Profit Margin
4.3%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 5418
NAICS 5418 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services - Industry Benchmarks
$93,178/yr average annual pay, with 1,991 SBA loans on record for NAICS 5418.
- 4.3%
- Net margin
- 465K
- Workers employed
- $93,178/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $967M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 5418
Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services runs a 4.3% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 39K establishments employing 465K workers.
- 4.3%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 465K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $93,178/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $967M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services is reported here with financial measures from IRS Statistics of Income and workforce measures from Census County Business Patterns. The page keeps those source systems distinct, shows unavailable fields rather than estimating them, and links the underlying industry context so readers can compare the same NAICS activity before interpreting a margin or payroll figure.
Source: IRS SOI 2013 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services
Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services at a 4.3% net margin (below the national median), $115.1B in aggregate receipts across 49,087 returns, averaging $2.3B 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.
Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services sits in the 73rd percentile for employment and the 41st percentile for net margin among 4-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Total Receipts
$115.1B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$5.0B
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.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)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 14.4%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/7%
Business Structure Breakdown
Per-entity IRS SOI tables at their own vintages, shares only when every row shares one year (never mix 2013/2017/2022 populations).
C Corporation SOI 2013
49,087 returns
Margin: 4.3% · Receipts: $115.1B
Sole Proprietorship SOI 2022
163,457 returns
Margin: 26.8% · Receipts: $12.3B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 49,087
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $2.3B
- 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?
$115.1B in total annual receipts across all Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services businesses. Average per business: $2.3B.
How profitable is Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services?
4.3% 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.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services, both at NAICS level 4 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services ranks #70 of 259 U.S. industries at the 4-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #74 of 126 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (4.3% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (465,231 here).
Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services · 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 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI 2013
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.