Here's the uncomfortable truth about marketing hires in Australian service-based businesses: Most fail within six months.
It has nothing to do with the person being incompetent. Nor because the agency was terrible. But because the business owner fundamentally misunderstood what they were buying.
I've seen this from both sides. Before founding Leadtree, I scaled multiple law firms in-house. I've been the "Head of Marketing", walking into a practice with zero systems, conflicting expectations, and a CEO who wanted leads yesterday. I've also been the agency partner watching businesses churn through three marketing managers in eighteen months, each time blaming the hire rather than the process itself.
The decision between hiring a senior in-house marketer or partnering with a specialist lead-gen agency doesn’t always have to be about budget. Often, it’s about understanding what each model actually delivers, and what your business genuinely needs.
Let's look at what the data tells us about why this decision goes wrong all too often.
The Talent Shortage Nobody Wants to Acknowledge
Australian service businesses are competing for marketing talent in one of the tightest labour markets we've ever seen.
The skills gap is real. Digital marketing, SEO, AI-driven automation, data analytics, and customer experience strategies are all in critically short supply. Every law firm, medical practice, and financial services business in your city is chasing the same small pool of qualified candidates.
And here's what makes it worse: they're not just competing with each other in the same locality anymore.
Remote work has opened the floodgates. That senior marketer in Brisbane you're trying to hire? They're also fielding offers from agencies in Sydney, tech companies in Melbourne, and increasingly, international firms offering salaries in USD. With this ever-expanding reach, the talent shortage is bound to intensify.
The domino effect: when a shortage leads to multiple hiring failures
Slow, complicated recruitment processes lose 57% of candidates before you even make an offer. While you're scheduling third-round interviews and getting sign-off from partners, that candidate has already accepted another role.
Vague job ads without salary ranges immediately shrink your talent pool. "Competitive salary" doesn't cut it anymore. Top marketing professionals expect transparency, and when you don't provide it, they assume you're lowballing.
Unicorn expectations kill your chances before you start. The job description that asks for strategic thinking, hands-on execution, graphic design skills, copywriting ability, paid media expertise, and SEO knowledge isn't attracting a Head of Marketing; it's describing an entire marketing department.
The reality is this: if you're a 10-100 person service business in law, healthcare, or finance, you're probably not going to hire a marketing unicorn. And if you somehow do, they'll burn out within months trying to be strategist, buyer, designer, and analyst simultaneously.
It’s about being transparent with your hires and realistic about your recruitment process.
Why Marketing Hires Fail (And Why It's Usually Not Their Fault)
Let me share a case study that illustrates the problem.
Let’s say that a service business with an annual revenue of $4M hired a marketing coordinator: a smart person, good credentials, and who was eager to prove themselves. Six months in, the CEO was frustrated. "We're not getting leads," he told me. "I think we hired the wrong person."
When I dug into it, here's what I found:
- No defined marketing strategy or funnel
- No CRM system or lead tracking
- The sales team had never been consulted about lead quality criteria
- The marketing coordinator was expected to "figure it out" with zero coaching
- The budget was being spent on brand awareness activities because nobody had prioritised lead generation
The coordinator wasn't failing. The business had set them up to fail.
After we implemented a proper strategy, aligned sales and marketing, and provided structured coaching, that same coordinator tripled qualified leads within four months. Same person. Different system.
Why does this hiring pattern keep repeating in Australian service businesses?
These are the main reasons I’ve been able to identify:
No clear strategy exists before the hire. You bring in a Head of Marketing and expect them to somehow know what the specific type of success you desire looks like. Meanwhile, the CEO wants leads, the partners want brand reputation, and the practice manager wants brochures for the waiting room.
Conflicting expectations go unaddressed. In-house marketers spend half their time navigating internal politics rather than executing campaigns. Result: they can’t find the time to deliver what you expect from them.
Absent coaching and feedback loops means the hire operates in a vacuum. They make decisions based on best guesses rather than business priorities.
One person is overloaded with every marketing function. Strategy, execution, design, copywriting, media buying, analytics, all dumped on a single Head of Marketing who inevitably prioritises the urgent over the important.
The cost of this failure cycle? Six to twelve months of salary, plus the opportunity cost of leads you didn't generate. For a business spending $20k+ per month on marketing, that's $240k+ in wasted spend and lost revenue.
The Hidden Complexity of Service Business Marketing
Here's what most business owners don't realise: marketing for law firms, medical practices, and financial services is fundamentally different from marketing consumer products.
You're operating in compliance-heavy sectors. Healthcare privacy regulations, financial services advertising rules, and legal professional conduct standards aren't minor considerations. They're minefields that can destroy campaigns and damage reputations.
Your sales cycle is long and relationship-driven. Someone doesn't Google "family lawyer" and hire the first firm they find. They research, compare, read reviews, check credentials, and often consult multiple providers before deciding.
Your lead quality matters more than lead volume. Ten qualified leads from people who can afford your services and are ready to engage beat one hundred tyre-kickers every time.
This is where the in-house vs agency decision becomes critical
An in-house Head of Marketing brings strategic alignment and deep business knowledge. They understand your culture, what makes your business unique and your ideal client. They can coordinate across departments and ensure marketing supports business objectives.
But remember, they're generalists. They can't be expert-level in paid media buying, SEO technical implementation, marketing automation, conversion rate optimisation, and content marketing strategy all at the same time.
A specialist lead-gen agency brings deep execution capability in specific channels. They've run hundreds of campaigns in your sector. They know what works for law firms in Brisbane, what converts for dental practices in Melbourne, and what messaging resonates with financial services clients in Sydney.
But they're external. They don't sit in your Monday morning meetings. They don't inherently understand the nuance of your positioning or the internal dynamics that affect marketing decisions.
The $20k Threshold: Where the Model Changes
Through working with dozens of Australian service businesses, I've noticed a clear pattern around marketing spend thresholds:
Below $10k per month: You're probably better off with a marketing coordinator and a specialist agency partner. The coordinator handles internal coordination, content, and day-to-day execution. The agency handles paid media, technical SEO, and funnel optimisation.
Between $10k and $30k per month: A hybrid model works best. Hire a strategic in-house marketer to head up the overall plan and internal alignment. Partner with specialist agencies for execution in channels that require deep expertise, paid media, marketing automation, and technical SEO.
Above $30k per month: You have enough volume to justify building a small in-house team, but you still need specialist agency partners for areas like paid media buying and technical implementation. The in-house team focuses on strategy, content, and coordination, whereas agencies focus on execution and optimisation.
The mistake most businesses make is trying to hire their way out of the need for specialisation.
If you're spending $25k per month on marketing and you hire a $120k Head of Marketing and expect them to handle everything, well, I have news for you: they can’t. They're good at strategy and coordination, but they're not expert-level media buyers, graphic designers, SEO experts, web developers and more. Your cost per lead stays high because you've got a generalist doing specialist work.
Or maybe you go the opposite direction. You hire a media buying agency and expect them to fix all your marketing problems. They can't. They're brilliant at generating clicks and leads, but they don't understand your sales process, your intake capacity, or your internal challenges. Leads come in, but conversion rates stay low because the handoff is broken.
What Actually Works: A Framework for Decision-Making
Let me give you a practical framework based on what I've seen work consistently across Australian service businesses.
Start with your sales process
Before you hire anyone or engage any agency, map your current lead-to-client journey. Where do leads come from? How are they qualified? What's the handoff process to sales? What's your conversion rate at each stage?
If you can't answer these questions, hiring a Head of Marketing won't solve your problem. You need systems in place first, people second.
Define success metrics clearly
Is success defined as qualified leads? Cost per acquisition? Revenue per marketing dollar? Brand awareness? Get specific. Reach a consensus among all stakeholders. Put it in writing.
Assess your internal capability honestly
Do you have someone internally who can own the marketing strategy and coordinate with external partners? If yes, the hybrid model works. If no, a full-service agency partner is probably your best bet until you build that capability.
Match the model to your spend and stage
For businesses spending $10-20k per month: Marketing coordinator + specialist agency partner. The coordinator owns internal coordination and content. The agency owns lead generation execution.
For businesses spending $20-40k per month: Strategic in-house hire + specialist agency partners. The in-house person owns strategy, messaging, and internal alignment and the agencies own channel execution.
For businesses spending $40k+ per month: Small in-house team + specialist agency partners. In-house team handles strategy, content, and coordination. Agencies handle media buying, technical SEO, and marketing automation.
Plan for the sales-marketing handoff
This is where most models break down. Your in-house marketer generates leads, but sales doesn't follow up effectively enough. Or your agency delivers qualified leads, but your intake process is a disaster.
The handoff can make or break revenue, so plan for it from day one.
The Mistakes That Keep Repeating Themselves
Despite all the data and case studies available, Australian service business owners keep making the same hiring mistakes:
They hire for credentials over culture fit. That senior marketer from a Big Four firm might look impressive on paper, but can they thrive in a 30-person practice where they're also expected to coordinate events and update the website?
They expect instant results without providing the tools for success. You can't hire a Head of Marketing, give them no budget, no CRM, no defined strategy, and expect leads in 30 days.
They undervalue potential over experience. In a market that is scarce on talent, hiring someone with 80% of the skills and a strong learning ability beats waiting six months for the perfect candidate who may never show up.
They make snap judgments in interviews. Behavioural interviews and trial projects reveal far more about capability than a 45-minute conversation about past achievements.
They don't test the relationship before committing. Whether it's an in-house hire or an agency partner, a trial period or pilot campaign reveals fit far better than references and proposals.
Getting this wrong is brutal: Six months of salary for a failed hire, twelve months of agency fees for a partnership that never delivers and the opportunity cost of leads and revenue you didn't generate while you were figuring it out.
What This Means for Your Business
If you're a business owner or CEO reading this, here's what you need to know:
Hiring a Head of Marketing doesn’t have to be an either/or decision with a lead-gen agency. The best model for most Australian service businesses at the $20k+ per month spend level is hybrid: strategic in-house capability + specialist agency execution.
But before you hire anyone or engage any agency, fix your systems: Define your lead journey, align sales and marketing, establish clear metrics and build the intake process.
Marketing talent, whether in-house or through an agency, can't fix broken systems. They can only work within the framework you provide.
And if you're going to hire in-house, be realistic about what one person can do. A Head of Marketing is a strategist and coordinator, not a full marketing department. They need specialist support in areas like paid media, technical SEO, and marketing automation.
If you're going to partner with an agency, be clear about what you're buying. A lead-gen specialist should deliver qualified leads and optimise your funnel. They shouldn't be expected to fix your sales process, manage your internal team, or handle every marketing function.
The businesses that get this right, the ones that scale efficiently without burning through hires or churning through agencies, are the ones that understand the difference between strategy and execution, between coordination and specialisation.
They build systems first. They hire for the gaps they can't fill internally. They partner with specialists for execution that they know they cannot achieve alone.
And finally, they stop expecting one person or one agency to solve every marketing challenge.
Ready to figure out the right model for your business? Leadtree specialises in lead generation and marketing strategy for Australian service businesses. We've worked with law firms, medical practices, and financial services businesses to build systems that actually generate qualified leads.
Book a free 30-minute call: https://calendly.com/leadtreemarketing/30min to talk through the options that are available for your business.
