FAQs

For twenty years, the team behind Agency by Agency have been agency leaders, advisors and have worked within the UK’s marketing, advertising, creative and media agency sector. We have experienced and understood that one of the main challenges for this dynamic and ever-changing sector has been the lack of accurate and comprehensive data and information upon which decisions can be made.

Working together with our partners at The Data City and with a funding grant from Innovate UK, we have developed the first comprehensive data and insight into the UK agency sector, for agency leaders and advisors, investors and B2B service providers, industry bodies and policy-makers. We have been able to accurately map the sector for the first time, allowing us to offer benchmarking data, insight and bespoke research solutions to help answer the key questions stakeholders have.

Meet the team

In today’s rapidly evolving UK marketing, advertising, creative and media agency sector, accurate data is an essential tool for strategic decision-making. But until now, there has been a lack of accurate data on the sector for agencies, investors and other sector stakeholders, making it hard to fully understand and navigate the sector effectively.

Comprehensive data, when combined with insight from within the agency sector, offers a tool for stakeholders to understand market dynamics, identify emerging trends, benchmark performance and make evidence-based decisions.

Find out more

Agency by Agency can help agencies, investors, B2B service providers and industry bodies make informed and intelligent decisions in a number of different ways, from a subscription to our comprehensive benchmarking data and reports, to bespoke research that helps you answer the specific questions.

For small agencies, this can mean a better understanding of their market position and service offerings. For medium agencies, this can help inform growth and scalability decisions. For large agencies, this can enable macro-level strategic planning and acquisition strategies. Investors can conduct more thorough due diligence, B2B service providers can better target their offerings, and industry bodies and policy-makers can develop more informed strategies to support sector growth and innovation.

Agency by Agency subscribers have access to our Agency by Agency Industry Report and our exclusive Data Shots, an overview of benchmarking data for different types of agency based on agency services and the type of clients agencies work with. Our Data Shots offer the most powerful benchmarking data the sector has ever seen, whether you are interested in the number of agencies offering specific services, average turnover, headcount or revenue per head, estimated growth and investment funding, GVA and more. Our Data Shots are regularly updated to make sure subscribers are making decisions with the most accurate information.

Subscribers also have access to our full library of articles and reports exploring sector trends. Does the size of an agency determine performance? What type of agencies are recruiting? Where is the growth in the sector? What types of agency are attracting the most investment?

You can find out more about subscriptions to Agency by Agency, including prices, here.

While subscribers have access to the main data points to benchmark performance and insight across the different types of agency and the sector as a whole, our bespoke research allows agency owners, investors and those offering services to the industry the opportunity for insight and comparison even in truly niche parts of the sector.

Who are the high growth agencies? Who should be on my shortlist for acquisition? Who are our latest new competitors? What clients are they working with and how are they differentiating themselves from us? Are my competitor agencies growing or shrinking in size? Who are the agencies working in a specific subsector and/or location?

If you are interested, please contact Tom and let us know how we can help. (Tom.Salmon@AgencybyAgency.com).

Working together with our data partners at The Data City, we build our insight on highly sophisticated data mapping tools. Using The Data City’s industry-leading machine-learning platform, we have developed a new and sophisticated way of classifying the UK’s marketing, advertising, creative and media agency sector, recognising the diversity of the industry.

This was done by moving beyond the existing company classifications to create a new taxonomy via training The Data City’s machine-learning tool to identify and classify agencies in different categories based on what they do and who they do it for.

The Data City platform pulls together data from a variety of sources to offer in-depth financial information, company records, investment data, growth measures and more. Working together with their partners, The Data City collects and collates data from Companies House, Creditsafe, Dealroom.co, Lightcast, Innovate UK, 360 Giving and more.

When combined with our proprietary classification taxonomy, this allows us to provide Agency by Agency subscribers and research clients a scope and depth of information that was never previously available to agencies, investors, brands, publishers or industry bodies. You will find more on our data points and the definitions we use below.

We have mapped the UK agency sector in a number of ways. We provide data and reporting for agencies based on the services they provide, on their target market, based on their size and based on their location. You can find more about how we define different types of agencies below.

We publish our updated Data Shots every three months, and all articles and reports are based on the most recent publication of agency data, in cooperation with our partners at The Data City. Our normal schedule for publishing new data is March, June, September and December. We combine our data with our other sources, process it and only publish after a series of manual checks. All published material is clearly dated so that subscribers know from when the data comes.

To address the limitations of Companies House data, particularly for smaller agencies that submit micro-accounts and limited financial details, we use available information such as employee data to estimate turnover and growth values. Smaller agencies often report their employee numbers even when comprehensive financial data is unavailable. This helps us fill the gaps and provide a comprehensive picture of the sector.

Agency by Agency maps the sector by creating subsector lists of different agency types. These become the basis for our Data Shots. We offer Data Shots for different types of agency based on the services they provide (Website and UX/UI services, PR and communications, Video and production, Search and performance marketing etc) as well as the types of clients agencies work for (the tourism sector, automotive, fashion and so on).

The total number given for any type of agency is based on the overall number of agencies on the subsector list. Of course, agencies who offer a range of services or work across different subsectors, will appear in more than one list and will therefore have an interest in the benchmarking data and reporting on a number of different types of agency.

We map the number of agencies in the UK agency sector together with our partners at The Data City, whose sophisticated machine-learning tool allows us to find and categorise active agencies after adjustment for dormant companies and those in liquidation or administration. Depending on the individual agency and the services they offer, agencies can appear in more than one of our subsector lists.

Headcount is the total number of employees in an agency. Data for employees / headcount is provided by our partners at The Data City based on reporting to Companies House. As there can be a lag in reporting, The Data City’s machine-learning platform can make an accurate best estimate. If an agency has less than three years reported data on employee number, no estimate is made and no data is reported.

Data for turnover is provided by our partners at The Data City based on financial reporting to Companies House. As there can be 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 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.

Turnover-per-head is calculated using total turnover and total number of employees. Data for turnover is provided by our partners at The Data City based on financial reporting to Companies House. As there can be 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 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.

Data for employees / headcount is provided by our partners at The Data City based on reporting to Companies House. As there can be a lag in reporting, The Data City’s machine-learning platform can make an accurate best estimate. If an agency has less than three years reported data on employee number, no estimate is made and no data is reported.

Growth rates are provided by our partners at The Data City and 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, The Data City’s machine-learning platform can make an accurate best estimate. If an agency has less than three years reported data on employee number, no estimate is made and no growth data is reported.

Growth rates are provided by our partners at The Data City and 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, The Data City’s machine-learning platform can make an accurate best estimate. If an agency has less than three years reported data on employee number, no estimate is made and no growth data is reported.

Our ‘Growth Traffic Light’ breaks down the percentage of agencies in any given group that land in one of five growth rate categories: Shrinking fast (below -20% annual growth), Shrinking (-20% to -10% annual growth), Stable (-10% to 10% annual growth), Growing (10% to 20% annual growth) and Growing Fast (over 20% annual growth). If part of the chart is empty, this means that there were no agencies mapped in that particular interval.

GVA stands for ‘Gross Value Added’ and our GVA data is provided by our partners at The Data City and is estimated at the company level using official GVA (as defined by ONS) and employment data.

Agency location can be presented in a number of different ways.

For regional distribution of agencies we use 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.

In our Data Shots and reporting, we present data on total investment funding and Innovate UK funding for different types and size of agency. Our partners at The Data City provide us with total investment funding data as according to Dealroom. Total Innovate UK funding is based on the total value of Innovate UK grants won by agencies in our lists.

Gender data for founders, leaders and directors of agencies is provided for us by our partners at The Data City, based on declared titles of officers at Companies House and the UK Government definition of Persons of Significant Control. The Data City does not use machine-learning to estimate gender.

A ‘women-founded agency’ is a company with officers appointed as a director within two years of it being incorporated. An agency can be only founded by women or men, or it can have mixed founders. A ‘women-led agency’ is a company with more active women directors than men directors.

We map the number of agencies in the UK agency sector together with our partners at The Data City, whose sophisticated machine-learning tool allows us to find and categorise active agencies after adjustment for dormant companies and those in liquidation or administration.

We can then divide the list in a number of ways. Based on agency registration at Companies House, we can identify which agencies belong to one of the ‘Big Seven’ – Dentsu Group Inc, Publicis Groupe SA, Stagwell Inc, The Interpublic Group of Companies Inc, Vivendi SA, Omnicom Group Inc, WPP PLC – holding companies, and which can be classified as independent.