Work out what your marketing actually costs, what it actually produces, and what the alternatives would cost on the same basis. Four stages, about an hour, and a one-page case at the end.
List every supplier and split each one into creation and coordination.
Price the hours you spend briefing and chasing. This is the cost nobody counts.
Count last quarter's output and get your cost per published asset.
Your current setup against a hire and against a subscription, on identical terms.
Fields with a cyan outline are yours to type in. Everything else calculates itself. Your figures stay in this browser and are not sent anywhere.
Built by LoopMarketer.AI for the budget meeting most businesses walk into unprepared. It works whichever way you decide, including deciding to stay exactly where you are.
| Supplier or cost | Monthly cost (£) | Coordination share (%) | Creation | Coordination |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total monthly supplier spend | £0 | 0% | £0 | £0 |
Coordination is account management, status calls, briefing time and approval chasing. Creation is anything that produces an asset a customer sees. If you are unsure of a split, ask the supplier how many hours went to each last month.
Most businesses find two or three forgotten licences on this page alone.
| The true cost of your current setup | Monthly | Annual | How this is worked out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supplier spend | £0 | £0 | Pulled from stage 01. |
| Cost of internal time | £0 | £0 | Total hours times your internal hourly rate. |
| True cost of current setup | £0 | £0 | Supplier spend plus internal time. This is the number to take to the board. |
| Cost per published asset | Your figure | How this is worked out |
|---|---|---|
| Assets published last quarter | 0 | The four counts above, added together. |
| Assets per month | 0 | Quarterly total divided by three. |
| Supplier cost per asset | n/a | Supplier spend divided by monthly assets. |
| True cost per published asset | n/a | True monthly cost, including your time, divided by monthly assets. |
This single figure usually ends the debate. It turns a matter of opinion into arithmetic, which is the only language a board meeting reliably respects.
| The comparison | Current setup | A first hire | Subscription | How this is worked out |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct cost, annual | £0 | £0 | £0 | Supplier spend, employment cost, or subscription fee. |
| Employer NI | n/a | £0 | n/a | 15 per cent on earnings above £5,000 in 2026/27. |
| Pension | n/a | £0 | n/a | Auto-enrolment minimum, 3 per cent of qualifying earnings. |
| Other employment costs | n/a | £0 | n/a | Software, equipment, recruitment and cover. |
| Your internal time, annual | £0 | £0 | £0 | Hours times your internal rate. A hire needs managing; a subscription needs approving. |
| Total annual cost | £0 | £0 | £0 | Everything above, added. |
| Monthly equivalent | £0 | £0 | £0 | Annual divided by twelve. |
| Cost per published asset | n/a | n/a | n/a | At your current monthly output volume, held constant across all three. |
| Time to first asset | Now | 3 to 6 months | Days | A new hire takes three to six months to reach full productivity. |
The hire column assumes one person doing the work you currently buy. If a hire would replace only part of your retainer, reduce the supplier figures in stage 01 to match what you would actually stop paying for.
Lead with cost per published asset. It is the one figure nobody in the room can argue with, because it came from your own invoices.
Frame it as a reallocation, not new spend. Boards do not approve tools, they approve substitutions.
Check your notice periods before you present any saving. Most UK retainers carry 30 to 90 days.
Do not promise attribution you cannot deliver. Commit to output volume and cost per asset first, pipeline influence later.
Run the old and the new in parallel for one month before serving notice. It costs nothing extra and removes the risk objection entirely.
If the answer is no, ask what evidence would change it, and put the review date in the diary before you leave the room.