Profit Margin
6.5%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 5418
NAICS 5418 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services - Industry Benchmarks
$93,178/yr average annual pay, with 1,991 SBA loans on record for NAICS 5418.
- 6.5%
- Net margin
- 465K
- Workers employed
- $93,178/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $967M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 5418
Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services runs a 6.5% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 39K establishments employing 465K workers.
- 6.5%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 465K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $93,178/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $967M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services
Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services at a 6.5% net margin (below the national median), $127.4B in aggregate receipts across 212,544 returns, averaging $599.4M per establishment.
38,864 establishments employ 465,231 workers (12.0/location) at $93,178/yr average annual pay. New York leads employment, followed by California and Illinois.
Total Receipts
$127.4B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$8.3B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
465,231
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$93,178/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
38,864
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 1,980; establishment count increased by 170. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services revenue goes
Workforce scale
Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services margin vs national reference points
Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services net margin 21.6%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%
Business Structure Breakdown
How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)
C Corporation
49,087 returns 23%
Margin: 4.3% · Receipts: $115.1B
Sole Proprietorship
163,457 returns 77%
Margin: 26.8% · Receipts: $12.3B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 212,544
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $599.4M
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $43.3B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 12.0
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Advertising Agencies NAICS 54181 | N/A |
| Advertising Material Distribution Services NAICS 54187 | N/A |
| Direct Mail Advertising NAICS 54186 | N/A |
| Media Buying Agencies NAICS 54183 | N/A |
| Media Representatives NAICS 54184 | N/A |
| Other Services Related to Advertising NAICS 54189 | N/A |
| Outdoor Advertising NAICS 54185 | N/A |
| Public Relations Agencies NAICS 54182 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| New York | 84,473 |
| California | 70,334 |
| Illinois | 31,214 |
| Texas | 28,379 |
| Florida | 21,896 |
| Pennsylvania | 14,814 |
| North Carolina | 11,757 |
| Massachusetts | 11,165 |
| Missouri | 10,906 |
| Ohio | 10,689 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
1,991
Total Loan Volume
$967M
Avg Loan Size
$486K
Jobs Supported
18,250
Program Breakdown
7(a) 1,803 (91%)
504 188 (9%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
121 loans in this industry
New Business Share
15.2% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 189
2021 268
2022 246
2023 283
2024 450
2025 486
2026 69
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services?
$127.4B in total annual receipts across all Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services businesses. Average per business: $599.4M.
How profitable is Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services?
6.5% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services?
38,864 business establishments. Together they employ 465,231 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services?
$93,178/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 12.0 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services employment?
New York leads with 84,473 workers. California (70,334) and Illinois (31,214) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services receive?
Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services businesses received 1,991 SBA loans totaling $967 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $486K. These loans supported 18,250 jobs at origination. Most lending (91%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services reports a higher net margin than 63% of the 126 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 73% of that same 259-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest reported net margins
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services
- Net margin: 6.5% vs sector. Browse Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- 38,864 establishments, 465,231 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 1,991 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 5418 · Data year: 2023
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.