Marketing and advertising companies compared on evidence

Agencies with a verified published price

How to compare firms that all describe themselves the same way

1. State the business problem, not the service you want. We need more qualified enquiries from a specific segment is a problem. We need a rebrand and a paid campaign is a solution you picked before diagnosis. Firms answer the brief you give, so a brief written as a solution guarantees you never hear whether a cheaper or different intervention would have worked better. Bring the problem, the numbers behind it and the constraint.
2. Find out where the firm's revenue actually comes from. Ask what proportion of billings is paid media management, what is retained creative, and what is project work. This is the fastest way to learn what a firm is genuinely staffed for, because the answer describes the people on the payroll rather than the services on the website. A media shop will recommend media and a creative shop will recommend creative, both sincerely.
3. Separate fee, media and production in every quote. Three lines, always: what you pay the firm, what goes to platforms and publishers, and what production costs. Ask whether media is marked up and by how much, and what the fee does when spend doubles. A single blended monthly number is not a price, it is a range, and it makes two proposals impossible to compare honestly.
4. Meet the people who will do the work. Pitches are staffed by the firm's best people and delivery frequently is not. Ask who is assigned, what else they are on, how many accounts each handles, and what happens when they leave. Ask to speak with them directly before signing. A firm that will not put the delivery team in front of you is telling you something about the gap between the two.

What our index records, and what it does not claim

Each entry is read from the firm's own website and dated: a starting price or retainer where one is published, a minimum engagement where disclosed, the services actually listed, and the clients named on the site. Nothing is estimated, nothing comes from the firms, and no firm pays to appear. That makes this a comparison of what companies are prepared to state in public, which is a narrower claim than a quality ranking and a more useful starting point because you can check every part of it.

So a missing price is not a negative signal. Scope in this market varies enormously and quoting per engagement is normal. What the index gives you is a market range, a view of who discloses what, and the ability to walk into a first call already knowing which of your questions this firm has answered publicly and which it has not.

Which discipline your problem actually needs

If people already want what you sell and are searching or shopping for it, you have a capture problem and the answers are search, retail media, marketplaces and conversion work. If they do not know the category or do not know you exist, you have a demand creation problem and the answers are creative, media and distribution. The two need different firms, different budgets and different measurement horizons, and confusing them is the most expensive mistake at this stage of the decision.

The measurement horizon is the practical tell. Capture work should show movement inside a quarter and be judged on cost per qualified action. Demand creation is judged over quarters on aided awareness, branded search volume and baseline sales, and a firm that promises to prove brand advertising on a monthly cost per acquisition report is either misunderstanding it or telling you what you want to hear.

The compliance ground both disciplines stand on

Whatever a firm calls itself, the advertising it produces for you is your legal exposure. Claims have to be truthful and substantiated before they run, and material conditions have to be disclosed clearly and close to the claim, which the Federal Trade Commission's guidance for small businesses sets out in plain language. Online formats add their own requirements around clarity and placement of disclosures.

Endorsements, influencer content, testimonials and reviews carry specific rules: material connections must be disclosed, and the 2024 rule on consumer reviews and testimonials addresses fake, incentivised and suppressed reviews directly. Ask any candidate who reviews claims before they run, whether legal review is inside the scope or yours to arrange, and what their written policy is on influencer disclosure. A firm without a clear answer is a firm that has not had to think about it yet.

Questions people actually ask

What is the practical difference between a marketing firm and an advertising agency?

Advertising agencies are generally organised around creative and paid media, with the fee tied to production and to spend. Marketing firms cover a broader set including content, search, email, retention and research, often on a retainer. The labels are unreliable, so judge on where the revenue comes from and who is on the payroll rather than on the word in the company name.

Should we hire one firm for everything or several specialists?

One firm is simpler to manage and easier to hold accountable for an outcome, but very few are genuinely strong across creative, media, search and retention. Specialists usually produce better work per discipline and require someone internally to own the plan. Below a certain scale one good generalist wins on coordination cost; above it, specialists win on depth.

Is a percentage of media spend a fair fee model?

It is transparent and it is misaligned: the firm earns more by spending more, including when the right recommendation is to spend less. A flat retainer or a hybrid with a base plus a smaller percentage above a threshold removes most of that pressure. Whatever the model, insist that the fee, the media and production appear as separate lines on the invoice.

How long should a first engagement run?

Long enough to include setup, one testing cycle and one honest read on results, usually two quarters, with a break clause at ninety days tied to agreed leading indicators. Prefer a defined project with a completion condition where the work is bounded. What matters more than length is the exit: account ownership, data export and a defined handover pack.

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