In January and February of this year, we perfectly captured what UK agency life looked like, through our annual agency benchmarking survey, BenchPress. Since then, the impact of COVID-19 has been felt by every single agency in some way. That is why in April, we launched a short survey looking at the impact of COVID-19 on agencies so far. Download all the reports for your agency.
About BenchPress
Started in 2012, our agency benchmark report has grown to become the largest survey of independent agency owners in the UK. Agencies of all shapes, sizes, locations and sectors have participated in it, providing a benchmark for agency owners all over the UK. Thank you to everyone who took part – the results are fascinating.
New for 2020: Three agency reports
This year, thanks to the large number of agencies that took part in BenchPress, we’ve been able to split the survey results based on the size of the agency. In total, you get three reports:
- Benchmarks for £1m+ agencies
- Benchmarks for agencies under £1m
- Impact of COVID-19 on agencies so far
This is an important step in the evolution of BenchPress and agency benchmarking. Our long-term vision is that every agency will be able to benchmark themselves against their peers based on their size, location, and the type of agency that they are. We’ve made a big leap towards that this year and, as more agencies take part each year, we’ll do more analysis for you.
If you received the BenchPress reports earlier in the year, these have now been updated to reflect the current climate.
Don’t own an agency?
We have a specific COVID-19 report for you.
The topics we covered in the COVID-19 survey
Future outlook of agencies
How confident do agency owners feel about the future? What will change about how agencies work, how they price, and the services they offer to clients?
Impact on fee income and resourcing
What impact are agencies seeing on fee income and resourcing? In regards to their team, what actions have they already taken, and what do they anticipate taking?
Impact on cash flow and funding
What is the impact on cash flow and what strategies are working? What percentage of agencies have applied for funding and how many have been successful?
The topics we covered in BenchPress 2020
Success, and how to measure it
What the top-performing agencies measure and the information they share with their teams.
Building a profitable and sustainable agency
What’s required to ensure your agency is in the best shape possible, whatever the market conditions.
Selling and buying agencies
What’s important to people who plan to sell or buy an agency, including how to make your agency more valuable.
Watch our webinar launching the results
What other people say
We genuinely look forward to BenchPress every year. It gives us detailed external validations on our strengths & weaknesses amongst our peers, and we use those insights to double-down on our positives & build plans to improve our negatives. And all of that makes us a stronger, more stable & more profitable agency for the year ahead.
The headlines
It's challenging running an agency right now
79% of agencies grew turnover in 2018. This dropped to just 63% in 2019 and will drop again in 2020.
Agencies are in better shape to cope with these challenges
Well over half of agencies (58%) have three months or more of overhead as cash in the bank. This is up from 49% in 2019.
Everyone wants to run a profitable and sustainable agency
We explore what this looks like (and tips on how to do it)
Get your copies of BenchPress 2020 and the COVID-19 impact report
Fill in the form below and we’ll send you links to all three reports
We have partnered with Mailchimp to help agencies to be more profitable and sustainable. Learn more.
Want to know more about a particular benchmark?
Email benchpress@thewowcompany.com and we’ll provide you with further insight.
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