What if growth isn’t the goal? Rethinking success in the agency sector

Our growth data reveals fascinating contradictions across our sector. Some of the fastest growing agency subsectors and regions show high levels of volatility, while the vast majority of agencies fall within the ‘Stable’ category, suggesting that some at least might be working towards measures of success other than growth. The assumption that growth equals success runs deep in business culture, but as we face the realities of a complex and rapidly changing agency sector, difficult economic conditions, as well as environment and social challenges, perhaps the real question isn’t about how we grow better, but whether growth is the right measure of agency success at all.

What should we measure instead?

Across different industries, business success measurement has been evolving beyond traditional financial metrics. The B Corp movement, for all its recent challenges, has nearly 8,000 certified companies worldwide, employing more than 700,000 people in over ninety different countries. B Corp certification requires performance measurement across five key areas: governance, workers, community, environment and customers. 

In the creative industries, companies routinely track employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS – how likely someone is to recommend their current workplace to others) alongside revenue growth in the understanding that talent retention can directly impact long-term performance. Technology firms monitor team utilisation, project delivery efficiency and client satisfaction scores as leading indicators of sustainable success.

The Social Return on Investment (SROI) methodology, measuring the extra-financial value and the social and environmental impact of a company’s work, offers another lens for evaluation. Rather than simply looking at how much the company has grown, the question centres on the value that was created and for whom. 

Some agencies that we know and work with are already experimenting with broader success metrics: employee wellbeing scores, client relationship health, work-life balance indicators and community impact measures, all of which have proven to be leading indicators of future financial performance.

Beyond the bottom line: financial resilience over growth

Traditional business metrics might have focused on revenue growth and profit margins, but financial health can be measured in different ways. Cash flow sustainability, revenue diversification and profit consistency often matter more than pure growth rates.

Consider two agencies. One is growing at 30% annually, but is dependent on a single large client for 60% of revenue, operating on 5% margins with constant cash flow pressure. Another is growing at 8% with a diverse client base, 20% margins and six months of operating expenses in reserve. Which represents genuine financial success?

The most financially resilient agencies that we have come across in our research are those which track metrics like months of runway, client concentration risk and profit sustainability, rather than just speed of growth. They optimise for stability that enables investment in teams and people, quality work and long-term relationships, rather than feast-or-famine cycles that plague many high-growth agencies.

When people flourish, performance follows

Employee satisfaction and retention has an important impact on agency performance. The metrics that matter here are things like work-life balance indicators, professional development investment, employee Net Promoter Scores and cultural health assessments, all of which can provide deeper insights into agency sustainability and help prevent the negative impact on culture, confidence and talent attraction that happens when things go wrong. 

Agencies can measure whether a team is flourishing by tracking learning and development spend per employee, internal promotion rates, flexible working uptake and employee wellbeing scores. Often, investments in these areas correlate with reduced recruitment costs, higher productivity and stronger client relationships, not least given the fact that employee turnover rates can be a key reason for clients losing confidence in their current agency.

All of this suggests that prioritising people creates measurable business value in the long term.

Client relationships as competitive advantage

While some agencies obsess over new business metrics, others focus on client relationship depth and satisfaction. Client retention rates, Net Promoter Scores, project delivery efficiency and relationship longevity often predict future performance better than growth statistics.

Agencies that excel in these measurements are interested in things that lie beyond billable hours and project volume. They are tracking the evolution of their client satisfaction and project quality scores, repeat business percentages and relationship depth indicators. And beyond the financial performance gains that strong client relationships bring, these indicators also provide actionable insights for improvement.

Purpose and impact as a business strategy

Our mapping of the Social purpose and sustainability subsector, in our special report and forthcoming Data Shot, reveals compelling evidence that prioritising purpose alongside profit doesn’t require the sacrifice of commercial success. With almost half of these agencies Growing or Growing Fast, they demonstrate that values-driven approaches can drive success even when measured in traditional ways.

Agencies who are interested in measuring purpose and impact can use a variety of social and environmental impact indicators, ethical client choice frameworks and community engagement metrics. They can track the proportion of work that creates positive social outcomes, measure their environmental footprint and assess their contribution to causes they care about.

Far from being ‘nice to have’, purpose and impact measurements can often have a positive effect on employee engagement, client satisfaction and long-term business resilience. 

Leadership and culture as a foundation

The health of agency leadership and culture underpins all other success metrics. Leadership effectiveness, decision-making transparency, cultural health and values alignment create the foundation for sustainable performance.

One way forward-thinking agencies measure leadership is through 360-degree feedback, team engagement pulses and cultural health assessments. They track psychological safety indicators, values alignment scores and decision-making effectiveness rather than relying on hierarchical structures or management control. 

Agencies with strong cultural foundations can also show better financial resilience, higher employee satisfaction, stronger client relationships and more consistent delivery.

Defining success on your own terms

The diversity of agency business models in our sector suggests there’s no single pathway to success. A boutique creative studio, a purpose-driven consultancy, a lifestyle digital agency and a high-growth performance marketing company might all be successful, but they require fundamentally different measurement frameworks.

The key lies in intentional choice rather than default assumptions or a reliance on sector-wide benchmarks. The agencies that thrive long-term are often those that consciously choose their success criteria rather than simply accepting growth as the default goal. They develop measurement frameworks that align with their values, communicate these clearly to their teams and clients, and make strategic decisions that reinforce their chosen definition of success.

What would change about your agency if you stopped measuring success by growth rate alone and started measuring it by the metrics that actually matter to your team, your clients, and your community? 

Perhaps the most important question isn’t whether your agency is growing fast enough, but whether you’re growing toward something that genuinely matters to you.

FAQs

For an overview of our methodology, the work with our partners at The Data City, and a glossary of definitions for all our data points, please take a look at our FAQs page.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash