spot of a hire who's only ever seen your accounts. Then see what fractional, senior, US-based execution costs instead.

Book a 15-minute call Run your numbers ↓

15 minutes on your bottleneck, and an honest read on whether the math favors ClickCo or a hire.

Full-time hire, itemized annual · loaded
Base salary$85,000
Benefits healthcare, 401(k) · ~30%$25,500
Payroll taxes & insurance ~9%$7,650
Equipment & software$4,000
Office / remote stipend$4,800
Training & development$2,000
HR & administration$3,500
What the hire actually costs$131,450
≈ 1.5× the sticker price

* Illustrative industry figures on an $85K base, not ClickCo pricing. Final numbers to be confirmed for your salary band.

The sticker price is a fraction of it

The salary is what you negotiate. The receipt is what you pay.

A full-time seat carries benefits, taxes, tooling, and overhead, roughly 1.5x the salary. And you pay for all 40 hours a week, whether the work is there or not. On a lumpy client roster, that's a fixed cost sitting on top of variable revenue.

And cost isn't even the real problem

A full-timer sees one set of accounts. Ours have seen dozens.

The instinct is to hire someone who'll learn your accounts inside and out. But a single in-house specialist only ever pattern-matches against your accounts. A senior operator who's run paid search across dozens of industries and budgets spots the leak in 10 minutes, because they've seen it a hundred times.

That pattern recognition takes years to build internally. With your ClickCo team, you get it on day one, and it stays sharp, because we're in other accounts every day.

$10M+
In annual ad spend our team manages
90+
Years of combined senior Google Ads experience
2–4 mo
Typical time before a new FTE is fully productive
72 hrs
Before a ClickCo operator is live in your workflow

3 ways to fill the gap

In-house hire, freelancer, or embedded senior execution.

Not every option that costs less is cheaper. Here's how the 3 stack up on what actually matters when you're handing over client accounts.

In-house FTE Freelancer ClickCo
True cost ~1.5× salary, loaded Cheap, but variable Flat monthly rate, sized to the work
Time to productive 2–4 months Days, but shallow ✓ 72 hrs, senior from day one
Accounts seen Yours only A handful ✓ Dozens, across industries
Commitment & risk Severance; hard to unwind None, but knowledge walks ✓ Month-to-month; continuity built in
Management burden 10–20% of a manager's time You babysit the work ✓ Managed for you, white-labeled
If they leave Single point of failure Gone with no handoff ✓ Backup coverage on the bench
Seniority & location Varies with budget Often offshore / junior ✓ Senior, US-based

Freelancer and FTE columns reflect common industry patterns, not every provider. The point isn't that hiring is wrong. It's that "lower rate" and "lower cost" aren't the same thing.

Run it on your own numbers

What would your next hire actually cost?

Enter a salary or the hours you really need covered. See the loaded cost, the ramp, and what the same coverage looks like on-demand.

Coming soon

ClickCo Cost Calculator

The interactive calculator is on its way. Until it lands, book a quick call and we'll run your numbers with you.

Run my numbers on a call

The honest part

Sometimes a full-time hire is the right call.

I'll be straight with you: if you consistently need more than about 35 to 40 hours a week of paid-search work, week after week, a full-time hire starts to make sense, and we'll tell you when you're there. Below that line, you're paying for a seat you can't keep full. That's exactly where fractional, on-demand senior execution wins.

When you do outgrow us, we help you make the hire and hand off cleanly. We'd rather be the bridge you remember than the contract you resent.

The "but what about…"

The objections we hear before agencies say yes.

"I want someone in-house who really knows our accounts."
Fair, and that's a freelancer problem, not an on-demand one. ClickCo embeds: we're in your Slack, on your calls, using your tools, learning the why behind the work. You get the deep-context relationship of an embedded teammate without the payroll or the single-point-of-failure risk.
"I need someone available full-time."
Most agencies don't need 40 hours of genuine senior execution on one seat. They need the right work done well, on time. If you truly do need full-time coverage, see the honest note above: we'll tell you, and help you hire.
"Isn't hiring cheaper in the long run?"
Only if you count the sticker price and ignore the receipt: about 1.5x salary loaded, 2 to 4 months of ramp before real output, and 10 to 20% of a manager's week supervising. Factor in total cost of ownership, including your own time, and "cheaper" usually flips.
"How is this different from a cheap white-label shop?"
Senior, US-based practitioners, not junior operators offshore. You work directly with the person on the keyboard, under your brand, front-office or back-office, your call. And you meet them before any work begins, so you're never handed a stranger.
"What if it doesn't work out?"
Month-to-month, cancel anytime, no long-term contract. We earn the relationship every month, which is a very different incentive than a signed annual. And if a practitioner ever isn't the right fit, we handpick someone else from the bench.

Before you post the job

See the math on your accounts.

15 minutes. We'll look at where you're stretched and give you an honest read on whether on-demand senior execution beats the hire, or whether you're truly ready for one.

Book a 15-minute call

No sales pitch. Just the math and a straight answer.