A friend at a Singaporean B2B SaaS recently asked me what an in-house marketing manager would cost. He'd been quoted $7,200/month base. I told him to multiply by 2.4. He thought I was joking.
I wasn't. Here's the math nobody puts in the job ad.
What the salary actually represents
Base salary is the headline number. It's also less than half the real cost. For a $7,200/month marketer in Singapore, the loaded cost looks like:
- Salary + CPF: $7,200 + 17% employer contribution = $8,424
- Health insurance + benefits: $400-600/month average
- Tools they'll need: HubSpot, Canva Pro, Buffer, Adobe = ~$600/month
- Office, equipment, onboarding: ~$800/month amortised over their first year
- Recruitment fees: 15-20% of annual salary, paid once but real
You're now at $10,800-11,200/month. And we haven't talked about the work itself.
The bigger issue: one person can't do everything
A "marketing manager" who can run paid ads, write copy, design creative, edit video, manage social, and report on it all? They don't exist. Or if they do, they cost $15,000+/month and they're not joining your SME — they're at a F500.
What you actually need is a team. A copywriter, a designer, a paid-media specialist, an analyst. Hire all four in-house and you're spending $35K+/month before they ship a single thing.
Most SMEs need senior judgement across 4 disciplines. Hiring one mid-level person to do all four is the costliest fake-savings in B2B.
The retainer math
Our Growth plan is LKR 95,000/month. That's roughly $290 USD. For a coordinated team of four specialists — copywriter, designer, paid-media lead, analyst — all senior-level.
Less than the CPF contribution alone on one in-house hire.
The math isn't actually close. The only reason most SMEs still hire in-house is that they haven't done the math.