How much does a marketing manager cost in the UK?
Ashdown Group’s 2026 guide puts the national median marketing manager salary at £56,950 (London £65,000). Add 15% employer National Insurance above the £5,000 secondary threshold (£7,793) and the 3% minimum employer pension on qualifying earnings (£1,321), and the cost is about £66,060 a year.
That’s before software, training, equipment, holiday cover and recruitment fees. Small employers may be able to offset some NI with the Employment Allowance.
How much does a marketing executive cost?
The same guide puts the national median marketing executive salary at £35,046. With NI (£4,507) and minimum pension (£864), that’s about £40,420 a year, or £3,368 a month.
An executive is great at doing, but usually needs direction, and covers one or two skills rather than websites, CRM, SEO and sales tools together.
When should you hire in-house instead?
When there’s enough marketing work for a full-time person every day, when you need someone in the room, or when the role is mostly coordination across a growing team. That point often arrives once marketing is a clear, steady channel rather than a set of fixes.
What are the downsides of outsourcing?
Less day-to-day presence, a queue of requests rather than instant help, and reliance on someone outside the business. Good outsourcing makes the work visible: a shared board, written updates and you owning everything that’s made.