Trading Influencer Marketing Agency vs In-House
· By Christian Görgen
Influencer marketing has become an important channel for brokers, prop firms and crypto exchanges. But for brands looking to get started, one of the first questions is how to approach it.
Should you build an in-house team to find, negotiate with and manage creators? Or work with a specialised influencer marketing agency that already has the experience and relationships?
Both approaches have their advantages. In my experience, the right choice depends less on agency fees and more on your ambitions, available resources and the number of creators you plan to work with.
1. The size of the job decides most of the answer
Creator programmes vary enormously in size. In the FYI influencer directory, the largest brokers work with close to 400 creators each, while many smaller brands work with a few dozen or fewer.
[fyi_chart_multi source="creator-stats:broker_firms_by_creators" series="creators" labels="Tracked creators" type="bar" horizontal="true" title="How many creators the biggest brokers work with" caption="FYI influencer directory, October 2026." link="/insights/influencers/forex-influencers" link_label="Forex creators"]
Running hundreds of creators is a permanent job. It needs people who negotiate terms, check content, chase deliverables, reconcile payouts and keep relationships alive across several languages.
Running a dozen or two is very different, because one experienced person with good tools can often manage that alone, and the case for adding an outside layer becomes much weaker.
2. What a trading influencer marketing agency actually provides
An influencer marketing agency usually brings two things. The first is access: existing relationships with creators that a brand would otherwise have to build itself. The second is execution: finding suitable creators, negotiating deals, preparing briefs and managing campaigns.
However, there is an important difference in how agencies and trading brands typically structure their partnerships.
Most trading brands are used to performance-based agreements, such as CPA, revenue share or IB commissions. Agencies, on the other hand, typically operate on a different commercial model:
A monthly retainer for their services
A percentage of the influencer marketing budget or campaign spend
Sometimes a combination of both
This creates an additional layer of costs, especially for brands accustomed to paying creators primarily based on results.
Agency access can be particularly valuable when entering new markets or languages, where a brand has few existing relationships and limited knowledge of the local creator landscape.
For brands that already know their target market and have established affiliate programmes, the benefits of working with an agency may be less significant.
3. Some things are better kept in-house
Whatever the setup, a few things naturally stay with the brand. Commission terms, tracking and compliance all sit closest to the brand's own risk, so handing them to an intermediary rarely makes sense.
Published partner terms show why, and AvaTrade, for example, sets out its own CPA and lifetime revenue-share structure on its partner page. Terms like these define the brand's economics and its relationship with every partner, so they belong to the brand rather than to an agency.
[fyi_trend_cards items="users|Access|Agencies can open doors to creators a brand does not know yet, especially in new languages and regions.;briefcase|Execution|Briefs, bookings and follow-ups can be handled by an agency or an in-house team, depending on volume.;tag|Terms and tracking|Commission terms, tracking and compliance usually stay with the brand, because the brand carries the risk."]
The brand also carries the regulatory and reputational risk if a creator makes a misleading claim, which is one reason vetting trading influencers matters before signing. That is a strong reason to keep content approval and disclosure rules under direct control, even when an agency handles the day-to-day contact.
4. The cost difference depends on volume
The two models cost money in different ways. An agency fee usually grows with creator spend, while an in-house team is a largely fixed cost that stays the same whether the brand runs ten campaigns or fifty.
Above a certain level of monthly spend, an in-house setup therefore tends to cost less. At that point, an agency's value has to come from access to creators the brand could not reach on its own, rather than from cost savings.
[fyi_table cols="Setup|Monthly cost" rows="Agency, 20% fee on $30,000 of creator spend|$6,000;In-house partnership manager|$5,000 plus a data tool;Creator spend where both cost about the same|about $25,000" title="Agency versus in-house, an illustrative cost model" note="Illustrative model. FYI has no agency fee or salary data, so every figure here is an assumption."]
An in-house team has its own challenges, however. The biggest is building a network of relevant creators from scratch. Agencies often have established relationships and direct access to creators, while an in-house team may need months to develop those connections. Building and maintaining that network takes time, and when key employees leave, valuable relationships can be lost with them.
The fees paid to creators themselves are a separate question from how the programme is run. The calculator below gives a rough estimate of what a single creator placement might cost, and the guide to forex advertising compares placements with a CPA.
[fyi_influencer_cost]
5. A hybrid often fits mid-size brands
Between the two extremes sits a hybrid setup. One partnership manager owns the terms, tracking and key relationships, a data tool handles discovery, and an agency is used only in specific markets where it genuinely adds access.
This keeps the brand's economics and compliance in-house while still giving it reach into regions where it has no contacts. Discovery itself no longer depends on an agency's address book, because tools such as Partner Discovery show which creators already work with which brands.
[fyi_influencers vertical="broker,crypto,prop" sort="brands" limit="5" title="Creators already working with the most brands" link="/insights/influencers" link_label="All trading creators"]
In my view, this setup suits many mid-size brands, because it keeps terms and tracking in-house while buying access only where it is missing.
6. Good agencies welcome hard questions
Brands that hire agencies well tend to ask the same few questions before signing:
which trading brands the agency has booked creators for
who owns the creator relationship once the contract ends
how deposits are tracked, rather than only clicks
what the agency considers good engagement
how disclosure and risk warnings are handled
Engagement is a useful test of the answers. Across the trading creators FYI tracks, the median engagement rate is around 3.5%, so an agency that promises far more across the board deserves a closer look.
With those answers, the decision becomes clearer. A brand working with just a handful of creators can usually manage partnerships in-house. For brands looking to scale quickly and access a larger network of creators, an agency can be a good starting point. As the programme grows and relationships become established, bringing more of the work in-house often makes financial sense. A hybrid model can offer the best of both approaches.
More on sourcing creators directly is available for brands that choose the in-house route.
[fyi_faq title="Agency vs in-house: FAQ" q1="Should a broker use an influencer marketing agency?" a1="It depends mostly on the number of creators involved. A broker working with a handful of creators may benefit from an agency's access, while a programme with hundreds of creators usually needs an in-house team." q2="What does a trading influencer marketing agency do?" a2="Mainly two things: access to creators through existing relationships, and execution, meaning briefs, bookings and chasing deliverables. Most work with flat fees, retainers, CPA or revenue share, IB agreements and discount codes." q3="What should a brand keep in-house?" a3="Commission terms, tracking and compliance, including content approval and disclosure. The brand carries the regulatory and reputational risk, so these are rarely worth handing to an intermediary." q4="How much does an influencer marketing agency cost?" a4="Agencies usually charge a percentage of creator spend, a monthly retainer, or a mix of both. FYI does not hold agency fee data, so any comparison should be built on the quotes a brand actually receives." q5="What is a hybrid influencer marketing setup?" a5="One partnership manager owns terms, tracking and key relationships, a data tool handles discovery, and an agency is used only in markets where it adds access the brand does not have."] [fyi_author_box]