Observed ranges · 29 years · 56 entities · 18 countries
The Benchmark Library
These are not industry averages from a textbook. They are the thresholds I have seen separate healthy businesses from distressed ones.
Sourced from direct CFO experience across agencies, media businesses, consultancies, and MarTech firms.
Cash Conversion
| Metric | Sector | Size | Healthy | Stress | Consequence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debtor Days | Agency & Media | $1–10M | 45–60 | >60 | DSO above 60 means your clients are using you as a bank. I have watched this trigger payroll stress within 30 days. |
| Debtor Days | Agency & Media | $10–50M | 40–55 | >55 | At scale, every day above your benchmark costs 0.3% of annual revenue in working capital. |
| WIP Days | Agency & Media | $1–10M | 10–20 | >30 | WIP above 30 days means billing is broken. You are doing work you will never invoice at full value. |
| Debtor Days | Consulting | $1–10M | 30–45 | >60 | Consulting debtor days above 60 means you completed the work months ago and are still waiting to be paid. |
Profitability
| Metric | Sector | Size | Healthy | Stress | Consequence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross Margin % | Agency & Media | $1–10M | 45–60 | <38 | Below 38% means you are staffing at cost and hoping efficiency saves you. It rarely does. |
| Gross Margin % | Agency & Media | $10–50M | 48–62 | <42 | At this revenue, margin below 42% leaves no room for business development or bad months. |
| Gross Margin % | MarTech | $1–10M | 55–72 | <48 | MarTech below 48% suggests you are carrying delivery costs that should be in COGS. |
| Gross Margin % | Consulting | $1–10M | 50–65 | <42 | Below 42% in consulting means your delivery cost per engagement is too high for the fees you are charging. |
| Net Margin % | Agency & Media | $1–10M | 8–18 | <5 | Below 5% leaves zero buffer for a single client loss or salary increase. |
| Net Margin % | Consulting | $1–10M | 12–22 | <7 | Below 7% net margin in a consultancy means one project overrun eliminates your profit for the quarter. |
| Net Margin % | MarTech | $1–10M | 12–25 | <8 | MarTech below 8% net margin means your unit economics are not working at current scale. |
Headcount & People
| Metric | Sector | Size | Healthy | Stress | Consequence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue/Employee | Agency & Media | $1–10M | $120–180K | <$90K | Below 90K means you are overstaffed or underpricing. In an agency, usually both. |
| Revenue/Employee | Consulting | $1–10M | $150–220K | <$100K | Revenue per head below 100K in consulting means you have too many people billing too little per engagement. |
| Revenue/Employee | MarTech | $1–10M | $160–250K | <$110K | Below 110K per head in MarTech means you are scaling headcount faster than you are scaling revenue. |
| Payroll % Revenue | Agency & Media | $1–10M | 35–50% | >55% | Above 55% means you cannot hire without growing revenue first — and cannot grow without hiring. |
| Payroll % Revenue | Consulting | $1–10M | 30–45% | >50% | Consulting payroll above 50% means your cost base is fixed but your revenue is project-based. |
| Payroll % Revenue | MarTech | $1–10M | 30–45% | >50% | MarTech payroll above 50% means your people cost is growing faster than your product can scale. |
| Bench Ratio | Agency & Media | $1–10M | 5–15% | >25% | Above 25% means you are paying salaries for work that doesn't exist yet. |
| Utilisation Rate | Consulting | $1–10M | 70–80% | <60% | Below 60% utilisation in a consultancy means your bench cost is eating the margin from every billable engagement. |
| Regretted Attrition | Agency & Media | $1–10M | <12% annualized | >12% | Above 12% regretted attrition means your best people are choosing to leave. Recruitment fees and delivery rework follow. |
Concentration & Risk
| Metric | Sector | Size | Healthy | Stress | Consequence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Client Concentration | Agency & Media | $1–10M | Top client <25% | >40% | When one client is 40%+ of revenue, you do not have a business — you have a contract that ends. |
| Client Concentration | Agency & Media | $10–50M | Top client <15% | >25% | At this scale, single client above 25% creates board-level governance risk. |
| Platform Concentration | Agency & Media | $1–10M | Top platform <30% | >50% | Above 50% — one policy change, algorithm shift, or account suspension removes half your business. |
| Churn Rate | MarTech | $1–10M | 5–15% | >25% | Above 25% churn means you are replacing a quarter of your revenue every year just to stay flat. |
Billing & Collections
| Metric | Sector | Size | Healthy | Stress | Consequence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Billing Realisation | Consulting | $1–10M | 85–95% | <75% | Realisation below 75% means you are discounting before you even start — the fee negotiation is lost before delivery. |
| Cash Cycle Days | Agency & Media | $1–10M | 15–30 | >45 | A 45+ day cash cycle in an agency means you need 6 weeks of payroll before you see a cent of client revenue. |
This is a public selection from the full library. The complete benchmark set, loaded into every Margin Note, includes compound escalation triggers and deterioration pathway timelines.