Awards are a signal about craft, judged by other designers, usually on a submitted case study rather than on the outcome for the client. That makes them useful for one thing, narrowing a shortlist to firms that can do good work, and misleading for another, predicting whether they will do good work for you.
What an award is actually evidence of
Someone at the firm can produce a piece of work good enough to win, and someone can write an entry. It says little about whether that team is available, whether the discipline holds across a whole engagement, or whether the work performed commercially. Many awards are entered for a fee and some categories receive few entries, so the label alone tells you less than it appears to.
Ask about the winning project specifically
Who worked on it, are they still at the firm, would they be on yours, what was the budget, and what happened to the client afterwards. This is the question that turns an award into information. A firm proud of the work will answer it happily; a firm using the award as decoration will change the subject to the trophy.
Craft and commercial results are different questions
Award-winning work is judged on craft and originality. Your site is judged on whether it sells. Those often align and sometimes do not, and an agency that talks only about the former should be asked what the last three projects did for the clients' numbers. Ask for one example where the beautiful option was rejected for the effective one.
Use awards to build the shortlist, then ignore them
A sensible process is to draw candidates from award listings and referrals, then judge every candidate on the same paid discovery exercise: a real brief, a real constraint, a written response. The award got them onto the list. What they do with your problem is what should decide it.
Questions people ask about award winning design agencies
Which design awards carry the most weight?
The long-established international programmes with published judging criteria and named juries. Pay attention to the category and the entry volume, not just the name.
Do award-winning agencies cost more?
Usually, and partly for the reputation rather than the output. Whether that premium buys you anything depends on who is actually assigned to your work.
Is a non-award agency a worse choice?
Often not. Many strong firms never enter, because entries cost money and time that a busy studio spends on clients instead.
What should the shortlist exercise be?
A paid, scoped piece of thinking against your real brief. It is the only sample you will ever see that was made for you.