Find top international advertising agencies skilled in media buying, brand strategy, and creative development to achieve strong ROAS and measurable business outcomes. Compare agencies by expertise, location, and budget to find your partner.
We have assessed over 5,200 advertising agencies worldwide, examining their creative capabilities, service diversity, portfolios, client testimonials, pricing structures, and industry recognition. Learn about our ranking criteria and how we identify the top players in the advertising industry.
HigherVisibility offers PPC and advertising solutions, including paid search, display, shopping ads, remarketing, local service ads, custom landing page creation, and audience targeting. The advertising agency employs a hands-on approach, encompassing deep keyword research, A/B ad/image testing, bid and budget management, negative keyword lists, geo-targeting, and quality score performance.
Its technology and methodology are anchored around the Targeted Growth System®, which ensures efficient ad spend. With nods from DesignRush and Inc. 500, a sharp strategy, and stellar client service, HigherVisibility continues to set the bar for effective, accountable PPC management.
HigherVisibility demonstrated its ability to manage large, complex PPC campaigns through its work with Caliber Collision.
The agency designed a customized paid search strategy centered on precise targeting, ongoing optimization, and continuous campaign refinement. By handling keyword research, bid management, and conversion tracking, HigherVisibility ensured that every advertising dollar was used efficiently and profitably. Its approach delivered strong, measurable results, including a 323% increase in return on ad spend and a 167% increase in conversions, which helped Caliber Collision strengthen its position as a leader in the auto repair industry.
Check HigherVisibility Agency Profile
Doner is a full-service advertising agency founded in 1937 and headquartered in Southfield, Michigan, with additional offices in Los Angeles and London. Doner's approach includes diversity, inclusivity, and a modern, content-driven method tailored to today's dynamic advertising market.
Renowned for creating iconic campaigns for major brands, Doner has crafted memorable slogans like "Timex takes a licking and keeps on ticking" and "Zoom-Zoom" for Mazda. The agency specializes in retail, consumer packaged goods (CPG), healthcare, consumer technology, destination, entertainment, and automotive industries.
Doner successfully refreshed the image of the Chrysler Pacifica by tapping into cultural trends while staying grounded in real family needs.
Chrysler wanted to make the Pacifica more appealing to modern families, and the rise of the #VanLife trend created an opportunity to shift perceptions of the minivan. Doner connected this trend to everyday parenting by highlighting Pacifica’s practical, family-friendly features through engaging video content across broadcast and social media.
By blending aspiration with real-life usefulness, the campaign repositioned the Pacifica and delivered strong results, including a 143% year-over-year increase and a 95% increase in second-quarter sales.
FCB (Foote, Cone & Belding) is a globally recognized advertising agency known for its innovative and effective advertising and marketing campaigns. As part of the Interpublic Group, FCB has a substantial global footprint, with over 120 offices across over 80 countries.
FCB's impact is validated by numerous awards and recognitions in the industry, including the Cannes Lions and Effie Awards. The agency combines creative storytelling with deep insights into consumer behavior, aiming to create accessible advertisements that capture attention and drive meaningful results for its clients.
During the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Brazilian football fans wanted to support their national team by wearing the official jersey. However, the high cost of the jerseys (R$350) was a significant barrier, especially given the inflation Brazilians were facing at the time. This situation challenged FCB's client, Flash, to engage with fans and allow them to express their support.
FCB offered a 50% cashback on jersey purchases from Nike's eCommerce site in exchange for fans customizing the jersey with Flash's brand name and sharing it on social media. This campaign turned fans into brand sponsors and significantly boosted Flash's visibility, getting more than 5.1 million interactions and increasing brand mentions by 2300%.
Check FCB Global Agency Profile
Marketing Architects is an all-inclusive TV advertising agency, renowned for integrating technology and data into its campaigns. With its unique All-Inclusive TV model, the agency handles all aspects of a campaign, including media buying, strategy, creative development, production, and reporting. Therefore, clients pay only for media while saving on other costs.
The strategy is powered by Annika, the agency’s own AI for media buying that analyzes large datasets to optimize media placements across linear and streaming TV. Marketing Architects serves B2B and B2C clients, using TV advertising as a key growth driver.
Joybird, a furniture retailer and manufacturer primarily focused on online marketing, wanted to expand its customer base and reach new audiences through offline channels. Marketing Architects launched TV ads on linear and streaming platforms, minimizing audience overlap with Annika's help.
The campaign led to over 700,000 web visits driven by TV, over 16,000 TV-attributable orders, and 7-10X return on ad spend (ROAS).
Check Marketing Architects Agency Profile
The AD Agency, founded in 1982, is a full-service research, marketing, online digital advertising, graphic design, media buying, IT support, and public relations firm.
Known for its aggressive and agile approach, the award-winning agency focuses on effective communication strategies. With a reputation for on-target marketing, its expertise lies in developing brands and maximizing client visibility and impact.
The AD Agency developed a comprehensive marketing strategy for Montgomery County, MD, to promote yard waste recycling. The multi-faceted campaign included a strategic marketing plan, a new branding and logo, and diverse advertising efforts across print, radio, and TV. Key to the campaign was engaging, information-rich content paired with an emotional appeal to change resident behavior.
The initiative featured full-page newspaper ads, a grasscycling campaign, TV commercials, public relations, community outreach, and direct mail. It also introduced "Digger the Worm" in a school natural science project. Thanks to this approach, Montgomery County, MD achieved the desired behavioral change and gained national and local recognition.
Check The AD Agency Agency Profile
PLAY Creative Design is an advertising agency that prioritizes strategy development before launching creative tactics. It achieves results through campaign engagement, targeted messaging, and a blend of print and digital media.
PLAY Creative grows businesses through website optimization, quality messaging, and precise media management, increasing brand awareness, customer retention, and lead generation. It serves businesses in the finance, higher education, and tech industries, as well as small businesses.
Unite Private Networks (UPN) faced the challenge of effectively targeting businesses in six specific locations. PLAY Creative decided to focus on LinkedIn and Google Display Advertising. It created dedicated ad groups for each location, combining precise targeting with tailored landing pages and submission forms for more efficient lead generation.
The campaign’s results outperformed industry standards for both platforms over 3.5 months.
Check Play Creative Agency Profile
DDB is an advertising agency that uses emotionally driven solutions to influence consumer behavior and choices. Driven by its "Unexpected Works" mantra, it strives to create work that drives behavioral changes and achieves significant business results.
In response to the UK's escalating suicide rate in 2022, DDB partnered with CALM and ITV to fight the suicide crisis by changing public perception. "The Last Photo" campaign featured an exhibition of 50 last photos of suicide victims and a 90-second film distributed across television, cinema, outdoor, digital, and social media channels. It also directed the audience to CALM's website for suicide prevention.
"The Last Photo" drew over 500,000 visitors to the exhibition, reached 7.5 million people through live TV, and generated 1.6 billion impressions. Additionally, it became the most talked-about video on Reddit globally for 48 hours and increased online discussions about suicide by 33%.
Financially, it led to a 400% year-over-year rise in donations to CALM. Most significantly, the campaign was crucial in preventing 161 suicides in the six months following its launch.
With offices in major cities worldwide, Wieden+Kennedy (WK) is a global, independent advertising agency known for transforming some of the world's most famous and fascinating brands for over 40 years. It has earned several accolades, including Emmy Awards and recognition as global agency of the year.
W+K provides world-class creative, media, social, design, and strategy services with a core mission: to use creativity and influence to change the world and shape culture. The agency gained fame for its work with Nike, crafting the iconic "Just Do It" tagline.
Nike faced the challenge of promoting women's fitness and sports. W+K created the "Better for It" campaign, inviting women globally to share their fitness journeys and personal bests.
This campaign included "Margot vs Lily", a scripted series about two sisters with differing fitness goals, directed by Tricia Brock. It also launched Nike's first Tumblr site and short films "Inner Thoughts" and "Last," encouraging women to share their fitness missions.
"Margot vs Lily" led to 3.5 million downloads of the Nike Training Club App and inspired two million new workouts. The campaign's Tumblr quickly gained 175,000 followers, becoming the most reblogged fashion brand of 2015. Moreover, two months after the campaign's launch, Nike's women's division sales increased by 20%.
Check Wieden+Kennedy Agency Profile
McKinney is a full-service integrated agency with 54 years of experience specializing in strategy, creative development, production, and digital measurement. It includes a full media entity and provides a wide range of services, including media strategy, activation, and optimization.
Its philosophy is to provide clients with a perspective that differs from the Madison Avenue standard. Recognized for creativity and effectiveness, McKinney has been named a top agency by Adweek, Campaign US, and Influencer Marketing Hub.
De'Longhi, known for its espresso machines, wanted to expand into the North American automatic coffee machine market. McKinney launched the TrueBrew campaign starring Brad Pitt to highlight the machine's appeal in a realistic, emotionally resonant way.
The campaign increased brand engagement by 134% compared to the previous three months and led to strong sales, reaffirming the success of the celebrity-driven strategy.
Grey is an advertising agency with over a 100-year legacy. Its expertise includes advertising, communications, and design, especially in the health and wellness industry. Grey is part of AKQA, an international family of autonomous agencies.
Its "Famously Effective" approach produces memorable and highly effective ads. The agency taps into "Cultural Value" to understand what resonates in society and culture, ensuring its campaigns connect deeply with audiences and achieve results.
Dole Sunshine Company wanted to address the stigma associated with the "forbidden fruit" to encourage healthier eating and start a global discussion about the importance of fruit. The agency humorously requested Pope Francis to rebrand the fruit's bad image, suggesting a biblical revision to replace "fruit" with an unhealthy snack.
The campaign was launched on International Fruit Day 2022. It generated over 55 million media impressions and appeared in 784 media outlets, including Design Taxi and Bloomberg, earning $2.2 million in media value. This innovative approach significantly raised awareness about the benefits of fruit and a healthy diet.
To select the top advertising companies, we reviewed their testimonials, case studies, industry reputation, team expertise, client roster, and executive management. Our team of agency experts developed a scoring system to measure their overall performance based on several important factors:
Visit the DesignRush Agency Ranking Methodology for more information on how we research and rank agencies.
97 Switch is an award-winning Chicago and Portland digital marketing agency that specializes in marketing, web design and strategy...
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Web Design Review from Christopher Calarco, D.C.
Our company had an excellent experience partnering with Jeremy and the 97 Switch team on our website and SEO. The initial build was on a tight timeline that was kept, and after the sites completion we saw a significant increase in new business coming our way. More medical professionals learned about us and wanted to join our network, which was an amazing bonus of working with 97 Switch. We've committed to work with 97 Switch for the next several years given they have been crucial in guiding our plan for growth.
Web Design Review from Justyna Chrupek
We hired them to build a new website. The website was quickly completed in just a couple months, and weve seen markedly positive results from 97 Switchs efforts. It's a new marketing feature that we use on a daily basis. The improved quality has facilitated our communication and made things much easier. Weve received great feedback from our vendors, investors, and customers who want to view our properties. Internally, our staff is excited to see what's going on in our company. We are definitely proud of our new platform. Our executive team is excited to be featured on the new website; previously, they didn't even want their picture shown. Before this redesign, we were almost embarrassed to send out the link. Now, we can comfortably share it with our investors, potential investors, and landlords so they keep track of our updates on a monthly basis. We love how this site presents the face of our company.
Web Design Review from Adam Greenberg
We've seen tremendous growth and exposure. The website has generated a number of new leads and weve received tons of cold calls from potential clients. This is thanks to 97 Switchs efforts to increase our digital exposure. We communicate primarily via phone and email and theyre highly responsive. I receive a response to emails within minutes and they get back to me within half an hour if I request a phone call. They're able to conduct face-to-face interactions in order to truly understand the goals and business culture of their clients. This allowed them to create a design that accurately represented our brand. I've had nothing but positive experiences with 97 Switch and Id recommend them to anyone.
We're an ambitious agency for ambitious brands...
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Branding Review from Shira S
We partnered with Agency Squid to refine and elevate our brand identity for a SaaS platform in the B2B space. Operating in a competitive landscape, we needed strong positioning, messaging clarity, and a compelling visual presence to stand out.From the very beginning, the Agency Squid team demonstrated a deep understanding of our market, challenges, and goals. They asked the right questions, offered valuable strategic insights, and walked us through a structured branding process that was both collaborative and efficient.The outcome was a refreshed brand strategy that clearly communicates our core value, differentiators, and relevance to our target audience. We received high-impact messaging frameworks and creative assets that are now integrated into our website, sales materials, and marketing campaigns.What we appreciated most was their thoughtful, ego-free approach and consistent responsiveness. Every milestone was met on time, and they were always open to feedback, ensuring we were aligned throughout the project.This branding work has already improved our sales conversations, marketing performance, and overall brand perception. It was a seamless and professional experience, and were excited to continue working with Agency Squid in the future.
miranda sova's Review Sourced from Google
Agency Squid is truly unlike any other ad agency out there. There is no ego involved and they listen to what their clients needs are while still challenging them to think about things differently. The smaller but mighty team is well rounded and each bring a different perspective to the table. I would recommend them for any design/marketing, product promotion or special project. Doesn’t hurt that their workplace is so cool too!
Sophia Grotkin's Review Sourced from Google
Unique perspectives, dedicated team. Do not hesitate a minute to trust this agency with your branding and advertising future.
Walla is a creative partner for funded startups who need high-quality, on-brand design but don't have time to build an in-house team. We plug in like your internal design crew, giving founders, marketing leads, and growth teams the support they need to scale smarter and move faster...
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Branding Review from Joshua O. Hill, AIA, LEED AP, NCARB
The Walla Design Company provided an exceptional experience for our organization, from beginning to end. Kevin has the ability to not just create a beautiful product, but one that is designed to uniquely represent our values and core beliefs. Everything we saw from Walla was beautifully consistent across the brand, and detailed meticulously to look great on all formats and platforms. To say that our experience was nothing less than stellar would be a gross understatement!
Eventkraft designs and produces strategic brand experiences from Istanbul and Dubai. Clients include Berkeley Group, Tenthpin, Yandex (technology), and the Government of Ajman. The agency's journey-first methodology starts with audience strategy. Recent flagship programmes include a 900-guest cross-border...
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Matt71's Review Sourced from Google
Their attention to details, innovative ideas, and seamless execution made it a truly unforgettable experience; highly recommend them looking for a reliable and talented partner to bring your marketing events to life!
Cabbage Film Factory is one of the biggest production service company in Hungary. What sets us apart from the rest, is that we are a family owned company in existence for more than 20 years as well as being a one-stop-shop. For more information please visit our website https://cabbagefilmfactory.com...
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Olivia Scotti's Review Sourced from Google
We collaborated with Cabbage for a video for my University. Great work and communication, very reactive and attentive to my comments, I highly recommend! Thanks a lot, it was a pleasure working with the team and with Orsy!
Ma Matt's Review Sourced from Google
Earlier this year, we collaborated with CABBAGE in Budapest for a commercial shoot on behalf of our Chinese client. CABBAGE acted as our local production partner and helped us put together a fantastic creative team for the project.From pre-production, creative support, on-site execution to post-production, the whole process was smooth and professional. The CABBAGE team was highly efficient, well-organized, and always quick to respond whenever we needed anything. Our client was extremely satisfied with the final result, and we were too.Their office environment also deserves a mention — it’s comfortable, welcoming, and fully equipped, providing a perfect base for both prep and post work. You can really feel their passion for production the moment you walk in.A special thanks to Szabi Moradi, who was an exceptional producer throughout the project. Professional, easy to communicate with, flexible, and always willing to go the extra mile to make things happen. Working with him was a real pleasure.This collaboration was not just a successful project, but also the beginning of a genuine friendship with the CABBAGE team. I look forward to working together again soon. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a reliable and talented production partner in Hungary!
Will Parnall's Review Sourced from Google
Cabbage went above and beyond for our shoot for an international client. We were very impressed by their attention to detail and ability to manage a complex shoot. They over delivered on the budget we gave them and I will definitely be using them again next time we shoot in Budapest.
True Fit Marketing® is a full-service marketing firm that includes an in-house team of professionals with marketing expertise in strategy, content development, implementation, and evaluation. Our goal is to capture your stories and create awareness for your organization...
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Andrew Cader's Review Sourced from Google
Our non-profit worked with True Fit Marketing worked with True Fit Marketing to update and rebrand one of our event websites. Their team was attentive, creative, and really went the extra mile to present and implement ideas we hadn't even considered. We are grateful to the True Fit Marketing team, their vision, and execution; and we look forward to working with them as we continue to grow this event to other locations.
Melissa Migliaro's Review Sourced from Google
I've been working with True Fit Marketing for a few years and couldn't be happier. Recently, they suggested a fresh website update might be a good idea. We got to creating the new website and even a NEW logo color. Their team is so talented at what they do, so we just trusted them throughout the process. We couldn't be happier with the final product. Highly recommend!!!
Megan Meyer's Review Sourced from Google
My business is called Oasis Senior Advisors in the Pittsburgh area and I really like working with Arlea and the team at True Fit. They are very responsive with emails and are constantly looking to get more visibility with my Facebook page. They are very good with helping me with Facebook posts and are always looking for ways to post videos of me out and about in the community. We have monthly or every other month meetings to review statistics of google searches and how we've performed online as well as talk about what's coming in the future that they can help with. A very strong group and look forward to continuing to work with them.
mimosa is a branding and creative studio in Berlin, building brands for bubblier futures since 2015...
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Kat Young's Review Sourced from Google
Danilo & Camille have helped with many of my business and personal projects and always deliver outstanding work. They're both super friendly, helpful and knowledgeable and I will continue to work with them in the future. I highly recommend working with their agency.
Adam Groffman's Review Sourced from Google
I've worked with mimosa on a few different projects and they're quick, friendly and smart with their work. Would recommend!
Constance Hwong's Review Sourced from Google
Creatively fantastic. Is there some sort of level-up in Google that allows me to award more than 5 stars at a time?
AdWaken.ai makes broadcast-ready commercials for a fraction of the price leveraging our decades of advertising experience and expert use of cutting-edge AI–enabling bold brands to rewrite their content playbooks. We deliver the seemingly impossible for a fraction of traditional live productions...
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SGK is a world-renowned provider of packaging and brand experience solutions. As an industry leader, we work to deliver value-added experiences with each interaction...
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TOAST is an Australian strategic branding and design agency specializing in brand strategy, identity design, digital experiences, web design, content production, and placemaking solutions. With offices in Sydney and Brisbane, the agency helps organizations create impactful brands and meaningful customer...
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An advertising agency is the right fit for your business when it has proven experience solving problems similar to yours and acts as a growth partner rather than just a vendor.
In practice, that means it has worked with businesses that share a similar model, sales cycle, campaign mix, and ad spend, and can demonstrate an understanding of your goals and unit economics. It should also be able to adapt its strategy, communication style, and reporting cadence to your team's pace and way of working.
Here is how to tell if the ad agency is the right fit vs. a risky fit:
| Strong fit | Risky fit |
| Has worked with clients with a similar business model, campaign mix, and ad budget | Relies mainly on general industry experience or big-name clients without showing relevant similarities |
| Gives specific examples of solving growth problems like yours | Speaks broadly about results but does not connect them to your actual business challenges |
| Stays focused on your scope and business needs | Pushes extra services or capabilities you do not need |
| Clearly explains who will manage the account day to day and what senior oversight looks like | Presents a senior pitch team, but the execution team is unclear |
| Adapts its process, turnaround times, and reporting cadence to your needs | Requires slow or overly complex processes that do not match your needs |
The 2023 Cost of Pitch report found that 90% of businesses value long-term ROI over costs when partnering with ad agencies. Moreover, 56% say that trust is the most important factor in building a successful agency-client relationship, together with open communication and shared objectives.
The biggest agency red flags are vague measurement, weak ownership terms, senior-team bait-and-switch, and recommendations that ignore your context.
Before hiring an ad agency, ask about its operating model, project approach, accountability framework, and familiarity with your requirements.
Consider these questions:
Your advertising agency contract should define scope, fees, ownership, access, reporting, approvals, change control, and exit terms in plain language.
Look for the following in your contract before signing:
Including these items in your contract will help bring clarity and transparency to your partnership with the B2B advertising agency. Moreover, it will protect your business from data breaches, vendor lock-in, and legal risks.
After hiring an ad agency, expect a heavier time commitment during the first few weeks of the partnership. Once the agency becomes familiar with your brand standards, goals, and workflows, the time required from your team typically decreases.
Here is a breakdown of what to expect for each phase after hiring:
According to the ANA and 4A's Client-Agency Relationship survey, 40.6% of respondents have regular mandatory review periods for transparency, accountability, and strategy alignment.
Rated 4.8 on Google and 4.7 on Trustpilot, DesignRush Agency Directory is a reliable resource for finding top advertising agencies. We owe this to our executive selection team, which follows a strict screening process when featuring agencies on the platform, assessing key performance indicators, like portfolio, client reviews, and industry reputation.
DesignRush sustains a directory of over 40,000 agencies categorized by service category, location, expertise, and reviews. We build our database in two ways:
Agencies can also reach out to DesignRush and must go through the verification process prior to being listed.
Before contacting ad agencies, you must define your priority business objectives, success metrics, ad spend limit, expected timeline, internal decision-maker, and available resources.
Without that foundation, agencies will make different assumptions, which can make proposals difficult to compare and lead you to hire agencies for the wrong problem.
With 71% of CMOs reporting that they lack the budget to fully execute their strategy, it is vital to distinguish between "must-have" and "nice-to-have" campaign features before the first discovery call.
Hire a specialist advertising agency when you are experiencing issues with paid media execution and results. Conversely, hire a full-service digital marketing agency when the larger problem is coordination across channels, brand, content, and web.
Consider specialized ad agencies when:
Consider full-service digital marketing agencies when:
A realistic advertising budget typically ranges from 5% to 15% of your total annual revenue, depending on your growth stage and industry competitiveness.
For example, small businesses typically dedicate 2%-4% of their revenue to PPC advertising, with aggressive, growth-stage organizations typically spending more.
As a market benchmark, Gartner's 2025 CMO Spend Survey found CMOs reporting marketing budgets at 7.7% of company revenue and paid online channels accounting for 69% of digital spend.
The practical takeaway is to ask each shortlisted agency for a minimum viable testing budget by channel, then reject plans that cannot generate enough volume to prove or disprove the strategy.
Measure the success of your advertising campaigns by tracking bottom-line outcomes.
For lead generation campaigns, success metrics may include qualified leads, cost per sales-qualified lead, close rate by source, and pipeline contribution.
For eCommerce brands, success metrics to consider include customer acquisition cost, contribution margin, repeat purchase behavior, and return on ad spend (ROAS).
While platform metrics, such as click-through rate (CTR) and cost per click (CPC), are valuable, consider these as diagnostic metrics rather than success metrics.
Advertising campaigns may produce results within a few weeks or days. However, sustained ad performance may take 1-3+ months.
Typically, ad agencies dedicate the first 30 days to campaign ramp-up, data gathering, experimentation, testing, and conversion lag.
Then, they allot days 31-60 for campaign optimization. After 90 days from the campaign launch, you may record tangible outcomes, such as increased leads, higher ticket sales, and revenue growth.
The actual timeline before you see results will depend on current performance, ad channel, ad quality, target niche, industry competition, and the aggressiveness of your advertising campaign.
Common mistakes include choosing based on the lowest hourly rates, being overly influenced by the pitch, and failing to confirm ownership of accounts, data, and reporting.
To avoid these mistakes, look for data-backed case studies that match your industry, market niche, and campaign type.
Also, review client feedback and request client references to better understand the agency's project management style, account ownership practices, reporting standards, and approach to campaign optimization.
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