borrellassociates.com

Borrell Associates publishes research on U.S. local advertising and marketing spending, including a flagship annual report, industry papers, a weekly chart feature, and a podcast. Its content is aimed at media companies, agencies, and marketers who need to understand what businesses spend on advertising in specific local markets. Most detailed data sits behind a subscription, though report summaries and some recurring features are visible on the site.

The flagship annual report

Borrell's most comprehensive publication is its annual report on local digital advertising. The 2026 edition is titled The Digital Boom Ends, The Battle for Market Share Begins. According to the site, it contains:

• 42 charts and tables
• A 65-page analysis
• Two appendices: growth in business locations for 370 MSAs, and "obtainable" digital revenue across 511 U.S. Digital Marketing Regions

The report tracks the growth of local digital advertising and measures how well local media companies are capturing digital revenue. If you only read one Borrell publication, this is the one the company positions as its centerpiece.

Recurring insights and features

Beyond the annual report, Borrell maintains several ongoing content streams:

These are useful for tracking shifts between major reports rather than waiting a year for the next one.

The data products behind the reports

Borrell's published insights draw on two subscription data products:

• Compass — tracks and forecasts ad spending for more than 20 million U.S. businesses. It is customizable by geography (down to county level), across 100 types of businesses, and dozens of media and marketing expenditure categories.
• Local Scope — profiles the customers of a local business using cellphone activity data, giving demographic profiles of who actually visits or buys.

Compass answers "how much is being spent here?"; Local Scope answers "who are the customers here?" The reports and papers generally synthesize findings from these datasets.

How to access the content

• Free to view: report descriptions, the podcast, Chart of the Week, and research alerts sign-up.
• Subscription required: full reports, market-level data, and the Compass and Local Scope products. The site lists a Subscription Plans page and separate log-ins for Compass and Website access.

If you want to be notified when new research is released, Borrell offers a research alerts sign-up. For anyone deciding whether the content is worth following: the free features and report summaries give a reasonable sense of the methodology and coverage, while the subscription is what unlocks the market-level detail down to county geography.

Borrell Associates sells access to local advertising and marketing data through a subscription model, with individual reports also available for separate purchase. If you need ongoing, market-level spending data across many geographies or business categories, a subscription is the relevant path; if you need one specific study, buying that report individually may be enough. Plan details and pricing live on the company's Subscription Plans page, and existing subscribers log in through dedicated Compass or website log-in links.

What a subscription gives you access to

Borrell's core data products are Compass and Local Scope, and the subscription is the mechanism that unlocks them.

• Compass tracks and forecasts advertising and marketing spending for more than 20 million U.S. businesses. It is customizable by geography down to the county level, covers 100 types of businesses, and spans dozens of media and marketing expenditure categories.
• Local Scope profiles the customers of a local business using cellphone activity data, giving a view of the competitive landscape for a given local market.

The site describes market-level data access as configurable for any geography, down to the county level, covering both advertising (media) and other marketing forms such as event sponsorships, promotional items, and printed materials.

How access is configured

Geography is the main variable. Rather than a single national dataset, access can be scoped to the market or region you care about, including county-level detail. This matters if your work is limited to specific metros or if you need to compare markets — you configure access to match the footprint you actually analyze.

Subscription vs. buying individual reports

These are two separate purchase paths on the site:

The 2026 Annual Report is an example of the report path: a 65-page analysis with 42 charts and tables on local digital advertising growth, including appendices on business-location growth across 370 MSAs and obtainable digital revenue in 511 U.S. Digital Marketing Regions. It is presented as a product you read, not as a subscription feature.

Finding plan details and logging in

• Plan details: the Subscription Plans page is the source for what each plan includes. The site does not publish plan tiers or prices in the material available here, so check that page directly rather than assuming terms.
• Logging in: the site shows separate Compass-Login and Website-Login entry points, and prompts "Have a Borrell Subscription? Log-In" alongside report purchases. If you already subscribe, use the matching log-in for the product you need.
• Staying current: you can sign up for research alerts to be notified when new content is released.

What to decide before subscribing

1. Scope of geography — do you need one market, several, or county-level detail? Access is configurable, so define this first.
2. Which product — Compass for spending trends and forecasts, Local Scope for customer demographics and competitive landscape. They answer different questions.
3. Ongoing vs. one-time — if a single report covers your need, the report path avoids a subscription commitment.
4. Confirm current terms — plan contents and pricing are not specified in the available site material; verify on the Subscription Plans page before purchasing.

Borrell Associates is a research and data firm that tracks and forecasts local advertising and marketing spending across U.S. markets. It is useful if you need to understand what businesses in a specific geography spend on advertising and marketing, whether you are planning media sales, benchmarking a market, or building a local marketing strategy. Access to its market-level data is subscription-based, and some reports are sold individually.

What Borrell Associates covers

Borrell's focus is local — not national — advertising and marketing. Its stated expertise is knowing what businesses spend on advertising and marketing in any U.S. market, and it positions itself for both macro trend questions and single-market specifics.

Its data covers:

• Advertising (media) spending across dozens of media types
• Other marketing spending, including event sponsorships, promotional items, and printed materials
• Geography down to the county level, configurable for any U.S. market
• More than 20 million U.S. businesses and 100 types of businesses through its Compass product

Core products

Compass

Compass is Borrell's product for tracking and forecasting ad spending. According to the site, it offers directional insights on spending patterns for more than 20 million U.S. businesses, and is customizable by geography (down to county level), by 100 business types, and across dozens of media and marketing expenditure categories. There is a separate Compass login.

Local Scope

Local Scope profiles the customers of a local business using cellphone activity data, delivering demographic profiles. Borrell describes it as a way to understand the unique competitive landscape of any local business. It is listed as a newer product on the site.

Reports and insights

Borrell publishes reports, industry papers, and research. Its flagship is the annual report — the 2026 edition is titled "The Digital Boom Ends, The Battle for Market Share Begins." It is a 65-page analysis with 42 charts and tables on local digital advertising growth, plus two appendices: growth in business locations for 370 MSAs, and "obtainable" digital revenue across 511 U.S. Digital Marketing Regions. Individual reports can be added to a cart, and some content sits behind a subscription login.

Podcast and recurring content

Borrell also produces a podcast on local marketing (including an episode on how local marketing built the Cheerwine brand), plus recurring items such as "Corey's Local Marketing Minute," a Chart of the Week, Local Marketing Trends, and Local Scope Surveys. You can sign up for research alerts to be notified when new content is released.

How access works

Subscription plans are listed on a dedicated page. The site shows separate logins for Compass and for the website, and prompts visitors to log in if they have a Borrell subscription. Pricing details are not specified in the available site information, so check the subscription plans page for current terms.

Who it is for

Borrell's data is most relevant if you work in or with local media, local marketing, or market research — for example, a media company sizing digital revenue opportunity in a set of markets, an agency benchmarking client spend against a market, or an analyst tracking where local ad dollars are moving. If you only need national advertising figures, this is not the right fit, since the entire dataset is organized around U.S. local markets.

To start, decide whether you need ongoing market-level access (subscription) or a single report, then check the subscription plans page or the latest reports listing for current options.

Borrell Associates covers the U.S. local advertising and marketing market, with data configurable down to the county level and across more than 20 million U.S. businesses, 100 business types, and dozens of media and marketing expenditure categories. If your question is whether Borrell's data reaches your specific geography or industry, the answer is likely yes — provided your interest sits within the U.S. and within its tracked business and media categories. Coverage is delivered through two main products: Compass (ad spending tracking and forecasting) and Local Scope (customer profiling based on cellphone activity).

Geographic Coverage

Borrell's market-level data can be configured for any U.S. geography, down to the county level. That means you can request or access data scoped to a single local market rather than only national aggregates.

The company also publishes geography-specific breakdowns in its annual reporting. Its 2026 Annual Report includes two appendices:

• Growth in business locations for 370 MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas)
• "Obtainable" digital revenue across 511 U.S. Digital Marketing Regions

This matters if you need to compare a metro against a broader region, or check whether a smaller market is represented in the published data versus only available through a configured data access.

Business Coverage

Compass tracks spending patterns for more than 20 million U.S. businesses. Access can be customized by:

• Geography — down to the county level
• Business type — 100 types of businesses
• Expenditure category — dozens of media and marketing expenditure types

The expenditure categories extend beyond advertising media to other forms of marketing, including event sponsorships, promotional items, and printed materials. So if your interest is in a marketing line item that isn't strictly "advertising," it may still fall inside the tracked categories.

What Each Product Covers

How to Decide If the Coverage Fits Your Need

Use these conditions to judge fit:

• You need U.S. local market data — Borrell's stated scope is U.S. markets; the evidence describes U.S. coverage specifically.
• You need sub-state granularity — county-level configuration is supported, so metro-only data isn't the ceiling.
• You need a specific industry — check against the 100 business types; if your category isn't among them, the data may not break out your segment.
• You need a specific spend category — check against the dozens of media and marketing expenditure types, which include non-media marketing like sponsorships and printed materials.
• You need customer demographics rather than spend — that's Local Scope's function, not Compass's.

Access and Practical Notes

Some content is gated. The site shows "Add to Cart" and "Report Files" options, and prompts existing subscribers to log in (Compass-Login, Website-Login). Subscription plans are listed as a separate offering. Individual reports, such as the 2026 Annual Report, are available to read directly.

If you want to confirm coverage for your exact county and business type before committing, the most reliable path is to check the Compass product details and the subscription plans page, since configuration options are the mechanism through which geography and business-type coverage is set.

Borrell Associates offers two distinct local-market data products, and the right one depends on whether you need to understand advertising spending or customer demographics. Compass tracks and forecasts what businesses spend on advertising and marketing across U.S. geographies. Local Scope profiles the customers of a local business using cellphone activity data. If your question is "how much is being spent in this market?", you want Compass. If your question is "who are this business's customers?", you want Local Scope.

Compass: Advertising Spend Tracking and Forecasting

Compass is Borrell's spending-intelligence product. Per the site, it covers more than 20 million U.S. businesses and is customizable along three dimensions:

• Geography — configurable down to the county level
• Business type — 100 types of businesses
• Expenditure type — dozens of media and marketing categories, including event sponsorships, promotional items, and printed materials alongside traditional media

It provides both tracking and forecasting, so it serves directional planning questions: how a market's ad spend is trending, where it's headed, and how spend breaks down by business category.

Choose Compass when you need to:

• Size advertising and marketing spend in a specific market or county
• Compare spend patterns across business categories
• Build a forecast or budget case grounded in market-level spending data

Local Scope: Customer Profiling from Cellphone Activity

Local Scope answers a different question. It delivers demographic profiles for the customers of any local business, based on cellphone (mobile location) activity. Borrell positions it as a way to "understand the unique competitive landscape of any local business."

Where Compass describes the money flowing through a market, Local Scope describes the people a given business actually reaches.

Choose Local Scope when you need to:

• Understand who a local business's customers are demographically
• Assess the competitive landscape around a specific business
• Support a pitch or plan with customer-profile evidence rather than spend figures

Side-by-Side Comparison

How They Complement Each Other

The two products are not substitutes. A complete local market analysis often needs both halves: Compass tells you the size and direction of the spending opportunity, while Local Scope tells you who the audience is and how the competitive field is shaped. Used together, they connect "how much money is in play" with "who is being reached."

Access and Practical Notes

Borrell's site references subscription plans and separate log-ins for Compass and the website, and report pages include an "Add to Cart" flow and a subscription log-in prompt. Access to market-level data can be configured for any geography down to the county level. Pricing details are not specified on the pages reviewed, so check the Subscription Plans page for current terms before assuming what a given access level includes.