Ad Agencies Project Growth In 2015, According To Strata Agency Survey

Sees Growth This Year

Advertising agencies entered 2015 with optimism, expanded client budgets and big plans for growth, according to a new agency survey conducted by STRATA.

The fourth quarter agency survey found more than half (53%) of agencies report they see their businesses growing in 2015 compared to a year ago, while 45% of agencies say they plan on hiring more staff, the highest percentage ever recorded in the history STRATA AGENCY Survey. This optimism is not unfounded as 35% of the agencies polled say their clients are increasing their budgets from last year, representing a 50% increase from just two years ago.

Also, 44% of agencies are confident that online videos are reaching their intended audiences, a 10% jump from the third quarter; 35% of agencies say videos only reach their intended audiences some of the time, and half of agencies responded they are still unsure if they are getting good value for their online video ad purchase.

"Ad agencies are expecting to see larger budgets from their clients along with increased demand for digital. The growth in these key areas and the increasingly fragmented media landscape are putting pressure on agencies to become more efficient," said STRATA Pres. JOY BAER. "Initiatives like programmatic buying and better support of digital video are paramount for our clients and the industry in 2015.”

More agencies are planning on using programmatic as 37% report that they will carry out between 10-20% of their ad buys programmatically, up 30% from the third quarter. Just under a quarter of agencies (24%) say they trust programmatic buying to properly execute their ad orders; one-third of agencies are still unsure. The improved ability to reach targeted audiences is the top benefit of programmatic purchasing according to 41% of agencies, while 39% of agencies report the quality of inventory as their greatest concern, closely followed by transparency of inventory sources (34%).

Other key findings:

• FACEBOOK and YOUTUBE both reached new all-time highs for ad agencies in the STRATA survey as 96% and 72% of agencies say they will use those platforms in their client campaigns, respectively. TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and LINKEDIN all saw respective growth at 54%, 27% and 27%.
• Print advertising lost favor with agencies as 66% say they are less interested in print than a year ago, tying a low point for the medium.
• Streaming radio remains strong as 48% of agencies say they are more interested in it than a year ago, and only 8% say they are less interested.

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