Guide · UK · food and drink

In-house, agency or AI: what marketing costs a UK food and drink brand

Salary is only part of what a marketing hire costs. Here's the full monthly cost of each way to run marketing at a small food or drink brand, worked out from official UK figures.

By Pasi Sipilä, founder of Ziild · Prices and features checked 6 October 2026

Short answer

A marketing executive costs a UK brand about £3,200 a month once employer National Insurance and pension are added. A marketing manager about £5,200. A freelancer two days a week about £2,800. An agency retainer for social media £600 to £1,200 a month; full-service £6,000 to £8,000.

The common small-brand setup of a manager and two executives costs about £11,600 a month before freelancers, software or recruitment. Ziild CMO's content engine is £1,250 a month; a network of five content sites £5,000.

Disclosure: We sell one of these options, Ziild CMO, so read our numbers for it as a vendor's. Everything else comes from official or published sources linked below. Where hiring or an agency is the better choice, we say so.

How we worked out in-house cost

Salaries are the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2025 (provisional), UK median for full-time employees. On top we added what the employer pays by law:

Employer National Insurance: 15% on pay above £5,000 a year (2025/26 and 2026/27 rates).
Workplace pension: at least 3% from the employer on qualifying earnings between £6,240 and £50,270.
Small employers can reduce their NI bill with the Employment Allowance, up to £10,500 a year, once across the whole payroll.
Not included: recruitment (typically 15–20% of first-year salary through an agency), laptops, software, holiday and sick cover, and the five weeks it takes on average to hire.
London costs more: Robert Walters' 2026 survey puts a London marketing manager at a medium-sized company at £57,700 and an executive at £35,500, about £5,600 and £3,400 a month with NI and pension.

At a glance

Option	Monthly cost	What you get	Who does the work	Watch out for
Marketing executive (in-house)	≈ £3,200	One person, about 37 hours a week	Them, steered by you	Recruitment, holidays, notice periods
Marketing manager (in-house)	≈ £5,200	Strategy plus some delivery	Them, plus whoever they hire	Often needs executives or freelancers too
Freelancer, 2 days a week	≈ £2,800	Social or content, 8–9 days a month	The freelancer	Availability, handovers
Agency: social media	£600–£1,200	A set number of posts and reports	The agency, briefed by you	Fixed scope; extras cost extra
Agency: full service	£6,000–£8,000	Several channels, an account team	The agency, briefed by you	Retainers up over 30% since 2023
Ziild CMO: content engine	£1,250	One site, 20 answer pages, videos and posts on 3 channels	The machine, approved by you	Needs one person to say yes
Ziild CMO: content network	£5,000	Up to 5 content sites fed every day	The machine, approved by you	Needs one person to say yes

In-house figures: ONS ASHE 2025 median salary + 15% employer NI above £5,000 + 3% pension on qualifying earnings, divided by 12. Agency ranges: Whito UK Marketing Cost Index 2026. Freelancer: YunoJuno 2026 average day rate for a social media manager (£326). Ziild prices ex VAT.

01In-house marketing executive

A full-time employee who runs the day-to-day: posts, emails, the website, small campaigns.

Monthly cost: About £3,207: ONS median salary £33,412 a year, plus £4,262 employer NI and £815 pension, divided by 12.
Best when: You have steady work for one person every week and someone to manage them.
Watch out for: Recruitment: 15–20% of first-year salary through an agency (£5,000–£6,700) and about five weeks to hire. When they're on holiday, marketing stops.

02In-house marketing manager

A senior hire who owns the plan, the budget and the results.

Monthly cost: About £5,194: ONS median salary £53,703 for marketing and commercial managers, plus £7,305 employer NI and £1,321 pension, divided by 12.
Best when: Marketing is big enough to need someone who decides, not just delivers.
Watch out for: Most managers still need executives, freelancers or an agency to produce the work. Budget for both.

03Freelancer, two days a week

A social media manager or content writer, booked by the day.

Monthly cost: About £2,825: YunoJuno's 2026 average of £326 a day for a social media manager, two days a week. Content writers average £339, graphic designers £348.
Best when: You need skills for a set number of days without an employment contract.
Watch out for: Good freelancers are booked up. Nobody covers the other three days, and knowledge leaves with them.

05Agency: full service

An agency covering several channels with an account team.

Monthly cost: £6,000–£8,000 a month (Whito 2026). Food and drink PR on its own averaged £4,700 a month in 2025.
Best when: You need big creative ideas, launches and PR that a small team can't produce.
Watch out for: Retainers are up more than 30% since 2023 (Whito). Reports often measure activity rather than sales.

06Ziild CMO: content engineOURS

The machine runs one content site: 20 answer pages a month for the questions your buyers ask, each cut into videos and posts on 3 channels, with email capture and a monthly report.

Monthly cost: £1,250 a month, ex VAT. Campaigns built from the content add £750 a month; ad spend goes straight to Meta and Google.
Best when: You want output every day and one person approving it, not producing it.
Watch out for: It doesn't replace judgement. Someone at your company still decides and says yes.

07Ziild CMO: content networkOURS

Up to five content sites (recipes, pairings, the questions your buyers ask) fed every day and linked to your brand. The setup behind 210,000+ Google AI-answer impressions in three months at a Nordic wine and food importer.

Monthly cost: £5,000 a month all-in, ex VAT.
Best when: You want to own the answers in your category on Google and in AI assistants.
Watch out for: Search takes months to build, not weeks. Judge it on a quarter, not a fortnight.

How we chose

We compared the five ways UK food and drink brands actually staff marketing: employees, freelancers, agencies and, now, an AI department.
We used official sources where they exist (ONS for salaries, gov.uk for National Insurance and pensions) and named published surveys where they don't.
We show monthly cost, because that's how agencies and software are priced and how a CEO compares them.
Figures are national medians. Your own costs will differ; London is about 7–10% higher for these roles.

Questions people ask

What does a marketing manager cost in the UK?

About £62,300 a year, or £5,200 a month, on the ONS 2025 median salary of £53,703 plus employer National Insurance and pension. In London, about £67,000 a year at a medium-sized company.

What does a marketing executive cost per month?

About £3,200 a month: a median salary of £33,412 plus £4,262 employer NI and £815 pension a year. Recruitment through an agency adds another £5,000–£6,700 once.

How much does a marketing agency cost in the UK?

Social media management usually costs £600–£1,200 a month for a small business; SEO £1,000–£2,000; full service £6,000–£8,000 (Whito UK Marketing Cost Index 2026).

Is an agency cheaper than hiring?

For one channel, usually yes: a social retainer costs less than a third of an executive. For several channels, a full-service agency costs more than a manager and an executive together, but brings an account team and creative range.

Can AI replace a marketing team?

It replaces the production, not the judgement. Writing, rendering, scheduling and measuring can run every day by machine; deciding direction, handling buyers and saying yes stays with a person.

Sources

Prices change. We re-check this page every month; last check 6 October 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us: pasi@ziild.co.uk