This is one of the most common questions brands ask once they start to scale their ads! And it’s a good one.

At a certain stage, brands notice that increasing content volume alone is no longer enough to improve performance, so they want to hire a creative strategist! But the question is: Should you hire an inhouse creative strategist or a creative strategy agency? Let’s break it down! Yes, we are obviously an agency lol, but this is our honest perspective.

Option 1. Hiring an in-house creative strategist

An in-house creative strategist can be an amazing asset. Especially for brands that want everything close, fast, and deeply embedded.

🤩 The advantages

1. They’re always available. They sit inside your team, your Slack and your calls

2. They know your brand inside out. Your tone, your history, your offer changes, your internal politics. Nothing gets lost in translation.

3. You’ll usually get more output. More scripts. More variations. More quick ideas. Simply because they’re there every day.

4. It’s often cheaper long term. A salary can feel more predictable than a monthly agency retainer!

5. It feels transparent. You see what they work on. You know how decisions are made. They WANT to keep their job so you can throw feedback at them and they hopefulyl will improve overtime if things dont work out in the beginning

😔 The downsides

1. They can become a bit isolated. When someone only works on one brand, they’re often looking at the same product, the same audience, and the same ads every day. Over time, ideas start to repeat without anyone noticing.

2. They don’t see what’s working elsewhere. An in-house strategist usually doesn’t have visibility into other brands, industries, or markets. That means new ideas and proven patterns often arrive later.

3. Trends move slower. Even with ad libraries and tools, nothing compares to seeing real performance across multiple brands at the same time.

4. Burnout can happen. Creative strategy is demanding. When one person handles everything, quality and energy can drop over time.

Option 2. Working with a creative strategy agency

Agencies get a bad reputation sometimes. And I have to agree, not always unfairly. But when done right, they can be incredibly powerful!

🤩 The advantages

1. They see what works across many brands. Agencies don’t just work with you. They work with several brands at the same time, so they notice patterns early. What’s starting to work now, not what worked half a year ago.

2. Ideas move faster. Sometimes something that works for a pet brand suddenly works for a beauty brand too. When you see this happening across accounts, you can apply it quickly instead of discovering it months later.

3. Things start faster. You’re not figuring everything out from scratch. There’s already a way of working, clear steps, and a system behind it.

4. They already know the right people. Good agencies can recommend creators and editors they trust and know how to match them to the right concept. You don’t have to test dozens of people blindly, if you need more content creators or video editors!

5. The tools are already set up. Agencies already use the tools needed to analyze performance and improve ads. You don’t need to research, buy, and learn everything yourself.

😔 The downsides

1. Some agencies are intransparent. You don’t always know who works on what or how decisions are made.

2. Some are greedy and expensive. Overpromising, underdelivering, and disappearing when performance dips. It happens aaall the time… You need someone who values transparency and loyalty.

3. It can feel less personal. Especially with big agencies where you’re just one of many clients.

So… which one is better?

If you want someone fully embedded, slow and steady, deeply internal, an in-house creative strategist can be a great choice. It's also the cheaper option.

If you want speed, fresh ideas, and insight into what’s working across markets right now, an agency can give you leverage you simply can’t build alone.

The strongest setups I’ve seen often combine both! An in-house strategist who knows the brand deeply.
An agency that brings outside perspective, pressure-tests ideas, and injects new patterns. We’ve done this setup before, and honestly, it can be really fun. Especially when the in-house creative strategist leads the process and works closely with the agency. That’s usually when things move fastest and performance improves the most.

A very honest agency note

Obviously, we are an agency. But the whole reason I built She Said Creatives was because I didn’t want to become the kind of agency brands complain about. Intransparent. Greedy. Disconnected.

We’re a boutique agency. Female-owned and female team. Small enough that you know exactly who you’re working with. Close enough that it feels like part of your team and not a "black box".

If you’re already working with us. Thank you. Truly.

If you’re not and you’re just trying to figure out what setup makes sense for your brand, we’re more than happy to talk it through. Even if the answer ends up being in-house. If you want to break this down together and get honest recommendations on how to structure your creative team, feel free to book a strategy call.
Looking forward to meeting you.