Marketing agencies in San Francisco: 392 offices, average pay near $148,000 and the privacy terms to sign

For companies hiring an agency in San Francisco, many of them technology firms buying B2B or app marketing, and for vendors that sell to agencies. The core figures are for San Francisco County; the wider metro is shown for scale.

San Francisco's agencies by the numbers

US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, San Francisco County, California, NAICS 5418 (advertising, public relations and related services):

In bands: 279 offices with fewer than 20 employees, 93 with 20 to 99 and 20 with 100 or more. Fewer than half (47%) have one to four employees, against 69% nationally, and 73 offices have 20 to 49 people: a mid-sized agency market. The same Census file counts 825 agency offices and 13,931 employees in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties), so the city has 48% of the offices and 68% of the jobs.

What CBP counts. Establishments with paid employees in March 2023, not companies, so a network brand's SoMa and Financial District offices count separately and freelancers don't count. Codes are NAICS 2017.

The kinds of agency

The rows add up to 392; average pay is our calculation, left out where the Census Bureau flags employees or payroll as high-noise (published, but confidentiality noise moved the value by 5% or more). PR agencies are 35.7% of offices here against 22.2% nationally. Outside 5418 the county has 376 marketing consultancies (541613) with 3,548 employees, 173 design studios (541430) and 71 market research offices (541910). The Census index files custom SEO and web page design under 541511, custom computer programming, which in San Francisco is dominated by software firms.

Out-of-home is significant: Clear Channel Outdoor's 2025 10-K lists 4,640 displays in its San Francisco/Bay Area market, 10% of its US displays and 7% of US segment revenue, and names improved performance there as a smaller reason its US revenue grew in 2025.

A free list of names: DataSF

The Registered Business Locations dataset on DataSF lists registered business locations with name, address, start date and a self-reported NAICS code. Of open San Francisco locations in the file on 30 October 2026 (no end date), 385 report a 5418 code: 157 under PR (541820), 111 under advertising agencies (541810), 53 under the general 541800 and the rest under display, direct mail and other codes. Another 432 report marketing consulting (541613). The code is optional, and 21,362 open San Francisco locations leave it blank, so search by name too.

The privacy terms to put in the contract

The California Consumer Privacy Act applies to for-profit businesses doing business in California that meet any of three tests the Attorney General lists: gross annual revenue over $25 million, buying, selling or sharing the personal information of 100,000 or more California residents or households, or earning half their revenue from selling it. If your company is covered and the agency will handle your customer data, it acts as your service provider, and the CCPA regulations (section 7051) say the contract must:

1. prohibit the agency from selling or sharing the personal information;
2. name the specific business purposes, not refer to the contract in general terms;
3. bar it from using or keeping the data for any other purpose;
4. bar it from combining your data with data from other clients or its own sources, except as the rules allow;
5. require it to comply with the CCPA and give the same level of privacy protection;
6. let you take reasonable steps, such as audits, to check its use of the data;
7. require it to tell you if it can no longer meet its obligations;
8. let you stop and fix unauthorized use;
9. require it to help you respond to consumer requests.

Two more rules matter for marketing. Section 7050(b) says a service provider "cannot contract with a business to provide cross-context behavioral advertising," though it can provide advertising and marketing services that don't combine opted-out consumers' data with other sources. And any subcontractor the agency uses needs a contract with the same terms (section 7051(b)). If the agency's standard paper doesn't cover these, ask for an addendum.

The other checks

• Rates by role. Agencies on GSA's schedule publish ceiling rates for federal buyers. Bonner Communications (90 New Montgomery Street; contract 47QRAA26D0032, awarded January 2026, small business) lists $133.00 an hour for a project coordinator, $146.30 for a graphic and digital designer, $155.16 for a project manager, $164.03 for a senior designer, $177.33 for a senior project manager and $261.56 for a project director (GSA CALC+, 30 October 2026). Commercial quotes are negotiated separately.
• Accounts and fees. 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. Keep the Administrator role in Google Analytics.
• Creative rights. Commissioned work is a work made for hire only in nine categories with a signed agreement (US Copyright Office), so ask for a written assignment.
• The entity. Check it on California bizfile Online and in DataSF.

Selling to San Francisco agencies

This is a mid-sized, well-paid market: 93 offices have 20 to 99 employees and 20 have 100 or more, so expect department heads, operations and security review in many deals. High salaries make time-saving tools easy to justify: at $147,968 average pay, an hour of an agency employee's time costs the agency about $71 in salary alone (assuming 2,080 paid hours a year), before benefits and overhead.

Illustrative example. The vendor, price and adoption are invented; the pay is the Census average.

Fogline Review (fogline.example) automates legal and brand review of ad copy for agencies at $1,500 a month. If it saves a 40-person agency 30 hours a month of senior review, at about $71 an hour in salary that's about $2,130 of time, more than the price. Its list: the 93 offices with 20 to 99 employees, starting with the PR and advertising agencies that serve regulated clients. Bebop finds those agencies and the operations or legal lead at each.

Subject: Review time on [client] work

Hi [first name],

[Agency]'s work for [client] has a lot of claims in it, which usually means every draft waits for a senior reviewer or legal.

[Product] checks copy against [client]'s claim rules and brand guide before it reaches a person, and flags what needs a human. [Similar agency] cut review time by [percentage].

Worth testing on one [client] campaign?

[Your name]
[Company, postal address]
Reply "no" and I won't email again.

San Francisco sources

No SEC-registered company in the advertising codes (SIC 7310 to 7319) lists a business address in San Francisco County, and the holding companies' 10-Ks don't list offices by city.

Next step: see the national groups in the largest advertising agencies and how to build a list, or the likely clients in tech companies in San Francisco.