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Turnover of UK search agencies

NMA has recently released their annual Marketing Services Guide detailing the turnover and staff levels of 36 UK search agencies and it makes very interesting reading. The guide doesn’t split natural search revenue from PPC revenue in the main table but if you click on the company name the split is listed in the profile page.

What I find interesting is looking at the number of staff some agencies have in comparison to turnover, useful for figuring out how important search is to their revenue stream. It’s also interesting that a lot of “big” agencies that appear to specialise in natural and paid search don’t really make much money from it.

The list isn’t particularly comprehensive, I can think of quite a few that would make the top 20 on here.

Agency Income from this specialism Year to Previous year UK
staff		 Founded
in UK		 Owner
1 Bigmouthmedia £12,628,070 06/09 £13,402,989 105 1997 LBi
2 iCrossing £7,368,977 12/08   100 1997 independent
3 Greenlight £6,633,939 08/09 £5,287,053 98 2001 independent
4 Forward3D £5,539,607 07/09   55 2004 independent
5 Latitude £4,986,430 12/09 £10,426,941 93 2001 independent
6 Jellyfish £4,808,747 12/09 £4,100,000 61 1999 independent
7 Unique Digital £3,690,000 12/09   35 1999 Syzygy
8 Stickyeyes £2,861,759 12/09 £2,353,836 55 1998 independent
9 Tamar £2,488,272 12/08   31 1995 independent
10 Steak £2,375,190 02/10 £2,846,020 72 2005 independent
11 Propellernet £2,268,210 09/09 £1,381,980 20 2003 independent
12 Golley Slater Group £2,108,048 03/09   255 2003 independent
13 Epiphany Solutions £1,909,836 01/09 £1,439,797 37 2005 independent
14 Agenda21 £1,697,466 12/09 £1,174,068 28 2005 independent
15 Equi-Media £1,690,083 01/09 £1,911,021 50 1999 independent
16 I Spy Marketing £1,537,388 12/09   35 2005 independent
17 Summit Media £1,484,902 01/09 £1,208,160 68 2000 independent
18 VCCP Search £1,163,462 12/09 £957,200 14 2007 Chime Communications
19 Harvest Digital £1,153,479 07/09 £1,094,422 33 2001 independent
20 SiteVisibility £1,140,000 12/09 £1,055,245 18 2002 independent
21 Positive Digital £958,888 12/09   19 0000 independent
22 Guava £953,209 06/09 £1,685,136 46 1998 independent
23 Sitelynx £866,627 11/08   18 1996 independent
24 DBD Media £779,522 03/09 £512,364 12 2000 independent
25 Further Search Marketing £758,520 12/09   18 2006 independent
26 Coast Digital £745,680 04/09   27 2002 independent
27 Leapfrogg Digital Marketing £606,358 12/09   13 2003 independent
28 Lakestar Media £598,393 12/09   27 2007 independent
29 Euston Digital £489,539 09/09 £513,836 9 2000 independent
30 Artemis8 £482,000 03/09   20 2004 Big Ideas Group, Sirius B
31 Tug £461,636 07/09   12 2006 independent
32 SEOptimise £308,848 12/09   7 2007 independent
33 Strange £221,722 03/09 £336,372 22 1999 independent
34 Vivid Lime £209,690 04/09 £328,590 25 2000 independent
35 Web Marketing Group £182,000 06/09   63 2000 independent
36 iVantage £30,139 03/09   8 2002 independent

BY Patrick Altoft AT 8:45am ON Tuesday, 11 May 2010

Patrick Altoft is Director of Search at Branded3 and has worked in the SEO industry for over 10 years. With experience across some of the worlds largest brands as well as startup businesses Patrick is well known in the industry and speaks regularly at the major SEO conferences and events. Follow Patrick on Twitter or Google+

Comments

  • http://www.crearedesign.co.uk Stephen Webb

    This is an interesting read considering the number of agencies listed, and when you take into account their staff numbers. Obviosuly the amount of staff is relative to the income from SEO, but I think it’s interesting to note that there are two companies in the top five with very similar staff numbers, but very different income levels.

    Clicking into the profiles of each company it’s quite an insight to see what notable clients they have, and their investment in staff types. It does seem that the majority specialise in organic search engine optimisation, although many still take on a third of their work through paid optimisation.

    I’ll be interested to see the comments regarding this and how the data is interpreted. As stated the list isnt completely comprehensive, so it would be an insight to view the data of those obmitted here.

  • http://www.bucks.net davedewar

    Interesting, when comparing this with 2008 results. Shows which companies have been bought, sold, gone into administration, re-branded and those companies that have moved away from search altogether.

    http://www.nmamarketingservicesguide.co.uk/2008/section.php?section_id=7

  • Andy

    Nice list.

    So where do Branded3 appear?
    I thought they would be on this list :-)

  • http://www.markrushworth.com mark rushworth

    looks like bingo and gambling are the way to go if you use stickyeyes as a guide.

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  • http://photoexmachina.wordpress.com/ photo ex machina

    Bingo and gambling? Yes please!

  • Ben

    Those numbers have to be messed up somewhere. No way can you have 63 people on a turnover of £182,000.

  • http://www.epiphanysolutions.co.uk Shane Quigley

    Patrick,

    Why did you leave us off the list? Number 13 is missing! :)

  • http://www.blogstorm.co.uk Patrick Altoft

    Shane, when I looked you were in the section saying “These agencies were unable to supply UK Turnover figures” but it seems somebody has fixed it since then. I will update the post. Cheers.

  • Tom

    Am I missing something or does the last company on the list really only do £30k turnover?

  • http://www.webmarketinggroup.co.uk Scott Tehrani

    Hey,

    We’ve contacted NMA these numbers are not correct!

    The WebMarketing Group numbers =

    June 2009 – £2,759,868

    June 2008 – £2,150,628

    It’s all at companies house…..

    We have 63 employees across 4 sites Harrogate, Leeds, Sheffield and Peterbrough.

    Patrick – could you update your table?

    Thanks.

  • http://www.internetmarketingservice.co.uk Adam

    I agree with Tom how is a company at position 36 only turning over 30K that sounds unsustainable…

  • Craig A

    Adam, Scott and Tom

    I think the key thing to note is that income shown on this chart is derived from SEO services only (“Income from this specialism”)- whilst I suspect staff numbers is not.

    Craig

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  • http://www.webmarketinggroup.co.uk Scott Tehrani

    There was also a mix up between revenue and profit.

  • http://www.trafficsoar.com trafficsoar

    yes this info is very helpful for all SEO services

  • http://www.videocharacter.com Video Character

    Interesting names up there! I’m a little surprised on the placements.

  • http://www.monkeyfishmarketing.com Phillip Monk

    Hi thanks for the info. would they be a more up to date list i could look at??? Also is this just for SEO or all internet marketing. IF 30k is 8 staff then this seems a little low. i have 20 staff and need 250.000 k to pay them.

    phill

    monkeyfish

  • http://www.websiteoptimizationcompany.co.uk/index.php Website Optimization Company LTD

    I dont recognize some of these companies and expected to see others mentioned, quite strange but interesting

  • http://www.pandorawebdesigns.co.uk Pandora

    Not sure about these figures as I can understand 105 staff turning over 12.6 Mil but when you look at 63 only turning over 182k… I know which staff I would want working for my company. :-)

  • http://www.net66.co.uk/ SEO Manchester

    who has done these figures they just don’t seem to be true, very hard to believe thats all

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