BenchPress 2021 Benchmarks for UK Agencies
We Help Your Agency Reach New Heights
Switch from multiple tools and spreadsheets to one scalable agency management system.
BenchPress is an annual agency benchmarking survey launched in 2012 by The Wow Company.
As the UK’s largest report in which independent agency owners share business insights, the yearly results help agencies benchmark themselves against their peers.
Due to the large number of agencies that took part in BenchPress this year (over 2000!), the results were split into a few reports which you can download at this link.
The main topics covered were:
People: how working habits have changed since the start of the pandemic, what the future holds for agency businesses, and tracking productivity and performance in a remote working environment.
Pricing: how agencies are charging for their services.
Profit: how it’s been impacted by the pandemic and how agencies are performing against gross profit %.
Below, we bring you some of the most interesting findings of BenchPress 2021.
Key Profit Findings of UK Agencies With Over £1m in Annual Revenue
Image from BenchPress 2021
When UK agencies with over £1m in annual revenue were asked whether they were profitable in 2020, their responses were:
80% made a profit,
6% broke even,
and 14% made a loss.
These responses indicate that regardless of global economic instability and uncertainty, agencies need to be able to manage and forecast their profitability.
Key Statistics of UK Agencies With Under £1m in Annual Revenue
Some key stats of UK agencies with under £1m in annual revenue were:
1. Hourly rates increased in 2020.
The average blended hourly rate for agencies under £1m was £86.
2. Agency owners earned more in 2020.
The average annual income for agency owners under £1m was £50,250 in 2020, which is around £2,000 more than in 2019.
3. Smaller agencies are still fragile.
Even 15% of smaller agencies only have one month or less of their overhead as cash in the bank. Overhead greatly affects agency profitability and having such a small back up is a dangerous position for agencies to be in. Learn how to calculate overhead costs for an agency.
Productive Helps Agencies Shape the Future of Their Business
As an end-to-end agency management tool, Productive serves agencies and professional service businesses around the world. For a free 14-day trial and demo of the tool, book a call with our Sales team.
