NAICS 541810 Guide: How to Find and Win Government Advertising Contracts in 2026

NAICS 541810 covers firms that provide full-service advertising and public awareness campaigns for government clients. With the SBA's $25.5 million size standard and the 2026 FAR Part 19 Overhaul, small agencies have a major opportunity to win both federal and SLED (State, Local, and Education) contracts—especially as agencies like HHS, DoD, and state public health departments continue issuing recurring outreach and recruitment RFPs. This guide explains what NAICS 541810 includes, who buys these services, common contract types, and how modern agencies use Agentic AI to find and win opportunities faster.

TL;DR

NAICS 541810 = Advertising Agencies covering full-service advertising campaigns, public awareness messaging, creative strategy, and campaign analytics for government clients.
Small-business friendly: $25.5M size standard with opportunities in federal and SLED markets—especially public health outreach, recruitment campaigns, and voter education initiatives.
High demand drivers: Public health outreach, CMMC 2.0 education, military/first responder recruitment, and state/local ballot initiatives create recurring contract opportunities.
2026 advantage: FAR Part 19 Overhaul reduces compliance friction and provides more realistic paths to win for small advertising agencies.
Agentic AI workflow: Automated discovery, zero-draft compliance matrices, and PWin scoring accelerate capture—helping small firms compete against larger incumbents.
Act now: add NAICS 541810 to SAM.gov to access the growing pipeline of government advertising contracts.

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What Is NAICS Code 541810?

NAICS 541810 is the primary classification for Advertising Agencies within the Professional Services sector. Government buyers use this code when they need a contractor to manage end-to-end advertising campaigns, from strategy through execution and reporting.

How Contracting Officers Use This Code

Agencies typically select NAICS 541810 when they want one accountable partner responsible for strategy, creative development, media execution, and performance tracking—rather than managing multiple specialized vendors. If a requirement spans creative, media, and analytics, 541810 is usually the correct NAICS.

Is My Agency a "Small Business" Under NAICS 541810?

For NAICS 541810, the SBA size standard is $25.5 million in average annual receipts.

If your agency is below this threshold, you qualify as a Small Business, making you eligible for:

Small Business Set-Asides
Competitive set-aside task orders on GSA Schedules
Many state and local procurement programs that favor small firms

Billions of dollars in advertising, outreach, and recruitment spending flow through small-business-eligible contracts each year.

Key Services Included in NAICS 541810

Contracts under this NAICS commonly include:

Full-service advertising campaigns (digital, TV, radio, print)
Public awareness and behavior-change messaging
Creative strategy and brand storytelling
Campaign analytics, reporting, and account management

Quick Cross-Reference: Don't Use the Wrong NAICS

If your agency offers a narrower scope of services, a different NAICS may apply:

541820 – Public Relations: crisis communications, media relations
541830 – Media Buying: placement only, without creative services
541430 – Graphic Design: visual assets only

Choosing the wrong NAICS can disqualify you from otherwise strong opportunities.

Who Buys NAICS 541810 Advertising Services?

Government advertising contracts are issued across federal, state, and local agencies, often on a recurring basis.

Common Buyers Include:

Federal: HHS, CDC, DoD, DHS, VA
State: Public health departments, transportation agencies, tourism boards
Local: Cities, counties, transit authorities, school districts
Education: Public universities and statewide higher-education systems

These agencies routinely procure advertising services for public health outreach, recruitment, infrastructure initiatives, and voter education.

Why NAICS 541810 Is a Strategic Focus for 2026

In 2026, agencies are under increasing pressure to communicate more effectively, faster, and across more channels.

Demand for 541810 services is driven by:

Public Health Outreach: Continued investment in health education and awareness campaigns
CMMC 2.0 Education: Agencies communicating new cybersecurity requirements to vendors
Recruitment Campaigns: Military, first responder, and law enforcement hiring efforts
State & Local Ballot Initiatives: Voter education for bonds, transportation, and public safety

This mix of recurring federal work and highly fragmented SLED demand makes NAICS 541810 particularly attractive for growth-focused agencies.

Common Contract Types for NAICS 541810

Advertising agencies typically win government work through:

IDIQs and BPAs for ongoing campaign support
Task orders under the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS 541)
Firm-Fixed-Price contracts for defined campaigns
State and local cooperative contracts (e.g., NASPO, Sourcewell)

Understanding how agencies buy is just as important as understanding what they buy.

How the 2026 FAR Part 19 Overhaul Impacts Advertising Agencies

By early 2026, the FAR Part 19 Overhaul has materially changed small-business competition.

Key impacts include:

Rule of Two Preserved: Agencies must still set aside contracts when two qualified small businesses are expected to bid
Order-Level Discretion: Contracting officers can more easily set aside individual task orders on schedules
Simplified Compliance: Removal and consolidation of legacy provisions reduces administrative burden

For small advertising agencies, this means lower compliance friction and more realistic paths to win.

How to Find and Win NAICS 541810 Government Contracts

A Quick Comparison

Task	Traditional Workflow	Agentic AI Workflow
Opportunity discovery	Manual, weekly searches	Always-on monitoring
Compliance matrix	2–3 days of manual work	Generated in minutes
Bid/no-bid decisions	Gut instinct	Data-backed PWin scoring

1. Automated, Always-On Opportunity Discovery

Manually searching SAM.gov once a week is no longer competitive.

Agentic AI is always-on, continuously monitoring federal and SLED portals—even overnight—so opportunities are already scored and prioritized when your team starts the day.

With platforms like CLEATUS, there's no need to write prompts or configure complex searches. Simply create your Capture Profile—your company's strengths, capabilities, preferences, and past performances—and the AI automatically surfaces the opportunities that match. New solicitations are scored against your profile in real-time, so you wake up to a prioritized pipeline, not a wall of unfiltered listings.

2. The "Zero-Draft" Compliance Matrix

Advertising RFPs often include complex Section L & M instructions.

Instead of spending days building a compliance matrix manually, an AI agent can read the full solicitation and generate a Zero-Draft Compliance Matrix in minutes, allowing creative teams to focus on strategy and execution sooner.

3. Predictive PWin (Probability of Win)

Not every opportunity is worth pursuing—especially when long-term incumbents dominate an agency's advertising spend.

Agentic platforms like CLEATUS analyze incumbent win rates, agency buying patterns, and competitive density to generate a PWin score, helping teams confidently decide when to bid—or walk away.

Human-in-the-Loop: Source-Grounded Accuracy

In government advertising, accuracy matters as much as creativity.

Winning model: AI-Generated, Human-Validated.

Modern agentic systems prioritize Source Grounding, providing hyperlinks and page-level citations back to the original RFP, SAM.gov record, or agency document. This ensures proposals are compliant, defensible, and audit-ready.

Conclusion

NAICS 541810 is one of the strongest growth entry points for creative agencies in 2026. With the right NAICS alignment, an understanding of how agencies buy, and an Agentic AI-powered workflow, small firms can compete—and win—against much larger incumbents.

The advantage is no longer just creative talent.
It's about who can identify, qualify, and respond to the right opportunities the fastest.