Hiring Guide: How to Choose the Top Advertising Agencies in the USA

What can top advertising agencies in the USA do for businesses?

United States advertising companies prepare promotional campaigns for channels like search, social, connected TV, retail media, and out-of-home.

In essence, they help businesses turn attention into visibility, demand, sales, and sustained brand equity.

By orchestrating campaigns across multiple touchpoints, B2B advertising agencies enable companies to reach customers where they actually spend time and optimize each dollar invested.

In the last decade, advertising hasn’t stopped seizing momentum.

Global ad spending (excluding US political ads) is forecast to reach $1.14 trillion in 2025, with digital advertising capturing around 72.7% of that spend.

What kind of budgets do companies typically allocate for advertising?

According to Gartner, companies allocate around 7.7% of total company revenue to marketing and advertising.

The US remains the world’s biggest ad market, with spending on track to hit $455.9 billion by 2025.

TV and video account for the largest segment, accounting for$353.9 billion of the ad spend.

Additionally, programmatic ads are expected to drive 85% of industry revenue, reinforcing their role at the center of modern advertising.

When broken down by industry, the numbers show a clear preference toward digital.

Over 80% of US ad spend across tech/electronics (87.1%), retail (82.9%), and consumer packaged goods (80.2%) niche is allocated for digital media.

Tech and electronics companies rarely invest in traditional advertising, putting only 12.9% of their budget into print, radio, TV, or OOH.

Retail isn’t far behind, with just 17.1% of the ad spend going to legacy formats.

How long does it usually take to complete a project?

The timeline for top advertising agencies to complete a project in the US depends on the type of ad.

For performance creative work, agencies can usually launch testable ads within 7-14 business days after onboarding, if the assets and brand guidelines have been defined. Here’s a breakdown of the timeline:

• Day 1-3: Strategy call, intake, brand/product deep dive
• Day 4-7: Creative brief, scripting, concept development
• Day 8-14: Production (design/video edits) and delivery of testable ad assets

By comparison, full production campaigns (video/TV-style commercials), i.e., ads that require filming and heavier production, can be delivered within 4 to 8 weeks. Namely, it takes:

• Pre-production: 2-4 weeks (concept, script, budget, locations, casting)
• Filming: 1-3 days
• Post-production: 2-4 weeks (editing, sound, VFX, color, final output)

How to choose the best advertising agency in the United States for your business?

To choose the best advertising agency in the Unites States for your organization, assess each candidate’s creative capabilities, track record, and operating model against your objectives.

1. Define objectives
   Clarify the business outcomes you are seeking. Specify target audiences, priority channels, budget parameters, timelines, and any internal constraints or dependencies.
2. Shortlist candidates
   Pinpoint 3-5 agencies with proven experience in your sector and in the channels most relevant to your vision. Review their case studies, client roster, awards, and published results.
3. Assess reputation and client feedback
   Consult independent review platforms, references, and testimonials to evaluate service quality and reliability in meeting deadlines, performance targets, and budget commitments.
4. Send a request for proposal (RFP)
   Provide a brief with outlined objectives, audiences, required deliverables, timelines, performance indicators, and reporting expectations, so you can receive comparable proposals.
5. Conduct discovery and capability sessions
   Contact the shortlisted agencies to discuss their approach, creative processes, media planning methodologies, performance-measuring frameworks, and collaboration models.
6. Select an agency partner
   Choose the agency that demonstrates a strong strategic fit, relevant expertise, contemporary practices, and the ability to adapt campaigns as your business evolves.

Need help finding a B2B advertising partner in the US? Visit our Marketplace and send us a project brief. Based on your request, we'll send you five agency suggestions that meet the criteria.

How to find the top advertising company in the US on DesignRush that fits your budget?

We’ve compiled a list of top US-based advertising companies on DesignRush across multiple price points, so you can identify a vendor that's within your budget.

Beyond budget, our agency directory allows you to filter agency profiles by location, area of expertise, agency reviews, client types, team size, and hourly rates.

What questions should be asked before hiring an advertising agency in the United States?

Before hiring an advertising agency in the United States, we recommend asking some of the following questions:

Relevant Background

1. What is the most notable campaign you have delivered recently? Can you walk us through the brief, production, and results?
2. Which media channels do you consider your core strengths?
3. In which industries do you have the strongest track record?

Services and Processes

1. How are your services priced?
2. Do you charge on a retainer, project basis, media commission, or a hybrid model?
3. How do you approach media planning and buying across channels?
4. What does your reporting and optimization process entail once campaigns are live?

Related to Your Project

1. What risks, constraints, or assumptions should we be aware of before we proceed, in terms of budget levels, timelines, data quality, and creative volume?
2. How many people will work on our project? What experience do they have with similar campaign types?
3. What timeline can we expect until the final launch?

Sources

DesignRush sustains a directory of over 40,000 agencies categorized by service category, location, expertise, and reviews. We build our database in two ways:

• Our dedicated team of agency experts actively searches the web for top-performing companies. We then pull information from their websites, online presence, and client testimonials to verify their status and qualifications prior to listing.
• The agencies listed get notified of their profiles on the website and they can choose to claim it or not, which suggests their availability for more collaborations.

Agencies can also reach out to DesignRush and must go through the verification process prior to being listed.