Hire a PPC Director: agency, fractional, or in-house?
A PPC director owns strategy across channels, not the buttons in one platform: budget allocation, the measurement framework, channel mix, and the commercial narrative to leadership. In the US this is a senior six-figure in-house role; a fractional director or agency lead delivers the same judgment part-time. You need this layer once spend spans multiple channels and specialists need coordinating.
A 47-point written audit of your Google, Meta or Shopping account, back in five business days.
Get your auditBook a callDay-to-day
- Allocates budget across channels against blended MER, not channel ROAS
- Owns the measurement framework: attribution stance and incrementality testing
- Sets margin-derived targets and holds specialists to them
- Coordinates Google, Meta, and other channel specialists so they do not compete
- Reports the commercial narrative, spend to profit, to leadership
- Decides channel mix and when to enter or cut a channel
- Owns vendor and agency relationships and the build-versus-buy calls
Salary & rate benchmarks
Which hiring option wins?
- Senior cross-channel judgment bundled into the retainer
- Exposure to many accounts' channel-mix decisions
- No single-hire commitment while you are still scaling
- Comes with the specialist bench underneath
- Less embedded in your commercial and product context
- Competing priorities across the agency's client base
- Strategic continuity depends on the agency's staffing
- Fractional director gives senior strategy without a full salary
- Flexible scope that scales with your needs
- Direct, embedded relationship with your team
- Part-time attention on a role that benefits from immersion
- No team underneath unless you provide the specialists
- Senior fractional talent is scarce and in demand
- Full immersion in your commercial reality and roadmap
- Direct authority to coordinate internal specialists
- Owns the long-term measurement and channel strategy
- A senior salary only justified at meaningful multi-channel spend
- Key-person risk on a strategically critical role
- Needs specialists underneath to execute the strategy
Bring in a PPC director, fractional first, then in-house, once spend spans several channels and you have specialists who need coordinating toward one commercial goal. Below that, a strong channel strategist plus an agency lead usually covers the strategy layer. Move from fractional to full-time in-house when the coordination and measurement work genuinely fills a senior role.
Common questions
Want this checked on your own account?
A 47-point written audit of your Google, Meta, or Shopping account. Five business days, no sales call.
