Agency Compensation

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Pitches. Prices. Product. We’ll help take the tension out of those cash convos.
Use our materials and resources. We’ll help you get paid your fair share.

BenchPress Agency Survey

The Wow Company’s annual survey of independent agency owners in the UK focusing on agency outlook for 2022, biggest challenges, and financial performance benchmarks.

2020 Employee Compensation Study

Includes Salary Data for all Agency Sizes & Geographies via our New and Exciting Digital Dashboard Platform The 2020 Employee Compensation final report, showing salaries as of July, 2020, has just been published. The study includes salaries from agencies of all sizes and reflects responses from 363 member agency offices with over 30,000 salaries, 235 […]

“Activating New Pricing Strategies Starting Tomorrow” |

On Tuesday, July 14th from 3 pm – 4:30 pm the 4A’s hosted a virtual finance committee meeting with Guest Speaker Tim Williams from Ignition Consulting Group.  Previously, Tim was a speaker at the 2019 MPF events where he presented progressive pricing approaches for agencies. The 4A’s is happy to bring to you part 2 of that […]

Financially Considerate Marketers Get Better Results from Their Agency |

Aprais finds that marketers who are financially empathetic to their agency partners get better results.

What’s Your Risk Profile?

Bruno Gralpois, co-founder of Agency Mania Solutions, outlines the four decisions advertisers have to make when creating successful ad agency relationships.

2019 Employee Compensation report completed |

Includes salary data from agencies of all sizes The 2019 Employee Compensation final report, showing salaries as of May 2019, has just been published. The study includes salary data from agencies of all sizes, reflecting the responses of 276 member agency offices providing data on more than 30,000 salaries for 234 job titles in 19 […]

Webinar: Stop Negotiating – it doesn’t work |

This presentation, originally delivered to the 4A’s National Large & SAMS New Business Committee on July 31, 2019, by Brett Colbert of Colbert Group Consulting, was re-recorded by Brett Colbert on August 22, 2019.

Webinar: Deliverable Based Estimation & Pricing for the New Business Audience |

This presentation was delivered to the 4A’s National New Business Committee on February 26, 2019 by Tracey Shirtcliff, CEO of The Virtu Group.

Media Agency Management: Where Are We Headed? |

In this article, the World Federation of Advertisers shares highlights from its report on global media agency models and remuneration trends.

Project-by-Project Do’s & Don’ts | Agency Best Practice Guidance |

The industry is seeing more clients evolving Project-by-Project (PxP) arrangements with agencies. PxP relationships between clients and agencies create both opportunities and challenges for both marketers and marketing services firms. Members of the 4A’s community have been endeavoring to figure out best practices for dealing with the shift by some clients from annual retainer relationships with their agencies to PxP relationships.

2018 Employee Compensation Study Completed |

The 2018 Employee Compensation final report, showing salaries as of May 2018, has just been published. The study includes salary data from agencies of all sizes, reflecting the responses of 333 member agency offices providing data on over 30,000 salaries for 233 job titles in 19 job categories.

4A’s Management Practitioners Forum Sessions: Ad Age 2018 Small Agency Conference |

The following presentations took place at the Ad Age 2018 Small Agency Conference, July 17th and 18th, in Marina Del Rey, Calif.  

Video Seminar: Pricing as a Discipline and Proposal Writing for Marketing Services |

This presentation was delivered to the 4A’s Large Agency & Media Finance Committees on October 26, 2017 by Rick Brook, SVP, Global Client Operations at WPP. 

Webinar: 2017 Labor Billing Rate Survey Report (LBRSR) Guidance Discussion |

On July 27th, 4A’s held an agency-only webinar to help survey participants and 4A’s members understand the important information contained in the 2017 Labor Billing Rate Survey Report (LBRSR).

Understand the New Overtime Pay Rules: 4A’s Information & Guidance Webinar |

On July 19th, the 4A’s hosted the “Overtime Rules Change Webinar” which provided information on overtime rules that will become effective on December 1, 2016.

About Employee Benefits Series: Prevailing Benefits in Agencies |

A series of regularly updated surveys on employee benefits in agencies.

4A’s 2015 Labor Hourly Billing Rate Survey Report

This report covers actual hourly rates agreed upon between agencies and clients in 2014, and provides the industry with labor billing rate information.

4A’s Position Paper on Agency Compensation |

The 4A’s Board of Directors has adopted a new 4A’s position paper, developed by the 4A’s Finance Committees, “Best Practice Guidance | Agency Compensation: Market-Based Labor Rates.”

4A’s Agency Performance Evaluations, Performance-Incentive Compensation and Value Based Compensation Survey |

This survey report provides benchmark information related to the adoption of performance evaluations and the dimensions that are most frequently included in client assessment of agency performance.

4A’s Management Benchmarks & Financial Barometers Survey Series – Phases I & II |

This four-phase survey series is designed to provide agency management with key financial benchmarks relevant to 4A’s members.

4A’s Digital Operations and Compensation Survey – Phase I |

This survey provides important information about agency digital operations including revenue sources, relationship structures, monetization of I.P., and digital services agreements.

4A’s Media Compensation Survey |

Survey on Media Compensation Methodologies and Equivalent / Effective Commission Ratios. The survey requested information pertaining to methods of compensation relating solely to compensation for media services. Survey participants were asked to report “equivalent/effective commission rates” used for various media buying and planning services, regardless of the methods of compensation in use at their agencies. […]

4A’s Agency Billing Practices and Client Payment Terms Survey |

This report provides information on the billing and payment arrangements of 4A’s members for Network TV, Production, Agency Compensation and other paid media channels, for their ten largest clients.

4A’s Agency Performance Incentive Compensation Survey Report |

This survey report features results from 168 member agencies, representing 600 client relationships and provides information on many aspects of incentive compensation including prevalence, structure, and amount; correlation with business relationship and base compensation; agency/client relationship management; and performance incentive criteria.