Our research is based on multiple criteria. First and foremost, our team of experienced researchers and savvy techies, gathers information about each company, including the average size of their campaigns, the professionals involved in it, and the ability to leverage different marketing tactics.

Services offered by the agency you choose can make or break a deal. That’s why when evaluating whether or not a company is an excellent match to hire on your next project, we first examine the list of services that company has to offer. Then, we assess how they fare in creating different marketing strategies and whether the company specializes in a particular service.

Display marketing is a visual means of promoting your brand. It comes in several forms, including images, buttons, and banners. Instead of words, this type of marketing relies on graphics to convey a message.

The first step in finding the right one in the sea of display advertising companies is to find a display network and tell them what demographics your ad should target. Then, they will display your ad to your targeted audience and users who visit websites that are part of their display network. With their visual appeal and target capabilities, display ads increase the brand awareness and visibility.

The use of videos in content marketing is on the rise, and according to the most prominent video marketing companies, it deserves a front-runner position in your campaign.

We consider this to be true, especially if we observe the fact that videos help you connect with your audience and build trust. Plus, customers prefer to watch a video than read a long-drawn-out description of a product or brand.

Content marketing means creating content of value to your target audience. By using content marketing effectively, you will extend your online reach and brand presence, which will ultimately lead to new customers.

Generally, if you opt for this type of marketing, content marketing agencies will ask you to identify your target audience demographics, so that they can research content opportunities relevant to them and create a marketing strategy which relies on publishing quality content and following good SEO guidelines.

SEO is a powerful concept used to send signals to search engines that your pages are worth showing in SERPs when people search for businesses, services, or products relevant to yours. If your website is found for the search terms people googled, it will drive leads and sales for your business. Ranking your company high up on the search list is the main goal of all renowned SEO companies.

Establishing good relationships and keeping track of prospects is essential for customer acquisition and retention. This is exactly the base of Customer Relationship Management—CRM companies. CRM refers to practices, technologies, and strategies for managing relationships and interactions with customers.

A CRM software records customer contact information such as personal preferences and communications with the purpose of improving customer service and engagement, thus improving profitability.

Marketing automation enables you to follow a prospect’s activities, including when they visit your site, read your blog, or open emails. This is particularly useful for scheduling and tracking marketing campaigns, which is why it is often offered as part of an agencies’ digital marketing service.

Marketing automation allows you to easily separate prospects into appropriate mailing lists based on their preferences and interactions. This strategy will also enable you to send triggered emails to people who have shown the most interest in your business, products, or services.

Social media marketing is a powerful way for businesses of all types and sizes to broaden the customer reach. It includes creating and sharing content in the form of videos, images, or text on social media to drive audience engagement. It also incorporates paid social media advertising. Good social media marketing companies have a proven track record in delivering effective ad campaigns, while the best ones will demonstrate the conversion rate and cost per lead.

To put it simply, branding is the perception that a customer has when they think of or hear your company’s name. Offered by many digital marketing agencies, branding is all about getting your prospects to see you as the sole provider of a solution to their problem. A good brand has to deliver a clear message, emotionally connect your target audience with your product or service, motivate them to buy, and confirm your credibility.

Next comes the evaluation of creativity and industry experience the best digital marketing companies have, which is also a segment you cannot overlook. Our first point of examination is how innovative the companies are with their strategies. We look into their portfolios, which showcase the type of work the agencies do and their creative capabilities. Finally, we check whether the agencies have industry experience to work efficiently with established strategies.

Measurement is the pillar of a marketing strategy. Robust metrics give you the insight into how well the campaign is going. Metrics-based companies provide you with a direct link between the campaign they run and the number of leads and sales resulting from it. That’s why we carefully examine the improvement of the numbers based on user ratings. We mainly check ROI, increase in visibility (branding measure), and conversion rates increase.

As we already mentioned, we value the user experience quite highly. Users usually give the best idea of the agency’s core competency. A crucial step in our evaluation of the top online marketing companies is researching reviews from real users on our website, as well as reviews and ratings from real users on our competitor websites such as UpCity and Clutch. Also, we investigate the reputation of the company across the web, along with the accreditations, business seals, and accolades they’ve received.

Getting to know the team behind the digital marketing company is of utmost importance. After all, you will be working closely with them. We start by checking their social media to determine whether there are employees famous on social media or with an influencer status. Next, we test how vital their blog content is on the internet in their specialized niche. Finally, we monitor Twitter for any relevant reviews or comments.

The website of a digital marketing agency is the best example of how the company conducts business. During our evaluation process we check how the site of each agency ranks, and then we assess whether their advertisements make sense. Last but not least, we examine their ideas and practices, as well as the unique strategies they follow to increase their awareness as a best digital marketing firm.

Digital marketing companies usually publish case studies on performance optimization of a particular campaign. We study them to determine how relevant those case studies are to a specific audience. Then, we proceed to discover whether the digital marketing firms have won any awards or if they have any special certificate that claims their superiority.

Hiring a digital agency means you’re adding an extension to your team. That’s why we consider it essential to evaluate the company’s culture. Namely, we check the size of the company and how accountable it is towards the client’s goal. We assess how experienced the employees are and how much combined experience they have. Also, we analyze how friendly the customer support is and whether they can listen to your needs or not.

When it comes to choosing the top digital marketing companies, getting value for money is a non-negotiable feature. So, we take it upon ourselves to investigate how fair the company’s pricing is. We extend our research to discover if there’s a similar company that offers better value service for the same amount of money.

As we said, the user experience is significant in evaluating digital marketing agencies. Often, we conduct client interviews to learn about their satisfaction in the digital marketing firms they chose. This helps us get a complete and unbiased image about the competence and credibility of a particular company.

No matter how good of an agency you choose, you as a client need to do a few things before hiring and then during the collaboration process.

While you’re in the process of choosing your best fit from the list of digital marketing agencies in the US, it’s important to consider whether the agency can do several things. However, it’s of the utmost importance for you to define the goals and objectives you want to achieve with the collaboration you’re about to establish. Ask yourself whether you are trying to get more leads, increase revenue, or maybe grow awareness of your brand. We’d suggest making a list of services you would like the agency to take up. By doing this, you’ll avoid wasting yours and the agency’s time.

In addition to setting up your digital marketing goal, you need to know the measure of your success. What’s more—consider the time you’re willing to dedicate to this partnership and the money you want to invest. Once you give the agency enough information, they will take it from there and provide you with results sooner than you expect.

When it comes to digital marketing, being good at everything is not quite beneficial for your business. To provide you with the best results, the digital marketing solutions companies should have focused research and implementation regarding a particular topic.

That’s why it’s important to choose an agency that has experience in dealing with your niche. Moreover, having clients in the same industry can enable the agency to progress from the research phase to the fulfillment phase quicker, which means getting faster results for you.

Determining whether your ultimate goal is local or global helps classify your service, which is a pretty important thing. The biggest digital marketing companies usually have a global reach, which helps you reach your target audience in any country worldwide. If you’re preparing to launch a product or service globally, you need to consider an agency of that sort. On the other hand, if your target audience is restricted to a particular region, you should go to an agency which focuses on the local community.

It’s a common practice for business owners to judge their marketing effectiveness by examining their outputs. That’s not a surprise taking into consideration the growing popularity of free analytics on different platforms. However, it’s important to remember that you won’t be able to understand how well your marketing strategy is going until you start observing your outcome.

The most successful digital marketing companies know that the most obvious data in the form of likes, shares, subscriber lists, and page visits is not the most critical information. In fact, these metrics are useful when giving you a general idea of whether people respond to your content. However, you need in-depth knowledge to strategically launch your business to the next level.

Digital marketing companies need to inform the customer of everything that is going on and be able to work as a team. Always choose a company that is transparent with the methods they use, the strategies they implement, and the things they plan to change on your website. This will also build trust and establish a healthy relationship, ensuring you’re investing properly.

Communication is a critical component of a successful relationship. The digital marketing firm with a team of great communicators will save you a lot of time, frustration, and money. Consider only digital marketing companies that have excellent reporting and communication and the ones which understand your goals and objectives as well as you do.

Sample reports make up a crucial portion of the agency’s relationship with you as their client. It’s essential that the agency demonstrates value and proves their work and worth, showing how their actions will help your business move forward.

Getting reports on a regular basis will educate you and give you an insight in the team’s work and vision and their progress. Furthermore, timely reports will also help you build a relationship with the agency based on transparency.

When choosing from the sea of digital marketing companies, ensure that your work is in the hands of a team that functions flawlessly. Make sure to find out how good the coordination is between different sides of the company. They need to co-work and learn from each other’s experiments and experiences. For example, a PPC team has to get along well with the content and design teams to deliver the result you expected.

Ask the company to send you a sampling strategy, a strategy report, and an audit report. This way, you’ll see the range of their creativity and skills, and you’ll be able to determine whether they can meet your business goals or if you should look elsewhere. For example, the results of digital media marketing companies can easily be evaluated by assigning them a simple task and examining the results.

Criteria for evaluating proposals should cover agency expertise, concepts, ability to execute, budget analysts, and expectations, as well as suggestions and recommendations for the project. This is an excellent way to see if the digital marketing firm understands and acknowledges your goals.

Go and meet the team in person (pro tip: google “digital marketing agencies near me” and consider one that is the best fit but also close to you). Remember, no matter how reputable the agency is, the success of a campaign very much depends on who manages it. That being said, meeting the actual team behind the campaign will enable you to see how the agency works in both creative and business sense.

Do not arrange meetings with only the upper management, but all team members. You will be able to pick up the general vibe—whether they are friendly, good communicators, do they function well as a team, are they willing to help you, and so on. Remember, nothing gives off a genuine impression as talking to people and getting to know their area of expertise, previous work, and portfolio.

Don’t forget to check the flexibility and availability of your agency. Ask the agency to provide you with a template of what working with them would look like, including how often they are willing to contact you. Require a clear schedule for reporting and an approximate timeline for results to show; know who your contact person will be, as well as their working hours and availability for emergencies.