Should we bring paid search in-house or keep using an agency?

[Andrew_L]

I’m trying to decide if we should bring our paid search campaigns in-house after using an agency for years. The main thing holding me back is whether my small team can realistically handle the constant bid adjustments and keyword pruning without letting our performance tank.

[StevenTW]

We tried moving in-house a while back with two people covering search and day‑to‑day bid work. It started out fine, but the hours mounted quickly around Mondays and product launches. We kept a tight weekly rhythm and used simple rules, but the drift between campaigns still woke us up at 3am more than once.

[PenelopeWL]

The big thing we learned is that the time cost isn't obvious until you're in it. Even with automation, someone has to decide when to pause keywords, adjust match types, and reallocate budgets. It eats into other work.

[ZoeyR]

From my side, if you’re small, you could try a pilot shadowing the agency for a couple of months, track hours, and compare outcomes. But I’m not confident that would avoid the risk of performance dipping. Is the real bottleneck the bids, or is something else in play?

[Chloe.M]

Sometimes it feels like the real problem isn’t the bidding at all, but the whole strategy driving it—the product mix, landing pages, and what your goal actually is.