NEW YORK, September 1, 2015 — The nation’s PR agency field grew by7.8% according to a survey released today by Gould+Partners, the merger and management consulting firm specializing in the PR field. The results of this survey were slightly better than the results of the annual Best Practices Benchmarking report released the end of May, showing that Operating Profit increased from 15.8% to 16.2% and the Billing/Utilization report issued in mid-June which showed that billing rates did not increase during 2014 at the same pace as salaries and costs.
Based on stats from 257 PR agencies coast to coast and in Canada the firms between $3 Mill and $10 Mill had the largest growth in net revenues at 11.0%. The under $3 Mill group had a growth rate of 10.8%. Another interesting stat was the average annual net revenues for each net revenue class. Firms under $3 Mill averaged $1.7 Mill in Net Revenues. Firms from $3 Mill – $10 Mill averaged $5.3 Mill. Firms over $10 Mill- $25 Mill averaged just under $16 Mill and firms in excess of $25 Mill averaged just over $51 Mill, said Rick Gould, managing partner and director of the survey.
The second part of the study focused on industry growth in the 10 regions of our focus and average net revenues for each of the regions. The Southeast was the big winner in growth, at 25% growth over 2013.
The survey is the third annual poll focused on Net Revenue Growth by Gould+Partners, which has been conducting other industry wide surveys for 20 years including the recently released Best Practices Benchmarking Report and the Billing/Utilization Report.
Rick Gould, CPA, J.D., Managing Partner of Gould+Partners administers the surveys.
Gould+Partners is the only consulting firm in the public relations industry that provides merger and acquisition facilitation services, strategic counsel to agency owners on management and operational issues and annual “Benchmarking” regarding Financial Metrics, Billing & Utilization, Industry Growth, Health Benefits/Executive Perks and C- Suite Compensation.
Rick Gould CPA, J.D.
Managing Partner