2025 Foxwell Founders Digital Agency Benchmarking Survey
Purpose
This post translates the findings of the 2025 Foxwell Founders Agency Benchmarking Survey into actionable guidance for agency owners and marketing leaders. It serves to:
Benchmark your agency against top performers.
Identify growth opportunities.
Improve service models, retention, pricing, and creative strategies.
The survey includes responses from 540+ agency leaders across 30+ countries, representing $400M/month in Meta ad spend. It offers a rare look into the digital advertising ecosystem at scale.
Curious about how other agencies are scaling smart in 2025?
We’ve got full survey breakdowns, SOPs, and benchmarking tools inside the membership so you’re not guessing, you’re building with clarity.
AGENCY SERVICE MIX & POSITIONING
Survey Insight:
Top Services Offered:
Meta Advertising (30%)
Google Ads (24%)
Creative Production (13%)
Email Marketing (11%)
Strategic Recommendations:
Double Down on Meta & Google: These two channels dominate agency service portfolios. Prioritize staff training, playbooks, and tooling around these platforms.
Build a Creative System: With 13% of agencies focused on creative production and the top 3 creative pain points being scale, ideation, and approvals, it's clear there is opportunity in systematizing creative ops.
Service Differentiation: For agencies competing in Meta/Google, differentiation will come from creative execution and client experience, not the channel itself.
✔ Pro Tip: Position creative production as a performance lever, not a stand-alone deliverable. Tie creative services to ROAS/CPA outcomes to increase perceived value.
CLIENT TYPES, TENURE & RETENTION
Survey Insight:
1. 31% of agencies surveyed focus on E-commerce
🔹 Interpretation: E-commerce continues to be a primary market for agencies, likely due to its performance-driven environment and the ability to directly tie marketing actions to revenue outcomes. Survey respondents were also all Foxwell Founders Members, which is a membership heavily focused on e-commerce and direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising, so this metric is not standard across all digital marketing agencies.
🔹 Recommendation: Agencies serving E-commerce brands should emphasize scalable creative systems, conversion optimization, and full-funnel strategies including CRO and email. Consider offering bundled services that align with seasonal sales cycles (e.g., Q4/BFCM prep).
🔹 Tip: Use product catalog ads, dynamic creatives, and AI-powered product feed tools to drive performance for E-comm clients.
2. 22% of agencies focus on Lead Generation
🔹 Interpretation: Lead generation represents a significant niche that is often more B2B-oriented or high-ticket, involving longer sales cycles and heavier nurturing needs.
🔹 Recommendation: Build systems for high-quality lead qualification and nurturing (e.g., automated workflows, CRM integration, gated content). Focus on education-based ad funnels to position clients as thought leaders.
🔹 Tip: Track cost per sales-qualified lead (SQL), not just CPL, to more accurately gauge performance and retain clients longer.
3. 67% of agencies retain clients for 3+ years
🔹 Interpretation: High retention rates suggest that top-performing agencies prioritize long-term strategy, effective communication, and strong onboarding processes.
🔹 Recommendation: Standardize your onboarding and account management processes. Use recurring strategy reviews to stay aligned with client goals and prevent churn.
🔹 Tip: Introduce a client health scoring system that measures satisfaction, results, and engagement monthly to flag at-risk accounts before issues escalate.
✔ Recommendations:
Prioritize High-Lifetime Value Niches: E-comm and lead gen offer ongoing testing and optimization opportunities. Design retainer models that match.
Create Stickiness Through Reporting & Strategy: Long client tenure is driven by strong onboarding, expectation-setting, and strategic communication.
✔ Retention Tip: Automate post-launch check-ins and use quarterly business reviews (QBRs) to reinforce your strategic value. Align KPIs with client business goals, not just platform metrics.
LEAD GENERATION & SALES PIPELINE
Survey Insight 1:
60% of agencies receive 0–5 inbound leads/month
🔹 Interpretation: A significant number of agencies are experiencing low inbound volume, which limits sales pipeline predictability and scalability. This implies a reliance on referrals or inconsistent outreach efforts.
🔹 Recommendation: Develop a consistent lead generation engine based on long-form content (e.g., case studies, email newsletters, LinkedIn posts), organic SEO strategies, and lead magnets.
🔹 Tip: Schedule a weekly cadence for content publishing to establish authority and increase search/discovery touchpoints.
Survey Insight 2:
64% of agencies close under 40% of their leads
🔹 Interpretation: Many agencies are struggling with sales conversion, possibly due to misaligned prospects, poor qualification processes, or weak sales scripts.
🔹 Recommendation: Create a structured sales process including a qualification framework (e.g., BANT or GPCT), objection handling scripts, and a discovery call checklist.
🔹 Tip: Record and review sales calls monthly to identify improvement areas and train your team on language that builds trust and closes deals.
✔ Recommendations:
Referrals Still Dominate: Focus on creating a client referral program. Equip happy clients with templates or incentives to refer.
Content = Long-Term Moat: Agencies that create content (emails, podcasts, LinkedIn posts) are seeing compounding lead flow over time.
Conversion Playbooks: Improve sales scripts by addressing the #1 deal breakers: budget, in-housing, and performance concerns.
✔ Lead Gen Tip: Offer low-friction entry points like free audits, strategy calls, or creative teardown videos to increase your inbound pipeline and build trust.
PROFITABILITY & REVENUE STRUCTURE
Survey Insight 1:
69% of revenue is recurring
🔹 Interpretation: A majority of agency revenue is based on recurring retainers, indicating a preference for stability and long-term partnerships over one-off projects.
🔹 Recommendation: Strengthen recurring revenue streams by bundling services (e.g., performance + creative + reporting) into monthly retainers. Incorporate performance bonuses to align incentives.
🔹 Tip: Reduce churn by offering tiered service packages that scale with the client's growth stage.
Survey Insight 2:
46% of agencies have 30%+ profit margins
🔹 Interpretation: Nearly half of agencies surveyed are achieving strong margins, suggesting operational efficiency, clear service scope, and strong pricing strategies.
🔹 Recommendation: Audit your current SOPs, pricing, and labor allocation. Agencies with tighter scopes and niche services tend to outperform on margins.
🔹 Tip: Track profit margin by service line, not just agency-wide. This reveals where you’re over-delivering or undercharging.
Strategic Contrast:
Recurring Revenue vs. Profit Margin
🔹 Interpretation: While recurring revenue provides stability, it doesn’t automatically equal high profit. Agencies should assess whether their retainers are priced appropriately to support margin goals.
🔹 Recommendation: Revisit retainer pricing every 6–12 months. Introduce value-based pricing when possible, especially for high-impact deliverables like strategy or creative.
🔹 Tip: Build in scope review checkpoints into your contracts to adjust fees based on workload or performance results.
✔ Recommendations:
Recurring > Project Work: Build pricing models that reward long-term retention (e.g., fixed + performance incentives).
Margin Mindset: Agencies with better SOPs, niche focus, and clear client boundaries tend to have higher margins.
✔ Margin Tip: Track labor hours per client per month. If clients consistently exceed scope, implement change order requests or renegotiate retainers.
Building an agency? Whether you're solo or scaling, we have resources tailored for your next stage from pricing to hiring to creative ops.
CHURN REDUCTION & CLIENT EDUCATION
Survey Insight:
58% of agencies have less than 20% annual churn
Top reasons for churn:
Moved in-house (29%)
Budget (23%)
Switched to bigger agency (19%)
Performance concerns (16%)
✔ Recommendations:
Create a Hybrid Retention Strategy: Offer strategic oversight or creative services to brands going in-house.
Transparent Onboarding & Metrics: Show clients what performance actually looks like in their vertical. Benchmark early and often.
✔ Churn Tip: When a client leaves, run a structured exit interview. Use the feedback to refine your onboarding, pricing, or service model.
CREATIVE STRATEGY & PRODUCTION
Top Performing Creative:
Video (short-form, UGC)
Static offer creatives
Founder/testimonial-style content
Creative Challenges:
Scaling production (21%)
Ideation (10%)
Approvals & Testing (19% combined)
✔ Recommendations:
Build a Modular Creative Process: Use templates, repeatable briefs, and storyboards.
Centralize Feedback Loops: Use a single tool (e.g., Frame.io, Notion, ClickUp) for all creative approvals.
Creative Testing Cadence: Establish a set schedule (e.g., 3 new hooks/month/client) to maintain performance.
✔ Creative Tip: Archive all winning ads by format (hook, CTA, format). Use this internal swipe file to brief new concepts faster.
AI IMPLEMENTATION
Survey Insight 1: AI Improves Agency Work
79% of agencies say AI has improved their work
🔹 Interpretation: A significant majority of agencies are experiencing tangible benefits from AI integration. This indicates AI is no longer a novelty—it's a critical efficiency and creativity tool across the board.
🔹 Recommendation: Make AI integration a formal part of your agency's operations. Audit each workflow—strategy, creative, reporting—to identify AI touchpoints. Document wins to increase internal adoption.
🔹 Tip: Use AI to streamline repetitive tasks like drafting post captions, analyzing performance reports, or summarizing client calls.
Survey Insight 2: Custom GPT & AI Agent Usage
54% of agencies use custom GPTs or AI agents
🔹 Interpretation: More than half of agencies have moved beyond general AI use into creating custom tools, suggesting a maturity curve where bespoke AI workflows are a competitive edge.
🔹 Recommendation: Build internal GPTs tailored to your client needs or internal processes. Examples include a campaign naming assistant, client onboarding script generator, or creative brief writer.
🔹 Tip: Train a team member to become your "AI Product Manager"—responsible for maintaining prompt libraries, fine-tuning GPTs, and training others.
Use Cases:
Copywriting (47%)
Messaging ideation (26%)
Customer review mining (23%)
✔ Recommendations:
Assign a Team AI Lead: Empower one team member to own SOPs and education on AI integration.
Build AI into Client Workflows: Use GPTs to draft creative briefs, synthesize call notes, or brainstorm variations.
✔ AI Tip: Create a shared AI tool kit internally: voiceover tools, Midjourney prompts, GPT workflows, and testing SOPs.
TEAM STRUCTURE, TOOLS & HIRING
Survey Insight:
36% are solo operators
40% have 1–15 employees
Common tools: Slack, Zoom, ClickUp, Motion, Adobe Suite
✔ Recommendations:
Hire for Client Impact: Prioritize account managers and media buyers first.
Standardize SOPs: Use tools like Notion or Scribe to document repeatable processes.
✔ Hiring Tip: Run a quarterly capacity audit. Only hire when client delivery or growth is bottlenecked — not pre-emptively.
LONG-TERM VISION & PLANNING
Survey Insight:
71% want to grow clients/team
12% want to remove themselves from ops
8% aim for acquisition
✔ Recommendations:
Design for Exit or Scale: Both require clean financials, documented systems, and a performance-first brand.
Build Leadership Layers: Train team leads early to reduce founder dependency.
✔ Vision Tip:
Create an annual "Org Chart of the Future" — where you want to be in 2 years. Build roles and SOPs toward that structure.
SUMMARY & INTERPRETATION
🔹 Key Takeaways:
The most profitable agencies are not the largest — they are the most disciplined in systems and retention.
AI is not optional: It’s the new creative assistant, strategist, and analyst.
Agencies stuck at 0–5 leads/month are relying too heavily on referrals. Content is the differentiator.
High churn isn’t always performance-related. Client education, onboarding, and alignment matter more.
📊 Benchmark Goals to Aim For:
30%+ Profit Margin
<20% Annual Churn
3+ Year Average Client Tenure
50%+ Revenue from Recurring Retainers
✔️ Next Steps:
Conduct a self-assessment against this SOP.
Identify one weak area per quarter to optimize (e.g., onboarding, creative workflow, AI integration).
Share insights internally with your team to align on strategic vision.
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