Sector data specialist Agency by Agency claims that its new tool will, for the first time, provide comprehensive data mapping and insight into the UK’s under-analysed marketing, advertising, creative, and media agency sector.
South Yorkshire-based Agency by Agency says that, for years, the sector has been operating without a full picture of its size, impact, and growth, making it difficult for agencies, investors, and policymakers to make truly informed decisions.
That changes in 2025, with the launch of Agency by Agency’s comprehensive data mapping and insights platform, revealing the sector’s true scale, key trends, and future opportunities.
Among the key takeaways, Agency by Agency’s sophisticated data mapping tools have revealed that, in the last decade, the number of agencies in the UK has almost doubled, with over 25,495 active agencies across the sector. This rapid expansion highlights the industry’s growing influence and economic impact, backed for the first time by comprehensive data insights.
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The analysis further reveals that, across the 25,495 agencies active, they employ 265,000 people with a total turnover of £34.9bn. The data mapping indicates that the UK agency sector contributes £20.5bn in GVA with a GVA per agency employee of £77,438.
“This new way of analysing our sector has huge implications.” said Tom Salmon, co-founder of Agency by Agency. “The agency sector is one of the UK’s most precious assets and with our new methodology it’s finally possible to see trends, opportunities and threats across the whole of it. We want to put the data in as many agency leaders, investors, and industry professionals’ hands as possible to empower informed decisions, whether they’re looking to scale, differentiate, evolve, acquire, or optimise performance.”
Based on years of agency experience and highly sophisticated technology, Agency by Agency launches access to its insights by subscription this week and will set a new standard for how agencies and professionals across the marketing ecosystem access and use performance data. The reports and data shots are designed to address the most pressing questions within the sector: How big is the UK marketing, advertising, creative and media agency sector? How many agencies are there? In which fields do they specialise? How has it developed? Where is the growth? What is it worth?
Clive Mishon, co-chair & Founder at the Alliance of Independent Agencies said: “Being able to now deep dive into the agency landscape in such granular detail is going to be a game changer. And we are not just talking about a few types of agencies – the detail of the agency types, in such a fast moving industry, reflects that this study is not looking back but is very much live data.”
The insights from Agency by Agency have been made possible through funding from Innovate UK and the collaboration with The Data City, a leading data analytics partner. Using The Data City’s cutting-edge machine learning platform, Agency by Agency has developed a new and sophisticated way of classifying the UK’s marketing, advertising, creative, and media agency sectors. This methodology recognises the diversity of the industry, providing nuanced data that reflects the varied services agencies offer.
Paul Mead, chair of We Discover and Beacon lead at the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising added: “This unique data set from Agency by Agency demonstrates just how critical agencies are to the UK creative industries. At last we can shine a detailed light on the industry as a whole whilst highlighting some of the challenges around scaling agencies and where opportunities exist to provide investment and support”
The reports categorise agencies based on the services they provide, mapping 28 distinct agency subsectors which are developing all the time with the support of people working in the sector. New categories and niches will be added on an ongoing basis, and Agency by Agency is working with the industry to help prioritise these developments. This granular approach gives stakeholders a deeper understanding of specific market segments, including areas such as design and branding, SEO, PR and communications and market research.
The 28 Agency subsectors featured in the reports are:
- Amazon/Marketplace
- Behavioural research and behaviour change
- Brand strategy
- Content
- Conversion
- Copywriting
- Creative and advertising
- Customer experience (CX)
- Data and marketing analytics
- Design and branding
- Digital
- Digital product design
- Digital transformation
- Direct marketing
- E-commerce
- Experiential and events
- Influencer
- Integrated and full service
- Internal comms and employee engagement
- Market research
- Media
- PR and communications
- Search and performance
- SEO
- Social media
- Translation and localisation
- Video and production
- Website and UX/UI design
This in-depth approach to agency classification enables subscribers to drill down into specific subsectors, uncover trends, and benchmark performance within each category. With such rich, nuanced data, subscribers will be empowered to make informed decisions.
Agency by Agency claims to provide the only “comprehensive benchmarking data and insight into the UK’s marketing, advertising, creative and media agency sector,” created by the sector for the sector.
