95% of agencies met or exceeded revenue goals for 2021 by focusing on profitable service offerings.

Will 2022 be another great year for agency growth?

We believe it will be, especially if your agency matches and exceeds what your competition may be doing.

In this article, we’re going to share key findings from CallRail’s 2022 Outlook for Digital Marketing Agencies report that will help you grow your agency and stay ahead of competing agency trends.

1. 86% Of Agencies Added A New Service Offering – You Should, Too.

To stay competitive, agencies pivoted towards their most profitable service offerings and added new services to address their client’s needs.

In 2021, the service offerings considered most popular were:

• Social media marketing (reported by 34% of agencies).
• Full-service digital (29%).
• Website design and development (25%).

While website design and development dropped in popularity from 2020 to 2021, it remains the third most popular service for the past two years.

Social media marketing and full-service digital took the number one and two spots from 2020’s most popular services, SEM/paid advertising and SEO.

Why Are Agencies Adding These Services?

One likely explanation for the shift in service focus from SEM to social media marketing is the increase in social media users last year.

According to the latest social media statistics, 400 million new people signed up for at least one social networking site in 2021.

These insights can help your agency discover what services your competition may be adding, allowing you to add them as well.

2. 32% Of Agencies Report Social Media Marketing As Most Profitable Service

Consider adding social media marketing to your agency’s service offerings, if you have not added them already.

In addition to being the most popular service offering, social media marketing is also considered to be the most profitable service offering by 32% of agencies.

This is followed by full-service digital (reported as most profitable by 28% of agencies) and website design and development (24%).

3. Agencies Spend 20 Hours On Marketing Strategies Each Week Per Client

Is your agency spending too little time on your clients’ strategies?

Agencies reported spending an average of 20 hours each week on marketing strategies and tactics per client.

How about the other time spent managing clients?

Agencies reported spending an average of:

• 76 hours for account management and communications.
• 56 hours for reporting.
• 16 hours for agency administration.

These numbers can serve as benchmarks for your own agency’s productivity and ROI.

Believe your clients’ accounts could be performing better? Check your time spend against these benchmarks.

While finding more efficient ways to manage and communicate with clients would help ROI, the number of hours spent on reporting can have a positive effect.

4. 86% Of Agencies Listed Client Reporting As An Essential Service

In terms of client growth, reporting is crucial.

Agencies that did not meet or exceed client growth goals were 15% less likely to consider client reporting as an essential service.