Marketing agencies in San Antonio: 176 offices, a billboard giant's home and the agencies that win military work

For South Texas businesses picking an agency, buyers of billboard and transit space, and vendors that sell to agencies. Counts cover the eight-county metro, from Bexar to Comal, Guadalupe and Kendall.

San Antonio's agencies, by the numbers

US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX Metro Area (CBSA 41700), NAICS 5418:

"Not reported" means the Census Bureau published the figure but flagged it high-noise: confidentiality noise moved it by 5% or more. CBP counts establishments with paid staff in March 2023, so freelancers aren't included and a firm with two offices counts twice. Codes are NAICS 2017, in which 541850 is titled outdoor advertising.

The kinds of agency here

The rows add up to 175; one office is in a code too small to publish. The advertising agencies average under five people each, so most are founder-led shops. Outside 5418, the metro has 213 marketing consultancies (541613) with 1,061 employees, 70 design studios (541430) and 27 market research offices (541910). The Census index files custom SEO services and custom web page design under 541511, custom computer programming, where 293 local offices sit, most of them software firms.

Out-of-home: a San Antonio specialty

Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings lists its principal executive offices at 4830 North Loop 1604 West in its 2025 10-K, which also says it leases executive offices in New York City. For 2025 it reported $1,604.1 million of revenue: $1,196.8 million from its America segment and $407.1 million from airports. It operated more than 61,000 print and digital displays and employed about 1,900 people, about 1,700 in the US. In its San Antonio market it ran 2,365 displays at the end of 2025: 1,501 printed billboards, 795 other printed displays and 69 digital billboards, 5% of its America displays and 3% of America revenue.

Its status changed this month. An 8-K filed on 14 October 2026 reports that Madison Parent Inc. completed its acquisition of the company that day, paying $2.43 a share in cash; the shares were delisted and the company filed to deregister on 26 October 2026. It no longer files public reports, so the 2025 10-K is the last public account.

If you're buying billboards here, whether direct from an operator or through an agency, three checks matter:

1. Location list before you sign: each face's address, direction, size, illumination and, for digital, how many advertisers share the rotation.
2. Proof of posting: dated photos of each printed face once it's up, and play logs for digital.
3. Permits on new structures: Texas Transportation Code section 391.061 makes it an offense to erect or maintain a commercial sign in the regulated areas without a license, with a fine of $500 to $1,000 for each day. The regulated areas (section 391.031) cover signs within 660 feet of an interstate or primary highway right-of-way and visible from the road, and some farther out in rural areas.

Agencies with federal work

San Antonio's military presence shows up in federal contract records, which name local agencies and what they were paid for:

For a private company these records are references you can check: the buyer, the scope and the dates are public. If you're a federal contractor yourself, they show which local firms already work inside government rules.

Before you hire

• Get a plan priced by role and hours. Omnicom's 2025 10-K lists the usual bases for agency fees: hourly or agreed fees, commissions on media, incentives tied to results and pass-through costs. Federal schedule data (GSA CALC+) gives national hourly ceilings for comparison: medians of about $98 for a media planner or buyer and $103 for an account manager, our calculation across contractors on 30 October 2026.
• Keep your accounts. Google requires agencies to give advertisers their Google Ads customer ID on request and to disclose management fees in writing before the first purchase and on every invoice.
• Own the work. A written copyright assignment for creative; commissioned work is a work made for hire only in nine narrow categories (US Copyright Office, Circular 30).
• Confirm the entity on the Texas Comptroller's franchise tax account status search.

Selling to San Antonio agencies

Small offices mean founder buyers: 162 of 176 have fewer than 20 employees. Two segments buy differently. The 41 promotional products and sign offices (541890), with 535 employees, buy inventory, decoration and fulfillment services. Agencies with federal clients need vendors that can meet government requirements and wait for government payment terms.

Illustrative example. The vendor, price and response rate are invented.

Alamo Proof (alamoproof.example) sells photo verification for out-of-home campaigns at $40 a face. Its targets are the agencies that buy billboards for clients and the 11 display advertising offices. A regional advertiser posting 60 faces a quarter pays $2,400 a quarter for verified proof. The first call goes to the media director of an agency that just announced an outdoor campaign for a regional client. Bebop can list the agencies whose clients use outdoor and find the media lead at each.

Hi [first name], it's [your name] with [company]. I saw the [client] boards going up on [highway]. When a client asks whether every face posted on time, most agencies are still waiting on photos from the operator.

We [what you do, e.g. photograph every face within 48 hours of posting and send a dated report]. [Similar agency] uses it for its [type] clients.

Who handles posting verification on [client] today?

San Antonio sources

Next step: see the national holding companies and how agencies are organized in the largest advertising agencies and how to build a list.