Short answer
The Omaha metro area had 126 advertising, PR and related agency offices with paid staff in 2023, employing 1,384 people, according to the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns. Douglas County has 99 and Sarpy County 15. Advertising agencies are 64 of the 126, and another 115 offices are marketing consultancies. Hire local when you need people in the room or local media knowledge, and start any agency with a paid, scoped trial project.
- Omaha has 126 agency offices with 1,384 employees, 0.32% of the US total.
- Douglas County holds 99 offices; Sarpy County's 15 average 19 employees each.
- Only two agency offices in the metro have 100 or more employees.
- Advertising agencies employ 846 people here and paid $80,898 per employee.
- A paid trial project shows how an agency works before you sign a retainer.
On this page
This report is for Omaha-area businesses hiring a marketing agency and for vendors that sell to agencies. It covers the Census count, the kinds of agencies, the local-or-remote decision, a trial project you can run, published rates, and how to prospect the market.
The count
County Business Patterns 2023 reports NAICS 5418 (advertising, public relations and related services) for the Omaha metro area, which crosses into Iowa:
| County | Offices | Employees |
|---|---|---|
| Douglas, NE | 99 | 984 |
| Sarpy, NE | 15 | 291 |
| Pottawattamie, IA | 6 | not reported (high-noise figure) |
| Washington, NE | 3 | 2 |
| Metro area | 126 | 1,384 |
The counties shown hold 123 offices; three more are elsewhere in the metro. For Pottawattamie County the Census Bureau published employment but flagged it as high-noise: the noise added for confidentiality moved it by 5% or more. Payroll totaled $94.5 million in 2023 ($68,284 per employee), with 11.0 employees in the average office.
Most are small: 84 offices have one to four employees, 13 have five to nine, 14 have 10 to 19, 10 have 20 to 49 and 3 have 50 to 99. The Census Bureau doesn't publish the larger cells here; the two offices with 100 or more employees are the total less the published cells.
Each office counts separately, so a two-office firm counts twice, and owner-only shops without payroll are left out.
The kinds of agencies
- Advertising agencies, including digital (541810): 64 offices, 846 employees, $80,898 per employee (our calculation from payroll).
- Other advertising services, such as promotional products (541890): 29 offices, 292 employees.
- PR agencies (541820): 14 offices, 38 employees.
- Flyer distribution (541870), direct mail (541860), out-of-home (541850) and media representatives (541840): 6, 5, 4 and 3 offices.
The published codes account for 125 of the 126 offices; the Census Bureau publishes no separate figure for media buying agencies (541830) in the metro. The marketing consultancy code (541613) adds 115 offices with 1,361 employees, and graphic design (541430) another 53. The Census Bureau classes custom SEO work as custom computer programming (541511).
With 14 PR offices averaging under three employees, a business that needs a PR team of any size may have to look outside the metro.
Local or remote?
| Hire a local agency when | A remote agency can work when |
|---|---|
| You need people on site: shoots, events, launches | The work is mostly digital: paid search, social, email, web |
| Local media, sponsorships or outdoor buys matter | Your customers are national, not local |
| You want the agency's own network of local partners | You need a specialty Omaha doesn't have in depth, such as a sizable PR team |
| Your team prefers working in person | You're comfortable with video calls and shared dashboards |
Either way, keep your ad and analytics accounts in your company's name. Google's advertiser guide says an agency "must set up a separate Ads account for you," and requires agencies to disclose any management fee in writing and on every invoice.
Test an agency with a paid trial project
A short paid project shows how an agency thinks and works, which no pitch can.
- Pick a real, contained problem. A landing page and one month of paid search for one service, or a press plan for one announcement.
- Fix the budget and the date. Two to six weeks, with a flat fee you'd be happy to pay even if you don't continue.
- Agree what you'll judge. Speed of response, quality of thinking, whether they push back, and the result against an agreed measure.
- Own what you pay for. The contract should assign you copyright in the delivered work; the Copyright Office explains that commissioned work usually isn't a "work made for hire" without a signed agreement in one of nine categories.
- Debrief before you decide. Ask the agency what it would do differently. A good one will tell you.
What Omaha agencies charge
Most quote projects or monthly retainers, and none in the metro publishes rates through a federal schedule contract with an advertising, PR or marketing consulting category. The national benchmark is the General Services Administration's schedule data, which lists vendors' maximum hourly rates for federal work. Median ceiling rates by vendor size (our calculation from GSA's data, 30 October 2026):
| Role | Small businesses | Larger firms |
|---|---|---|
| Graphic designer | $104 (91 vendors) | $123 (23 vendors) |
| Web developer | $133 (43 vendors) | $164 (8 vendors) |
| Project manager | $143 (121 vendors) | $148 (29 vendors) |
Use these to check whether an hourly rate in a proposal is in the normal range; ceilings for government work aren't commercial quotes.
Selling to Omaha agencies
The market is small enough to work account by account. At most offices the owner decides, and timing follows client wins and new service lines.
Illustrative example. The company, prices and results are fictional.
Plattecam (plattecam.example) rents video crews to agencies by the day. Its targets are the 42 offices with five or more employees (13 + 14 + 10 + 3 + 2). If half produce video for clients, about 21 fit, and at an illustrative eight shoot days a year at $2,500 a day, each is worth $20,000. Bebop can find who runs production at each of the 21 and what they've published recently, so every first email has a reason to be sent.
Where to check Omaha agencies
- The Nebraska Secretary of State's corporation search confirms a Nebraska agency's legal name and status. Agencies in Pottawattamie County register with Iowa.
- The Greater Omaha Chamber, for member businesses and local programs.
- PRSA Nebraska, the Public Relations Society of America's chapter for the state.
Next step: for the national groups that own many agency brands, see the largest advertising agencies and holding companies.
Sources
- County Business Patterns 2023, US Census Bureau, accessed 30 October 2026
- North American Industry Classification System 2022: definitions and cross-references, US Census Bureau, accessed 30 October 2026
- Advertiser guide: Working with third parties, Google Advertising Policies Help, accessed 30 October 2026
- Transparency requirements for third-party advertisers, Google Advertising Policies Help, accessed 30 October 2026
- Circular 30: Works Made for Hire, US Copyright Office, revised August 2024
- CALC+ Labor Ceiling Rates (Marketing and Public Relations export), US General Services Administration, accessed 30 October 2026
- Corporation and Business Entity Searches, Nebraska Secretary of State, accessed 30 October 2026
Written by the Bebop team at Blackpearl Group. Published .
Questions people ask
How many marketing agencies are in Omaha?
126 in 2023, by the Census Bureau's count of advertising, PR and related agency offices with paid employees in the Omaha metro area; together they employed 1,384 people. Douglas County had 99, Sarpy County 15 and Pottawattamie County, Iowa 6. Another 115 offices were marketing consultancies. Owner-only shops without payroll aren't counted.
Should I hire a local marketing agency or a remote one?
Hire local when you need people on site for shoots, events or launches, or when local media and sponsorships matter. A remote agency can work well for digital channels such as paid search, social and email, or when you need a specialty Omaha doesn't have in depth: the metro's 14 PR offices average fewer than three employees. Keep your accounts in your own name either way.
What is a trial project with a marketing agency?
A short, paid piece of real work, usually two to six weeks, such as a landing page with a month of paid search, agreed before any retainer. Fix the fee, the date and the measures you'll judge it on, and make sure the contract assigns you the work. It shows how the agency responds, thinks and pushes back, which a pitch can't.
How much do marketing agencies charge?
Most charge project fees or monthly retainers, and few publish hourly rates. Federal GSA schedule contracts are the clearest public benchmark: small businesses' median ceiling rates are $104 an hour for a graphic designer, $133 for a web developer and $143 for a project manager, with larger firms higher. Those are maximums for government work, so compare them with the hours behind any quote.
What are the top five advertising agencies?
By reported revenue the largest advertising groups are Omnicom, Publicis Groupe and WPP; lists of five add the next-largest groups, depending on the measure. Omnicom absorbed Interpublic when their merger closed on 26 November 2025. These groups own many agency brands. SEC EDGAR lists no listed company in the advertising codes headquartered in the Omaha metro.