# Marketing analyst or managed service? | Crank OS Source: https://wearecrank.com/insights/crank-os/analyst-vs-managed-service Hire a marketing analyst or use a managed service? What each costs, how fast each starts, who owns the accounts, and when each one makes sense for your business. --- [![Crank - Providing your levers for growth](/images/crank-logo-full.png)![](/images/crank-icon.png)](/) [Book a live demo](/contact?enquiry=live-demo)[Chat now](https://wa.me/447457416922?text=Help%20my%20business) Guide · Choosing # A marketing analyst or a managed service? **Crank** Updated 28 October 2026 · 3 minute read The short answer Hire an analyst when you have steady work for them every day, someone to manage them and the tools they need. Use a managed service when you want the tracking, the reading, the creative and the campaign builds done without hiring several people. Neither replaces the team that runs your media. The deciding questions are speed, cost once everything is counted, who owns the accounts, and what happens when the person leaves. ## What each one is ### An in-house analyst One person who reads your numbers, builds reports and raises issues. Strong on knowing your business. Limited to their own skills and their own hours. ### A managed service A team that does the set-up and the daily reading, and makes the work. In Crank OS that means tracking, dashboards, daily alerts, ads and campaign builds, with your media team still running the campaigns. ## Side by side | Compared on | Hire an analyst | Managed service (Crank OS) | | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | What you get | One person's skills and time | A team across tracking, reporting, creative and campaign builds | | Time to start | Crank's estimate is about three months to get going | Tracking is typically live within days of access, with dashboards and the first daily digest in the first fortnight | | Cost | Crank's estimate is £4,000 to £5,500 a month per person, fully loaded. You still need to find management, tools and cover | From £3,500 a month for dashboards and daily alerts, from £6,250 for production and campaign builds, from £8,750 for both, plus £2,500 one-off onboarding | | When the person is away or leaves | Work stops, or is shared out | A team, so the work does not rest on one person | | Who owns the accounts | You | You. If you leave, access is handed back and nothing is deleted | | Contract | Employment terms | Three months first, then rolling monthly | Crank's cost estimates come from published UK list prices and 2026 surveys, read in October 2026\. All Crank OS prices exclude value added tax. One person is one set of skills. Tracking, dashboards, creative and campaign builds are different jobs. ## When hiring makes sense * You have full-time work for them, every day. * You have someone senior to manage and direct them. * You already own the tools and the set-up. * You want the knowledge to sit inside your company. ## When a managed service makes sense * The set-up needs doing and nobody has the time. * You need several jobs done, not one: tracking, reading, creative and campaigns. * You want a read that does not come from the team spending the money. * You would rather not hire and manage several people. ## You can have both A managed service can sit beside an in-house analyst. The service sets up the tracking and reads the numbers every day, and your analyst spends their time on the questions only your business can answer. Neither replaces the team that runs the campaigns. For a wider comparison with software, agencies and consultancies, see [Crank OS compared](/crank-os/compare). ## Questions ### Is a managed service the same as an agency? No. An agency usually runs your media and reports its own results. Crank OS never buys your media, so its read is independent of whoever spends the budget. ### Can we start with one half? Yes. Intelligence covers the dashboards and daily alerts on their own, with onboarding. Alerts are not sold without the dashboards, because they read from them. ### What happens if we leave? Your dashboards are exported, access is handed back, and nothing is deleted. The accounts were always in your name. ### What does onboarding cost? £2,500 one-off, with every option. Tracking tools are passed through at the provider's list price. See [pricing](/crank-os/pricing). ## Read next [ComparisonCrank OS compared](/crank-os/compare) [PageCrank OS pricing](/crank-os/pricing) [PageHow Crank OS works](/crank-os/how-it-works) ## Not sure which fits? Book a live demo with the Crank team, and talk it through with your own numbers. [Book a live demo](/contact?enquiry=live-demo)[Message us on WhatsApp](https://wa.me/447457416922?text=I%27d%20like%20a%20live%20demo%20of%20Crank%20OS)