Top 5 Places to Hire Great Freelance Marketers

You've been scrambling to hire freelance marketers for weeks, but the candidates you're finding either lack the experience your campaigns need or disappear mid-project when a better opportunity comes along. 

Meanwhile, your marketing initiatives are stalling, your competitors are gaining ground, and you're burning budget on platforms that aren't delivering the skilled professionals you actually need.

This hiring bottleneck is costing you time. And growth opportunities and competitive positioning that become harder to recover the longer you wait.

This guide shows you exactly where to find reliable freelance marketing talent, what to look for in each platform, and how to avoid the common pitfalls that waste months of your time

What Is a Freelance Marketer?

A freelance marketer is a self-employed individual who provides marketing services on a project or contract basis. They can be a generalist (someone with a broad range of skills in several areas of marketing) or a specialist in a particular niche—for example, a digital marketer who develops social media marketing strategies for dental clinics.

Typically, freelance digital marketers have experience in areas such as graphic and web design, content creation, social media and email marketing strategies, search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising, affiliate marketing, and link building. 

Why Hire Freelance Marketers?

There are several advantages to recruiting a freelancer instead of internal marketing staff. Here are some of the benefits of hiring a freelance marketer:

1. Ease your marketing workload

Outsourcing work to a freelance marketer on an hourly or per-project basis is a great option if you don’t have a digital marketing team or to support your in-house marketing team by assigning the freelancer certain tasks.

Marketing workloads are often unstable; you will need different levels of effort at different points of the company life cycle. By hiring a freelancer for your digital marketing jobs, you’ll have additional support depending on your needs or current campaigns, whether you need help with product launches, link building, build a landing page or a new content marketing or social media strategy.

This allows you to focus on other critical aspects of your business while ensuring that your marketing efforts are still effective.

2. Gain access to specialized talent from around the world

With the rise of remote work and the ability to work from anywhere, you now have access to a much wider pool of talent than those based in your local area. 

According to recent statistics, approximately 1.57 billion people out of a total global workforce of 3.38 billion are freelancers. This greatly increases your chances of finding and hiring a candidate with the specialized skills needed for your digital marketing role.

You can find freelancers who specialize in growth, paid ads, SEO analysis, content writing, email marketing, lead generation, link building, and social media management. Additionally, professionals often have experience in specific industries (such as finance, technology, and e-commerce) and company types (like startups or SMBs). 

Hiring a freelancer can be a game-changer, especially if you’re looking for a marketer with experience in particular technologies or emerging areas such as AI or machine learning. 

3. Manage varying project sizes with minimal commitment

Since you’re able to work with freelance digital marketers on a project basis, you can scale your marketing efforts up or down as needed without making a long-term commitment. 

This flexibility can be especially useful if you experience fluctuations in demand for your products or services or have specific campaigns that require niche expertise.

4. Hit the ground running with well-prepared experts

Freelance marketers have prior experience working with a broad range of clients, meaning they are often ready to start working on projects immediately.

Moreover, you likely won’t need to set them up with or train them to use software. Many already have access to the latest marketing tools, such as social media listening tools, SEO tools like Ahrefs and Semrush, and email template builders. They are likely also proficient at using Google Analytics and various social media management platforms that can help streamline marketing processes.

Compared with full-time employees, who may require more training and supervision, freelance marketers are usually more independent. They are self-starters, naturally enabling them to be more productive when completing projects. Usually, you will only need to pay them after they deliver work to your satisfaction. 

5. Fill a role for an urgent project

One of the key advantages of hiring freelancers is their immediate availability for urgent projects. Most freelancing platforms allow you to filter for marketers who can start within days or even hours, making it possible to respond quickly to time-sensitive campaigns or unexpected marketing needs.

Unlike full-time employees who require extensive onboarding, freelance marketers typically need minimal setup time. They come equipped with their own tools, established workflows, and the ability to integrate quickly with your existing marketing stack.

This combination of instant availability and limited onboarding requirements means you can launch marketing initiatives faster and with less administrative overhead, making freelancers ideal for urgent projects or filling temporary gaps in your marketing team.

6. Pay less for top talent

Hiring a freelance marketer is an effective way to save on marketing costs. You won’t incur the same overhead costs associated with full-time, in-office employees, such as benefits and other overheads like office expenses. Instead, you’ll only pay for the marketing and creative work your freelancers deliver.

Freelance marketers in many regions outside the US also charge significantly lower rates than domestic talent. For example, you can save 30–70% on salary expenses by hiring LatAm-based professionals. As a result, you can drastically reduce expenses and redirect these funds to other critical business areas.

Freelancer vs. Dedicated Remote Marketer: Which Is Right for You?

If cost savings is your main driver for considering freelancers, hiring a dedicated remote marketer from Latin America can deliver the same financial benefits with better consistency, brand knowledge, and long-term results.

Before diving into where to find freelance talent, it's worth considering whether a freelancer is actually what you need. Many companies start looking for freelancers when they really just want to avoid the high costs of hiring a full-time US-based marketer.

Here's the reality: if you need ongoing marketing support—whether that's managing campaigns, creating consistent content, or developing long-term strategy—a dedicated remote team member often delivers better results than juggling multiple freelancers.

When a dedicated remote marketer makes more sense

• You need consistent brand messaging: Freelancers work with multiple clients, which means they're constantly switching between different brand voices and strategies. A dedicated team member focuses solely on your business, ensuring your messaging stays consistent across all channels and campaigns.
• You want strategic thinking, not just task completion: Freelancers are typically hired for specific projects or tasks. A dedicated marketer becomes invested in your business goals, thinks strategically about your market positioning, and proactively identifies opportunities you might miss.
• You need reliable availability: Freelancers often juggle multiple projects and may not be available when you need urgent revisions or have time-sensitive campaigns. A dedicated team member is there when you need them, working in your time zone and aligned with your business schedule.
• Cost savings are your primary motivation: Here's the thing: if you're mainly looking at freelancers to save money compared to US salaries, you can achieve the same cost benefits (often 30–70% savings) by hiring a dedicated marketing professional from Latin America. According to Near's State of LatAm Hiring Report, companies save an average of $35,000-$55,000 annually per hire compared to US-based salaries.

When freelancers still make sense

Don't get us wrong—freelancers absolutely have their place. 

They're the right choice when you need:

• Short-term projects: One-off campaigns, website redesigns, or specific deliverables with clear endpoints
• Specialized expertise: Niche skills you only need occasionally, like conversion rate optimization audits or specific platform expertise
• Variable workloads: If you only need 5-10 hours of marketing support per week, freelancers offer the flexibility to scale up or down
• Testing new marketing channels: Before committing to a full-time hire, freelancers can help you experiment with new strategies

The key is being honest about what you actually need. 

If you find yourself constantly searching for new freelancers, managing multiple contractors, or wishing you had someone who really understood your business, it might be time to consider building a dedicated remote marketing team instead.

What Are the Best Sites to Find and Hire Great Marketers?

The best places for finding marketing talent fall into three categories: global freelance marketplaces for quick project-based work, social media platforms for relationship building, and marketing staffing and recruiting companies for dedicated team members.

1.Near

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Near (Hire With Near) is a full-service staffing and recruiting agency that helps US companies of all sizes hire top-performing remote talent in Latin America across finance, accounting, sales, software engineering, AI, data, design, marketing, operations, and virtual assistance.

What sets us apart for marketing hires is our deep understanding of what makes marketing teams successful. Instead of just matching skills on paper, we dig into your marketing challenges, campaign objectives, and team dynamics to find professionals who'll actually drive results from day one.

Key features:

• Fast, streamlined hiring process: Receive pre-vetted candidate profiles within 3 days and typically complete hires within 3 weeks
• Full-service support: We handle all compliance, payroll, and onboarding logistics so you can focus on growing your business
• No upfront costs: You never pay anything upfront. Choose between a one-off placement fee or monthly staffing fee, depending on your needs
• Access to 45,000+ pre-vetted candidates: We don't just search our talent pool—we find professionals who meet your exact requirements and expectations
• Real-time collaboration: LatAm marketing professionals work in US time zones, enabling immediate collaboration for campaign pivots, creative reviews, and strategy sessions

2. Upwork

Upwork is an excellent platform for hiring freelance marketing experts who offer a huge range of digital marketing services, such as SEO, social media campaigns, PPC, marketing automation, and content marketing. It has a large pool of qualified freelancers with relevant experience.

On top of that, Upwork has a reputation system that allows you to see the freelancer’s previous work and feedback from other clients, which can help you make an informed decision when hiring. Although it has a great filtering system to ensure you find what you’re looking for, the number of applicants can sometimes be overwhelming.

3. WeWork

WeWork is a freelancer community that connects local freelancers and entrepreneurs through various networking events, community groups, and coworking spaces.

The platform has a vetted network of freelancers who are registered as self-employed and go through a vigorous application process to get accepted.

For example, if you’re looking for a digital marketing consultant, graphic designer, or marketing strategist, you can easily find a vetted freelancer with a strong portfolio and references. One downside of WeWork is that you have to become a member to hire freelancers through the platform. 

4. Fiverr

Like the two platforms mentioned above, Fiverr allows you to connect with freelancers with a wide range of digital marketing skills, such as using content management tools and running social media advertising campaigns.

It offers a unique “gig” system, allowing you to browse and purchase pre-defined packages of services. This system can work well for small business owners with a specific budget in mind, as you can easily compare prices and see what is included in each package.

Best social media platforms

There are also several social media platforms you can leverage to find and connect with the right freelance candidates to help with your digital marketing strategies:

5. LinkedIn

LinkedIn connects millions of professionals worldwide. Unlike some other marketplaces and platforms for freelancers, it doesn’t facilitate the remote hiring process or payments.

Regardless, it offers one highly useful feature that others don’t: the ability to follow freelancers’ profiles and get to know them on a more personal level.

You can assess how they interact with their audience and the type of content they post while evaluating their abilities to attract an audience and market themselves. If you’re seeking freelancers for your projects, consider incorporating LinkedIn outreach strategies into your search.

Keep in mind that LinkedIn is not solely a hiring platform, so it may take a while to find a freelancer available to take on an additional project.

Final Thoughts

Most companies looking to hire freelance marketers are really just trying to solve one problem: getting quality marketing support without the massive cost of a US-based hire.

If that sounds like your situation, take a step back and honestly assess what you actually need. Are you looking for someone to knock out a few one-off projects, or do you need consistent marketing support that understands your business and grows with you?

For short-term projects or specialized tasks, the freelance platforms we've covered will serve you well. But if you're constantly cycling through freelancers, dealing with inconsistent quality, or wishing you had someone who really gets your brand, it's time to consider a different approach.

The smartest companies we work with have realized that hiring a dedicated marketing professional from Latin America gives them everything they wanted from freelancers—significant cost savings, specialized expertise, and flexibility—plus the consistency and strategic thinking that freelancers simply can't provide when they're juggling multiple clients.

Don't settle for the freelancer shuffle when what you really need is a marketing team member who's invested in your success.

Ready to explore your options? Get matched with pre-vetted marketing professionals who can start making an impact on your business within weeks, not months.