Blog
details

You need a new website, someone to run your Facebook ads, a person to handle social media, and maybe someone to set up email automation.

So you do what most small business owners do: you hire freelancers.

$800/month for the web designer.
$600/month for the ads person.
$500/month for social media.
$400/month for the automation specialist.

Total: $2,300/month. Seems reasonable, right?

Here's what actually happens:

The web designer builds a beautiful site with no lead capture forms because "that's not their job."
The ads person drives traffic to a landing page that doesn't match the ad creative.
The social media manager posts content that has nothing to do with your ad campaigns.
The automation specialist builds email sequences that reference offers nobody knows about.

Six months later, you've spent $13,800 and have nothing to show for it except a pretty website, a pile of invoices, and a growing sense of frustration.

This is the hidden cost of hiring freelancers: coordination overhead, strategic misalignment, and wasted ad spend because nobody's talking to each other.

Let's break down the real cost — and why working with one full-service agency saves you money, time, and stress.

The Hidden Costs You're Not Counting

When you hire 4 freelancers, you're not just paying their monthly fees. You're also paying for:

1. Your Time Coordinating Them

Someone has to be the project manager. Someone has to make sure the web designer knows what the ads person is doing. Someone has to tell the social media person what's in the email sequence.

That someone is you.

Conservatively, you'll spend 5–10 hours a week managing freelancers:

• Weekly check-ins with each person (4 x 30 min = 2 hours)

• Emails, Slack messages, and clarifications (2–3 hours)

• Reviewing deliverables and giving feedback (2 hours)

• Fixing miscommunications and gaps (1–2 hours)

If your time is worth $100/hour (and if you're a business owner, it should be), that's $500–$1,000/week in coordination overhead.

Over 6 months, that's $12,000–$24,000 of your time — on top of what you're paying the freelancers.

2. Strategic Misalignment

Freelancers are hired to execute tasks, not build strategy. They don't talk to each other. They don't see the big picture. And they definitely don't care if your funnel is leaking leads between step 2 and step 3.

Result:

• Your website looks great but doesn't convert

• Your ads drive traffic to the wrong page

• Your social media has no connection to your sales process

• Your automation sends emails about offers that aren't live yet

You end up with 4 disconnected pieces instead of one cohesive system.

3. Wasted Ad Spend

Let's say you're spending $2,000/month on Facebook ads. Your ads person is driving traffic to a landing page built by your web designer.

But the web designer didn't optimize the page for conversions — they optimized it to look pretty. So your conversion rate is 1.2% instead of 5%.

At 1.2%, you need to spend $2,000 to get 24 leads.
At 5%, you'd get 100 leads for the same spend.

That's 76 lost leads every month — and if you close 20% of leads, that's 15 lost clients over 6 months.

If your average client is worth $2,000, you just lost $30,000 because your web designer and ads person weren't on the same team.

4. Rework and Revision Cycles

Freelancers work in silos. So you get a lot of:

"Wait, the landing page doesn't match the ad."
"The email sequence references a quiz that doesn't exist yet."
"The social posts don't mention the new offer we're running ads for."

Each of these requires rework. More back-and-forth. More delays. More cost.

If you're paying hourly, you're paying twice for the same work.

The Real Cost: A Side-by-Side Comparison

Let's compare the total cost of hiring 4 freelancers vs. working with one full-service agency over 6 months.

Option 1: Hiring 4 Freelancers

Item | Monthly cost | 6-month total

Web designer | $800 | $4,800

Ads manager | $600 | $3,600

Social media manager | $500 | $3,000

Automation specialist | $400 | $2,400

Freelancer fees | $2,300 | $13,800

Your coordination time (8 hrs/week @ $100/hr) | $3,200 | $19,200

Wasted ad spend (poor conversion) | ~$500/mo | $3,000

Rework/revisions (conservative estimate) | $300/mo | $1,800

TOTAL COST | $6,300/mo | $37,800

Option 2: Hiring a Full-Service Agency (Farsight Studio)

Item | Monthly cost | 6-month total

Retainer (website, ads, social, automation) | $3,000 | $18,000

Your coordination time (1 hr/week @ $100/hr) | $400 | $2,400

Wasted ad spend (optimized funnel) | $0 | $0

Rework/revisions | $0 (included) | $0

TOTAL COST | $3,400/mo | $20,400

Savings: $17,400 over 6 months.

And that's conservative. It doesn't account for the opportunity cost of lost deals, the mental stress of managing 4 people, or the revenue you didn't generate because your funnel was broken.

What You Get with a Full-Service Agency

When you work with one team instead of 4 freelancers, here's what changes:

1. One Strategy, One System

Everything is built to work together from day one:

• Your website is designed specifically to convert traffic from your ads

• Your social media content reinforces the offers in your email sequences

• Your automation triggers based on actions people take on your site

• Your ads, landing pages, and follow-up sequences are tested and optimized as one system

No coordination required. No miscommunication. Just one cohesive growth engine.

2. One Point of Contact

Instead of managing 4 people, you talk to one account manager (or the agency owner). They handle the rest.

You save 5–10 hours a week. That's time you can spend closing deals, building your product, or — wild idea — taking a day off.

3. Accountability

When something doesn't work, there's no finger-pointing. "Well, the web designer gave me the wrong specs" or "The ads person didn't tell me" doesn't fly when it's all one team.

One team = one responsibility. If the funnel isn't converting, they fix it.

4. Speed

Freelancers work on your project when they have time. Agencies have dedicated teams and processes.

What takes 6 weeks with freelancers takes 2 weeks with an agency.

5. Expertise Across Disciplines

Good agencies don't just execute — they advise. They've seen what works across dozens of industries and hundreds of campaigns.

Your freelancers might be great at their individual craft, but they don't have the strategic overview to tell you "Hey, we should switch from a free PDF to a quiz funnel because your audience responds better to interactive content."

An agency does.

When Freelancers Make Sense (And When They Don't)

To be fair, freelancers aren't always the wrong choice. Here's when they work:

✅ Hire a freelancer if:

• You need one specific, isolated task (logo design, one-time website build)

• You have an in-house team to manage them

• You only need part-time help (5–10 hours/month)

❌ Don't hire freelancers if:

• You need ongoing, integrated marketing (ads, content, automation, web)

• You don't have time to project-manage

• You're trying to build a system, not just execute tasks

In those cases, an agency is cheaper, faster, and more effective — even if the monthly retainer looks higher on paper.

The Bottom Line

The sticker price on 4 freelancers looks cheaper than an agency retainer.

But when you factor in:

• Your time coordinating them

• Wasted ad spend from misaligned strategy

• Rework and revision costs

• Lost revenue from a broken funnel

The agency is not only cheaper — it's 50% cheaper and delivers better results.

At Farsight Studio, we've built our business on this exact insight. One team. One strategy. One system. And you get your time back.

Want to see what that looks like for your business? Book a free strategy call, and let's talk.

These 4 blog posts are designed to educate, build authority, and convert readers into qualified leads for Farsight Studio. Each post targets a different stage of awareness and provides specific, actionable value while naturally leading to a consultation or discovery call.