Digital marketing is a giant industry. If you need help with a content marketing strategy or you need a more broadly encompassing approach, there are a ton of options. We’ve looked into dozens of the top agencies available today, and found our favorite digital marketing agency to be WebFX. This service provider delivers results for companies big and small by tailoring their innovative approach to each client’s needs and budget.
Best Digital Marketing Agencies
Searching for the right agency to help with your marketing can be a headache-inducing affair. Fortunately, we can do a little of the legwork for you. You’ll see full reviews for several quality options later in this post, but here we present our three favorite picks that can work for a wide range of needs.
WebFX offers a boatload of marketing services, but truly excels at a multi-channel approach to gaining incredible visibility in search results. Contact them today for a proposal.
97th Floor is the ideal choice for larger businesses, as they specialize in the high-stakes marketing campaigns that massive companies undertake. Reach out to 97th Floor to see what they can do for you.
Ignite Visibility knows what it’s like to run a midsize business and market it to the world. Because of that, it specializes in working with mid-sized clients.
When It Makes Sense To Invest Into Digital Marketing Agencies
Whether you’re looking for a complete website redesign, PPC services, social media management, SEO, content marketing, print campaigns, or something else entirely, digital marketing agencies are an excellent place to turn.
They’re experts at what they do. You don’t have to spend hours, days, or weeks just scratching the surface of your next marketing endeavor. Instead, you can leave it to the pros while you focus on what you do best.
A surefire sign you’re ready to outsource your next project is that you’ve done all you can do on your own. If you feel like you’ve exhausted your marketing knowledge and know-how to its limits and you’re not getting the results you want, it’s time to bring in the experts.
It may also make sense if you’re expanding into new channels you’re unfamiliar with. Yes, you can learn how to navigate new channels or hire in-house.
But is that really the best use of your team’s time and effort?
Digital marketing agencies specialize in strategies and tactics that take decades of experience to perfect. So, calling in the heavy-hitters saves you tons of time and the hassle of trying to figure things out on your own. Plus, you can rest easy knowing you’ll get results much faster than if you had to recruit, hire, onboard, and train an in-house employee (or existing team member).
Specialists can also bring an outside perspective to your business you otherwise may not see. You and your team are incredibly close to what you do, which can make it challenging to think outside the box.
#1 – WebFX – The Best for SEO Supremacy
WebFX
Best for SEO Supremacy
WebFX is an all-in-one digital marketing agency that works with businesses of all shapes and sizes. They’ve helped their clients drive more than $2 billion in the last five years alone. They positively excel at using local search, content marketing, social media, and other channels to supercharge your SEO and visibility.
Sometimes the best agency is one that provides the most versatility—you can work with one team to knock out your social media campaigns, website redesign, SEO strategy, and content marketing plan. If that sounds up your alley, WebFX is at the top of our list of full-service agencies.
Why? Because it’s one of the largest digital marketing agencies in the world. It’s been around since 1996. And in the last five years alone, it has helped clients drive over $2 billion in revenue.
The agency is also known for excellent customer service—its customer retention rate is a mind-blowing 91%.
The industry average is closer to 20%, so this is an incredible testament to WebFX’s ability to deliver results and excellent experiences to its clients.
They’re so good at what they do that customers come (almost) always come back for more.
WebFX offers comprehensive SEO services, five different levels of social media marketing packages, web design, content marketing, PPC services, and even Amazon optimization. In terms of SEO, WebFX has a MarketingCloudFX technology platform and a top SEO team to create campaigns designed to drive traffic to your website immediately.
To some, their vast service offering can feel overwhelming. But using the same agency to run multiple campaigns, tackle numerous marketing projects, and work with for the long haul is smart.
You don’t have to wait for them to get up to speed every time you’re ready to try something new—they’re already familiar with you, your team, your business, and your goals.
As such, there’s no need to start from scratch, which speeds up the process and gives everyone more time to focus on execution.
However, what really makes them stand out is how flexible they are to offer all these services to companies of any size and budget. If you’re a small local business with a three-figure monthly marketing budget, WebFX can help you. If you’re a national-level corporation that can spend tens of thousands per month, WebFX can help you as well.
If you’re somewhere in between, they’ve got your back.
And they’ve worked with an extensive range of industries, so what kind of company you run won’t make a difference.
If you’re looking for a full-service option that will work for you no matter your niche, size, budget, or goals, WebFX is where to go.
#2 – 97th Floor – Best Agency For Larger Businesses
97th Floor
Best for Large Businesses
If you’d like to join the likes of Adobe, Dell, Capital One, Salesforce, and ESPN, 97th Floor is the well-respected full-service digital marketing agency behind them. With 97th Floor, you get an entire marketing team dedicated to customizing your marketing strategy across platforms from SEO to social media, advertising, graphic design, copywriting, content marketing, email, and more.
If you’ve got a big marketing budget, you need a digital marketing agency that can make the most of your dollars and deliver big results. 97th Floor is one of the best full-service agencies, with an impressive client list, including Adobe, Dell, Salesforce, LinkedIn, and ESPN.
The team loves working with businesses on a mission to change the world. If that sounds like you and you’ve got the cash to back up your claims, 97th Floor is an excellent pick.
The agency leverages a proven three-step method to building multi-faced marketing campaigns to help you reach as many people as possible across as many channels as possible.
It all starts with an extensive research phase in which the team takes a deep dive into your business. They go way beyond your products, your mission, and past campaigns. 97th Floor’s researchers dig as deep as possible into your business to learn what you’re all about, what works for your audience, what doesn’t work, and they don’t skimp over the numbers, either.
They look at your current marketing efforts, historical marketing campaigns, and more.
The team understands that the quality of their marketing strategies relies heavily on how well they know the business, inside and out.
After that, they’ll work with you to build a plan and strategy that aligns with your short-term and long-term goals as well as your pain points, desired outcomes, and potential roadblocks.
By this point, you’ll know all of the finest details about how your partnership will move forward.
The last step is assembling a team of marketing superheroes dedicated to making your custom plan come to life. Yep, you get an entire dedicated marketing team—with each member bringing a laser-focused skillset to the table— to drive your plan forward.
It’s like an extension of your in-house team with the expertise and know-how to deliver rock-solid results.
97th Floor divides its services into five areas of focus:
- SEO services (including link building, keyword research, and technical SEO)
- Creative services (including copywriting, design, and content creation)
- Email marketing (including automation and analytics)
- CRO services (including landing page design and heat mapping)
- Paid media (including social media ads and audience testing)
Your customized marketing plan can include any combination of the above services that come together to push your business towards your desired outcome.
The trade-off here is that 97th Floor is not cheap. They have worked with and can work with small to mid-sized businesses before, but they shine when working with larger companies with five-figure and six-figure marketing budgets. So, if you’re ready to spend $20,000 (or $200,000) on marketing every month, they’ll be a solid choice for you. If you’re not, well, some other options on this list will probably fit your business better.
#3 – Ignite Visibility – Best Agency for Mid-Sized Businesses
Ignite Visibility
Best for Mid-Sized Businesses
As a midsize business themselves, Ignite Visibility understands the needs and market of midsize businesses. Today, the company has around 100 employees with no plans to grow that number in the future. So, you can rest easy knowing your marketing partner knows exactly how to help expand your business. Ignite Visibility offers various marketing services spanning nearly every platform plus PR and reputation management.
For a marketing agency that’s only seven years old, Ignite Visibility has made a lot of waves in the digital marketing space.
It’s been named the #1 digital marketing agency on several review sites, made the Inc. 5000 list four times, and named a finalist for annual marketing awards like Best Enterprise SEO Campaign and Best B2B Paid Media Campaign.
On top of that, its CEO and founder, John Lincoln, was named Search Marketer of the Year in 2017.
As a midsize business itself, Ignite Visibility knows what it’s like to run a midsize business and market it to the world. Because of that, it specializes in working with mid-sized clients.
Like many of the other agencies on our list, Ignite is a full-service agency that helps clients reach potential customers across multiple marketing channels. The widespread focus on numerous channels is a key element in the marketing strategies the team creates.
Ignite offers SEO, PPC, social media marketing, website design and development, email marketing, Amazon marketing, inbound marketing, interactive campaigns, and more But they also offer other mid-size specific services, including public relations, reputation management, and franchise management services.
Rather than jumping from one agency to the next, you get everything you need under one roof from a unified team that gets to know your business better and better over time.
Plus, you can rest easy knowing that the big picture of your entire marketing campaign stays aligned, regardless of which marketing channels you decide to branch into in the future. The Ignite Visibility team is dedicated to getting to know and working closely with each of its clients, so you’ll get a personalized, hands-on team of experts working behind you and your next campaign.
Ignite also excels at project management, providing quarterly business plans to all their clients, including forecasting, timeline management, and competitive analysis in all of their services.
#4 – Rise Interactive – Best Agency For Multi-Channel Marketing
Rise Interactive
Best for Multi-Channel Marketing
A lot of agencies claim to be great at multi-channel marketing. But Rise Interactive knocks it out of the park with their authentic AND data-driven approach. It starts with a broad content rollout and quickly switches to focus solely on the most beneficial channels as data becomes available. Their system is actually proprietary, meaning no one else on the market does what they do.
It might be evident by now that any full-service agency will be able to help create and implement a marketing strategy that uses multiple different channels. Several of the entries on this list so far specifically prioritize that strategy. And at first glance, Rise Interactive might seem like just another one of those.
But what makes Rise Interactive stand out so much is their unique approach to multi-channel tactics. Their Interactive Investment Management strategy begins with a broad rollout of marketing content and effort across many channels but then adapts in real-time to focus on the channels that provide the best ROI.
Interactive Investment Management is a proprietary system for Rise, which means no one else is doing multi-channel marketing the way they are. The system includes real-time metrics and analytics for all marketing campaigns.
In addition to this system and a slate of typical full-service offerings, Rise also offers affiliate marketing, Amazon marketing, and customer experience analytics. Ecommerce companies with multiple platforms will find these services especially valuable.
They also have a growing international presence, specifically in Argentina and Mexico, which companies with Latinx customer bases will likely appreciate.
#5 – Mad Fish Digital – Best Agency For Nonprofit and For-Benefit Companies
Mad Fish Digital
Best for Nonprofits and For-Benefits
Mad Fish Digital is a certified B corporation, meaning they exist to benefit the world through supporting causes they care about. As such, it makes sense that they excel at delivering marketing services to nonprofits and other for-benefit businesses. Service offerings include a full suite of digital marketing options, from video creation and content to SEO, social media, web design, and more.
You may be noticing a trend with some of these full-service agencies: many of them are positioned to work with the same size clients as they are. The next entry on this list takes that approach one step further.
Mad Fish Digital is a Certified B Corporation, also known as a for-benefit business. B corporations aren’t nonprofits, but they exist to benefit the world by supporting causes they care about. Mad Fish isn’t just here to help you, they’re here to help the world.
Mad Fish Digital is the full-service digital marketing agency for other businesses that want to pursue positive changes in the world. Many of their clients are nonprofits, environmentally or socially conscious businesses, and other B corporations who use their profits to support important causes. Healthcare, sustainability, higher education, and environmental companies are some of their main client focuses.
In addition to a full suite of digital services, Mad Fish doubles down on visual storytelling, branded videos, and brand awareness services—all marketing tactics proven to move the needle for nonprofits and mission-driven businesses.
They also choose their clients carefully, only working with 50 or so at a time. This allows them to make sure each client’s mission gets the attention and dedicated service it needs to inspire and improve the world.
If you run a nonprofit or a B corporation or your business has strong environmental or social values or supports a mission or cause, Mad Fish will be your agency.
#6 – Location3 – Best Agency For Franchise Businesses
Location3
Best for Franchises
Streamlining marketing campaigns across various locations is a daunting task. However, Location3 specializes in helping brands like Advantage and Edible Arrangements reach more of the right people in a cohesive manner from location to location. Location3 is a full-service agency with franchise management and development options as well.
Franchise businesses are highly specific and typically need a different digital marketing strategy than other companies. So, why wouldn’t they have a digital marketing agency that specializes in helping them?
Location3 is that agency. They’ve worked with national chains you see every day, including Mathnasium, Edible Arrangements, Advantage Rent A Car, and Honey Baked Ham. But they also work with many local businesses who only franchise within one or two cities.
They also have more experience than many other names on this list—they were founded in 1999, making them older than any here outside of WebFX.
Like the other entries, Location3 is a full-service agency. But to help their franchise clients, they include a lot of franchise development services as well, including local listings management, paid search and media services, and local SEO strategy.
They also have a technical backend and platform designed with local franchise businesses in mind. Called “LOCALACT,” this highly customizable platform is designed to help brick and mortar businesses with multiple locations manage digital marketing campaigns in real-time.
Whether you have a national franchise or a local one, Location3 will be worth considering for you.
#7 – Disruptive Advertising – Best Agency For PPC and Ads
Disruptive Advertising
Best for PPC and Ads
As the name implies, Disruptive Advertising helps businesses across the board disrupt the business of advertising by reducing wasted ad spend and producing excellent results. They focus on Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn paid media, including PPC management, site testing, retargeting, lifecycle marketing, and advanced analytical services.
If your business does (or plans to do) a lot of advertising work in your digital marketing campaigns, you might want to consider an agency that focuses on pay-per-click and ad management.
Disruptive Advertising is one of the best PPC/ad agencies out there, focusing mainly on Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn ad campaigns alongside full departments for PPC management, site testing, and analytics.
Since ad campaigns continuously shift and adapt, Disruptive Advertising creates and implements strategies that update and re-optimize in real-time. Their expert consultants optimize client PPC campaigns weekly to make sure the lowest ad costs are bringing in the highest ROI. They also assist clients in understanding their customers for the most accurate ad targeting.
The tradeoff with Disruptive Advertising is that they’re strictly a PPC and digital advertising agency. Unlike most of the entries on this list, they don’t offer full-service marketing consulting. So, if you need content creation or SEO management and advertising, you’ll need to double up with another agency.
#8 – Lyfe Marketing – Best Agency for Social Media Management
Lyfe Marketing
Best for Social Media Management
Lyfe Marketing specializes in social media management services for social-heavy businesses. And since they’re a specialized agency, you know you’re getting the best social media marketing services available. To date, they’ve managed more than 2,000 success campaigns, generating nearly 1 million new leads for their clients. They also offer web design, PPC management, SEO, SMS, and email marketing services.
Another area of digital marketing where you might need or want additional expertise is social media management. Some full-service agencies do offer this, but not all—and most don’t go as deep as Lyfe Marketing does.
Founded in 2011, Lyfe boasts over 2,000 social media marketing campaigns that have driven nearly one million leads via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. And they’re surprisingly customizable given how broad social media can be—each client is assigned a dedicated social media manager who develops a strategy specific to the client’s business. Lyfe also manages developing content calendars and ad copy, optimizing the campaigns as they run, and reporting results.
If your business has a strong presence on any (or all) social media platforms or wants to grow and develop one, Lyfe Marketing will be worth the investment.
Methodology For Choosing The Best Digital Marketing Agency
As with most of our “best of” guides, the most important and helpful way to choose the best digital marketing agency is to select the one that fits your business the best. But since most agencies offer similar services, that’s not always an easy choice to figure out. This is the methodology we used to pick the nine top digital marketing agencies, and these are the factors you should keep in mind as you consider which agency will work best for your needs.
Your Marketing Goals
What are you trying to achieve by hiring a digital marketing agency? What does success look like for your company? Do you have one or two specific goals, like increasing website conversions or starting a Twitter campaign? Or do you need across-the-board guidance on marketing strategy and implementation? Is your business local, regional, national, or international?
How you answer these questions will help determine which agency is the right one to get you to reach those goals.
Areas of Specific Expertise
You know by now that most full-service agencies offer similar packages of services. And that may be precisely what you’re looking for. But you might want an agency that can focus on something specific— for instance, Rise Interactive for multi-channel marketing. You might even want an agency that sacrifices full-service offerings to focus on doing much more in their area of focus, like Lyfe Marketing for social media management or Disruptive Advertising for PPC. If you know what specific services you want, you’ll have a much better chance of finding an agency that can give them to you.
Fit With Your Business
We wouldn’t normally mention such an obvious point, except that so many entries on this list clearly prioritize it themselves by their own size, positioning, and niche approaches. Several of the best agencies make a point of being the kind of company they work best with, whether that’s a large company, a franchise, or even for-benefit. When considering digital marketing agencies, it will help a lot to find ones that have a few things in common with your own business—and/or have worked extensively with businesses similar to yours.
Budget
This is another one that’s usually a no-brainer but is worth mentioning here for one crucial reason: digital marketing campaigns take time before you know whether they’re working or not. Paying the wrong amount of money for an agency to run those campaigns risks spending way too much for too little return or not nearly enough to get the results you want.
So, when you consider an agency’s rates and fees, consider whether you’re comfortable laying out that amount of money for six to twelve months even if there’s little or no ROI right away. If you really like the agency but their rates feel high, consider trying one or two services rather than a full-service package first. If the agency typically works with bigger (or smaller) budgets than yours, consider a different agency.
Conclusion
Our top pick for the best full-service digital marketing agency is WebFX. It offers personalized service that is effective enough for a wide array of businesses, yet affordable enough for mom-and-pop shops to take advantage of.
But remember, the best option for you is the one that best fits your business needs, goals, and budget. So, make sure to check out the other entries on this list and consider them just as carefully—one of them might be exactly what you need.
