Economic pressures are mounting across the advertising industry.
The sector saw its fifth straight month of job losses in April, while growth predictions for the year have been downgraded. This decline is partly driven by a steep dive in consumer sentiment, which is now 26.5% lower than at the start of the year and at the second-lowest level ever recorded. Amidst this turbulence, more than 60% of advertisers expect their budgets to shrink between 6% and 10%.
Agencies, in particular, are feeling the effects of this volatility. As marketing budgets stagnate or shrink, clients want faster results, greater transparency, and clear performance outcomes to justify their investment. It’s no surprise that these challenges are intensifying the strain on client-agency relationships.
At the same time, internal teams at agencies are stretched thin. Many are navigating siloed and disconnected systems that hinder efficiency, making it difficult to meet brands’ heightened expectations.
In the face of these challenges, prioritizing an efficient, unified tech stack is one of the most effective ways agency leaders can set their teams up for success. Tools that automate mundane and routine tasks, consolidate reporting, and provide clear performance data can improve efficiency, strengthen client relationships, and empower teams to prioritize high value work over busy work. Agency leaders who invest in the right tools in 2025 can not only stabilize operations amidst today’s economic uncertainty but also build the foundation for long-term resilience and success.
Even before the current wave of economic volatility, client-agency relationships were under significant strain. A recent study found that 51% of agencies feel their client relationships are more strained today than they were just two years ago.
This tension has only intensified with today’s uncertainty, as brands face their own internal scrutiny around marketing investments and thus expect their agency partners to be faster, leaner, and more transparent.
“Brands have long challenged how agencies operate—from pricing models and delivery timelines to showing real results and business impact,” says Michael Thill, Basis’ VP of Agency Development.
Today, agencies are operating in a high-stakes environment where trust is fragile and expectations are incredibly high. This strain is further amplified by the fact that agency professionals feel their work is getting more difficult: Annual planning cycles are giving way to quarterly pivots—in part as a result of economic uncertainty—and there’s growing demand for real-time performance updates that tie media investments directly to business results.
“When everything’s in flux, clients want answers,” says Thill. “If agencies can’t move quickly and adapt, brands will get frustrated. And since brands need to prove ROI, they won’t hesitate to switch to an agency that can help them do that.”
Agencies, then, sit at a crossroads: They can either continue to overload teams and hope for different results, or they can make meaningful changes that improve how work gets done. The smarter path forward is for agency leaders to innovate: streamlining workflows, boosting efficiency, and empowering teams to focus on the high-value, strategic work that clients expect.
One of the most effective ways to unlock that transformation? Investing in the right tech.
Today’s agencies operate in an increasingly complex tech environment. More than half of agency professionals report using eight or more tools to manage campaigns, with 40% juggling 10 or more. While each tool is intended to serve a distinct and meaningful purpose, the resulting point-solution tech stack sprawl creates costly inefficiency: fragmented workflows, redundant tasks, inconsistent data, and operational bottlenecks that slow down decision-making.
These inefficiencies come at a steep cost—especially in times of economic pressure. “When budgets are tight and every dollar matters, mistakes and delays become even more costly,” says Thill. “You simply can’t afford to waste time reconciling data across multiple platforms or managing manual processes.”
Agency decision-makers echo that sentiment, citing inefficient processes and disconnected systems as their top operational challenges. Beyond lost time, these fragmented tools cut into margins and make it more difficult to deliver the performance and transparency clients expect.
Alternatively, an integrated tech stack can help consolidate functions, eliminate redundancies, and serve as a single source of truth. Automated advertising platforms, for example, are one powerful way to unify campaign planning, execution, reporting, and optimization. By streamlining these processes, they can empower agency teams to work smarter and focus on the strategic tasks that make their jobs fulfilling.
Take, for instance, the benefits of consolidated reporting. Without a unified platform, agencies often find themselves scrambling to gather data from multiple sources when a client makes a last-minute or time-sensitive request. This process is not only time-consuming, but also prone to errors—leaving agencies vulnerable to mistakes under pressure. Alternatively, an automated platform streamlines this process by providing all necessary reports in one place, eliminating the scramble and reducing the likelihood of mistakes. This efficiency gives agencies a competitive edge, enabling them to respond to client needs quickly, accurately, and with confidence.
As the digital advertising landscape evolves, agency leaders appear to recognize the importance of investing in technology to stay ahead. More than 75% of agency leaders say they plan to invest in AI over the next 12 months, with automation being the second biggest investment priority. In this context, the right technology is no longer just a tool to improve efficiency—it’s a competitive differentiator that enables agencies to deliver better results with greater precision, allowing them to scale efficiently, differentiate their services, and remain agile amidst uncertainty.
“Tech is a stabilizer,” says Thill. “Whether you’re winning new business or navigating losses, it keeps the team moving.”
Of course, there can be understandable hesitation around making new tech investments during economic uncertainty. Why would an agency leader want to spend more at a time when they’re trying to cut costs? “There’s no denying the time and cost of investing in tech,” says Thill. “But it can address many of the challenges agencies face right now.”
While it may seem counterintuitive to invest in new technology during times of economic uncertainty, such investments can allow teams to not only survive today’s demands, but also prepare for success in the long term.
By investing in tech today, agencies can leverage these tools to become more efficient, reduce waste, and deliver higher value to clients in ways that can be a significant differentiator.
Agencies are already spending resources, whether on human capital, training, tech, or operational costs. The key is to invest wisely. With a streamlined, efficient tech stack, agencies can strengthen client relationships, demonstrate their value, ease the workload for their teams, and stay ahead of the curve.
“The technology that enhances stability today can serve as a springboard for agency growth once the economic turbulence settles,” says Thill.
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Want more insights into the state of agency work in 2025? We conducted a comprehensive survey of hundreds of professionals at leading advertising agencies to dig into current challenges, strategic priorities, and future outlooks
