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Marketing / Advertising Agencies

The 3 anchors. Don't leave the meeting without them.

1THE PRICE
2x–4x (small owner-operated, <$1M EBITDA)
Typical deal: $2M
2THE LEVER
Retainer-based recurring revenue
Push this up, multiple goes up
3THE LANDMINE
Top 3 clients representing 50%+ of revenue
Surface this in the first 15 min
SDE multiple
2x–4x (small owner-operated, <$1M EBITDA)
EBITDA multiple
3x–5x for small agencies (<$1M EBITDA); 5x–8x for mid-market ($1M–$5M EBITDA); 8x–12x for scaled performance/data-driven agencies ($5M+ EBITDA)
Deal size range
$300K – $10M+
OPEN

Open the meeting

Three things to nail in the first 10 minutes.

  1. 1

    Small agencies under $1M EBITDA trade at 2x–4x SDE or 3x–5x EBITDA.

  2. 2

    Mid-market agencies ($1M–$5M EBITDA) reach 5x–8x EBITDA; scaled performance agencies hit 8x–12x.

  3. 3

    Revenue multiples of 0.5x–2.5x — performance/growth agencies at top; content/SEO-only at bottom.

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