Propaganda Inc vs. The Alternatives.
Most agencies hide the comparison. We publish it. Twelve dimensions, three options, one honest table — so you can decide what to do with your growth budget without taking anybody's word for it.
The three real options for B2B SaaS growth in 2026: hire Propaganda Inc, hire a typical agency, or hire someone in-house. Below is the same comparison we'd run if we were the buyer. We published the honest version because we believe we win on every row that matters.
DIMENSION
Propaganda Inc RECOMMENDED
B2B SAAS GROWTH AGENCY · 8 CLIENT CAP
Typical Agency
GENERIC GROWTH FIRM · 50–200 CLIENTS
In-House Hire
FULL-TIME MARKETING LEAD
01
Real Cost
What you actually pay per month
Performance floor + retainer
We get paid when you get results. Floor written into the SOW.
$5K – $25K / month
Retainer regardless of outcome. No skin in the game.
$120K – $200K / year
Fully loaded — salary, benefits, equity, tools, ramp time.
02
Roster & Focus
How many other accounts compete for attention
8 clients max · always
We've turned down clients we wanted because we couldn't run the 9th properly.
50 – 200 active accounts
You're one of dozens. Your account manager has 12 others.
1 employer (you)
100% dedicated, but limited by single perspective and skill set.
03
Who You Actually Talk To
The person who picks up the phone
Founder + Growth Lead
Direct Slack + email + phone. No account manager intermediary.
Account manager
A buffer between you and the people doing the work. Game of telephone.
The hire (singular)
One human, one perspective. Everything depends on their range.
04
Reporting Cadence
How often you see the numbers
Weekly receipts · every Monday
Live dashboard you can check anytime. Branded weekly summary email.
Monthly slide deck
A 30-day blackbox between knowing what's working and what's broken.
Ad-hoc, depends on the hire
As good as their reporting habits. Often informal and inconsistent.
05
Reports Hide Bad Weeks?
Whether failures are visible or buried
Never. Same font as wins.
If a test failed, the slide says it failed. If a campaign tanked, the dashboard shows it.
Often. By design.
Most monthly reports are PDFs designed to make the agency look busy.
Depends on the person
Some are honest about misses. Some learn to massage the numbers to keep their job.
06
Tests Have Kill Dates
A defined moment when "we were wrong"
Always. Written in advance.
Every test has a hypothesis, a sample size, and a kill date. If it can't lose, it isn't a test.
Rarely
Tests run forever. "We need more data" is the most common excuse for inaction.
Almost never
Most in-house marketers don't have the bandwidth to write hypotheses, let alone kill dates.
07
Attribution Rigor
How accurately you can trace revenue
Hyros + CRM reconciled
Server-side tracking. Every closed-won deal traced to its originating ad. Within 30% accuracy.
Ad-platform reporting
Inflates actual conversions by 30–50%. The grader is also the one being graded.
Whatever they set up
As good as their data background. Often inherited from a previous role.
08
Creative Velocity
How fast new variants ship
20+ variants / week
Built-in production pipeline. Top 3 winners get 68% of spend within 14 days.
3 – 5 variants / week
Bottlenecked by junior designers and approval cycles. Loses to ad fatigue.
1 – 3 / week (capacity-limited)
One person can't write copy, design, and ship at agency velocity. Usually shouldn't.
09
Accountability
What happens if they don't perform
Performance floor in SOW
If we miss the floor, we're cutting our own retainer. Skin in the game from day one.
Retainer regardless
Paid every month even when results stall. The retainer is the product.
Salary regardless
Paid every two weeks. Firing them is expensive, slow, and morale-damaging.
10
Time To First Result
When you'll see the first real win
2 – 3 weeks
Day 1 audit, day 7 creative slate live, day 14 first variant winners promoted.
6 – 8 weeks
Onboarding, kickoff, audit, first creative review, first launch... weeks 5+.
4 – 12 weeks (ramp)
Hiring takes 6–8 weeks alone. Then onboarding. Then ramp. First real win at month 4+.
11
When Things Break
How fast you find out and respond
Same day · usually within 4 hours
Live dashboard alerts, weekly reviews, founder-level escalation paths.
Next monthly review
By the time it's in the slide deck, the bleeding has been going on for 30 days.
When you find out
Depends on whether they tell you or hope it fixes itself before you ask.
12
Risk Profile
What you're actually exposed to
Low — performance floor
Floor caps the downside. 90-day exit clause. Worst case: you're out a quarter.
Medium — retainer trap
12-month contracts, slow exit clauses, money out the door even when results stall.
High — hiring + firing cost
$30K+ to hire (recruiter, time), $50K+ to fire (severance, ramp loss, morale).
THE VERDICT
Twelve Rows. Twelve Wins.
This isn't a marketing exercise. It's the same comparison we'd run if we were buying for ourselves. We published the honest version because we win on every row that matters — and the rows where in-house wins (full dedication, single ownership) are the rows we'd recommend hiring in-house anyway, just *after* we've gotten you to the point where it makes sense.