Which Agency Capabilities Are Attracting the Most M&A Interest in North America?

This is the second of our three part series exploring the market forces, buyer priorities and specialist capabilities shaping M&A in North America right now.

WHERE BUYER ATTENTION IS CONCENTRATING IN 2026

In the first of our series, we argued that 2026 looks less like a blanket rebound and more like a selective reopening. Buyer appetite is there but it is concentrating around sharper capability sets, stronger operating proof and businesses that can show a credible role for AI, data and automation in delivery.

The obvious next question is where that selectivity is landing.

North America is large enough to support many specialist models, but not all are attracting the same level of interest. The capabilities drawing the most attention tend to share a few characteristics: they sit close to revenue or retention, solve more complex client needs, benefit from structural shifts in media and consumer behaviour, or become more valuable when paired with data, software or workflow automation.

Taken together, those factors help explain why buyer attention is concentrating more clearly around some areas of the market than others as 2026 unfolds.

What follows is not a complete map of the market. It is more a view of the capability areas where buyer attention appears to be concentrating most clearly.

COMMERCE, RETAIL MEDIA AND REVENUE-LINKED GROWTH SERVICES

This is one of the clearest areas of demand.

Commerce enablement, retail media, CRM onboarding, loyalty and broader revenue-linked growth services sit close to where many clients are trying to protect or accelerate performance.

As first-party data becomes more valuable and repeat purchase becomes a bigger part of the growth story, businesses that can connect media, commerce, customer data and activation are becoming more strategically relevant. IAB’s 2026 outlook points to commerce media, clean rooms, CRM onboarding and loyalty programmes becoming more central to growth rather than sitting at the edge of the marketing mix.

These are not attractive capabilities simply because they sound current. They are attractive because they can become deeply embedded in how clients acquire, retain and monetise customers. In a selective market, that kind of proximity to revenue tends to travel well in diligence.

The better businesses in this area are unlikely to be those offering one channel in isolation. They are more likely to be the ones that connect audience, media, commerce, retention and measurement. Buyers are not just looking for execution. They are looking for specialist platforms that can sit closer to the client’s growth engine.

PERFORMANCE MEDIA BUT WITH MORE WRAPPED AROUND IT

Performance marketing remains very much in demand but North America’s buyer logic is getting more specific.

Investors are not just looking for media buying or performance execution on a standalone basis. They increasingly want more wrapped around those capabilities, whether that is stronger strategy, better creative, clearer vertical depth or more distinctive operating IP.

That feels right.

Performance media still matters because it is measurable, scalable and relatively easy to understand in commercial terms. Although it can look more commoditised if it is not differentiated. What buyers seem to want now are businesses that combine performance discipline with a broader strategic proposition, creative strength, or a better link into commerce, retention and data.

That is also consistent with the broader market backdrop. Across the sector, AI is now a central theme in deal commentary, consolidation around data and identity continues, and advertisers are placing more weight on measurement and accountability.

CRM, LIFECYCLE AND RETENTION-LED CAPABILITY

If part of the old agency model was built around acquisition, one of the more interesting North American themes now is how much attention is moving toward retention.

That shift is not entirely new, but it does feel more investable. CRM, lifecycle, loyalty and owned-channel specialists can look particularly attractive when client pressure is moving toward efficiency, repeat purchase and better use of known customer data. Repeat purchase is becoming a more important growth engine (IAB’s 2026 Outlook Study found it had nearly doubled as a buyer priority since 2024), supported by stronger CRM onboarding, loyalty strategy and more effective activation of known audiences.

For buyers, the appeal is straightforward. These agencies often sit inside recurring client workflows, can be harder to displace than campaign-only specialists, and increasingly connect with adjacent areas such as data infrastructure, customer analytics and marketing automation.

That does not make every CRM agency attractive by default. Although it does mean the category is benefiting from stronger structural logic than it might have done a few years ago. The strongest firms are likely to be those that combine strategic customer thinking with operational depth, technology fluency and measurable commercial outcomes.

CREATOR, INFLUENCER AND SOCIAL COMMERCE

Creator-led marketing is moving from edge capability to a more meaningful part of the North American growth mix.

That is partly because the creator economy itself continues to mature, but also because creators increasingly sit closer to commerce, affiliate activity, audience development and retail media than they once did. Creator marketing is one of the fastest-growing parts of the market (IAB put 2025 US creator ad spend at $37bn, up 26% and roughly four times the growth of the wider media market), and it is increasingly connected to commerce through social shopping, affiliate activity and retail media.

From an M&A perspective, that changes the conversation.

Buyer interest here is unlikely to be limited to agencies that simply broker influencer campaigns. The more attractive businesses are often those that own a clearer operating layer. The likes of creator strategy, creator commerce, measurement, content systems, rights and usage workflows, or software-enabled tools that make the model more scalable and measurable.

One of the long-running questions around creator has been whether it is too fragmented or trend-led to underwrite confidently. As the ecosystem matures, the answer increasingly depends on where in the stack the business sits. The closer it gets to workflow, data, recurring client need or monetisable audience infrastructure, the stronger it is likely to look.

EXPERIENTIAL, LIVE AND BRAND ACTIVATION

Part one argued that creative agencies still matter in North America but often in more specific forms. Experiential is one of the clearest examples of this.

This is not just a post-pandemic rebound story now. Live, sports, cultural programming and experience-led brand building are becoming more strategic again in North America. Houlihan Lokey’s Q2 2025 marketing services update highlights continued activity in experiential and culture-led deals, including Stagwell’s acquisition of JetFuel and Publicis’s acquisition of Adopt.

That matters for acquirers because experiential can offer something many broader service models struggle to show, which is a differentiated role in culture, audience access and premium brand execution.

The more interesting question is where experiential goes next. The strongest agencies in this space are unlikely to be those offering live activation alone. They are more likely to be those that own their event properties, capture data more effectively, connect events to wider customer strategy, extend social and content around the experience, and use technology and AI to improve targeting and follow through.

Buyer interest is not really about events for their own sake. It is about what experiential becomes when it is connected to data, content and commercial follow through.

LUXURY AND OTHER PREMIUM AUDIENCE SPECIALISTS

Another noticeable shift in North American M&A has been the level of interest around luxury focused marketing.

That is a reminder that not every attractive capability area is channel-led. Some are audience-led or category-led. In a market where buyers are becoming more selective, premium audience access, stronger category credibility and more specialised brand knowledge can make for a compelling proposition.

Luxury is interesting because it often overlaps with several of the areas already attracting attention, such as experiential, premium content, culture, affluent consumer insight and international brand building. The point is not that luxury is automatically investable. It is that specialist audience access and category fluency can still matter a great deal when they are difficult to replicate.

The same logic applies in other verticals where category nuance materially shapes delivery, including sport marketing.

HEALTHCARE AND OTHER REGULATED-CATEGORY SPECIALISTS

Healthcare communications and other regulated or complexity heavy specialisms can be attractive precisely because they are harder to replicate.

They often combine specialist knowledge, embedded client relationships and a higher barrier to entry than more generalist agency models. Broader healthcare deal outlooks, such as PwC’s 2026 US health services deals outlook, continue to point to disciplined buyers prioritising efficiency, AI-enabled productivity and targeted strategic growth.

That does not mean every healthcare agency is suddenly in demand. But it does reinforce a wider point that buyers in North America are often drawn to capability areas where specialism is not just a positioning choice but a real source of defensibility.

MARKETING TECHNOLOGY AND SOFTWARE-ENABLED SERVICES

A final area worth calling out is the set of businesses that sit somewhere between agency, data, product and software.

These are often among the most interesting targets in a selective market because they can offer some combination of IP, workflow advantage, automation, measurement or operational leverage. We believe it is a key area of interest. AI has raised expectations across the board, but it has also increased the value of businesses that can make delivery more efficient or more scalable in a way that is visible under diligence.

That does not necessarily mean pure software. In many cases, the appeal lies in hybrid models, often just agencies with proprietary tools, data products, automation layers or specialist workflow infrastructure that make them more embedded and harder to commoditise.

There is a broader caution here too. Capabilities that once looked secure may face harder questions if they cannot show they are adapting to changing client expectations, new technology and shifting delivery models. By contrast, agencies that can speak credibly to evolving workflows, stronger measurement and a more modern operating model are likely to feel more current. SEO is a good example with AI-led search rapidly changing discovery and therefore related agency models.

For buyers, these agencies can be attractive because they do not just add revenue or headcount. They can improve the capability of the wider platform.

WHAT THE STRONGEST BUSINESSES IN THESE CATEGORIES HAVE IN COMMON

Across all of these areas, the common thread is not simply that they are fashionable in terms of M&A. It is that they tend to sit at the intersection of client demand, strategic relevance and operational proof. The strongest are usually those that can show one or more of proximity to revenue or retention, embedded workflow, harder-to-replicate specialism, stronger measurement, category depth, or a clearer role for technology and AI in delivery.

That is what makes this moment interesting. North America is not rewarding every niche equally. It is rewarding niches that can become meaningful agencies with real strategic value.

One further point is that smaller specialist agencies may now have more relevance than they once did, particularly when they can act as high-quality bolt-ons to a larger platform. This widens the universe of businesses that can attract interest but only if their capability is genuinely distinctive.

WHAT COMES NEXT

If part one was about why North America is reopening selectively, and part two is about where buyer attention is concentrating, the final question is what founders need to look like to command premium interest inside that market.

In the third part of our North America series, we will look at what premium agencies tend to have in common, from positioning and proof to leadership depth, AI readiness, client quality and platform fit.

Part 3 of this series, What do premium agencies have in common in North American M&A?, explores what the agencies attracting premium interest share.

Published 27 March 2026. Market observations and interpretation are Motion's own; transactions and figures are drawn from the sources below as they stood at publication.

Sources. IAB 2026 Outlook Study forecasts 9.5% growth in US ad spend, IAB, 28 January 2026. IAB 2026 Outlook Study (full report), IAB, January 2026. Creator economy ad spend to reach $37 billion in 2025, IAB, 20 November 2025. Q2 2025 Marketing Services Market Update, Houlihan Lokey, July 2025. Stagwell acquires experiential marketing and creative agency JetFuel, Stagwell, 6 May 2025. Publicis acquires Adopt, Publicis Groupe, 29 April 2025. PwC 2026 outlook: health services M&A poised for rebound, HLTH, 17 December 2025.