A fully-loaded in-house media buyer costs a Shopify jewelry brand $8,000–$13,300/month: $6,500–$10,300 in salary, benefits and tools, plus $1,500–$3,000 for the creative support a media buyer doesn't make themselves. For a jewelry brand doing $100K–$300K/month in revenue, that's usually more than an agency. The math flips once ad spend passes roughly $80K–$150K/month.
Here's how it works out at three revenue levels, and the jewelry-specific reasons that can change the answer.
The cost of each option
| In-house media buyer | Agency on % of spend (10–15%) | Flat-fee agency (Basic) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $8,000 – $13,300 | Rises with spend | $2,000 |
| Ramp-up | 60–120 days | 2–4 weeks | 2–4 weeks |
| Knows jewelry on day one? | Depends on the hire | Depends on the agency | Yes, jewelry only |
| Risk if they leave | Start again (average tenure 14–18 months) | Handover within the agency | Handover within the agency |
In-house cost and tenure from our agency vs in-house breakdown.
At three revenue levels
The examples below assume ad spend is 30% of revenue. Swap in your own number.
$100K/month revenue, about $30K/month ad spend. In-house: $8,000–$13,300. Agency at 10–15%: $3,000–$4,500. Flat fee: $2,000. An agency wins clearly. A full-time hire costs more than the agency fee plus a creative freelancer combined.
$200K/month revenue, about $60K/month ad spend. In-house: $8,000–$13,300. Agency at 10–15%: $6,000–$9,000. Flat fee: $2,000. Agencies still cost less. A percentage agency is now close to an in-house hire, and the question becomes who knows jewelry better, not who's cheaper.
$300K/month revenue, about $90K/month ad spend. In-house: $8,000–$13,300. Agency at 10–15%: $9,000–$13,500. Flat fee: $2,000. A percentage agency now costs the same as a hire. Many brands at this level move to a hybrid: one in-house person owning strategy and creative direction, with an agency or freelancer running the accounts.
Jewelry reasons to go in-house earlier
- Creative speed. Jewelry ads wear out fast and depend on close-up, worn-on-skin shots. If your team shoots in-house every week, a media buyer next to them can test faster than an outside agency.
- Lots of drops. Brands launching new collections every few weeks need someone who knows the product calendar inside out.
- Fine jewelry with long sales cycles. If many sales close by phone, chat or in a showroom, someone in-house can connect ads to those sales better.
Jewelry reasons to stay with an agency longer
- Gifting peaks. Valentine's, Mother's Day and BFCM need more hands for a few weeks, then fewer. An agency absorbs that. A hire doesn't scale up for six weeks and back down.
- Knowing the benchmarks. A jewelry-only agency already knows what conversion rate a demi-fine product page should hit, and what CAC fine jewelry should expect. A new hire learns that on your budget.
- The problem isn't in the ad account. For a lot of jewelry brands at this size, the constraint is product pages, AOV or repeat purchases. A media buyer won't fix those.
A US jewelry brand where more ad management wasn't the fix
A US jewelry brand at $100K/month had healthy traffic and campaigns that were working by every number in Ads Manager. The leak was a 1.5-point conversion rate gap on product pages that Ads Manager couldn't show.
A new media buyer, in-house or at an agency, would most likely have started by optimising those campaigns. The fix was product pages and the offer structure, done before touching a campaign.
What to do today
Take your monthly ad spend. Multiply it by 0.1 and 0.15. That's what a percentage agency costs you. Compare it with $8,000–$13,300 for a hire, and with any flat-fee quote you have. Then answer one question honestly: is your problem inside the ad account (creative, campaigns, bidding), or outside it (product pages, AOV, repeat purchase)? If it's outside, a media buyer isn't the fix, whichever way the cost works out.
If you want an outside read on where your problem actually is, book a 20-minute call. We work only with Shopify jewelry brands in the US and Canada.
FAQ
Should a jewelry brand hire an in-house media buyer or an agency?
Under about $80K/month in ad spend, an agency is usually cheaper than a fully-loaded in-house media buyer ($8,000–$13,300/month). Above about $150K/month in ad spend, in-house or a hybrid usually costs less. Between those, it comes down to creative speed and jewelry knowledge, not cost.
How much does an in-house media buyer cost?
About $8,000–$13,300/month fully loaded: $70K–$120K/year in salary plus benefits, payroll tax and tools ($6,500–$10,300/month), plus $1,500–$3,000/month for creative support.
When should a jewelry brand bring paid media in-house?
Usually once ad spend is above about $150K/month, or earlier if the brand shoots creative in-house every week and launches new collections often. Many jewelry brands at $300K+/month in revenue use a hybrid: one in-house strategist plus an agency or freelancer.