// Knowledge base

When an in-house training programme does not work

By Mitchel van Luit

3 min read

Bringing advertising in-house sounds attractive, but in four situations it is the most expensive choice you can make. This article names them, including what is wise to do instead and why we ourselves say no in those cases.

In short

✔ Without someone who has time every week, a programme stalls halfway through and you pay for nothing.

✔ Advertising magnifies what is already there: if your proposition is still unproven, this is too early.

✔ If the media budget cannot grow after the proof of concept, you lose what you just built.

✔ If you prefer to hand over the management, then outsourcing is not a sign of weakness, but the right choice.

We regularly say no to our own in-house training programme. Not out of modesty, but because there are four situations in which it costs money and time without yielding anything. They are easy to recognise in advance, which saves both parties disappointment.

1. There is nobody with time on a weekly basis

This is by far the most important. The programme consists of six sessions over eight weeks, and between those sessions your marketer builds the campaigns themselves. Expect to spend half a day to a full day per week.

If that time is not set aside, something predictable happens. The first two sessions go well, then a busy period comes between them, and by session four, half of the homework has been left undone. You are then paying for guidance with work that hasn't been done.

The question this tests is not “do you have a marketer?” but “can that person keep one day a week free for the next eight weeks, and does their manager know?”.

The proposition has not yet been proven

Advertising magnifies what is already there. It does not create something out of nothing.

So there must be a product or service that is already selling somewhere, via your network, via another channel, or for which there is demonstrable interest. If that does not exist, you use an advertising budget to find out whether your offer is right. That is an expensive way to answer that question; in product development you can find that out faster and more cheaply.

The tricky part is that in this case a campaign actually seems to yield results: there are clicks, there is traffic. Only the conversion fails to materialise, and then the conclusion is usually that the campaign didn't work. Whereas the offer was the problem.

3. The budget cannot grow along with it

In advertising, budget isn't an expense but a switch. You start small and first look for a proof of concept. As soon as that is there, more budget needs to be added to stabilise and grow the result.

If that doesn't happen, you'll take a nose dive during take-off. The algorithms lose the plot without enough data and budget, and you lose precisely what you've just built up. We therefore work with a minimum threshold of around 1,250 euros per month in media budget and the willingness to let that grow.

If that is not there, you are training your team in a profession that they subsequently cannot practise.

4. You actually want to outsource the management

Some organisations do not want to have advertising in-house. They want results, without anyone tinkering in an ad account every week. That is a completely legitimate choice.

Then do not choose a programme, because then you are buying an obligation instead of a solution. In that case, outsourcing is not a second choice, but the right choice.

A fifth situation that is often underestimated: management's expectation

Most purchases are not impulse buys. Depending on the channel and your decision-making cycle, it takes two to six months to be able to form a reliable judgement about a campaign. In week one that feels slow, in month three it is precisely the reason it works.

If an internal final verdict is already expected after six weeks, the outcome is predictable: the initiative is written off before it can prove anything. Ensure that expectation is adjusted in advance, or wait to start until that is possible.

What you can do instead

If you recognise any of these situations, there are better ways to spend the same money:

No time, yet ambitious: outsource it and schedule the programme for six months' time, when the diary permits.
Proposition not yet proven: invest first in getting your offer crystal clear and in securing your first clients through your network or direct contact.
Budget is locked: Start with one channel and one target audience instead of a full customer journey, and scale up as soon as there is room.
Does really not want to do it themselves: consciously choose to outsource and agree on how some of the knowledge will still find its way back to you, for example through monthly explanations during the reporting.

marketing psychology
The summary at the top (the “in short” block) lowers the barrier to entry: anyone who sees the core message first is subsequently more likely to read the whole article.

// Frequently asked questions

Questions about this subject.

How much time does an in-company programme take my team?

Half to a full day per week, for eight weeks. That is in addition to the six sessions and the video calls. If your marketer cannot free up that time, then this is not the right moment: the programme will stall halfway through.

What if our proposition is not yet proven?

Doing ads is an expensive way to find out if your offer works. There needs to be something that is already selling somewhere or for which there is demonstrable interest. Testing and adjusting your proposition belongs in product development, not in an advertising budget.

Can we start with a small media budget?

Starting with a small budget is actually sensible, as long as it can scale up afterwards. We apply a lower limit of approximately 1,250 euros per month, because an algorithm gets too little data below that amount. If you cannot or do not want to invest further once the campaigns are running profitably, the process will yield too little for you.

When is outsourcing smarter than learning it yourself?

If you want to consciously outsource campaign management, or if there is no marketer available to take this on. That is no sign of weakness: it is a choice about what you spend your time on. We have a full-service option for that.

Written by

Mitchel van Luit

Behavioral psychologist & digital strategist with 8 years of experience in digital marketing and strategy.

More about the author

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