Your hire
Health, retirement, paid leave, and employer taxes.
Job ads, recruiter time, and interviews.
SEO, social scheduling, email, design, analytics.
Design, video, and web work one person can't cover.
See how a marketing engine compares
We'll email you a side-by-side: your first-year hire cost next to each oneninety8 engine, with what's included. No sales sequence, just the numbers.
The part salary doesn't show
One hire has to be good at all of this
Most marketing hires are strong in two or three of these. The rest turn into freelancer invoices, or they don't get done.
- Strategy. Who you're for, what you offer, and what counts as a qualified lead.
- Writing. Articles and pages your buyers actually read.
- Search and AI visibility. Ranking, and getting cited when buyers ask AI tools.
- Social media. Posting every week, in your voice, on the channels your buyers use.
- Design. Graphics, one-pagers, and landing pages.
- Email. A regular note to customers and prospects that keeps you top of mind.
- Tracking and reporting. Leads by source, every month.
- Paid ads. LinkedIn and Meta, where the mistakes cost real money.
- Staying current. Search and AI change every quarter.
Where the numbers come from
The defaults, and how to change them
Where do the salaries come from?
The three roles use average base salaries for Atlanta reported by Built In in 2026: about $50,000 for a marketing coordinator, $88,000 for a marketing manager, and $142,000 for a director of marketing. Bonuses aren't included. If you already have a number in mind, choose "Custom salary" and type it in.
Why 40% for benefits and payroll taxes?
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that benefits make up 30% of total compensation for private-industry workers (June 2026). That's about 43 cents in benefits and employer taxes for every dollar of wages. We default to a slightly lower 40%. Use your own rate if you know it.
What goes into the hiring cost?
SHRM puts the average cost per hire at nearly $4,700: job ads, recruiter and HR time, and interviews. A recruiting firm usually charges a percentage of first-year salary instead, which is much higher.
Why count the months before they're productive?
A new hire needs time to learn your products, buyers, and systems before the work starts paying off. The calculator doesn't add those months to the total. It shows them separately, so you can see how much you pay before full output.
Is outsourcing always cheaper?
Not always. If you only need someone to post on social media, a part-time coordinator may cost less. An outside team makes sense when you need strategy, content, search, social, and lead tracking to work together, which is more than one person usually covers. The side-by-side shows both so you can decide.
See what the engine would fix first.
Request a free Engine Teardown. Robb responds personally within one business day and sets up a time to meet. You'll talk through where your marketing is leaking leads, including whether AI tools like ChatGPT recommend you or your competitors.