Federal Advertising Contracts Study

Key takeaways

1. Federal agencies obligated $1.70 billion in fiscal 2025 on contracts coded advertising ($1.49 billion) or public relations ($206.1 million), about 0.218% of all federal contract spending. See details
2. The Defense Department paid for 64.6% of fiscal 2021–2025 dollars; the Army (27.5%), Air Force (16.0%) and Navy (14.6%) together 58.1%. See details
3. Omnicom Group companies received 25.7% of the dollars and WPP 10.8%; the five biggest vendors took 57.4% of 1,148 in all. See details
4. Small businesses won 33.4% of the dollars, above the 23% government-wide goal but far below the 79.7% they win in federal video production. See details
5. Adjusted for inflation, the spending peaked at $2.29 billion in fiscal 2020, when the Census Bureau obligated $323.0 million after $263.8 million the year before; fiscal 2025 was the lowest year since 2019. See details
6. The single biggest award coded advertising in fiscal 2021–2025 was an Air Force-funded contract for operational planning, implementation and assessment services, with $739.7 million obligated. See details

How much does the federal government spend on advertising?

We read every federal contract transaction coded R701, advertising, or R708, public relations, in the government's product and service code list (PSC manual), from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2026, out of USAspending.gov. In fiscal 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025), agencies obligated $1.70 billion: $1.49 billion for advertising and $206.1 million for public relations, with 473 vendors. That is about 0.218% of the $779 billion agencies obligated on contracts that year. Over fiscal 2021–2025 the total averaged $1.81 billion a year.

Fiscal 2026 stands at $1.54 billion so far. It is provisional: Defense Department contract data reach USAspending on a 90-day delay (USAspending).

Is federal advertising spending rising?

It rose in the 2020s. Adjusted for inflation (BLS CPI-U), spending averaged $1.15 billion a year in fiscal 2011–2013 and $1.92 billion in fiscal 2023–2025. The high was fiscal 2020, at $2.29 billion in 2025 dollars ($1.85 billion at the time), the year of the census campaign: the Census Bureau obligated $263.8 million on these contracts in fiscal 2019 and $323.0 million in fiscal 2020. Fiscal 2025, at $1.70 billion, was the lowest year since 2019 in real terms.

Who pays for federal advertising?

The Defense Department paid for 64.6% of fiscal 2021–2025 dollars, counting each contract by the office that funded it. The Army funded 27.5%, the Air Force 16.0% and the Navy 14.6%. The General Services Administration awarded $1.10 billion of the contracts on other agencies' behalf, and the Defense Department funded 88.0% of that. Outside defense, the biggest funders were the National Institutes of Health (11.9%), whose largest contracts carry Health and Human Services public education campaigns, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (4.3%).

Who wins federal advertising contracts?

A few large agency groups. Grouped by parent company as USAspending records it, Omnicom Group companies received 25.7% of fiscal 2021–2025 dollars, WPP 10.8%, Fors Marsh Group 9.5% and DDB Chicago, listed as its own parent, 7.0%. The five biggest vendors took 57.4% and the ten biggest 72.1%, out of 1,148 vendors paid in the period.

Small businesses, as the contracting officer classed them, won 33.4% of the dollars, above the government-wide goal of 23% of prime contract dollars (15 U.S.C. 644(g)) but far below their share of federal video production work, in our federal video production contracts study.

What were the biggest contracts?

The largest award coded advertising in fiscal 2021–2025 was an Air Force-funded contract for operational planning, implementation and assessment services, with $739.7 million obligated in the period. Next came a Navy-funded advertising support contract for the Marine Corps Recruiting Command ($556.0 million) and an NIH public information and communication services contract ($422.8 million). The descriptions below are the agencies' own, as recorded.

What this means

• Federal advertising is mostly Defense Department money. 64.6% of the dollars come from the Defense Department.
• A handful of holding companies hold most of it. The top five vendors take 57.4%.
• Census years distort the trend. Compare like years, or leave fiscal 2019–2020 out.

Mark Studios edits commercials and ad creative for brands. For the video side of federal buying, see our federal video production contracts study and video advertising statistics.

How we ran the study

Data. USAspending.gov's custom download of prime contract transactions (award types A to D: blanket purchase agreement calls, purchase orders, delivery orders and definitive contracts) with product or service code R701 or R708 and action dates from October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2026, read November 1, 2026 through the public API: 50,576 transactions. Dollars are net obligations (the federal_action_obligation field), by federal fiscal year.

Funders and vendors. Each transaction counts toward the office that funded it (USAspending's funding agency fields), which credits work the General Services Administration bought for another agency to that agency. Vendors are grouped by the parent company USAspending records, with spelling variants of one name merged. Inflation: fiscal-year averages of the monthly CPI-U (CUUR0000SA0); October 2025 was never published, so fiscal 2026 averages 11 months.

Limitations

• Codes are the agencies' own. Advertising bought inside other contracts carries other codes, and some awards coded advertising, like the largest one, buy more than advertising.
• Fiscal 2026 is provisional. Defense Department data arrive 90 days late.
• Purchases at or below the micro-purchase threshold are usually not reported, as in our federal video production study.
• Parent companies are as recorded. We merged spelling variants only; an agency listed as its own parent stays separate.

How to cite this study

Link to the section you use, for example https://www.markstudios.com/research/federal-advertising-contracts-study#funders. To cite the study as a whole:

Mark Studios. "Federal Advertising Contracts Study." Published November 1, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/federal-advertising-contracts-study

@misc{markstudios_federal_advertising_contracts_study_2026,
  author = {{Mark Studios}},
  title = {{Federal Advertising Contracts Study}},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/federal-advertising-contracts-study},
  note = {Last verified 2026-11-01}
}

Our counts and the CSVs are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page. The underlying USAspending data are public.

Sources

Fiscal-year totals, 2008–2026 (CSV) The 10 largest awards, fiscal 2021–2025 (CSV)

Widely quoted video statistics on other topics are traced to their origin, with a verdict on each, in our research fact-check.

1. USAspending.gov, Custom award data download (prime contract transactions). Accessed 2026-11-01.
2. USAspending.gov, API endpoints. Accessed 2026-11-01.
3. USAspending.gov, Data sources (DoD and Army Corps of Engineers contract data are delayed 90 days). Accessed 2026-11-01.
4. Acquisition.gov, Product and Service Codes manual. Accessed 2026-11-01.
5. Legal Information Institute, 15 U.S. Code § 644, Awards or contracts (small business goals). Accessed 2026-11-01.
6. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. city average, all items (CUUR0000SA0). Accessed 2026-11-01.

Update policy and change log

We plan to rerun the read each January, once the Defense Department's fourth quarter is in. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.

• November 1, 2026: First published.