You won the retainer. Now staff it without eating the margin.
Bionic Talent started inside a digital agency, so the arithmetic is familiar: the account is signed, the scope is bigger than the team, and the one US hire who could cover it takes a visible bite out of what the account is worth. We place SEO, PPC, content and account people who are tested on the platforms before you meet them, and we run the searches in parallel when you need more than one.
- $1,997 flat, and only if you hire
- Free shortlist in 6–10 business days
- 90 days of free replacements after that
What people tell us before they call
The account is profitable right up until you staff it
A US marketing specialist costs about $9,180 a month to employ and an account manager about $7,630. Put two of those against one retainer and you can watch where the margin on it went.
You have to commit before you know the account will stick
A US salary signed in month one of a twelve-month retainer is a salary you carry if the client leaves in month four. Most owners solve that by loading the work onto the team they already have, until one of them leaves instead.
A junior hire is cheap until you count the ramp
An entry-level marketer still has to be taught your reporting, your stack and your client standards before a single hour is billable. Ours are tested on Google Ads, GA4, SEMrush, Ahrefs and Figma during vetting, so the ramp is your process, not the platform.
What these roles cost, side by side
The roles we place most often for marketing agencies. US figures are what the same seat typically costs to employ domestically.
| Role | US cost to employ | Through Bionic | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing SpecialistSEO · Content Strategy · Campaign Management | $9,180/mo | $1,400/mo | 85% |
| SEO SpecialistTechnical SEO · Link Building · Google Analytics | $9,080/mo | $1,200/mo | 87% |
| PPC SpecialistPaid Search · Paid Social · Bid Management | $8,630/mo | $1,300/mo | 85% |
| Account ManagerClient Success · Upselling · Reporting | $7,630/mo | $1,500/mo | 80% |
| Graphic DesignerBrand Design · Ad Creatives · Layout Design | $7,340/mo | $1,100/mo | 85% |
| Content WriterBlog Writing · SEO Content · Copywriting | $7,000/mo | $1,100/mo | 84% |
US figures are what the seat costs an employer, not what the person is paid: base pay plus payroll taxes and benefits, at the 1.40 times base pay that the US Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes for private-sector employers. Divide by 1.40 to get back to the base salary. The Bionic figure is the salary you pay your hire directly, and it carries none of that load. So the two columns are not the same measure: one is a total cost to employ, the other is a salary. You employ the person directly and pay them yourself, and we never touch that money. Our own fee is $1,997, once, and only if you hire.
Vetted for this work specifically
Every tool on the résumé gets tested
Vetting includes a working assessment in the tools the role will actually touch: Google Ads, Meta Business Suite, SEMrush, Ahrefs, HubSpot, GA4 and Figma. We would rather find out than have your client find out.
What the seat costs, per month and per year
A US marketing specialist runs about $9,180 a month to employ. The same role here starts at $1,400, paid by you directly to the hire. That is a difference of $93,360 a year on one seat.
Add a person when an account needs one
Take the bigger retainer without committing to a US salary before you know it renews. If the account grows, we run the search again; the fee is the same either way, and it is the same for a designer as for an account manager.
Built by people who ran an agency
Bionic started inside a digital agency. We know what a client escalation on a Friday afternoon looks like, why the reporting deadline is not negotiable, and that an account manager does noticeably different work in every shop, so we ask what it means in yours before we search.
The software we test against
Tool proficiency on a résumé has to survive an actual test. For marketing agencies, that means the software below, assessed during vetting rather than taken on trust. Roughly the top 1% of applicants clear all 6 stages.
- Google Ads
- Meta Business Suite
- SEMrush
- Ahrefs
- HubSpot
- GA4
- Figma
Marketing Agencies, specifically
Can they work directly with my clients?
Many do. We vet for written and spoken English, professionalism, and the ability to hold a client relationship. Account manager is one of our most-placed agency roles. You decide how client-facing the seat is; we test against that.
What time zones do your candidates work in?
Most agency clients want overlap with US business hours, and our pool across the Philippines, Pakistan, South Africa and Kenya covers EST through PST. You tell us the overlap you need during intake and we search against it.
How quickly can I scale the team?
Shortlist in 6–10 business days, and about 21 days from the intake call to someone starting. If you need three to five people, we run the searches in parallel rather than in sequence.
What happens if the hire doesn't work out?
We run the search again at no additional cost, as many times as it takes, for 90 days from their start date. There's no cap on replacements and no second fee, which matters more in agency work than anywhere else: a seat that fails in month two fails in front of a client.
How does pricing work?
$1,997 once per hire, invoiced on offer acceptance. Nothing before that costs anything: we source, vet through 6 stages and put a shortlist in front of you whether or not you hire from it. No monthly markup and no percentage of salary. You employ the candidate directly and pay them yourself. A $1,100-a-month writer and a $1,500-a-month account manager cost the same to place.
Start the search. Decide later whether to hire.
A short intake call, then a shortlist of people who have already passed six stages of vetting.
About a minute to fill in, then a 30 minute intake call. If nobody on the shortlist is right, we keep looking or we part ways, and you have spent nothing but the interview time.
- The fee
$1,997 flat
Every role. No percentage of salary, no monthly markup.
- When you pay
Only on hire
Invoiced the day a candidate accepts your offer.
- If it doesn't work
90 days
Unlimited free replacements for 90 days, counted from their first day.
- Shortlist in
6–10 business days
About 21 days from first call to someone starting.