Market Trends

AOR Tenure Roughly Doubled. Here Is What That Means for New Business

Quick answer

A 2025 client-agency relationship study attributed to the ANA and 4A's is cited in agency-benchmark research putting average agency-of-record tenure at close to 7 years today, more than double 2016's reported 3.2 years. A direct link to that primary study was not located during this research, so treat the exact figure as a named industry benchmark rather than an independently re-verified primary source.

What is independently and directly sourced: agencies still convert only 25 to 49% of qualified leads to paying clients, still lose $28,800 to $60,480 a year in pursued-but-lost proposals, and still see 76% of dedicated new-business directors leave within two years. Longer incumbency, real or approximate, does not change any of that math. It means fewer accounts change hands, which makes proactive prospecting for the accounts that do move more valuable, not less.

By VA Horizon Team · July 20, 2026 · 7 min read

The Figure, With Its Sourcing Disclosed Plainly

Agency-benchmark research cites a 2025 client-agency relationship tenure study attributed to the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) and 4A's, putting current average agency-of-record tenure at roughly 7 years, more than double the 3.2 years reported for 2016. The same cited research adds a review-period wrinkle: clients without mandatory review periods reportedly stay 8.1 years on average, versus 3.8 years for clients on a frequent review cycle. Neither figure carries a direct, fetchable primary-source link in the research this page draws from, so both are presented here as named industry benchmarks, not independently re-verified numbers, and neither appears in this post's own source list below.

Why Longer Incumbency Squeezes the Traditional New-Business Playbook

The oldest new-business tactic in the agency playbook is waiting for an incumbent to get fired, then pitching the account in review. If tenure really has roughly doubled, that playbook has fewer openings to work with than it did a decade ago. Meanwhile, the demand side of the equation has not slackened: SparkToro's directly sourced 2025 survey data shows only 14% of agencies call their own pipeline "very healthy," and 32% call it "not good." Fewer accounts coming up for review and a persistently weak pipeline is not a combination that rewards waiting.

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The BD-Director Math Does Not Get Easier With Longer Tenure

Hiring a dedicated in-house Director of New Business still costs an agency $150,000-plus a year before technology, bonuses, benefits, and ramp-up time, and 76% of agencies that make that hire lose the person within two years, per RSW/US's 2024 Agency New Business Report. Whether the pitch-list an agency is working shrinks because incumbents are staying put longer or stays the same size, that headcount cost and that turnover rate do not change. An agency betting its growth on natural account churn is also betting its growth on a role most agencies cannot keep staffed.

What Actually Wins the Harder-to-Open Door

Pitchsite's 2026 win-rate benchmark data, directly sourced, shows the blended agency proposal win rate at 43%, ranging from 33% for PR agencies to 52% for branding agencies. That is a meaningfully different number than the 22% average R3 Worldwide reported for 2024, and the spread between them is itself evidence that agencies chasing fewer, harder-won reviews need to know their own segment's real number, not a generic industry average, before deciding how many pitches they need in the pipeline to hit a growth target. See the full breakdown of what those two numbers actually measure for the segment-by-segment detail.

What This Means for How You Prospect in 2026

If fewer accounts are naturally coming up for grabs, the accounts that do open are worth fighting harder for, and the agencies that stay in front of prospects proactively, rather than waiting for a review cycle to surface an opportunity, get first access to those openings. VA Horizon's Human + AI SDRs run that proactive motion over SMS against your written criteria, at a flat $300 setup plus $250 to $450 per held, double-confirmed meeting, so an agency does not need to add a $150,000-a-year role with a 76% two-year attrition rate just to keep new-business conversations moving while it waits for the next account to come open.

Sources

The external data in this article draws on the sources below. Figures described in the text as estimates or industry triangulations are directional and are not attributed to a single dataset.

FAQ

How much has agency-of-record tenure grown since 2016?

A 2025 client-agency relationship study cited in agency-benchmark research and attributed to the ANA and 4A's puts current average tenure at close to 7 years, more than double the 3.2 years reported for 2016. No direct primary link to that study was located in this research, so the figure is presented as a named benchmark rather than an independently re-verified number.

Does a mandatory client review period shorten or lengthen the relationship?

Shorten it, per the same cited study: clients without a mandatory review period reportedly stay 8.1 years on average, versus 3.8 years for clients reviewed frequently. This figure carries the same sourcing caveat as the headline tenure number above.

If accounts change hands less often, does an agency need less new business?

No, the opposite. SparkToro's directly sourced 2025 data shows only 14% of agencies already call their own pipeline very healthy. Fewer natural openings from account churn means the openings that do exist matter more, and waiting passively for one is a weaker strategy than staying proactive.

Is hiring a BD director a good substitute for waiting on incumbent churn?

It is expensive either way. A dedicated Director of New Business costs $150,000-plus a year before tech, bonuses, benefits, and ramp-up, per Catapult, and 76% of agencies that make that hire lose the person within two years, per RSW/US's 2024 report.

What win rate should an agency expect when a review does open up?

It depends heavily on service line. Pitchsite's 2026 data puts the blended average at 43%, ranging from 33% for PR agencies to 52% for branding agencies, a meaningfully wide spread from R3 Worldwide's separately reported 22% average for 2024.

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