THE HONEST COMPARISON
Four ways to buy growth.Five, with us.
Category norms from public rate data — no individual competitor named or implied. Every alternative below beats us in at least one situation, and we say exactly which.
PRICES SHOWN ARE OURS · ALTERNATIVES PRICED FROM PUBLIC CATEGORY NORMS
SIDE BY SIDE
The same month of growth,bought five ways.
5 COLUMNS — SWIPE →
| CRANK 11That’s us | Traditional agency | Freelancer | In-house hire | DIY AI tools | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creative volume / month | 20–80 scored assets | 10–20 per quarter | varies wildly | depends on the hire | unlimited, unscored |
| Turnaround | 48h–5 days | 4–8 weeks | 1–3 weeks | days, once hired (hiring takes months) | instant |
| Quality control | 0–100 scoring + senior sign-off on every asset | account manager review | you review everything | you manage it | you are the QA |
| Ads managed | Google today, ledgered + reversible · Meta rolling out | yes — usually opaque | sometimes | yes | you run it |
| Monthly cost | ≈ $1,890–≈ $7,490/mo flat | % of spend + retainer | per-project, stacks up | one senior salary+ | tool subscriptions + your nights |
| Contract | monthly rolling, cancel anytime, own everything | 6–12 month lock-ins are common | per project | employment | none |
Billed in GBP — USD shown at an approximate rate (July 2026).
WHEN THEY BEAT US
Sometimes the answerisn’t us.
A comparison that never concedes is an ad. Here’s when each alternative is genuinely the right call.
A traditional agency
Choose one if you spend £100k+/mo and need a big multi-channel team with TV/OOH reach, procurement processes and bodies in meetings. At that scale, the retainer maths can work.
A freelancer
Choose one for a single well-scoped project — a rebrand, one landing page, a batch of statics — where you're happy to direct the work yourself and volume doesn't matter.
An in-house hire
Choose one when you're past ~£50k/mo spend and creative is your core competitive weapon. The best long-term answer at scale — if you can hire senior, wait three months, and keep them.
DIY with AI tools
Choose it under £3k/mo spend — genuinely. The maths doesn't work below that, and a founder with taste plus modern tools can outrun a bad agency. The free Crank Audit still applies.
Everyone else: you’re who we built this for — the £5k–50k/mo bracket, where the volume maths breaks every traditional model.
Judge it on the audit,not the table.
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