Rate Card Survey 2008: How much do UK digital agencies charge?

The Digital Agency Rate Card Survey is based on a survey of more than 300 UK digital agencies carried out in 2008.

The principal objective of this E-consultancy research is to show what UK digital agencies charge for different types of skills and levels of seniority, and to understand how and why rates may vary, for example by size of company.

The survey will help you benchmark day rates for around 50 individual job roles including positions such as SEO consultant, online marketing manager, head of media and information architect. We are confident that this report provides real practical value both for those working client-side who want to understand what the going rate is for different services, and also for agencies who want to benchmark their own fees.

The report also contains sections on business confidence and projected turnover increases which have once again enabled us to provide top-line data about the health of the industry.

The report findings contain overall averages for the following types of agency job role, with a further breakdown of the day rate average by size of agency: -) Director / Partner
-) Commercial / Strategic
-) Project / Account Management
-) Creative
-) Content, Usability and Accessibility
-) Technical
-) Media Planning and Buying
-) Online Marketing, eCRM and Market Research
-) Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing and Web Analytics
-) Search Engine Marketing
-) Testing/Quality Assurance and Training

Highlights include:

-) Digital agencies report that daily charge-out rates have gone up by an average of 17% in the last two years (since 2006). The biggest increases have come from the smallest agencies (i.e. those with a projected 2008 turnover of less than £300,000).
-) 90% of agencies surveyed said that they were “quite” or “very” optimistic about the future of their business over the next 12 months.
-) Almost 30% of agencies were founded more than ten years ago, demonstrating the increasing maturity of the digital marketplace.
-) The proportion of agencies expecting to earn more than £3 million in revenue in the current year has increased dramatically from 10% in 2005 to 24% in 2008.
-) The availability of rate cards, both for internal use by agencies and for clients, has substantially increased since 2005.