The hiring-model terms you’ll run into when you add a marketer, defined in two sentences each, with a link to the guide that goes deeper.
Staff augmentation adds a person you direct. An employer of record employs someone you already found. Managed staffing finds, vets, and pays them for one monthly rate, about $4,000 at GrowthPair. A buyout or conversion fee is what you pay to hire them yourself later. The rest are below.
Most of the terms on this page describe one of four ways to add a person. The difference is who does each job.
| Staff augmentation | Employer of record | Managed staffing | Outsourcing | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who finds the person | The provider, or you | You | The provider | The vendor |
| Who directs the daily work | You | You | You | The vendor |
| Who pays the person | The provider | The EOR | The provider | The vendor |
| How you pay | Per person, by the hour or month | A platform fee plus salary and employer costs | One flat monthly rate | Per project or retainer |
| Example | A paid social marketer added to your team | Deel, Remote, or Oyster | GrowthPair, about $4,000 a month all-in | A social media agency |
Staff augmentation. Adding outside people to your own team, where they work in your tools and take direction from you. The provider handles sourcing, and sometimes payroll, while you manage the work. Guide: staff augmentation vs outsourcing.
Outsourcing. Handing a defined scope, like one channel or a project, to a vendor that runs the work and delivers the result. You buy an outcome and give up day-to-day control. Guide: staff augmentation vs outsourcing.
Managed staffing. A model where a firm recruits, vets, and pays a full-time hire who works only on your team, for one monthly rate. The firm runs payroll, benefits, and HR, and you direct the work. Guide: in-house vs agency vs freelancer vs staffing.
Staffing agency. A firm that finds candidates for you, then either hands them over for a one-time fee or keeps the payroll side for an ongoing rate. Ask which model you’re buying before you sign. Guide: employer of record vs staffing agency.
Direct hire. Hiring someone onto your own payroll, whether you find them yourself or through a recruiter. You carry the salary, benefits, taxes, and the cost of starting over if it doesn’t work out. Guide: what a growth marketer costs to hire.
Contract-to-hire. A trial setup where someone starts as a contractor, and you hire them full-time if it works for both sides. If an agency or platform introduced you, ask about a conversion fee before day one. Guide: Upwork fees, including its conversion fee.
Fractional marketer. A senior marketer who works a set number of hours a week for several companies at once. You get leadership judgment without a full-time salary, and usually not the hours to execute. Guide: fractional vs full-time marketer.
Freelancer. An independent worker you hire per project or per hour, who sets their own schedule and serves other clients. Fast to start for a defined project, and the vetting is on you. Guide: in-house vs agency vs freelancer vs staffing.
Virtual assistant (VA). A remote assistant who runs tasks you define, like scheduling, list cleanup, or reporting pulls. A VA executes a plan you set, while a marketer decides what the plan should be. Guide: marketing virtual assistant vs marketer.
Employer of record (EOR). A company that legally employs a worker you found and runs their local payroll, taxes, and benefits. Deel describes an EOR as an organization that "employs and pays your workers compliantly on your behalf," and says most EORs don’t handle recruitment. Guide: employer of record vs staffing agency.
Placement fee (contingency fee). A one-time fee a recruiter charges when you hire a candidate they found. Dover puts contingency fees at 15% to 25% of the hire’s first-year base salary. Guide: employer of record vs staffing agency.
Conversion fee. What a staffing firm or freelance platform charges when you hire one of its workers directly. It pays the provider for the search and the revenue it loses when the person leaves its books. Guide: what Upwork costs clients.
Buyout. A set price, written into your contract, for hiring a placed worker yourself. GrowthPair’s buyout is six months of the GrowthPair rate. Guide: employer of record vs staffing agency.
Fully loaded cost. What a hire costs you once benefits and payroll taxes are added to salary. Benefits were 30.0% of total compensation for U.S. private-industry workers in June 2026 (BLS), so divide salary by 0.70 to estimate it. Guide: what a marketing team costs.
Retainer. A fixed monthly fee you pay an agency or freelancer for an agreed scope of work. Work outside that scope turns into a change order or a higher tier. Guide: staff augmentation vs outsourcing.
Marketplace fee. A percentage a freelance platform adds to what you pay the freelancer, on top of their rate. Check it before you compare a platform’s hourly rates with a monthly staffing rate. Guide: what Upwork costs clients.
Replacement guarantee. A promise to find a new person at no extra fee if your hire doesn’t work out. Read how long it lasts: Pearl Talent’s runs 90 days on its pricing page (30 in its FAQ), and GrowthPair’s lifetime replacement guarantee runs for as long as you’re a client. Guide: GrowthPair pricing and terms.
Notice period. How far ahead you must tell the provider you’re ending the arrangement. GrowthPair is month-to-month with 30 days’ notice. Guide: GrowthPair pricing.
Time to fill. The days between opening a role and an accepted offer. SHRM’s 2026 benchmarking puts the median at 39 calendar days for nonexecutive roles. Guide: what a growth marketer costs to hire.
Our take: read the exit terms before the price. The notice period, the buyout, and how long the replacement guarantee lasts decide what a bad match costs you.
Nearshore. Hiring in a country a few time zones from yours. For U.S. teams, that usually means Latin America, where Brasília time sits one to five hours ahead of the continental U.S. Guide: hiring a marketer from Brazil.
Time-zone overlap. The hours your team and your hire are both working. A Philippines-based hire needs a night shift to cover a U.S. 9-to-5, while a hire in Brazil can cover most of it in daylight. Guide: hiring a marketer from the Philippines.
Global staffing. Placing full-time workers from other countries on U.S. teams, with the provider handling cross-border pay. Providers differ on regions, roles, and vetting, so compare them on all three. Guide: best global marketing staffing agencies.
We run managed staffing for marketing. We recruit, vet, and pay a full-time marketer from Latin America or the Philippines who works only on your team, in your time zone. It’s about $4,000 a month, all-in, billed every two weeks through Stripe, month-to-month with 30 days’ notice. See the full terms on our pricing page.
Where we’re the wrong call: we don’t place part-time or project hires. If the work ends in eight weeks, hire a freelancer. If you already know the person you want, an EOR is the better fit.
Adding outside people to your own team who work in your tools and take direction from you. The provider handles sourcing and sometimes payroll.
An EOR legally employs a worker you already found and runs their payroll. A staffing agency finds and vets the worker. Some staffing firms also keep the payroll side for one monthly rate.
A set price in your contract for hiring a placed worker directly. GrowthPair’s buyout is six months of the GrowthPair rate.
Hiring in a country a few time zones away. For U.S. companies, that usually means Latin America. Brazil’s main time zone, for example, is one to five hours ahead of the continental U.S.
A fee a staffing firm or freelance platform charges when you hire one of its workers onto your own payroll. Check the amount, and whether it shrinks over time, before you start.
A setup where someone starts as a contractor and you hire them full-time if it works. If a platform or agency introduced you, check its conversion fee first.
