When companies reach a certain size, which in our experience is often between $100 million and $500 million in revenue, M&A often becomes necessary to achieve future growth targets. Successful M&A strategies and execution therefore take on an increasing level of importance for many mid-sized companies aiming for continued growth.

Mid-sized companies that decide to undertake M&A have historically used one of several approaches. An Opportunistic M&A approach entails pursuing M&A targets in an ad-hoc manner as the opportunity arises. This approach does not require a lot of investment, but the results are partially dependent on external factors. A Big Bang approach aims to reshape the company with one or two very large deals. The upside is the ability to quickly transform and grow, while the downside is that large deals can be risky and require a lot of management attention to execute.

A promising third path is emerging in the mid-market space, where companies take a more systematic approach to M&A. Programmatic M&A starts by tailoring an M&A strategy suited to a company’s overall strategy and growth ambition. Typically, this means multiple deals per year of varying sizes, with the objective of increasing economies of scale or scope. Programmatic M&A also emphasizes building a team and a set of internal capabilities that enable the company to execute on its M&A strategy. Examples include a corporate development team, an IMO team, and a set of tools and frameworks to analyze potential targets. Research suggests that companies that take a programmatic approach to M&A outperform companies that rely on an Opportunistic or Big Bang approach, on the basis of total shareholder returns.

Our recent work with a mid-sized advertising agency illustrates the switch from an Opportunistic M&A approach to a Programmatic M&A strategy. This client is in the early stages of implementing a Programmatic M&A strategy, and leadership sees this approach as essential to achieving their long-term growth goals.

Our client is a US-based advertising agency (henceforth referred to as “AgencyCo”) specializing in digital marketing. Founded in the early 2000s and founder-led, it grew to over $100 million in revenue by creating digital media campaigns for high-growth digital-first consumer brands. The company had largely grown organically, though it had acquired several small founder-led performance media agencies over the years. These acquisitions brought AgencyCo talent and new logos, but it did not transform its core capabilities or significantly increase its size. Acquisitions were generally deemed successful, though integration challenges flared up at times.

The marketing services industry in which AgencyCo competes is large, moderate to high growth, and highly competitive. US advertising services was a $77 billion industry in 2024 (IBIS), and industry revenues are forecast to continue to grow at a rate of roughly 3.6% per year (IBIS), with the digital advertising segment growing much faster, at a rate of 17.1% (IBIS). AgencyCo faces competition from full-service providers like WPP and Publicis, as well as myriad specialist shops. The performance media segment is high-tech and fast-moving, requiring AgencyCo to continually innovate its tech platform and automate core processes. In addition, clients increasingly prefer a “one-stop shop” full-service agency, causing some mid-sized agencies to turn to M&A to obtain a broader set of capabilities.

For the first time since its founding, AgencyCo’s ownership changed significantly in 2022, when a telecom and media-focused private equity firm acquired a majority stake. New ownership set ambitious growth targets for the ad agency, aiming to grow revenue by more than 3x over the next 5 years. Even for a fast-growing company like AgencyCo, it was clear the company would need to significantly ramp up M&A activity, among other initiatives.

Based on the leadership’s 5-year plan, we estimated that 40%-75% of future revenue growth would need to come from M&A, equivalent to $15 million to $40 million in deal value per year. Several scenarios were modeled to form these estimates, the key variables being (1) industry growth, (2) organic growth rate of AgencyCo’s legacy business, and (3) ability to realize synergies from future acquisitions. Even scenarios in which the legacy business performed above expectations required deal activity that dwarfed what AgencyCo had undertaken in the past. Leadership recognized that stronger alignment on M&A strategy and a more rigorous approach to sourcing and integrating companies would be required to realize the 5-year plan.

While initial steps had been taken, such as better pipeline management and a SWOT analysis to clarify strategic direction, it became evident that achieving the 5-year growth plan would require more than just volume. AgencyCo needed a clear point of view on the types of deals it should pursue and how those deals would translate into long-term value.

As discussed, companies with ambitious growth targets, particularly those backed by private equity or financial sponsors, often turn to M&A as a key lever for growth and value creation. However, simply “doing deals” is not a strategy, even when executed in a programmatic way. The real challenge lies in determining which type of deals to pursue and how to ensure they create long-term value and differentiation.

At Jabian, we’ve seen mid-market companies succeed when they take the time to define their M&A ambition not just in terms of volume, but also in terms of intent. That’s where the concept of deal archetypes becomes powerful.

In this case, AgencyCo aimed to evolve from a specialist in niche service areas into a more comprehensive, full-service provider, leveraging its strong technology platform as a foundation. Their M&A strategy was focused on acquiring new capabilities, rather than simply gaining scale.

We helped the team define and formalize three distinct archetypes:

1. Operational Consolidators: Scaling acquisitions that expand volume and margin in core capabilities.
2. Strategic Capability Builders: Capability additions with strategic relevance but higher integration risk.
3. Innovation Accelerants: Sub-scale partnerships or acquisitions to enhance AI, automation, or existing technology platforms.

Each archetype carried its own integration blueprint. Scale-based deals were absorbed. Capability deals required a hybrid model, preserving target distinctiveness while aligning on key systems. Tech-focused plays required minimal integration, often operating as standalone or partner models. The team also recognized that any acquisitions with a mature technology platform both commanded a high deal premium and were potentially redundant to their own platform.

This structured approach helped the client align pipeline, diligence, and integration to the strategic role of each deal, a theme we’ve echoed in other sectors, where post-close complexity varies widely across tuck-ins, platform builds, or carve-outs.

In short, archetypes help translate strategic ambition into operating discipline and serve as an M&A heuristic to create commonality and repeatability across unique transactions. For companies pursuing transformation, not just growth, they mark the difference between simply buying revenue and building a sustainable, long-term business.

With a refined deal thesis and set of archetypes in place, the next challenge was to operationalize this strategy. To do that, AgencyCo needed to build the internal systems, tools, and routines required to consistently source, evaluate, and integrate acquisitions in line with its strategic priorities. In today’s competitive landscape, companies looking to scale effectively must treat M&A as a structured component of their growth strategy, rather than an opportunistic one-off. One of the most critical enablers to operationalize this idea is a formalized pipeline management and evaluation process, a process that holds a company accountable to consistently identify, evaluate, and pursue acquisition opportunities that align with their strategic priorities.

In this engagement, we helped AgencyCo stand up this process and move away from ad hoc deal sourcing by first establishing a structured, end-to-end pipeline process that accelerated deal identification and improved decision-making.

This all started with setting up a net-new pipeline of target companies that were sourced based on a clear understanding of the client’s growth objectives, capability gaps, and deal profiles. We helped define the research criteria the client would need to evaluate strategic fit, and then sourced and profiled companies accordingly. This foundational step enabled more intentional sourcing and set the stage for applying a consistent evaluation framework.

From there, we designed a custom scoring methodology that allowed the team to quickly assess strategic fit across multiple areas—ownership, company size, revenue, capabilities, industry focus, and more. The model was tailored to consider both deal profiles that the client was prioritizing, with weighted allocations that helped surface the most promising prospects, and which deal type they would fall under. This structured approach enabled the client to evaluate a wide range of opportunities objectively and consistently, reducing reliance on gut instinct or one-off assessments that risk misalignment with the core M&A strategy. For companies looking to scale through M&A, this kind of scoring methodology helps focus time and resources on the deals most aligned with strategic goals. It also establishes a repeatable, data-driven process that can adapt as growth priorities evolve.

Once the initial pipeline was populated and scored, we focused on making it sustainable. We built and handed off a repeatable process with tools and templates for managing and updating the pipeline on an ongoing basis, one that could keep the team accountable to their M&A strategy and evolve over time. This included:

• Clearly defined pipeline stages to track progress from initial research through active deal engagement
• Templates for prospect research, scoring, and communication tracking to support preparation for diligence conversations and risk awareness ahead of outreach
• A structured cadence of review meetings and approval checkpoints to drive internal alignment and decision-making
• Guidelines and quarterly review agendas for refreshing the pipeline based on changes in the strategy

By putting this structure in place, we transformed a one-time list of targets into a long-term, strategic asset. The tools and processes we implemented helped the team stay focused on the right opportunities, adapt to shifting priorities, and make faster, more confident decisions when it comes to their M&A strategy. Most importantly, it enabled AgencyCo to treat M&A as an ongoing engine for growth rather than a reactive effort.

AgencyCo’s journey from opportunistic acquirer to disciplined Programmatic M&A operator offers a valuable playbook for other mid-sized companies facing similar growth inflection points. By clarifying deal intent, adopting a strategic set of archetypes, and building repeatable pipeline and evaluation capabilities, the company laid the foundation for long-term, acquisition-led growth. The broader lesson is clear: M&A success requires more than ambition. It requires structure, discipline, and alignment across strategy and execution. As more companies enter the M&A arena to compete and scale, those that treat it as a core business capability will be best positioned to thrive.

While this case focuses on an advertising and marketing services company, the principles explored, such as defining deal archetypes, building repeatable processes, and aligning execution with strategic intent, are widely applicable across industries. Whether in manufacturing, health care, technology, or business services, organizations looking to scale through acquisition can benefit from a programmatic, disciplined approach to M&A. The core concepts of capability-driven growth, structured pipeline management, and integration discipline transcend sector boundaries and can serve as a roadmap for any company facing the complexities of scaling through inorganic growth.