How to Hire a Marketer and Not Lose 50,000 Zlotys
A bad hire in the marketing department is not just a loss of salary, but above all half a year of standing still while the competition takes your market. At Strategies and Visions PL, since September 2016, we have seen dozens of companies that burned budgets because they trusted pretty slides instead of hard numbers.
Balance of losses, or how much a recruitment error really costs
Most business owners in Poland calculate the cost of a bad hire only as the sum of salaries paid. This is a big mistake. In October 2023, we conducted an audit for a manufacturing company from near Radom that employed an ad specialist for six months. The salary itself was 42,000 PLN gross, but on top of that was 55,000 PLN of burned budget for campaigns that didn't bring a single real order. The total loss exceeded 97,000 PLN in less than half a year.
When hiring a new person, you also lose your time on onboarding and correcting errors. If you have to look again after three months, your business moves back a quarter. We count every zloty from marketing, which is why we always advise starting the recruitment process by defining concrete tasks, rather than looking for someone who just 'knows Facebook'. A plan on paper must include the expected return on investment before you even give someone access to the ad account.
The real cost of a mistake is also the demotivation of the rest of the team who must make up for the new employee's deficiencies. At Strategies and Visions PL, we established that the average time to recover losses from one bad marketer is as long as 14 months. This is too high a price for lack of competence verification at the start. We check the numbers before we propose anything, and you should demand the same from every candidate who knocks on your door.
Marketing is not visual art, it is mathematics applied to your company's wallet.
The trap of pretty portfolios and empty reach
Candidates often come to interviews with beautiful PDF presentations. They show millions of views, thousands of likes, and colorful graphics. It's a trap. In March 2024, we verified a candidate for a construction wholesaler from Kielce. He showed a campaign with 340,000 reach. When we asked about the cost per lead (CPL) and the final margin from these activities, there was silence. It turned out the sales from these ads were lower than the cost of their emission.
Reach won't pay your invoices. Look for people who include concrete financial results in their portfolio. Instead of 'I managed an Instagram profile', a marketer should say: 'I increased sales by 23% in 4 months while maintaining the ad cost at 15% of the margin'. Since September 2016, at Strategies and Visions PL, we have promoted an approach based on profit in the bank, not hearts under a photo.
Remember that screenshots from advertising panels are easy to manipulate. A true expert is not afraid to show the account structure and explain why they made specific decisions with a budget of 5,000 PLN or 50,000 PLN. If a candidate talks about building brand awareness, ask them how they intend to measure that awareness and how it will translate into the number of phone calls from customers next month.
Three questions that will expose a lack of knowledge
In the recruitment interview, forget about questions about interests. Get to the specifics. Ask: 'We have 10,000 PLN for marketing next month, how will you split these funds between Google Ads and Facebook, and what ROAS will you consider a success?'. If the candidate doesn't ask you first about your margin, average shopping cart, and customer lifetime value, it means they are shooting blindly with your money. Without this data, it's impossible to plan a profitable campaign.
The second question should concern analytics: 'How will you check if 2,000 PLN spent on TikTok actually brought us customers, since they don't buy directly after clicking the ad?'. Lack of knowledge about attribution models or at least the basics of GA4 is a disqualification. At Strategies and Visions PL, we have handled 134 projects and in every one, analytics was the foundation. Without it, marketing is gambling, and there is no room for throwing dice in business.
Third question: 'Show me a mistake you made in the last year and how much it cost us'. People who claim they have never burned a budget are either lying or have never run large-scale activities. You are looking for someone who draws conclusions from mistakes. In June 2024, we spoke with a candidate who admitted to incorrectly setting up targeting in Google Ads, which cost his former employer 3,200 PLN in one weekend. That was the most valuable answer that day.
Paid trial task – Your safety fuse
Never hire based on the interview alone. Give the candidate a specific practical task. Ask for an analysis of your current activities and identification of three places where money is leaking. Pay 300 or 500 PLN for this task. It's the best investment you can make. In July 2024, thanks to such a test, one of our clients avoided hiring a person who, in the Google Ads analysis, overlooked that 40% of the budget was going to phrases unrelated to the offer.
The task should be time-limited, e.g., to 4 hours. Observe whether the candidate focuses on aesthetics or numbers. A good marketer will immediately go into the 'Search terms' report or check the bounce rate on key subpages. Concrete tasks, not empty promises – that's our rule, which has allowed us to effectively advise 423 clients since the beginning of our operations in Warsaw.
If a candidate refuses to perform a test task, citing lack of time, it's a signal they don't take your company seriously. Professionals who know their value are happy to prove their competence in practice. Profit in the bank doesn't come from talking, but from diligent work on data. At Strategies and Visions PL, every Partner goes through such a process, which guarantees us 97% effectiveness in selecting growth strategies.
Reference verification is not a formality
In Poland, we rarely call previous employers, and it's a goldmine of knowledge. Ask one key question: 'Would you hire this person again if you had to pay them from your own private savings?'. This small change in perspective makes former bosses very honest. In May 2024, we saved a company from Poznań from hiring a 'marketing star' who in the previous job had antagonized the entire sales department and falsified result reports.
Ask about specific metrics the candidate allegedly improved. If the CV shows a 50% increase, ask the former employer if they actually felt it in the company's revenue. It often turns out that the increase concerned free traffic from Google that didn't convert into purchases. We check the numbers before we propose anything, so you should also check the history of the person to whom you entrust the keys to your advertising budget.
Pay attention to how the candidate left the previous company. Marketing is a team game. If someone left unfinished campaigns without documentation, they will do the same to you. At Strategies and Visions PL, we believe that order in data is just as important as profit. A good employee leaves behind clean advertising accounts and clear instructions on what works and what doesn't. This saves thousands of zlotys in case of an eventual next change.
The first 90 days – a trial period based on KPIs
Signing the contract is not the end of the process. The first 3 months must have clearly defined goals (KPIs). Don't judge a marketer by whether they are nice in the office. Agree: in the first month, audit and fix errors; in the second, stabilize lead cost; in the third, scale growth. If after 90 days you don't see improvement in the numbers, you must have the courage to end the cooperation. Plan on paper, profit in the bank – with no exceptions.
In July 2024, we introduced such a system for a furniture client. After 45 days, it turned out the new employee couldn't deliver the promised results, despite being great in the interview. Thanks to clear metrics, the owner didn't waste more months hoping 'something would fire up soon'. A marketer who knows what they're doing will want to have clearly defined goals because it gives them comfort in their work and proof of their effectiveness.
Remember that as an owner, you don't need to know every button in Google Ads, but you must be able to read financial reports. If a marketer can't explain in simple words where the profit comes from, they probably don't know themselves. Since September 2016, we have taught our clients that a simple Excel table with expenses and revenues is more important than complicated dashboards that no one understands.
