What is Nova specialised in?

Paid social, Search advertising (SEA), SEO & GEO.

Around 4 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Review: Nova

Q: Who are the clients of Nova?

Among others Someone Kids, Uw Idee, IdentIT, Headr, INSTAX Belgium, IS4U Group, Fruit At Work.

Sinds 2018 is Nova actief als performance- & mediabureau uit Hasselt. De bezetting ligt rond 4 VTE. Het aanbod is gericht op paid media (sea/social/display) en seo. Sectorieel richt het bureau zich vooral op lokale ondernemers/kmo's (limburg). Tot de publiek bekende klanten behoren Someone Kids, Uw Idee, IdentIT en Headr.

1

How this agency makes money

Revenue, margin and what an hour of work brings in. Everything on the earning side sits together here.

Revenue trendgross margin per financial year

20212022202320242025

Latest year: € 227.434 gross margin, growth -11,6% against a sector median of +5,3%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

NovaSector median

EBITDA margin -4,8%, sector median 28%. Value-added coverage 0,95 (median 1,23). Value-added coverage sits in the sector-wide grey zone (0.95-1.15): context, not an alarm.

Loss-making

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 56.859

Median (2025) € 76.236

Against a payroll cost of € 59.260 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 34

Median (2025) € 47

6.771 hours worked, 1.693 per FTE. Against that sits € 35 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € -1 for premises, equipment, depreciation and profit.

Below the median

No hourly rate follows from this. Gross margin is already net of services and sundry goods, which mixes rebilled production with the agency's own overhead, and the accounts do not say how many hours were billable. Deriving a rate from this systematically understates it.

2

Can the agency take a hit

Buffer, cash position and payment behaviour side by side, so you can see where they disagree.

Bufferequity in months of payroll

Buffer: 1,1 months (median 6,3 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 22.353.

Thin buffer

Cash positionAvailable cash, and whether it covers short-term debt

Cash € 6.366. Liquidity ratio 1,32: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 25,3%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 23 days of supplier credit, sector median 63. The accounts were filed 236 days after closing; the legal deadline is seven months.

Filed late

3

Signals and strengths

Events from the CBE and the Official Gazette over the past 24 months, plus positive markers derived from the figures.

Continuity

Points to ask about

Signals in the last 24 months

Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Sep 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Late filing · 24 Aug 2026 · NBB
The annual accounts were filed after the statutory deadline. Over a third of the sector does this, usually because of the accountant's calendar. Rarely a story in itself.
Thin buffer · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
Equity covers less than three months of payroll. A limited reserve, and at many smaller agencies the normal state of affairs. Ask how the agency absorbs a setback.
Loss-making year · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
One financial year closed at a loss. The size is not shown here: it can be a few thousand euros, a one-off settlement, or a deliberate investment. Ask the agency what was behind it.
Sharp headcount decline · 31 Dec 2024 · NBB
Average headcount fell by 15% or more in a year. That can be contraction, and just as easily a deliberate choice for fewer but more experienced people. Ask who left and who came in their place.
Sharp drop in equity · 31 Dec 2024 · NBB
The financial reserve shrank by more than 30% over two financial years. A dividend, buying out a partner and a loss-making year all look the same here. Ask which of the three it was.

Click a signal for a plain-language explanation. Each signal is a fact from a public source, without the agency's own context. Best to ask them directly.

What this agency does well

Stable team (no meaningful FTE loss)
Healthy working capital (current ratio 1,32)

Each point is a fact from the filed annual accounts, measured against the same thresholds and sector medians as the signals above.

4

All the figures

Reference material, not a starting point. Expand it if you want to read the series yourself.

5 financial years, 2021 to 2025Result, staff and balance sheet

	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Result
Gross margin	€ 406.364	€ 382.506-5,9%	€ 267.606-30%	€ 257.304-3,8%	€ 227.434-11,6%
EBITDA	€ 114.834	€ 4.889	€ -48.271	€ 40.223	€ -11.009
EBITDA margin	28,3%	1,3%	-18%	15,6%	-4,8%
Staff
FTE	5,1	6,4+25,5%	5,2-18,8%	4,0-23,1%	4,00%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 79.679	€ 59.767	€ 51.463	€ 64.326	€ 56.859
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 56.820	€ 58.769	€ 59.639	€ 53.718	€ 59.260
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 92.888	€ 88.396	€ 20.961	€ 41.093	€ 22.353
Cash	€ 16.511	€ 15.636	€ 11.217	€ 14.867	€ 6.366
Liquidity ratio	1,71	1,19	1,13	1,57	1,32

Payroll cost per FTE comes from the social report where available, otherwise from the Remuneration line. Both are gross costs including employer contributions.

What this factsheet does not know

How good the work is. Figures do not measure creativity, strategy or chemistry.
How the client portfolio is spread. Concentration is not in the accounts.
Freelancers and subcontractors are not in the FTE figures. An agency with 40 staff may in practice run with 70 people.
The figures cover financial year 2025, filed on 24/08/2026. At a fast-moving agency reality today may differ.

Based on publicly filed annual accounts (NBB) and official records (CBE, Belgian Official Gazette). An indication, not financial advice. Sector medians calculated on 2 Nov 2026. Sector medians based on financial year 2025: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.

What the agency actually does 3 services

Media

Paid social Search advertising (SEA)

Digital Experience & Tech

SEO & GEO

Sector focus

Fashion & lifestyleTechnology & softwareB2B services

Publicly known clients

Someone KidsUw IdeeIdentITHeadrINSTAX BelgiumIS4U GroupFruit At Work

Based on IKAg research and public sources. Incomplete or outdated? Let us know.

1

People 6 people mapped

A broad team with no clear centre of gravity — digital marketing, account & project and development carry roughly equal weight.

EH

Eva Hensels

Managing Partner / Projectmanager

TD

Tim Dirven

Managing Partner / Strateeg

EC

Eline Celis

Digital marketeer / SEO specialist

LD

Lennert Daniëls

Webdeveloper

MJ

Manon Jorissen

Digital marketeer / Salesverantwoordelijke

PD

Philippe Daamen

Graphic Designer

Based on public profiles. Something wrong? Let us know.

2

Seniors or juniors?

Payroll cost per FTE is the best public proxy for a team's experience level. Higher is not automatically better, but it says something about who sits at the table.

Payroll cost per FTE

€ 59.260

-5% versus the median

Team composition

4,0 FTE

75% women
25% men

€ 59.260

Median Performance- & mediabureau (2025) € 62.495All agencies (2025) € 62.294

Read with care. Directors and partners invoicing through a management company are not in the payroll cost. At small agencies this skews the picture downwards considerably.

3

Will your team stay?

Inflow and outflow from the social report. This series only counts people on the payroll: freelancers who invoice do not appear in it. A low figure therefore means two very different things, a stable permanent team or a small core with heavy outsourcing. A high figure usually points to short contracts. Compare only within the same type of agency.

Exits 2023

57,7%

Median for this type of agency (2025): 25,1%

Inflow 2023

19,2%

1,0 FTE in, 3,0 FTE out

Net team change

-2,0 FTE

20212022202320242025

Figures for financial year 2023: in 2025 this agency published no inflow or outflow.

Exits are clearly above what is usual for this type of agency. That may reflect project-based staffing, but it is a reason to ask in the pitch how much of the proposed team was already here two years ago, and to contractually fix your permanent contacts.

Source: annual accounts and social reports (NBB), collected by IKAg. Financial year 2025. Calculations by IKAg; an indication, not financial advice. Sector medians based on financial year 2025: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.