People sometimes use their PR budget as a driver for what kind of PR agency to look for. Unfortunately the choice of a large, medium or small public relations consultancy is a little more complex than that. Here are a few things that might be helpful to keep in mind:

Equating size with cost Smaller agencies are not necessarily cheaper than larger ones. In fact agency rates do not vary as much as people think. PR agencies generally work on the basis of selling time and expertise of individuals, and these people all depend on the same professional market. Most agencies will be using some kind of time planning and hourly ratecard as a basis, which is related to executive levels and salaries, even if it has been simplified for the purposes of client communication.

Different account team patterns Larger agencies usually have a high proportion of junior and trainee staff who do a huge amount of the processing of PR activities ranging from research to direct media relations. This might be entirely appropriate; who is doing what may not be visible to the client who will liaise with the agency via its relationship manager. While a larger public relations agency may have the edge in terms of being able to throw resources at a challenge, a smaller team with which the client can interface more directly may be more comfortable for some clients.

Access to senior thinkers Smaller agencies have shorter chains of command and in general the client deals directly with senior people working on the account. That makes access to quick insights and feedback much quicker than with larger agencies where senior people are often in charge of a very large portfolio and slightly less accessible or current on the day-to-day minutiae. Larger agencies on the other hand often have access to extremely senior executives with gravitas and political or industry contacts which small agencies rarely rival.

Profitable account sizes Large agencies undoubtedly have higher overheads, and that must necessarily translate into their fees and operational processes. This is balanced to some degree by the larger proportion in terms of numbers of juniors and interns than you would find in a smaller agency - but nonetheless means that the minimum profitable size of an account is higher than for a small agency. Smaller agencies can also work profitably in smaller project increments. If budgets are extremely low, considering freelance support may be more appropriate – although you need to be comfortable with the fact that although they lack many of the tools, resources and information sources of a public relations consultancy business, they can often comfortably take on very small accounts. 

International Reach Larger agencies are more likely to have international reach, and there is a comfort in knowing that you can work through a wholly owned agency network, but do remember that this isn’t exclusively true. Plenty of small agencies have effective network models working with trusted affiliates which carry through some of the small agency benefits outlined above. During your search for a PR consultancy and while you create your PR brief, putting a little thought into the likely appropriateness of differently sized agencies will help you find your perfect partner faster and avoid ‘false starts.’ Whatever agency size is right for you, all of us in the PR industry would probably agree that finding the right ‘fit’ that enables a mutually beneficial relationship is the most important thing for agency and client alike.