Companies said the biggest benefit to in-house agencies is cost efficiency.
The report also identified the desire to own, control and protect first-party data as an important reason for bringing work in-house. Third-party cookie deprecation has increased the importance of marketers having a strategy to collect first-party data directly from their customers. Other benefits included a better knowledge of brands, institutional knowledge and dedicated staff.
Also read: Google gives post-cookie ad tech update
Companies are still working with external agency partners as well. The report found 93% of respondents worked with at least one external agency, but still did an average of 61% of the work in-house.
In 2018, 90% of companies worked with an external agency and about 58% of the work was done in-house. Over the past three years, 65% of respondents have moved businesses that used to be handled by their external agencies to their in-house agency.
These companies typically choose to work with external agencies to relieve pressure on in-house agencies or to find capabilities that the internal agency doesn’t have. The services most often moved in-house included creative services and media services such as social media and search.
