Reasons Behind UK Firms Outsourcing PPC Over In-House Roles

Estimated reading time: 4 mins

Open LinkedIn right now and search for a PPC role. You’ll find page after page of vacancies, PPC Specialist, Senior PPC Manager, Paid Media Manager, many of them sitting there for weeks, still marked “actively reviewing applicants” long after they first went live. If you’ve tried to hire someone to run your paid search account recently, you’ll already know how this feels.

You’re not imagining it. The market for genuine paid search talent in the UK is tight right now, and it’s pushing up cost and risk, and making roles slower to fill. Here’s what the data actually says, and why outsourcing to a specialist agency is worth serious thought before you commit to another round of job ads.

The talent pool is smaller than it looks

Paid search looks simple from the outside. In reality it takes someone who understands attribution, budget pacing, audience strategy and, increasingly, campaign types powered by AI such as Performance Max. That combination is rare.

Research from Qualify Nation found that 76% of UK employers say they struggle to find qualified marketing talent, even though the total number of marketing job postings remains lower than before the pandemic (source). Salary data from Indeed puts the average UK PPC Specialist salary at around £35,000 to £40,000, rising to £45,000 to £77,000 for senior roles in London, according to Robert Half’s 2026 Salary Guide (source). There are not enough experienced paid search people to go round.

Hiring in house costs more than the salary you advertise

The number on the job ad is only the start. From April 2025, employer National Insurance contributions rose from 13.8% to 15%, and the point at which you start paying it dropped from £9,100 to £5,000 a year. The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates this adds around 2% to overall payroll costs (source). In a British Chambers of Commerce survey of over 1,200 firms, 58% said the change would affect their recruitment plans, and the BCC’s most recent research shows recruitment difficulty and skills shortages are still holding businesses back in 2026 (source).

Then there’s the recruitment process itself. Use an agency to fill the role and you’ll typically pay 12% to 30% of the candidate’s first year salary, around £9,000 on a £45,000 hire (source). Research from Talent Insight Group puts the average cost of filling a managerial position at around £19,000 once advertising, interview time and onboarding are included (source). None of that accounts for the weeks your account sits unmanaged while you search, or the cost of starting again if the hire doesn’t work out.

Pros and cons: in house vs outsourced

Hiring someone in house

Pros:

Part of your team full time and knows your business inside out
Their attention is entirely on you

Cons:

Full salary, National Insurance and overheads land on you, even in quiet months
One person off sick, on holiday or leaving means your account goes unmanaged
One person rarely has deep expertise across Search, Shopping, Performance Max and paid social all at once

Outsourcing to a specialist agency

Pros:

Senior, experienced support without a senior salary
No recruitment fee, no extra National Insurance, no cover to arrange
You benefit from what the agency learns across other accounts too

Cons:

No one sat in your office every day
You’re sharing the agency’s time with other clients
Worth taking care to find an agency whose way of working actually suits you

Why this makes sense for a local business right now

If you run a business rather than an agency, you probably don’t need a full time PPC employee. You need your account managed properly, consistently, by someone who actually understands it.

That’s the gap agencies like Sharpstones Media exist to fill. With over 20 years of senior level digital marketing experience behind the campaigns we manage, working with a small, local agency means you get that experience directly, rather than being handed to a junior account manager while senior staff focus on the biggest retainers. You get someone who answers the phone, understands your local market, and treats your ad spend with the same care they’d give their own.

Given how tight and expensive hiring has become, outsourcing your PPC isn’t a compromise. For most businesses outside the agency world, it’s the more sensible way to get proper expertise without the recruitment headache.

Fancy a chat about what outsourcing your PPC could look like for your business? Get in touch with Sharpstones Media, no pressure, just an honest conversation about your options.

Sources