Below the growth and profit numbers sits the agency's shape — how many people, how many owners, and how much revenue each person produces. The five-year structural series reveals the durable scale story: productivity rises with size, and ownership consolidates at the top. This is the agency-profile slice of the Best Practices trend data; the companion BPS trend reference indexes all seven themes.
§ 01 · Productivity per personRevenue per employee, by scale.
Revenue per employee is the cleanest read on operational efficiency, and it rises monotonically with size — from roughly $135K at the smallest tier to $257K at the largest in 2022. The gap widened over the five years as the largest agencies improved productivity faster.
| Revenue per employee (median) | 2018 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Under $1.25M | $116,793 | $134,607 |
| $2.5M–$5M | $177,437 | $176,214 |
| $5M–$10M | $175,966 | $195,961 |
| $10M–$25M | $198,835 | $215,103 |
| Over $25M | $215,200 | $256,811 |
The top-quartile spread is wider still: elite over-$25M agencies reached $360,214 revenue per employee in 2022, a 40%+ premium over the tier median — evidence that the gap between a typical and an exceptional operation is large and durable.
§ 02 · Headcount & footprintStable structure, scaling people.
Employee counts scaled predictably with revenue and stayed broadly stable year to year — roughly 6–13 staff at the smallest two tiers, ~287 at the largest in 2022. Location counts did not scale linearly with revenue, which means footprint is more a strategic choice than a function of size — useful context for a buyer modeling post-close rationalization.
§ 03 · Ownership consolidationFewer shareholders at the top.
The clearest structural trend is ownership concentration in the largest tier. The over-$25M band's average shareholder count fell from 48.2 in 2018 to 28.8 in 2022 — a steady consolidation as the biggest agencies matured, bought in minority holders, and simplified their cap tables. Smaller tiers stayed flat at one to three shareholders throughout.
| Average shareholders | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under $1.25M | 1.9 | 1.9 | 1.5 |
| $5M–$10M | 3.9 | 4.6 | 3.6 |
| $10M–$25M | 9.4 | 8.5 | 6.2 |
| Over $25M | 48.2 | 43.3 | 28.8 |
- Productivity rises with scale. Revenue per employee climbs from ~$135K (smallest) to $257K (largest) in 2022.
- Elite premium is large. Top-quartile over-$25M agencies reached $360K per employee — a 40%+ premium over the tier median.
- Headcount scales, footprint doesn't. Employees track revenue; location counts are a strategic choice.
- Ownership consolidated at the top. The over-$25M shareholder count fell from 48.2 to 28.8 over five years.
- The $5M–$10M inflection. The mid-market is the operational efficiency sweet spot — balanced headcount and ~$190–$266K productivity.
The benchmark is the baseline, not the price.
Best Practices benchmarks don't value an agency — they're the operating baseline a valuation is built on. The profile data sets two buyer expectations: a sub-$5M target can realistically expect a 15–25% revenue-per-employee lift through integration onto a larger platform (the tier-to-tier gap is the proof), and the elite-vs-median productivity spread means retaining top-quartile talent is where post-close value is preserved or lost.
The way productivity flows into a normalized earnings figure is the financial & transactional mechanics reference.
What BPS measures. The Best Practices Study tracks the operating and financial results of top-performing agencies, segmented by revenue tier. This brief reflects the 2018–2022 agency-profile series.
Medians and top quartile. Structural figures are segment medians unless a top-quartile figure is named.
Revenue per employee. Total agency revenue divided by full-time-equivalent staff — the headline productivity metric.
Frequency. The study publishes annually. Milly Books refreshes this brief with each new edition.