Should I Hire a Marketing Manager? A UK Founder's Guide

The answer to ‘should I hire a marketing manager’ is yes when you can name the number they'll own, trace your enquiries and explain what the current budget is producing. If those basics are missing, put them in place before hiring, so the new person can run campaigns without first rebuilding your reports.

I'd apply that test to myself, because hiring someone doesn't remove the need to define their job. A capable person deserves a clear brief, access to the accounts and numbers they can trust.

Why do founders decide to hire a marketing manager?

Hire because there's a defined job you need someone to own and enough work to justify it. Being stretched is a reason to investigate the role, but it doesn't tell you what should go into the job description.

If marketing keeps landing on your desk after the working day, handing it over could free you to run the business. A manager could also bring the planning and campaign ownership you currently lack.

I'd treat ‘should I hire a marketing manager’ as a question about the work waiting for them, because the advertised role and the actual job need to match. If the advert says ‘grow the business’ but the first assignment is rebuilding tracking, say so before you recruit.

Write down what they'll inherit and what they can change. That will tell you more than choosing a title.

What should a marketing manager actually own?

A marketing manager should own an agreed result and the work that contributes to it. You also need to define their authority over campaigns, budgets and suppliers.

The National Careers Service's marketing manager profile describes responsibilities including marketing strategy, product launches, campaign content, budgets, agency management and performance reporting.

That reporting responsibility assumes usable numbers exist. If they don't, decide who will build them before the start date (reporting on campaigns and rebuilding tracking are different jobs). You can recruit for both, but the brief needs to say that.

Do you know which number the hire will be judged on?

Name the number before advertising the role. It should be close enough to the manager's work for them to influence it and close enough to revenue for you to care.

I'd be cautious about making total revenue their sole measure, because pricing, sales follow-up and delivery may sit outside their control. Qualified enquiries, booked sales calls, proposal requests or pipeline value from named sources may give you a clearer starting point.

Before answering ‘should I hire a marketing manager’, write down how that result is counted and who will report it in the Monday meeting. Agree what qualifies an enquiry and where the record lives.

The manager should be able to explain changes in the number. If nobody can explain it today, put that gap into the preparation work rather than leaving it as a surprise.

Can you see where every enquiry came from today?

Test your records before deciding that attribution is good enough. Take the last ten enquiries and check whether their source is recorded, rather than relying on someone's memory.

1. Open the CRM or enquiry log and select the last ten leads.
2. Record the channel, campaign or referrer against each one.
3. Count how many sources you had to guess, then identify where the information went missing.

Check forms, phone enquiries and referrals separately. A website form may need source fields, a phone enquiry may need someone to log it and a sales conversation may need a clear route back into the CRM.

A Wordle solver narrows its options using the guesses and tile colours you enter (a puzzle shouldn't have better records than your lead report). The useful principle is recording what you know before asking someone to work out what it means.

You don't need perfect attribution to recruit. You do need an agreed way to record sources and a visible distinction between known information and guesses.

Is there enough weekly work for a full-time role?

Map the weekly work before writing the advert. If the list doesn't support a full-time role, consider a part-time specialist, an agency or changes to how the existing work gets done.

The hours inventory turns ‘should I hire a marketing manager’ into a capacity decision. List what the person would inherit, including the jobs currently split between you, the team and outside suppliers.

1. Record the reports assembled each week and the spreadsheets they come from.
2. List the campaigns running and who approves changes.
3. Identify the agency and freelancer relationships that need managing.
4. List the content, emails and website updates produced in a normal month.
5. Record the follow-up and lead handling shared between marketing and sales.
6. Identify repetitive jobs that could be automated before recruiting.

If copying figures between tabs takes up a large part of the list, address that work before filling the vacancy. Otherwise, you're building data entry into a manager's job and leaving less time for campaigns.

Do you need a marketing manager, a head of marketing or a fractional CMO?

Hire a manager to run agreed marketing work, a head of marketing to set direction and lead the team, or a fractional CMO for part-time senior judgement. Define the decisions and responsibilities before comparing titles.

Role	The job you're asking them to do	What you need to establish
Marketing manager	Plan and run campaigns, manage suppliers and report performance	An agreed result, a workable budget and authority to deliver
Head of marketing	Set direction, allocate resources and lead the marketing team	The team, responsibilities and decisions they'll own
Fractional CMO	Provide senior direction and challenge priorities on a part-time basis	Who will carry out the work between their contributions

Your answer to ‘should I hire a marketing manager’ may change once you've separated campaign delivery from senior leadership. The same person can contribute to both, but the brief and budget need to reflect that expectation.

Robert Half's 2026 salary guide gives a UK marketing manager median of £46,750. Ashdown's marketing salary guide gives £56,950 for a marketing manager and £87,615 for a head of marketing. These are recruitment firms' guide figures, rather than a fixed rate for your vacancy.

I'd rather recruit a strong manager into a clear role, because adding a senior title doesn't resolve an oversized brief. If you genuinely need an experienced leader and have the team and work ready, skip us and hire the leader.

What does it cost if you hire too early?

You pay employment costs while the person does the groundwork, and that needs to be part of your decision. When weighing ‘should I hire a marketing manager’, budget for the conditions they'll start in as well as their salary.

For 2026 to 2027, HMRC sets the standard employer National Insurance rate at 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year. Add minimum employer pension contributions and, if applicable, a recruitment fee.

ON3 Works quotes recruitment fees of 15% to 25% of salary. Using a 20% fee, Ashdown's £56,950 salary, standard employer NI and minimum pension contributions on qualifying earnings gives a first-year illustration of about £77,450. Your actual bill depends on the employment and recruitment terms and any applicable reliefs.

The 2014 Oxford Economics study commissioned by Unum found average times to full productivity of 15 weeks for recruits from the same sector and 32 weeks for those from another sector. It's an old study, so I wouldn't use it to predict your hire's start. It does give you a reason to allow for a ramp-up period.

I think the harder risk is a capable person being unable to demonstrate their contribution, because unclear measurement makes performance discussions harder. The separate guide to what a head of marketing really costs in the UK covers the wider cost build-up for the senior role.

Should I hire a marketing manager yet?

Use the following seven checks to decide what needs fixing before you recruit. The scoring is my rule of thumb, not a researched hiring assessment.

• You can name the weekly number the hire will own and explain how it's counted.
• You can trace most recent enquiries to a channel, campaign or referrer.
• Everyone agrees what counts as a lead, a qualified lead and a won deal in the CRM.
• The business has admin access to analytics, advertising, CRM, website and email accounts.
• You can list current marketing spend and put an output beside each line.
• You've completed the hours inventory and there's a full role in it.
• The hire can launch an agreed campaign or change a page without waiting for your approval every time.

Six or seven yes answers suggests you're ready to hire. You have a defined role and the basics to support it, though you still need to assess the candidate against the work.

Three to five means I'd close the gaps first, ideally in the next month, because those gaps will otherwise become the new person's opening assignment. Nought to two means get measurement and ownership in place before recruiting.

The approval check deserves your attention too (yes, that one is about you). Agree the budget, boundaries and changes they can make without bringing everything back to your desk.

What should you do in the next 30 days if the answer is not yet?

Close the gaps on the checklist, starting with enquiry tracking and the weekly number. Then write the job brief around the work that remains.

1. Agree the result you want the hire to own and how it will be counted.
2. Assign responsibility for missing source records, account access and reporting gaps.
3. Complete the hours inventory and remove avoidable admin from the proposed role.
4. Write down the hire's responsibilities, budget and approval limits before advertising.

Do that yourself if you have the time, or give a named person on the team responsibility and a deadline. The guide to what to put in place before you hire a marketing director covers preparation that also applies to a manager.

Return to ‘should I hire a marketing manager’ once you've made those decisions. You'll have a better basis for choosing between a permanent hire, part-time support and outside delivery.

The Growth Install is one option for outside help. Over 90 days, it installs three agreed growth workflows, each in one agreed area, on your own accounts, with tracking and a dashboard, alongside the people who'll own the work.

It doesn't replace a marketing hire or cover every channel. Its role is to put the agreed workflows and measurement in place so your team can keep running them.

What questions do founders ask before hiring?

Should my first marketing hire be junior or senior?

Choose the level according to who will direct the work. If nobody can set the plan or assess campaign decisions, a junior hire will need support from you, an agency or a senior marketing leader. I'd fund that support because otherwise you're asking a junior employee to make decisions you haven't equipped them to make.

Is it better to hire a marketing manager or use an agency?

Decide how much daily involvement you need inside the business and which specialist skills you want to buy from outside. If ‘should I hire a marketing manager’ means needing someone to coordinate suppliers and work with sales every day, an employee may fit that brief better. You can still retain an agency for agreed delivery, with clear responsibilities on both sides.

What should a marketing manager achieve in the first 90 days?

Agree a starting position, a dependable weekly report and one or two changes aimed at improving the chosen number. Treat those as expectations to discuss with the candidate, rather than guaranteed results. If they must rebuild tracking first, make that work visible in the plan and adjust the campaign expectations accordingly.

What are the alternatives to hiring a marketing manager?

Consider an agency, freelancer, fractional marketing leader or changes that let your existing team handle the work. Assess each against the gap you've identified, including who will manage the arrangement. If you need a permanent person making daily decisions across marketing and sales, outside support may leave that responsibility with you.

If you want help working out where growth is getting stuck, talk to Founder Engine.