Contents
- Inside our Data Shots: Your guide to strategic intelligence
- Key stats: The overview
- Financials: Performance metrics that matter
- Growth: Understand market dynamics
- In focus: Regional and economic impact
- Investment: Follow the money
- Making our Data Shots work for you
- Looking ahead: The future of our Data Shots
- Find out more…
Over the past year, as we have been mapping the agency sector in all its complexity, it has become ever more clear to us that comprehensive, accurate data is not only vitally important for decision-making, but that we need to offer tools that reflect the breadth and depth of our industry.
With our subscription service we launch our Data Shots, each providing detailed, actionable insights into 28 subsectors based on the type of services agencies offer. This is only the start, as we have more to come… but the first question we need to answer is: What is a Data Shot and how can it be used?
Inside our Data Shots: Your guide to strategic intelligence
Alongside our reports, which delve into agency sector trends and offer commentary from industry experts, our Data Shots are at the core of our offer to subscribers. They provide unprecedented access to benchmarking data and market insights, and each Data Shot provides a comprehensive view of a specific agency subsector, from Amazon/Marketplace specialists to Website and UX/UI design agencies.
Each Data Shot is organised into five key chapters, with each delivering specific metrics and insight to help drive your strategic decision-making, whether you are an agency leader, advisor, investor or service-provider. We will publish our Data Shots four times a year, with our current schedule of March, June, September and December.
Key stats: The overview
This section provides essential context for understanding market position. It reveals the total number of agencies working in a particular subsector, how this number has evolved over time and what percentage of the overall agency sector this accounts for. It also offers a breakdown of the distribution of agencies across different size categories based on headcount and turnover. These metrics can aid understanding of market concentration and identify potential opportunities in unserved segments.
Number of search and performance agencies by size (headcount)
About the data
This shows the number of agencies in the subsector when it is subdivided by agency size based on the number of employees. Where our mapping has no data, it is usually because there has been a lag in reporting an agency’s employee numbers – especially the case for new agencies – or there is insufficient data (less than three years) for The Data City’s machine-learning platform to make an accurate best estimate.
If part of the chart is empty, this means that there were no agencies mapped in that particular interval.
Financials: Performance metrics that matter
The financial chapter provides crucial benchmarking data for agencies that work in a specific subsector, including average headcount and turnover figures, also segmented by agency size and compared to the agency sector as a whole. Perhaps most valuably, this chapter also delivers our first metric to help evaluate operational performance against industry-wide and subsector standards. Turnover-per-head will be supplemented over the coming months with other key ratios and other measures of efficiency. This is an important stage on our roadmap.
Turnover-per-head of digital transformation agencies by size (headcount)
About the data
This shows turnover-per-head for all agencies compared to agencies in the subsector when it is subdivided by agency size based on headcount. The only agencies included here are those for which there is both employee number and turnover available.
Our data on turnover is provided by our partners at The Data City, based on financial reporting to Companies House. As there is a lag in financial reporting, The Data City uses sophisticated modelling to provide estimated turnover for the current year’s values. Where this is impossible, no data is reported.
Naturally, turnover-per-head should be treated carefully. Some types of agency, such as media, are more likely to include media billings and other campaign costs in the turnover figure they submit at Companies House. Our roadmap includes the development of benchmarking metrics to overcome this including revenue per head, gross profit and net asset value.
If part of the chart is empty, this means that there were no agencies mapped in that particular interval.
Growth: Understand market dynamics
Our growth metrics, presented in our ‘Growth Traffic Light’, offer a dynamic view of sector health and evolution. Using growth metrics based on annual headcount and turnover growth by our partners at The Data City, we can categorise agencies by subsector and size into five growth bands. From the percentage of agencies that are Shrinking Fast via Stable to Growing Fast, these metrics help understanding of market momentum and identify where the greatest opportunities lie.
Growth rate across all translation and localisation agencies
About the data
Our ‘Growth Traffic Light’ breaks down the percentage of all agencies and agencies in the subsector that land in one of five growth rate categories. These growth rates are based on the annual headcount and turnover growth of any given agency we have mapped.
Employee count data is more common than turnover data, and to account for the lag in reporting, our partners at The Data City use sophisticated modelling to create estimates. Employee count as the basis for estimating growth is used because it is the measure that best accounts for inflation.
If a section of the Growth Traffic Light is empty, it means there are no agencies mapped for this particular category. Of course, if there are only a handful of agencies in a given category, this will have a dramatic impact on how the data is presented.
In focus: Regional and economic impact
This chapter provides an overview of the geographic and economic context for any given subsector, mapping agency distribution and clusters across UK regions and quantifying each subsector’s economic impact through total employment, turnover and GVA metrics. These insights are particularly useful for expansion planning and market positioning.
Where are the conversion agency clusters?
About the data
Here we present the number of agencies in the subsector in each of the United Kingdom’s ITL1 regions. This stands for International Territorial Level, a geocode standard for subdividing the United Kingdom for statistical purposes and is used by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Our partners at The Data City provide us with this data for agencies based on registered company address.
Investment: Follow the money
Track investment patterns through data on both private investment and Innovate UK funding, to build understanding of where strategic capital is flowing and identify potential opportunities for investment or funding strategies.
Total Innovate UK funding raised by video and production agencies
of total Innovate UK funding for UK agencies
About the data
Innovate UK funding is based on the total value of Innovate UK grants won by agencies we have mapped. Here we present the value of Innovate UK grant funding of all agencies mapped in the subsector as a percentage of the total grant funding of the agency sector as a whole.
Making our Data Shots work for you
Whether you are running a boutique creative agency, managing a large integrated service provider, or providing advice and support for agencies across the sector, our Data Shots offer crucial benchmarking insights. Compare performance metrics against sector averages, identify efficiency opportunities and make informed decisions about growth strategies and service expansion.
For investors and mergers & acquisitions specialists, our Data Shots provide the detailed market intelligence that is needed for sophisticated investment decisions. Use them to analyse subsector growth patterns, identify high-performing niches and support due diligence processes with comprehensive market data. You can also contact us to request bespoke research and we can also develop a personalised Data Shot with your own specific data requirements.
Our Data Shots also provide insight for business-to-business service providers, as a first step to understanding potential client segments, agency distribution, growth patterns and investment trends, all of which can help target services more effectively and identify emerging market positions.
For industry bodies, journalists and policymakers, our Data Shots offer access to comprehensive data on sector and subsector composition, economic impact and growth trends. Identify some of the stories from the sector, inform policy decisions and use them to support sector development initiatives.
Looking ahead: The future of our Data Shots
While our 28 Data Shots currently provide unprecedented insight into service-based subsectors, we’re already working hard on expanding our coverage for subscribers. Future releases will include new categorisations based on client industries – from automotive to tourism – as well as thematic Data Shots based on regional clusters and emerging agency sector trends.
Find out more…
If you would like to learn more about how we get our data and definitions for all the data points we have mentioned in this article, please check out our FAQs page.
If you would like access our Data Shots, explore our subscription options here.
If you are intrigued but would like to learn more, you’ll find our schedule of free webinars where we introduce our report, Data Shots and future plans here.