WPP has reported a revenue of £3,243 million for the first quarter of 2025, marking a 5.0% decrease year-on-year on a reported basis and a 0.7% decline like-for-like (LFL), while revenue less pass-through costs stood at £2,482 million, down 2.7% LFL.

The group saw like-for-like revenue less passthrough costs fall 0.7% in Australia, on the background of a 5.7% decline in the Asia Pacific region overall.

CEO Mark Read said the company's performance in the first quarter was "in line with our expectations" and reflected "macroeconomic challenges and the timing of new business. "We expect these factors to continue in Q2 with performance anticipated to improve in the second half," he said.

Read said the company had not been "directly affected by tariffs" but that "they will impact a number of our clients as well as the broader economy". "At this point we have not seen any significant change in client spending and we reiterate our full-year guidance which already reflected a challenging environment. As ever, we remain agile and vigilant and will continue to be disciplined on how we are managing our cost base," he said.

WPP anticipates that its LFL revenue less pass-through costs for 2025 will be flat to -2%, with a headline operating profit margin expected to remain around flat, excluding foreign exchange impacts.

"We continue to make solid progress on our strategic priorities. With the internal focus of integration behind them, VML and Burson are seeing renewed momentum in new business with Generali, Heineken and Levi Strauss & Co important wins during the quarter," said Read. "The acquisition of InfoSum and its integration into GroupM's data offer accelerates our AI-driven data approach, leapfrogging traditional identity-based solutions. We are also on track with the continued adoption of WPP Open across the organisation with 48,000 of our people (c.60% of client-facing staff) using it in March vs. 33,000 in December."

Central Europe was the agency group's best performing region, with like-for-like revenue less passthrough costs up 2%, while all other regions reported declines. The UK fell 5.5%, Latin America was down 1.6%, Africa & the Middle East down 1.9%, Western Continental Europe fell 4.5%, North America fell 0.1% and Asia Pacific was down 5.7%, with a 17.4% fall in China partially offset by 5.5% growth in India.