MARKETING
Trio – Charles Little, Max Lyne and Christopher Sowerby, the development and AI leads team at Outrank.
The financial and operational metrics behind Outrank’ s recent quarter tell the story of a business in rapid rise.
The agency’ s largest year-on-year growth to date is highlighted by a 42 % jump in overall turnover.
This financial leap is accompanied by an impressive 260 % surge in EBITDA( Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation), while the overall headcount has expanded to surpass 60 employees.
Rather than resting on its laurels, the executive team has reinvested this surge in capital directly back into the business, funding new technological advancements and a major 11-strong recruitment drive to support the swelling turnover.
In the last quarter alone, Outrank has significantly bolstered its delivery capabilities across multiple departments.
The fresh talent includes a new director of delivery, an AI engineer, a dedicated developer and a paid media specialist. To further support this expansion, the agency has also hired two sales professionals, two senior SEO leads, two junior SEOs and two social media specialists.
To navigate this period of large growth, Outrank has also strengthened its strategic leadership, appointing two heavyweights to its advisory board.
David Crawford, former chief executive of Branded3 and a digital marketing veteran, has joined as a non-executive adviser. He brings a wealth of expertise in scaling search-led businesses.
“ Outrank has a strong platform to build from, with clear strengths in search and a leadership team that understands exactly where it wants to go,” David said.
“ I’ m looking forward to working with the business at a strategic level, helping
to refine its positioning, strengthen its operational approach and support its continued growth in an increasingly competitive landscape.”
Amit Aggarwal, an experienced mergers and acquisitions specialist, who has held prestigious roles at JPMorgan, PwC and the Baugur Group, has joined David at Riverside House in Middlesbrough.
“ Outrank has built a strong foundation, combining technical expertise with a clear focus on delivering results for clients,” Amit said.
“ There’ s a real energy and ambition within the business, and I’ m looking forward to supporting the team as they scale and continue to evolve their offering.”
Outrank founder Stephen Robinson believes these appointments are crucial.
He said:“ We’ ve always been ambitious about where we want to take the business. Bringing in the right people at board level is critical to doing that in the right way.
“ David’ s experience adds an important dimension as we strengthen our performance marketing, while Amit brings a huge amount of commercial experience to help us think bigger.”
When an agency quadruples its headcount in just a few years, company culture is quite often the first casualty – but not at Outrank.
The agency was recently ranked second among the UK’ s Best Medium Workplaces by Great Place to Work for 2026.
This builds on Outrank’ s debut on the list in 2024 at 77th in the small company category. It climbed to third last year and has now made a successful entry into the medium business category.
“ We’ ve always believed that strong culture drives strong results,” Stephen said.“ Moving into the medium category shows just how much the business has grown.
“ But growth only matters if you bring your culture with you. Our focus remains exactly the same- creating an environment where people enjoy coming to work, feel supported and have the opportunity to develop their careers.”
This people-first approach extends to its“ open-door” recruitment policy. Instead of only hiring to fill immediate vacancies, Outrank encourages talented individuals to apply at any time.
“ There’ s no such thing as the right person at the wrong time,” Francesca said.“ If we meet someone promising who shares our mindset and values, we’ ll find a way to make the timing work.”
With the UK market firmly established, Outrank is already setting its sights on broader horizons. The blueprint that has worked so effectively on Teesside and beyond is now ready for export.
“ The US market is firmly on our radar,” said Francesca.“ Later this year, we plan to expand our proprietary system into that territory.
“ Our goal is to replicate the lead generation engine and the agency model that we have so successfully built here in the UK.”
For a company that began by championing the overlooked SME market, the future looks incredibly bright.
“ This is a really exciting peak in our growth journey,” Francesca added.“ It fulfils everything we have wanted to do over the last three years and we are aggressively looking to expand into other global markets in the years to come.”
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