Research finds agency business development teams embattled but optimistic, with wasted resources on pitching a particularly persistent concern.
'Ghost pitches' are among the growing concerns of agency new business people
Marketing agencies can grow by getting more work from their current clients, buying other agencies or finding new clients. The latter is the job of its new business or business development team – a task that, a new report suggests, has continued to get harder over the last year.
Conducted by JFDI and pollsters Opinium, the research of 250 UK-based agencies has found increasing pressure on new biz teams, with revenue targets up across the board (by 7% for large agencies, 13% for medium-sized agencies and 31% for small agencies). And they’re being asked to do more with less: agency marketing spend has not grown along with those revenue targets and has, in fact, fallen for large agencies by almost a third.
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One leader in the space, Propeller Group’s chief growth officer Jody Osman, tells The Drum that this budgetary pressure is creating a more competitive landscape. “After a challenging 2024, agencies are setting ambitious new business targets for the year ahead, fueled by optimism around marketing spend and the need to recover lost ground,” he says. “However, with over 30,000 agencies in the UK, competition is fiercer than ever. Pitching demands significant time, money and resources, with conversion rates ranging from 37-43%. Agencies must also navigate the risks of budget cuts and the possibility of being ghosted.”
Ghosted, indeed: a consistent concern of agencies throughout the JFDI/Opinium New Business Barometer’s history has been the phenomenon of clients withdrawing after agencies have already invested resources into pitching. Despite high-profile initiatives (like the Pitch Positive Pledge) over the last few years to tackle the problem, this year’s data finds yet another increase in reports of ‘ghost pitches,’ with 45% of agencies saying pitches have been recalled after budget was removed.
Oli Richards, chief marketing officer at the Beyond Collective, tells the Drum he’s seen plenty of pitches turn into ghosts. Smart new business people, he says, are adapting to read the signs early: “Ghosting is definitely on the up – but I think the signs are often there well ahead of the end of the final pitch. If you’re not talking to the final decision maker, the budget is ominously missing from the brief, or the process is feeling unstructured or chaotic, you could be on shaky ground. Now more than ever, we need to be robust in the way we qualify new opportunities and while optimism is one of our super strengths as new business people, it can often leave us exposed in this increasingly uncertain world.”
Even when a pitch is won, though, the report finds that pitch work is thrown out after winning in 50% of cases, with clients considering the pitch brief “a means to an end,” after which they will “reset with firm requirements of the agency.”
There are reasons to be cheerful for some: specialist agencies, with the report finding an increase in specialist briefs going to tender. Chris Booker, new business and marketing director at experiential shop TRO, says there’s been a noticeable rise in “narrower, more task-driven briefs,” reflecting a “wider shift towards more project-driven briefs over the past few years.” Why? “Marketers have more data at their fingertips than ever before, so in general, they know which levers to pull... But on the flipside, we know clients are increasingly looking for more integrated thinking. So, even if the immediate ask might feel narrow, there’s still an onus on agency partners to see the bigger picture, bringing a collaborative, creative spirit to the table to unlock maximum impact.”
This optimism, buoyed by an uptick in interest in certain specialisms, is supported by another recent dataset. Marketing consultancy AAR’s 2025 Pulse for Agencies found a 15% year-on-year increase in the total market for new business, spurred by a massive 81% increase in volume for social media work and significant increases in open pitches for specialisms like search engine marketing.
That shift toward specialist expertise may encourage some to rush to hire search or social teams, but Richards of Beyond Collective cautions against that kind of budget-chasing. “While it’s tempting to ‘fake it to make it,’ the market is well supplied with specialists, so we instead have a clear view on where we have a right to win and point our resources there.”
Richards goes on: “Revenue targets are up, the average size of opportunity is down and there is more volume, according to the latest JFDI data, so the obvious action is ‘do more!’ But it’s a dangerous trap to fall into. It’s an inevitable race to the bottom. Pick the opportunities where you have a right to win (and know exactly what that right to win is), category experience or a connection to a client and you’ll nudge up your conversion rates, meaning less pitching. Sounds simple, but man is it hard to stick to in the heat of pitch battle.”
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Louise De Ste Croix, head of new Business at BrandOpus, agrees that it’s a time for agencies to choose their battles. “We’re seeing a clear shift towards fewer but more significant opportunities. It’s about being choiceful – ensuring we go after the right pitches that align with our business and creative strengths. As a result, we’ve been more successful in securing work that delivers real impact.”
As does Propeller’s Osman: “New business is more demanding than ever and BD leaders are under immense pressure. Recognizing their role and ensuring they have the right support is critical. Growth is achievable, but only with focus, strategy, and patience.”
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