Verdict
One market with a stable partner base works fine in-house. If you want growth across multiple European countries, outsourcing is almost always faster and cheaper than building local teams.
The real cost of in-house
An affiliate manager quickly costs more than six thousand euros a month including employer charges, plus network fees, tooling and ramp-up time.
With one manager for five countries you also get a language problem: publishers in France and Germany respond markedly better in their own language.
What outsourcing buys you
An agency brings existing relationships with the partners that matter in each market, plus benchmarks on commission levels per category.
Mostly you buy time: a programme that would take months to start runs in weeks.
What to keep in-house
Brand rules, margins, discount policy and partner approval stay with you. An agency works inside those boundaries, not around them.
Keep network and analytics account ownership in your name as well.
The hybrid model
Many brands keep one internal owner guarding strategy and outsource daily recruitment and optimisation per country.
That combines product knowledge with local execution without a full-time salary per market.