Most Profitable Business Models for Agencies: According to 20 Agencies

如果您像大多数代理商的创始人一样，您可能最初是自由职业者或顾问。

You found yourself in demand with more work than you could handle alone. So, you started an agency.

But, you quickly realized that scaling and running an agency is VERY different from being a freelancer.

大多数机构增长的最大障碍是他们的业务模式。它不仅要保持灯光，而且要确保您拥有必要的团队和资源来提供优质的工作，这需要在财务上可行。

在这篇文章中,我们共享一个框架来帮助你u find a profitable agency business model.

How Do You Decide Which Business Model to Adopt?
Which Business Models Are Most Profitable for Agencies?

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How Do You Decide Which Business Model to Adopt?

There is no shortage of ways that agencies can charge for their services.

However, if you want to stay in business, you need to pick a business model that hits these key criteria:

There is a defined market for the services you are offering and clients understand it and are willing to pay.
You have a compelling offer(s) (i.e. value props)
It is financially viable for the agency to deliver the services.

Note: Once you are clear on your agency’s business model, this makes it easierto identify and turn away clients that aren’t profitable or a good fit.

So, we reached out to 20 agency owners to learn more about their business models. Of the agencies we surveyed, 55% of them have more than 25 clients.

The majority of the agencies we spoke to prefer a simple flat-fee retainer or project-based model.

Which Business Models Are Most Profitable for Agencies?

从固定费用项目的侍从performance-based pricing, and a hybrid model, we’re taking a closer look at the most common agency business models.

Flat-fee retainers
项目工作
混合固定器和项目模型
Flat-fee + commission

Flat-fee retainers

The majority of the agencies we surveyed prefer the retainer model.

“As an agency, our recurring revenue model is based on a fixed monthly retainer fee for clients,” says Jonathan Zacharias ofGR0.“根据客户及其包裹，此保留费可能会大大波动。具体来说，作为一个努力将有机搜索变成性能营销渠道的代理商，我们专注于三个主要存储桶：内容写作，性能人力资源和页面上的优化。根据服务套件的不同，我们随后对固定器费用进行了相应的调整。”

Tanya Gauthier ofBymillennials Agency Incadds, “We’ve tried it all – performance-based, hourly, retainer, per-project. Short answer is long-term retainers. They allow agency owners to plan ahead their talent and resources without needing to stress about filling their team’s schedules or searching for clients last minute.

At ByMillennials, we’ve worked on curating a monthly retainer model that is a win-win for both us (the agency) and the client – a month-by-month agreement with no “commitment”. Why? Gaining your client’s trust is absolutely crucial. We end every sales pitch by telling the client that there is no commitment. If the fit isn’t right, we can end it right away, which has given us an average client LTV of 8+ months. When the client feels in control rather than “stuck,” the relationship is a lot healthier.”

Long-term collaboration is one of the biggest advantages of the retainer model.

what type of collaboration is more convenient for your agency

实际上，我们调查的代理商中有50％拥有多达20个与他们合作一年多的客户。

how many clients are with your agency over a year

An added advantage of the retainer model is reducing some of the uncertainty and volatility that comes with having an agency. When you have clients paying a flat fee each month, you can better predict revenue and cash flow, which can help with allocating enough resources and managing team costs and related expenses.

“显然长期保留者。”Alex Birkett.“这不仅是盈利能力，还包括可预测性和正确分配资源的能力。如果项目足够大，可以基于项目的工作。除非您超级和敏捷（并且想处理客户的成功头痛），否则基于令牌 /信用的系统是愚蠢的。在某些企业（SEO，内容，CRO）中，工作关系的寿命是成功的预测指标，因此这也使客户受益。当然，很难签订长期固定合同。但是，如果双方都有信任并且关系有效，那就是最好的代理业务模式。”

Jonathan SaeidianBrenton Way同意：“我们专注于长期MRR，因此我们将更多资源分配给每个客户，并降低利润率以维持关系。这将我们的流失率降低到只有5％，平均为每个客户提供了2个推荐。”

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Simeon Prokopov of敏捷数字代理补充说：“每月保留者被证明是最有利可图的原因是我们将它们作为产品包装。

这意味着：

Our work is easy to plan
我们确切地知道我们每个月必须做什么，因此安排它很容易。
我们更有效
每个固定器都有一个严格的工作流程，因此没有猜测项目。

In the end, this means more efficient project management and results delivery.

Retainers are scalable.

由于我们有一个明确的流程，我们可以迅速扩大我们的能力。
Easier to market and sell
Instead of paying large amounts upfront, clients subscribe to a monthly fee.

They are also easy to explain. Since they are ‘productized’, they have specific features that we define and can list in the sales process. Our clients get a very clear picture of what we are doing on a monthly basis.

Predictable invoice pipeline
As retainers are recurring every month, and contracts are typically signed on an annual basis, we can plan our sales in the long run.
长期客户关系
保留者的性质是基于与客户的长期关系。

This opens the door for upselling other services or higher retainers. Having said all this, it does not mean that everything about this model is perfect. The above is an ideal situation. Often clients require custom tweaks to our pre-made retainers and onboarding a new client or adding a legacy project takes time. However, I believe the advantages outweigh the downsides, and this is definitely our most profitable model.”

项目工作

项目工作tends to be the most profitable out of all of the business models. However, none of the agencies we surveyed use this model exclusively. That’s because it is also the hardest to scale and the most volatile.

“While finite, deliverable project work will likely always remain the highest margin component of our business, we tend to sacrifice profitability in our client campaigns for predictability by encouraging more long-term, recurring engagements,” says Nate Nead ofSEO.co.“是的，项目工作通常也可以很长，但是当项目完成后，我们喜欢避免的可预测收入有一个悬崖。”

混合固定器和项目模型

One way to get some of the best advantages of both the retainer and project models is to use a hybrid model.

“We work with clients on both a project and retainer basis and managing expectations is key especially around scope creep,” says Paige Arnof-Fenn ofmavens＆moguls。“Clear communication is the key to success.

Post the Great Recession, the majority of our work is now project-based (it used to skew to more retainer work before) so the scope creep potential is a lot less now to be honest which makes managing expectations a lot easier. Projects have a beginning, middle, and end so it all ties to the deliverable, very clearly defined. With Covid, many of our projects have slowed down (one with a monthly retainer asked that the fee be spread over 2 months instead, while another is waiting to start phase 2 of the project, for example). Two new projects supposed to kick off last year are now just starting.

当一个客户完成一个项目完成后回来并要求在项目上完成一些其他工作，我并不害羞地解释我们除了我们曾经做过的事情之外，我们还需要在本月花更多的时间在这个新项目上花费更多的时间支付的费用可能会增加时间甚至25-30％的小时，因此我提出，如果他们希望我们也能在这里提供帮助，我们可以增加单独的项目费用。我还提议写一个新的工作范围，如果这有助于将需要另外费用的观点带回家。我还提到，我将发送另一张必须支付的发票才能开始新工作。根据我的经验，他们尊重您从事专业服务业务，尤其是如果您过去为他们做出了出色的工作。他们回来是因为他们重视您的质量。”

An added advantage of the hybrid model is that you can grow faster.

For example, Anthony Gaenzle ofGaenzle营销说：“我们已经能够利用主要团队成员在内部的混合模式来迅速发展，我们利用高度审查，非常有才华的承包商在大型项目中逐步进行时扩大规模。这有助于保持开销，同时允许我们为客户提供一流的服务。它还使我们能够在内部吸引和保留最优质的人才，因为我们没有雇用不必要或多余的角色。

该模型还允许我们以逐项项目为基础为客户提供服务。无论是一个庞大的网站，重新设计了涉及大量内容的创建，还是一个一次性的一次营销抵押品，我们都可以轻松地进行扩展，以便能够仅为他们需要的服务收费。

我们还可以在分数营销的基础上提供保留费用，在该基础上，客户每月支付预设数量的时间，然后可以访问预定的营销服务，并可以灵活地根据需要关闭和外出，以满足其所有营销需求，并且基本上是serve as the client’s marketing department.

Being flexible and offering both models allows Gaenzle Marketing to be there for clients, no matter what level of service they require. I’ve utilized this model with two other agencies, each of which saw a good deal of success with the direction.

I highly recommend the hybrid in-house/contractor model, as long as you really dig in and assess your contractors and make sure they’re a fit. That way, they sort of become a part of your team and you can build a level of trust with your team as well as your clients.”

Flat-fee + commission

A least common model, but one that can work well for PPC agencies, is a hybrid flat fee model with a commission structure based on results generated. This allows your agency to partake in the upside of delivering exceptional results.

For example, Neil Jose ofAviv数字says, “Here’s an outline of our business model at Aviv Digital.

我们专注于向客户销售创意策略。
我们向客户收取开展广告活动和维护的费用。
除此之外，我们还为客户提供咨询服务，我们还培训了我们正在处理的个人如何更有效地运行营销活动。
And finally comes our monthly recurring revenue.

我们之所以选择这种业务模型的原因是，我们不仅在这里依靠我们的每月经常性收入。该商业模式还为我们提供了其他收入来源。这种业务模型的实施为我们带来了一些很好的结果。我们已经收购了一些对我们的服务感到非常满意的长期客户。”

With agencies, there is no one-size-fits-all business model. It all boils down to the types of clients you work with, the services you offer, and the results you can generate. Many agencies experiment with different business models based on the lifecycle and needs of the business. The only wrong business model is the one that isn’t financially viable for your agency.

How Do You Decide Which Business Model to Adopt?