Welcome to the Local Marketing Industry Survey: Agency Edition!

BrightLocal has been benchmarking the local marketing industry since 2011, providing useful trends and insights that help agency marketers like you to know where they stand.

In exchange for approximately 10 minutes of your time, you will be entered into a prize draw to win one of five $100 Amazon gift cards.

This survey is specifically for respondents working in agency environments, as well as freelancers and consultants. If that's not you, don't worry! Keep an eye on our email newsletter for more opportunities to contribute to BrightLocal throughout the year, via surveys, quick polls, and expert content.

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* 1. Please enter your email address to be in with a chance of winning one of five $100 Amazon vouchers. [This will not be used to identify or contact you for any reason except if you are a winner. Full competition terms and conditions are available to read here: https://www.brightlocal.com/brightlocal-competition-terms-conditions/]

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* 3. What is your gender? (This may be used to split data, and is also used to ensure this survey represents the community fairly.)

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* 4. What is your race or ethnicity? (This may be used to split data, and is also used to ensure this survey represents the community fairly.)

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* 5. What is your age?

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* 6. How many years have you worked in digital marketing? (e.g. including any time spent in an agency, as a consultant, or in-house looking after a business's marketing)

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* 7. Which of the following best describes your job?

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* 8. Which area of digital marketing is your primary responsibility? [Select one]

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* 9. In your everyday role, which of the following best describes you? [Select one]

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* 10. As a digital marketing professional, what are your pre-tax personal earnings in USD ($)? (including salary, bonuses etc.) [All answers will be anonymous. However, if you'd prefer not to answer, please input 0 here.]

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* 11. For the role you have, how satisfied are you with your salary?

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* 12. Which of the following have you received in the last 12 months? [Select all that apply]

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* 13. How many employees does your agency have?

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* 14. Which of the following structures best describes your agency? [Use the images as guidance]

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* 15. Will your agency be hiring any additional digital marketing-related staff in the next 12 months?

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* 16. What is your agency’s annual revenue [In USD/$]? If you don't know, you can enter 0.

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* 17. Which of the following has been your/your agency's primary goal of 2024? [Select one]

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* 18. With this in mind, how is your agency performing this year so far against expectations?

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* 19. Has your agency made any redundancies in the last 12 months?

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* 20. How secure do you feel in your job in the current environment?

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* 21. How many clients does your agency have?

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* 22. What percentage of your agency's clients are local businesses? [By 'local business', we mean a single location, multi-location/chain/franchise or service area business that relies, at least in part, on serving a local population]

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* 23. What's the average lifespan of a client at your agency?

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* 24. How much does the average client pay your agency each month (closest approx in USD/$)? [If you do not know or would prefer not to answer, please input 0]

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* 25. What is the most common reason for client turnover within your agency? [Choose one]

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* 26. In which of the following ways do you bill clients? [Check all that apply]

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* 27. How does your agency typically approach selling its services to a new client? [Check all that apply]

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* 28. Thinking about local marketing specifically, what challenges do prospective or existing clients tend to come to you with? (Note: These are the challenges that clients have told you about, not what you have determined their biggest challenges to be) [Select all that apply]

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* 29. Which of the following local marketing services do you/your agency offer? [Check all that apply]

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* 30. Which marketing channels are most effective for attracting new clients to your agency? [Choose up to 5]

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* 31. How much do you agree with the following statements?

  Disagree strongly Disagree somewhat Agree somewhat Agree strongly Unsure
Google Business Profile has had more bugs so far this year
The quality of Google search results has improved so far this year
Reacting to algorithm updates is an important focus for my clients
My clients are aware of the importance of rankings/visibility on alternative business discovery platforms to Google (e.g. Bing, Apple Maps, TikTok, Instagram, Yelp)
My agency/consultancy is committed to keeping up with how the way people search and find businesses is changing
My clients are aware of how new developments in search, such as AI overviews, could impact their visibility/rankings

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* 32. How much do you agree with the following statements about AI?

  Disagree strongly Disagree somewhat Agree somewhat Agree strongly Unsure
I feel that developments in AI will ultimately bring my agency new opportunities
I expect potential tech partners or tools I invest in to be actively incorporating AI into new products
I feel the capabilities of AI are being oversold by some businesses
I feel excited about the capabilities of AI within the realm of local marketing

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* 33. Do you think it will be easier or harder to achieve local SEO success for clients in 2025 compared to 2024?

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* 34. Will you be looking for a new job in the near future?

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