An out-sourced specialist digital media agency (vs an in-house resource) may be the missing link for many South African brands, big and small.
Recent data from leading global statistics resource Statista are enlightening: spend in the digital advertising market in South Africa is forecast to reach $204.39 million in 2025, and with 50 million internet users in the country predicted for the year (along with an estimated 83.58% mobile usage penetration), businesses are perfectly positioned to amplify and grow.
However, as Cheryl Ingram, CEO of TDMC (The Digital Media Collective), and other experts point out, without a robust paid media strategy – or if paid media is low down on your critical focus list, there is a very strong likelihood of missing the mark among your category competitors.
TDMC Media Director Caleb Shepard agrees. “When you consider that search advertising represents a significant portion of South Africa’s digital advertising market, with Google commanding 99% of the paid search market, the stakes are simply too high for amateur approaches.
“According to the WeAreSocial 2025 Global Report released at the end of February, South Africa has the highest global average of internet usage time with a staggering 9.5 hours per user per day. This represents a significant opportunity for success in the e-commerce space.”
The false economy of in-house digital media management
With South Africa’s digital advertising market forecasted to reach $2.23 billion in 2025 and projected to continue expanding at 6.02% annually through to 2028, brands are increasingly tempted by the perceived cost savings of bringing media planning and buying in-house.
However, this superficial view masks a fundamental misunderstanding of the true costs involved.
“We consistently see businesses that choose in-house media management experience a negative impact on campaign performance: the cost of lost opportunities outweighs any perceived savings,” says Shepard.
The myth of the digital marketing generalist
One of the most dangerous trends Ingram observes is what she calls the ‘unicorn syndrome’, with businesses attempting to hire a single individual to master and oversee creative development, email marketing, strategy, C-suite communications, and planning and buying.
“We see this time and time again with clients who have poorly conceived and performing ads,” she says.
Ingram’s standpoint is that the digital landscape has become so complex that the idea of one person having deep expertise across all touchpoints is not just unrealistic. “It’s a recipe for mediocrity,” she says.
Likewise, this unicorn mentality often leads to either burnout from overcommitted individuals or the “mother hen syndrome” where businesses pile impossible expectations onto single employees, who remain unable to increase their expertise sufficiently to keep up with industry standards and norms.
Full-brain expertise at fractional cost
What agencies like TDMC offer is something in-house teams cannot replicate: true expertise across every digital touchpoint.
“When you partner with a respected digital media agency, you inherit an entire team of specialists with deep knowledge in their respective areas,” notes Shepard, likening the experience to “paying for the full brain at a fraction of the cost”.
TDMC is one of just a handful of Shopify Select Partners in South Africa, was awarded Google Premier status for the third year running, is a Meta Business Partner, as well as a being a TikTok and Klaviyo Business Partner. This means the team has deep expertise across a broad range of platforms, giving them the competitive advantage.
While agency partnerships may appear more expensive at face value, the shared cost model across diverse services delivers exponentially better value than attempting to hire, maintain and foster equivalent expertise internally. Within paid media alone, the multiplicity and complexity of moving parts creates bottlenecks that single operators simply cannot navigate effectively.
“On our teams alone, we have some of the country’s most qualified Shopify, Google and META experts who together form a rich shared skills pool – as a business we also have the advantage of direct communications channels to these platforms for upskilling and problem-solving purposes.”
The knowledge advantage
Perhaps the most significant advantage specialist agencies bring is their exposure to multiple clients across diverse categories, creating unprecedented learning opportunities and insights sharing.
“When clients shift to in-house management, they typically end up with one or two people who don’t get the rich expertise that comes from the team collaboration and peer-to-peer learning that happens daily in an agency,” says Ingram.
Agency teams are under constant pressure to stay on the cutting edge, while in-house employees often work 9-to-5 schedules, she notes. This invariably leads to a critical knowledge gap and given the exponential shifts on all the paid media channels, is a recipe for failure.
“Unless internal recruitment teams have deep knowledge of the massive digital expertise required, the likelihood of an under-skilled hire being appointed rises,” adds Shepard.
The hidden liabilities of in-house digital teams
Beyond performance considerations, in-house digital media management carries significant hidden risks that agencies absorb on behalf of their clients. The risk sits entirely with the client when they go in-house – HR issues, overhead costs, and long-term liability.
“We see C-suite executives who aren’t digital natives viewing digital as either a post-COVID bolt-on or something that ‘should’ be done without fully understanding the complexities or necessity of a robust strategy or implementation methodology,” adds Shepard.
With digital advertising now representing a significant portion of South Africa’s overall advertising market this risk becomes exponentially more dangerous.
Verified digital agencies provide not just expertise but also risk mitigation thanks to their consolidated relationships with platforms like Google and Meta, and the ability to quickly pivot strategies without the complications of slow signoffs, internal politics or limited skill sets.
“Agility remains one of our biggest calling cards, with over 120 clients across a multitude of categories, it means we have direct access to real time insights, shifts and trends. We dry run platform shifts before they go to market and are able to adjust strategy immediately using our rich internal insights knowledge. We find that our ‘always on’ ethos is a comforting calling card for our clients,” says Ingram.
“We have regular conversations with prospective clients about why an agency ultimately costs less than a single person or a few people within your business – once they see the results, the discussion becomes indisputable.”
• This release references statistics from Statista and WeAreSocial 2025 Global Report.
