6 Critical Takeaways from Foxwell Founders’ 2026 State of Agencies Survey
TL;DR (For Agency Owners & Leaders Navigating 2026)
Agency growth in 2026 will rely on five key areas: turning AI into unique services rather than fearing it, owning strategy along with execution, specializing to prevent commoditization, proving beyond return on ad spend (ROAS), and actively improving talent skills.
Agencies that survive margin pressure, in-housing, and platform changes will shift from mere “ad operators” to strategic growth partners. They will use AI to improve decision-making, leverage vertical expertise to justify pricing, and implement measurement systems that demonstrate real business impact.
I’ve been in the agency marketing world on some level since 2012, and I’ve never seen things change more quickly. Yes, I know we say that every year, but 2026 is a different animal.
You’ve got AI, a seesaw economy, tariff residue, more platforms than ever, less control of those platforms than ever, and brand marketers getting sophisticated enough to demand reports on things like incrementality.
Benchmarking on your own is nearly impossible, which is why we just published the 2026 State of Digital Marketing Agencies report, in partnership with Motion. It’s based on survey responses from over 100 agency founders and leaders, and it’s got incredibly valuable data to help you understand your competitive strengths and opportunities for growth.
Agency marketing has never been easy, but it’s a hard path right now. I love running Foxwell Founders because of its multi-layered mission: to provide value to our members and to provide a community that constantly reminds people that they’re not alone in building careers as the best of the best in digital marketing. So we thought this was the right time to canvas the agency leaders in our community to provide some benchmark data – and to remind the group (and our readership at large) that they’re not alone in feeling like they’re dealing with some serious changes to their livelihoods.
You can absolutely get into the full survey, which includes responses from hundreds of agency leaders (roughly 80% of whom are owners and founders), here. But let’s start with the six biggest takeaways.
1. AI Is the #1 Existential Threat — and the #1 Opportunity
Biggest risk over the next 12–24 months:
AI replacing services is the top concern, cited more than client churn, platform volatility, or margin compression.
At the same time:
AI-powered services are the most commonly cited growth opportunity (I can speak firsthand to Motion’s AI-powered creative analytics as a particular performance-enhancing tool).
Takeaway:
Agency leaders fear becoming undifferentiated in an AI-native world. The perceived winners are agencies that:
Productize AI into new offerings
Use AI to elevate strategy (and speed up execution, though that’s secondary)
Translate AI outputs into business outcomes clients can’t self-serve
2. Strategy Ownership > Media Execution
One of the strongest themes across responses:
Agencies believe the future is in owning strategy, not just running ads.
This matters because:
Clients can increasingly “push buttons” themselves
Execution-only retainers are vulnerable to in-housing and tooling
Strategic leadership is harder to replace with software
Agencies need to reposition from “doers” to decision-makers. The faster they operationalize that, the better their chances to survive and thrive.
3. Client Churn and In-Housing Remain Structural Risks
Beyond AI, top concerns (which aren’t really all that new) include:
Client churn / in-housing
Margin compression
Platform volatility (Meta, Google, TikTok)
Agency leaders are feeling squeezed from both sides: fast-changing platforms whose client service is being replaced by bots, and clients who question fees more aggressively. Retention now depends on proving incremental value and impact on clients’ actual business goals.
4. Vertical Specialization Is Gaining Momentum
This one would have been a big surprise to me when I joined the agency world in 2012: agency leaders want to move away from the full-service model and get more vertical (whether that means industry, audience, or problems the agency’s great at solving). Lots of your peers are actively working on:
Vertical specialization
Creative and content differentiation
Combinations of specialization + AI-enabled services
One big perceived benefit here is that being great in specific verticals is a good defense against commoditization and stronger leverage for healthy pricing.
5. Holistic Measurement & Incrementality Testing Are Becoming Table Stakes
A majority of respondents plan to run lift or incrementality tests in 2026, and advanced attribution platforms like Northbeam are getting more popular (and important).
ROAS reporting isn’t enough in 2026; agencies need to offer an informed perspective on where and how brands need to spend their marketing budgets to have the biggest (provable) impact. Clients need to hear agencies are willing and able to run incrementality testing – and I highly recommend that agencies go beyond testing and have a plan for how they’ll use the insights that come from the tests.
6. Talent Is a Secondary — but Real — Concern
AI and client churn are front and center, but talent has always been and will be the backbone of great agencies.
The surveys showed something telling, though: great talent in 2026 comes down to training and upskilling as much as finding the right people (and by “the right people,” I don’t just mean experience – these days, marketers need to be able to adjust and learn new skills very quickly).
The agency model isn’t broken, but it’s bending in all sorts of ways. If you don’t have a network of fellow agency leaders to help share insights and strategies, it’s going to be an even harder slog. And if you’re not part of the Foxwell Founders community yet, you can apply here to join.
Press inquiries
Hillary Read
hbread@gmail.com
603 359-0039
