If you’ve ever worked for an agency, it doesn’t matter whether it’s customer service, IT, sales, HR, marketing, or any other outsourced service; you’ll know this conversation all too well: “Why pay an agency when we can just do this ourselves?”
At first glance, it feels like the smart move. Keep things in-house, cut out the middleman, and you save money while staying in control. But anyone who’s ever worked agency-side knows it’s never quite that straightforward.
We’ve seen it countless times ourselves over the years. A client decides to take their LinkedIn lead generation in-house. When it does happen, the reasoning is almost always the same: we love what you guys do, but budgets are tight, and leadership teams want to streamline spend.
It’s always disappointing. After all, we’ve built strong relationships, created momentum, and delivered results. Then the decision is handed down by someone at their company who is not involved in the campaign and doesn’t really understand the value of what’s been built.
The silver lining? More often than not, those same businesses come back a few months later, ready to pick things up again, which is great, but by then the momentum we worked so hard to build has already been lost, and we have to start over.
The truth is, though, we understand it. StraightIn started as a bootstrapped start-up with no outside funding, growing everything organically from day one. We know first-hand the challenges small businesses face when trying to punch above their weight. And, in times like these, when budgets tighten, every line of spend is scrutinised, and outsourcing is often the first thing on the chopping block.
But while some outsourced functions can be pulled in-house without much disruption, LinkedIn outreach isn’t one of them. What might first look like a simple cost-saving decision on the surface often turns into the exact opposite, an expensive, time-consuming drain that fails to deliver the results companies were hoping for.
Our CEO, Zac Hancox, has spent his entire career in the outsourced world. Before founding StraightIn and our sister company, Inboxx, he worked across sales and marketing roles where outsourcing was a core part of the strategy.
Zac has seen the pitfalls companies encounter when attempting to manage LinkedIn outreach internally: inconsistent processes, ballooning costs, wasted opportunities, and teams stretched thin as they try to juggle a function that demands specialist expertise. Those lessons directly shaped the way StraightIn was built, to remove complexity, deliver results faster, and provide a cost-effective alternative to doing it yourself.
In this report, we’ll take a closer look at why businesses are tempted to bring their LinkedIn lead generation in-house, the hidden challenges that so often derail those efforts, and why outsourcing to a dedicated LinkedIn marketing agency remains the smarter, more scalable path to long-term growth.
LinkedIn lead generation: harder than it looks?
Before we look through the numbers, let’s first break down why so many businesses believe they can handle LinkedIn lead generation themselves and some of the challenges they often overlook.
It seems simple enough. Leaders think, “I use LinkedIn all the time—posting updates, connecting with people, sending the odd request. How different can lead generation really be?” But running a structured, scalable campaign isn’t the same as firing off a few messages in between meetings.
But there’s a world of difference between casual networking on LinkedIn and managing a structured, scalable lead generation campaign that consistently delivers qualified opportunities.
What looks simple from the outside actually requires much more:
- Strategic planning – defining goals, mapping out messaging sequences, and ensuring outreach works hand-in-hand with your wider sales and marketing strategy.
- Precision targeting – identifying the right decision-makers, filtering by industry, job title, geography, and making sure you’re speaking to the people who actually matter.
- Personalisation at scale – writing messages that connect with each prospect on an individual level, instead of relying on generic copy-and-paste templates.
- Regularly following-up – building relationships takes multiple touchpoints; without a process for nurturing leads, opportunities slip away.
- Ongoing optimisation – analysing performance, A/B testing messaging, adjusting targeting, and refining campaigns to keep results improving.
- Specialist tools and tech – from data enrichment platforms to reporting dashboards, running effective LinkedIn campaigns demands more than just a LinkedIn profile.
Without this structure in place, even the most enthusiastic in-house efforts quickly stall.
Why one person can’t deliver scalable LinkedIn lead generation
Sometimes, after a few months of working with us, clients start to feel they’ve “learned enough” from their account manager and can replicate the process themselves. But just because we make it look easy doesn’t mean it is.
A LinkedIn campaign isn’t something one person can spin up and keep running perfectly. There are too many moving parts. Messages, targeting, copy, follow-ups, data checks — and when something stalls (because it always does), you need people who can jump in, swap ideas, and fix it fast.
At StraightIn, collaboration is built into the way we work. If a campaign’s not landing as expected, we don’t shrug and hope it sorts itself out. We pull people in from across the team, swap notes, and figure it out right there. Sometimes it’s a quick tweak, sometimes it’s a bigger rethink, but the point is, no one’s left to struggle alone.
A single hire can’t give you that. One person doesn’t have the experience of hundreds of campaigns across dozens of industries. We do. And we use that collective brainpower to keep things moving, week after week.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- Real-time problem solving, not days of waiting around
- Group brainstorms when a campaign needs a fresh angle
- Campaign excellence sessions every couple of weeks to keep performance on point
- Proven tactics borrowed from other industries that actually work
- A whole team backing your campaign, not just one person juggling everything
This kind of collaboration, accountability, and knowledge-sharing is what keeps results consistent, and it’s something a single in-house employee simply can’t replicate.
The hidden costs of running LinkedIn campaigns internally
To make it clear, Zac has pulled together some numbers based on UK averages. These figures reflect the bare minimum required to run LinkedIn lead generation in-house, but in reality, costs often climb much higher once you factor in salaries, tools, and overheads. It’s also worth noting that while these examples are UK-specific, the picture looks very different in other regions like the US or Singapore, where hiring and operational expenses are typically even higher.
If you look at the two options side by side, the “cheap” appeal of going in-house quickly fades. But, once you add everything up, the maths tells a different story.
Basic salary
Even at the National Living Wage (April 2025: £12.21/hour), employing someone full-time comes in at almost £6,000 over three months and just under £12,000 over six months. But this is the absolute baseline. It assumes you’re hiring someone with no specialist experience, which is unlikely to deliver the results you need.
The truth is LinkedIn lead generation requires a blend of skills. This includes everything from copywriting, data handling, campaign management, and sales development; and the truth is professionals with this skillset don’t come cheap.
A more realistic salary range for a marketing or sales development hire in the UK is between £25,000 and £40,000 per year, depending on their level of experience. And if you’re expecting this person to build strategy, optimise campaigns, and bring industry expertise, you’re looking at someone much closer to the top end of that scale. Perhaps even higher.
Suddenly, the “savings” of going in-house start to disappear, and you may still only have one person doing the work that would otherwise be handled by a full agency team.
Employer National Insurance & Pension
Salary isn’t the only cost that comes with bringing someone on board. In the UK, employers are legally required to contribute an additional 15% of an employee’s salary towards National Insurance and a minimum of 3% into workplace pensions.
These mandatory contributions add up to £837 over three months and £1,674 over six months in our example, on top of the basic wage.
This is one of the most overlooked expenses when businesses consider hiring in-house. Companies often compare an agency fee with just the employee’s salary, but in practice, every hire carries this extra 18% cost.
Equipment and training
Hiring someone in-house isn’t just about their salary. You also need to give them the tools to do the job. Even on the conservative side, you’re looking at a £1,500 one-off cost for basics like a laptop, phone, headset, and other peripherals. If you want them to perform at their best, you’ll also need to budget for software licenses, ergonomic equipment, and regular upgrades over time.
Then there’s training. LinkedIn lead generation is constantly changing with algorithm updates, new platform features, shifting buyer behaviours, and changing best practices. That’s why we’ve included £375 for three months or £750 for six months as a baseline for professional development. Keeping an in-house employee up to date often requires access to specialist courses, events, and certifications, which can run into the thousands per year.
Training isn’t a “one-and-done” exercise. If your in-house hire doesn’t keep learning, their campaigns plateau quickly, and outreach quality slips. On the other hand, agencies like StraightIn absorb this cost across a full team. We’re constantly sharing knowledge, testing new approaches, and investing in professional development so clients don’t have to.
So, while equipment and training may seem like smaller line items compared to salary, they’re critical hidden costs. Without them, your employee won’t have the tools or skills needed to deliver the kind of reliable, scalable results a specialist agency provides.
Mandatory software
Running LinkedIn lead generation effectively takes more than a LinkedIn profile and a spreadsheet. To find, connect with, and nurture the right prospects at scale, you need a stack of specialist tools. At a minimum, this includes:
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator – essential for advanced search, targeting, and prospecting.
- CRM integrations – to connect outreach with your wider sales process and make sure no opportunities slip through the cracks.
- Data enrichment subscriptions – to verify and supplement prospect information so you’re always speaking to the right people.
- Outreach platforms – to manage and automate campaigns while staying compliant with LinkedIn’s rules, and to maintain regular follow-ups.
- Analytics and reporting dashboards – to measure performance, track conversions, and refine campaigns over time.
Even a stripped-back setup will cost around £600 per quarter, or £1,200 across six months. Many businesses find that they need additional tools for CRM integration, content scheduling, A/B testing, or inbox management, which can significantly increase their costs.
It’s also worth mentioning that an in-house employee will need training to use these tools effectively, and licences are usually billed per seat. With an agency like StraightIn, you get the benefit of enterprise-grade tools, multiple seats, and team-wide expertise, without footing the bill for software procurement, setup, or management yourself.
Sickness cover
At first glance, sickness costs don’t look significant. The UK average is 4.4 sick days per employee each year, which translates into roughly £100 per quarter or £201 over six months in lost productivity. But in the world of LinkedIn lead generation, those numbers underestimate the true impact.
Outreach relies heavily on consistency and timing. If your in-house employee is off sick for a few days, or worse, a full week, conversations stall. Prospects who were warm can quickly lose interest. If someone replies to a message and doesn’t hear back promptly, they’re unlikely to chase you for a second chance.
In other words, it’s not just about the cost of wages paid during absence. It’s the lost opportunities, broken momentum, and reputational damage that come with silence.
At StraightIn, we don’t let this happen. If one of our team members is off sick or on annual leave, their accounts are immediately covered by another specialist. Whether it’s a single day or two weeks, there’s always someone on hand with the expertise to keep the campaign running smoothly.
In fact, our team prioritises covering these accounts ahead of their own campaigns to make sure client targets are never put at risk.
On top of that, our custom-built CRM makes sure every campaign is fully documented and up to date. In-house, handing work over mid-campaign can be messy and prone to errors, duplication, or missed prospects. With us, the handover is smooth and efficient, so outreach continues without disruption, and opportunities are never left waiting.
The smarter way to do LinkedIn lead generation?
When you add it all up, bringing LinkedIn lead generation in-house costs around £9,365 over three months or £17,229 over six months, and that’s using the bare minimum assumptions. If we’re being honest, it would be much higher than that. By contrast, outsourcing with StraightIn delivers a saving of around 79–83% over a three to six month period.
But the real advantage goes beyond cost. With us, you don’t rely on one person juggling everything alone. You benefit from the expertise of a whole team, continuous collaboration, and processes refined across hundreds of campaigns, keeping your outreach responsive and delivering results month after month.
At StraightIn, we specialise in Outreach Marketing, LinkedIn Advertising, Content Marketing, and Personal Branding, helping you stand out and reach the people that matter most. If you’re ready to see the difference outsourcing can make, get in touch with us today. Call 0161 518 4740, or email grow@straight-in.co.uk.
