Agency leaders are entering 2026 with a different outlook than they reported just two years earlier. The Agency Core Research 2025 shows a broad shift in sentiment, with declining optimism and a clearer articulation of where leaders feel pressure, uncertainty, and risk. Rather than pointing to a single threat, the data reveals a collection of interconnected concerns shaping how agencies view the near future.

This blog surfaces the most commonly reported concerns agency leaders identified as they look ahead. It reflects aggregated findings from the 2025 research, highlighting shared challenges, areas of divergence, and changes compared to the 2023 study, without predicting outcomes or suggesting responses.

Agency leaders report a noticeable drop in confidence about the future compared to prior research. Optimism has declined across all agency sizes, specialties, and attitudinal segments, signaling a widespread shift rather than an isolated trend.

In the 2025 study, fewer than half of respondents strongly agreed that they felt optimistic about opportunities for their agency. This represents a significant decrease from the 2023 findings, when strong optimism was the majority view. The change suggests that uncertainty has become a defining backdrop for many agency leaders as they think about the years ahead.

• Shifts In Confidence Compared To 2023

  The decline in optimism is consistent across every attitudinal segment identified in the research. Even segments that remain more stable relative to others report lower confidence levels than they did two years earlier.

  Some leaders describe the future as marked by major change, while others express concern about the unknown rather than specific threats. These responses point to unease driven as much by unpredictability as by identifiable challenges.

• How Leaders Describe The Near-Term Future

  When asked to characterize how they feel about the future of agencies like theirs, respondents most frequently selected statements reflecting change, uncertainty, and the need to prove value. Fewer leaders expressed beliefs that conditions would improve automatically or remain stable.

  At the same time, only a small share indicated extreme pessimism, such as believing most agencies will not survive. This combination suggests concern without resignation, and caution rather than panic.

The most widely shared concern reported in the 2025 research relates to new business development. Agency leaders consistently identify pipeline health as a growing challenge, surpassing other issues across segments and agency types.

Finding right-fit clients has become harder for many agencies, and the intensity of this concern has increased sharply since the previous study. Pipeline pressure now appears as a central issue shaping how agencies assess future risk.

• Difficulty Finding Right-Fit Clients

  In 2025, a substantially larger share of agency leaders strongly agreed that finding new clients is harder than ever. This represents a nearly threefold increase compared to 2023, making it the fastest-rising concern in the research.

  Leaders report that this difficulty is not limited to volume alone. Many emphasize challenges related to fit, pricing expectations, and client readiness, contributing to a sense that new business development requires more effort with less predictability.

• Differences By Attitudinal Segment

  While pipeline pressure is present across all segments, it is most acute among Change Seekers. Leaders in this group report the highest levels of concern related to prospect development and describe their pipelines as unstable or shrinking.

  Other segments, including Thought Leaders and Loyalty Builders, report lower but still notable levels of concern. This indicates that while some agencies experience the pressure more intensely, pipeline uncertainty is not confined to a single mindset.

Another area of concern agencies carry into 2026 relates to pricing and how clients perceive agency value. Many leaders report ongoing difficulty aligning fees with the scope, complexity, and strategic demands of their work.

This concern reflects tension between what agencies deliver and what clients believe that work is worth. While not as universally cited as pipeline challenges, pricing pressure remains a significant issue for a substantial portion of respondents.

• Getting Paid What Agencies Are Worth

  A notable share of agency leaders identify getting paid appropriately as a severe challenge. This concern appears across agency sizes and specialties, suggesting it is tied to broader market conditions rather than individual positioning alone.

  Leaders report that pricing pressure often intersects with competitive dynamics, procurement processes, and increased scrutiny of agency spend. These factors contribute to uncertainty about revenue sustainability moving forward.

• Perceived Gaps Between Effort And Client Understanding

  Many respondents indicate that clients underestimate the amount of work agencies perform, particularly when strategy, coordination, and ongoing optimization are involved. This perception gap adds strain to pricing discussions and client relationships.

  The data suggests that these concerns are not isolated complaints, but commonly reported experiences that shape how agencies think about future engagements and expectations.

Staffing concerns remain part of the picture as agencies look toward 2026, but the nature of those concerns has shifted since the previous study. The 2025 research shows fewer leaders struggling to find talent, while more report pressure related to cost, retention, and long-term affordability.

Rather than shortages alone, staffing is increasingly framed as a sustainability issue. Leaders describe challenges balancing compensation expectations with financial realities in an environment of tighter margins and uncertain growth.

• Salary Pressure Replacing Talent Shortages

  Compared to 2023, significantly fewer agency leaders report difficulty hiring. However, high salary demands have replaced scarcity as a primary concern for many respondents.

  Leaders note that candidates command higher compensation than in prior years, even when experience levels do not increase at the same pace. This shift has changed how agencies evaluate growth, hiring timing, and role design.

• Retention And Affordability Concerns

  Nearly half of respondents report losing staff in the prior year, indicating that retention remains fragile for many agencies. This concern is especially pronounced among Staffing Strugglers and Change Seekers.

  Retention challenges are often discussed alongside affordability rather than engagement alone. Leaders describe difficulty maintaining competitive compensation while preserving financial stability, particularly in smaller teams.

In addition to new business pressure, agencies report growing concern about retaining existing clients. Client loss increased between the 2023 and 2025 studies, contributing to uncertainty about revenue continuity.

These concerns reflect more fragile client relationships rather than widespread churn across all agencies. The data shows variation by segment, suggesting uneven exposure to retention risk.

• Reported Increases In Client Loss

  More than half of agencies report losing clients in the previous year, a notable increase compared to 2023. At the same time, a higher share of leaders identify the risk of client defection as a severe challenge.

  This pattern indicates that agencies are experiencing greater volatility in existing accounts, even when performance issues are not always cited as the cause.

• Uneven Preparedness Across Agencies

  Fewer than half of agencies report having formal programs in place to minimize client defection. Preparedness varies significantly by attitudinal segment.

  Loyalty Builders and Thought Leaders report lower levels of concern, while Change Seekers are more likely to describe retention as an ongoing risk. This divergence highlights different levels of structural support rather than differences in awareness.

Beyond operational challenges, many agency leaders express concern about broader industry change. These concerns are less specific and more directional, reflecting uncertainty rather than clearly defined threats.

Leaders describe a sense that the agency model itself may evolve, even if there is little agreement on how that change will take shape.

• Expectations Of Structural Change

  About half of respondents believe agencies will serve a different role in marketing in the future than they do today. Nearly as many anticipate major industry changes ahead.

  These views suggest that concern is tied to transformation rather than decline. Leaders acknowledge that the environment is shifting, even if the outcomes remain unclear.

• Areas Of Uncertainty Rather Than Consensus

  While many expect change, fewer believe that agencies will become unnecessary or that most agencies will not survive. This indicates uncertainty without a shared conclusion.

  For many leaders, the concern is not whether agencies will exist, but how expectations, services, and value perceptions may evolve over time.

The 2025 research highlights that concerns are not evenly distributed across attitudinal segments. Some leaders report concentrated pressure, while others experience the same issues with less intensity.

Understanding these differences helps clarify why agencies describe the future so differently, even when facing similar market conditions.

• Concentrated Concerns Among Specific Segments

  Change Seekers consistently report the highest levels of concern across multiple categories, including pipeline pressure, pricing, retention, and market change.

  Staffing Strugglers report elevated concern around compensation and retention, while Cobblers’ Kids emphasize challenges related to self-marketing and inbound visibility.

• Shared Worries Across All Groups

  Despite these differences, certain concerns appear across every segment. Pipeline instability, declining optimism, and uncertainty about future expectations are present regardless of mindset.

  This overlap suggests that while intensity varies, many agencies are navigating similar pressures as they head into 2026.

Taken together, the 2025 Agency Core Research surfaces a set of shared concerns shaping how agency leaders view the future. Declining optimism, pipeline pressure, pricing strain, staffing affordability, retention risk, and uncertainty about industry change all factor into this outlook.

Rather than pointing to a single dominant threat, the data reflects a landscape defined by interconnected challenges and uneven impact. These findings provide visibility into what agency leaders are carrying with them as they look ahead, offering a clearer picture of the collective concerns entering 2026.