Did you know that there are currently more than 25,000 marketing companies and/or marketing agency options in the UK? These range from small niche marketing agencies that focus on very specific industries to large full-service marketing businesses, to international partnerships such as the ICOM network. With so much choice, it can be difficult to narrow down your search and find the right agency to make you feel like your brand is on top of the world and or take to your next level of growth!
Below, we take a look at 30 of the UK's leading marketing agencies in 2023. We've tried to summarize some of the UK's most effective and successful marketing agencies to help you select the right one. If you have any questions, comments, or feel you know of a company that deserves to be included on our list of marketing agencies, please let us know in the comments below.
If you’re looking for more information on B2B marketing agencies – we have another list coming soon here.
1. Site Visibility
Site Visibility is a London-based marketing agency that has worked with recognizable brands such as UK Power Networks, Nivea and Hilton.
They provide a full range of services, including content marketing, analytics, social media marketing strategy, online PR, display advertising, PPC and SEO. The company has been around for about 18 years and currently runs one of the most popular marketing podcasts on iTunes; the Internet marketing podcast. They have produced more than 300 episodes featuring legends in the marketing game, including Tim Ferriss and Seth Godin.
If that wasn't enough, they also founded BrightonSEO, the largest SEO conference in Europe.
2. Directive
Directive combines CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization), paid social, content marketing, PPC (Pay-Per-Click), and SEO services (search engine optimisation) to help major brands grow their audience so their customer base can grow and grow.
Directive have worked with some recognizable brands, including WestRock, Cherwell, Allstate, Samsung and Cisco. Their achievements are quite compelling, achieving a 12% decrease in bounce rate, 135% more organic traffic, 84% more inbound leads, and a 32% lower cost per acquisition based on the average customer.
They also offer a free SEO audit and can provide potential clients with a personalized proposal. In addition to having an office in London, they also have several offices in the United States.
3. Momentum
Rather than working in terms of isolated different strategies such as PPC and SEO, Momentum focuses on finding the best combination of these interconnected marketing channels for each client they work with so that businesses can reach their goals faster. With such a holistic strategy, their customers are guaranteed to grow.
As a user-centric digital agency, Momentum provides comprehensive services in terms of design, development, research and strategy. They have a full collection of their work on their website, which is definitely worth a look.
Rather than being thrilled with the brand names, you will get an overview of the problems their customers were experiencing and how they got the task at hand. This gives you a great insight into how they work. The online marketing company has an office in London as well as offices in America and Mexico.
4. Gripped
Another on this list is Gripped. Gripped is a B2B digital marketing and sales agency that focuses on helping clients drive traffic, increase lead conversion, increase their pipeline, and close sales. Gripped's founders Ben Crouch and Steve Eveleigh wanted to support the growth ambitions of SaaS, technology and IT service providers. The agency is built on many years of in-house work experience creating a digital marketing and sales methodology designed to help businesses acquire more clients.
Gripped has plenty of experience in a wide range of digital channels and tactics, including search engine optimization, marketing automation, paid media, and conversion rate optimization (CRO).
They offer a free growth audit where a growth expert will provide a free assessment of your existing digital sales and marketing presence and performance.
5. Re:signal
Resignal, the London branch of Bluegalss has partnered with a number of high-profile international brands, including Fielmann, Just Eat, Swisscom, UPC and Huawei.
This creative agency has also won numerous high-profile awards, including the EU Search Award in 2015, 2017 and 2018.
The agency specializes in WordPress development, paid advertising, content marketing and SEO. Their paid distribution contains a combination of re-targeting opportunities, content distribution, social advertising, and paid search. They use data as the backbone for their creativity.
6. Directive
Directive combines CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization), paid social, content marketing, PPC (Pay-Per-Click), and SEO services (search engine optimisation) to help major brands grow their audience so their customer base can grow and grow.
Directive have worked with some recognizable brands, including WestRock, Cherwell, Allstate, Samsung and Cisco. Their achievements are quite compelling, achieving a 12% decrease in bounce rate, 135% more organic traffic, 84% more inbound leads, and a 32% lower cost per acquisition based on the average customer.
They also offer a free SEO audit and can provide potential clients with a personalized proposal. In addition to having an office in London, they also have several offices in the United States.
7. Gravitywell
Now, that we have moved out of the London area, let's head to Bristol.
Gravitywell is a company that aims to provide customers with a full digital package and experience. This means that they offer pretty much everything a modern brand could need, including websites, e-commerce platforms, messaging bots, react native apps, mobile apps, and can even act as a video production company.
They won't try to make you start everything from scratch; instead, they focus on helping customers transform to digital without pressing the restart button. They integrate their approach with current processes and systems to minimize disruption and risk. The company was founded by 18-year-old Simon Bos, who is now the Creative Director of Gravitywell.
8. Don't Be Shy
Don't Be Shy promises you won't experience the scattershot tactics that many marketing agencies employ today.
This B2B marketing agency uses intelligence (both artificial and human), intuition and imagination to deliver the full range of marketing services. This includes insights and strategy, UX and UI websites, marketing automation, HubSpot, content and campaigns, creative and branded services, and everything in between.
Although based in Manchester, the company is willing to travel everywhere to meet customers, even if a passport is involved! Don’t Be Shy has also won numerous awards, including Agency of the Year at the Pacific North Awards 2018.
9. Barracuda
Barracuda was founded in London in the year 2000. The company was actually the first agency in the UK to be officially accredited by Google and boasts the status of one of the oldest independent marketing agencies in the capital.
It is a digital agency that offers owned, earned and paid services. On the paid front, that is the media you buy, they offer advertising on YouTube, Google Shopping, paid social, display and remarketing and PPC.
On the owned side, which is the media you influence, they provide awareness, digital PR, local SEO and SEO. So, you have the media you own, i.e. what you control, which includes services covering video production, content strategy, web development, YouTube channel management, trusted Google Street View, and conversion rate optimization to top it all off.
10. Croud
Next on our list is Croud, another international marketing agency that has established itself in London with offices in Surry Hills, Australia and New York.
Croud is made up of an internal team and a large network of freelancers. They all work together to deliver the kind of content that engages the public, PPC, SEO, and paid social services for businesses around the world.
Currently, there are 2,300 experts working for Croud, as well as 172 internal staff members. The company was founded in 2011 and now boasts the status of one of the largest independent digital agencies. Their approach to marketing is long-term, transparent and granular analysis and reporting.
11. Barrington Johnson Lorains (BJL)
Boasting the status of one of the most award-winning agencies that originated outside the capital, Barrington Johnson Lorains takes a fresh approach, which makes them different from many other companies.
This Manchester-based agency focuses primarily on solving business problems. After doing so, they come up with new and effective ideas to change the company's behavior, interact with consumers, and generate profits through marketing.
Their team consists of 85 people, as well as a network of owner-managed and managed agencies across 22 different companies. Their team is made up of digital specialists, creatives, marketing planning teams, and strategists, ensuring they are fully prepared to handle any brief.
12. Koozai
If you're looking for one of the best known and most trusted digital agencies out there, Koozai definitely ticks that box.
They were founded in 2006 by Ben Norman and have grown stronger, with offices in London, Southampton and Preston. The company has won numerous awards and boasts clients such as TUI Travel Plc, Papa Johns, V&A and TravelBag. Their services are divided into paid media (paid search and social), earned media (digital PR), and proprietary media (content marketing and SEO).
13. Epic New Media
On to Epic New Media, an agency specializing in PPC and SEO, with offices in both Liverpool and Manchester.
In addition to organic and paid search marketing, the company also provides CRO, landing page design, paid social, and analytics services. They describe their service as a four-step process.
This starts with targeting, which involves determining your goals, keywords, target market, customer characters and profiles. The second phase is traffic, which is where landing pages, retargeting, social media channels, SEO and PPC come into play. The third stage is monitoring, which involves conversion principles, search queries, key messages, and lead promotion. The fourth phase is the measurement phase, which includes measurement of results, multi-touch, analysis, segmentation and CRM integration.
14. BrainLabs
Another marketing agency that is based in London but has a presence in the United States, (BrainLabs previously Distilled) offers services including consulting, video marketing, conversion rate optimization, content marketing and organic search.
They also provide a scientific approach to SEO through rigourous A / B testing so that businesses can see exactly what SEO changes their website requires for their search traffic to experience an increase. They've also created an Optimization Delivery Network (ODN), which gives customers the ability to run SEO split tests and see changes to their website. You can arrange a demo if you would like to try before buying so to speak.
15. Ayima
Ayima is an all-in-one agency, providing services that include a broad assortment of e-commerce services for brands across all industries, as well as programmatic advertising, CRO, performance analytics, content marketing, paid social, PPC and SEO.
Ayima use a combination of digital strategies to help their customers build larger consumer bases. Their clients include the likes of Verizon, M&S and Bwin.
What's so interesting about Ayima is that it actually started out in 2002 as a search engine. The indexing and crawling technology that the company's founders built is still one of the primary tools used and offered to customers today. In 2007, the brand was relaunched as a consulting firm specializing in research.
Ayima has offices all over the world; not only in London, but in Hong Kong, Stockholm, Raleigh, Vancouver, San Francisco and New York.
16. Epiphany
Epiphany is another award-winning agency; they are not concerned simply with making sure your brand is seen, but with ensuring that it is seen by the right audience.
The company combines services such as web design and development, content marketing, display advertising, PPC and SEO.
Their clients include Ladbrokes, SCS, Pandora, Pretty Little Things, and The Carphone Warehouse, so they definitely have the ability to work with the major players in the industry. They currently have offices in Leeds and London, as well as extensive experience to start, having been founded in 2005.
In 2014, they joined a consulting firm of 650 people worldwide known as Jaywing. About 65 of these people are experienced data scientists, which has allowed Epiphany to build incredible strategies based on the best insights and analysis.
17. Barques
Barques has the status of one of the leading web design agencies in the UK. The company is very much SEO oriented. They have a team of search engine specialists who design and optimize websites so that they deliver the best possible results in terms of search engine performance, all of it data-driven.
The company is based in Birmingham.
Some of its existing clients, as well as clients they have worked with, include the University of Birmingham, Apsley House Capital, Verizon, Stoford, Visican, and the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.
18. Traffic
Based in London, Traffic is another digital marketing company that is proud to have numerous awards to its name. The company uses the latest technology to create great companies and brands.
They have experience in a wide range of industries, including working with automotive companies as well as those in the construction and healthcare industries.
Some of the more famous clients they have worked with include British Airways, Wall's, Carat, Panasonic, The Bakey, Alexandra Palace, and Deloitte. Quite an impressive customer list to say the least. With over 13 years of experience, Traffic helps companies nail their niche and expand products to their full potential.
19. Add the mustard
Next, we have add the mustard, which is a specific digital marketing company for entrepreneurs and startups.
The company provides services such as performance optimization, branding, UX app and web design, social media marketing, paid media, and SEO - a great combination for increasing web traffic and ranking high in Google searches.
Some of the jobs they've done include website and brand creation for Reflex Nutrition, recovering organic traffic and loss of visibility for Neilson, and creating an impressive creative campaign for Marsh & Parsons. More of their projects, as well as detailed information about them, can be viewed via the agency's website.
20. Upp B2B
Claiming to be on a mission to make B2B more human, Upp B2B focuses on helping brands tell their stories.
They conduct meaningful research so they can create distinctive B2B branding proposals for your product or service and create new ideas that will impact business change by effectively connecting with people. Their value embraces brand creation, brand building and brand growth.
The company is based in Salford. Although it was only founded in 2016, it was created when two specialized agencies, Clock Creative and Marketecture, merged, bringing all of their experience to the table.
21. Adam & Eve DDB
Based in London, Adam & Eve DDB has an open way of working when it comes to marketing.
Their collaborative culture involves seating everyone together to create a single family of skills that are beneficial to the client. They focus on finding out why people love your brand and then building inspirational campaigns around it.
Over the years they have worked with numerous major brands, from John Lewis to Google. However, one of their most effective campaigns was the "
" ad for Fosters.22. Glass Digital
Glass Digital prides itself on being transparent (*nudge* *nudge*). They believe that many companies out there today are providing marketing services to their customers without their customers really knowing what they are spending their money on. This is something you will never get with Glass Digital.
Their emphasis is on making sure all of their clients understand how their marketing strategies work and how they are generating that all-important return on investment.
Based in Newcastle, Glass Digital offers a flexible range of affiliate marketing, paid search and organic search services for small and medium-sized businesses. Some of their clients include Alliance Online, Charles Clinkard, Powerhouse Fitness, and Wyevale Garden Center. They have also been featured in numerous publications, including Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land, The Telegraph, and The Times.
23. Edit
Edit is a digital marketing agency that has undergone some rebranding.
Previously known as Branded 3, however, the company has embarked on a rebranding mission and the fact that it is still one of the most respected digital agencies in the UK shows just how effective the creative team is here.
Edit specializes in primarily data-driven marketing, including customer relationship management and media branding for corporate brands. They have worked with some of the most famous companies in the UK, including Ladbrokes, Confused.com and Jaguar Land Rover.
They currently have three offices in the UK; in London, Leeds and Bath. They also host the largest research marketing event in the north of England; SearchLeeds. The event is free and features a large number of conferences covering everything from digital trends to technical SEO and how to increase organic traffic.
24. Absolute
Absolute describes itself as campaign activators, digital innovators and brand builders; a bold agency for ambitious clients.
The company has created digital brands and campaigns for the likes of Incorez, Royal Birkdale and Manchester City FC.
The company uses the design and development of websites and apps combined with a mix of digital media, from photography to video and content. Absolute's main focus is the user experience; this is emphasized in everything they do.
The company is located in Bolton and has also won numerous awards over the years. This includes winning the Travoluton Agency of the Year and Awwwards Site of the Day in 2012. More recently, in 2018, they were awarded the Awwwards' Mobile Excellence Award for their "Keele's Difference" campaign for Keele University.
25. BowlerHat
BowlerHat's goal is to make digital marketing simple, which will be music to many people's ears. They provide a simple set of services; design, content marketing, PPC and SEO.
The agency, which is based in Birmingham, specializes in partnering with smaller companies, so they can expand and achieve larger goals. If you are a small business owner and want to make a big impact, but don't know how to go about it, Bowler Hat is the type of marketing agency that can help you with that.
The team is composed of Marcus Miller, a digital strategist with 20 years of experience, Ryan Scollon - PPC & SEO Consultant, Zoe Miller - Social Media Specialist, Robyn Strafford - UX & Web Designer, Andrew Hall - Web Developer, Bethany Griffins - Content Marketing Specialist, Amrita Aujla - SEO Executive and Ben Griffin - PPC Consultant.
26. Impression
As the name suggests, this digital marketing agency is all about making a big impression and helping brands benefit from maximum exposure. They want to generate as many leads as possible for their customers and thus maximize conversions by using a range of quality optimization and testing services.
Based in Nottingham, the services they provide range from web design, conversion rate optimization (CRO), content marketing, digital PR, PPC and SEO.
They have won numerous awards in their time including winning the Best Small PPC Agency Award at the 2017 European Search Awards and the Best Large SEO Agency Award at the European Search Awards 2018.
They also won the 2018 Best Large SEO Agency Award at the UK Search Awards, as well as winning the Best In Search Award at the 2018 RAR Digital Awards. So if you're looking for a digital marketing agency that's currently at the top of its game, it's hard to argue with Impression.
27. mobo media
Next on our marketing companies in the UK list, we have mobo media, a marketing and design agency in Cardiff offering a wide range of services.
This not only includes website design and development, but also includes logo design, graphic design, branding, social media marketing, and SEO. Some of their clients include Highgear Insurance, UShop, Pepperpot, and Slice.
28. Electric Studio
If you are looking for a brand that specializes in WordPress design and optimization, Electric Studio ticks this box.
An Oxford-based agency, Electrical study helps clients design, build and optimize their WordPress websites, ensuring they perform well on search engine results pages.
With over 50 years of combined experience, Electric Studio is 100% independent and its clients include Kings College London, Costa, SHARP, Charles Bentley, Oxford University, NHS and Oxford University Press.
29. Abbott Mead Vickers (AMV BBDO)
With AMV BBDO, All you have to do is look at this company's customer wall and it will be enough to convince you that they are worth their salt, its a hall of fame for brands.
AMV BBDO was responsible for some of the most memorable commercials, including Revel's "anti-coffee" campaign and advertisements for Walkers Crisps, Birdseye, BT and Guinness.
The company has a history spanning over 21 years and is currently ranked second worldwide for strategy and effectiveness by WARC. It is definitely worth taking a look at the work they have done on their website. You will see tons of familiar brands and faces.
30. Engage
Based in Leeds, the brand name reveals it all; engage wants to make sure you interact with your customer base and target consumer base effectively.
The company does this by providing a comprehensive selection of marketing services ranging from social media, email marketing, search optimization, paid advertising, and web design and development.
They have some impressive clients, including Yorkshire Tea, Jet2, Milwaukee, At The Races, Premier Inn, Leeds Building Society, Giraffe, and Heineken. Also, if you want to align with a company that returns, engagement definitely ticks this box.
Now in its fourth year, Engage Elympics is the company's annual challenge to become the healthiest agency in the UK while donating money to charities in Leeds. So far, the company has donated over £28,000.
31. Fastfwd
Another digital marketing agency that has an impressive list of clients to showcase its expertise.
Fastfwd has provided campaigns for brands such as QG, Leica, Miss Selfridge, Ann Summers and even Vogue.
They are based in Birmingham, and work on extraordinary projects in the realms of digital marketing, design and development.
Their services include, but are not limited to; CRO, SEO, inbound marketing, content creation, lead generation, social media marketing, bespoke digital support packages, build and development, digital design and digital strategy.
32. Builtvisible
Last but not surely not least (these are all great marketing company options), we are finishing this list with Builtvisible, a digital marketing agency based in our capital, London.
The company specializes in awareness building, content marketing, and SEO. From tactical activation to strategic roadmaps and basic consulting, the agency promises to give you access to some of the smartest minds in the industry so you can reach your brand's KPIs. They have a 95% customer retention rate, which is definitely something worth shouting about.
They were also honored at The Guardian's Marketing and PR Excellence Awards, as well as The Digital Impact Awards in 2018.
Choosing a Marketing Agency: How to Make The Right Choice
So there you have our full list of the best UK marketing agencies in 2023, with more than 30 of the best marketing company options in the UK at the moment.
Of course, one cannot but give the utmost importance to choosing a marketing company carefully when it comes to your marketing strategy. This success of your business depends on so it cannot be ignored. While all of the companies mentioned in this post have exceptional reputations, that doesn't mean they'll be a good option for everybody out there. It's about finding the right company that fits your brand.
Take a specific case. Let's say you in the Business to Business (B2B) market, then you will need a B2B marketing agency that has good experience working with B2B brands.
Marketing is a discipline that is based on experience and understanding, otherwise, you'll be making all of the mistakes at your own cost. With a B2B marketing strategy, the focus must be on detailed content and audience education. Not only that, but the B2B buying cycle is different (often much longer) than normal purchases, and there is typically a higher chain of command to go through. The sales process can sometimes take months and even years for certain kinds of industries. All of these factors make a significant difference in terms of your marketing approach.
There are also marketing agencies that specialize in specific niches. This is something you may want to consider depending on the nature of your own business. Besides that, you should have a look at the work the company has done so far. Many marketing agencies will be ahead of the customers they have in this regard, often displaying this information on their website, but of course, NDAs and other constraints mean they won't be able to showcase everything publically.
It is worth investigating this aspect; looking at their advertising campaigns, presence in search engines (for them and their customers) and the content of their website. This will help you understand the success of their existing endeavors and projects.
Of course, reviews and their general reputation can also be very indicative of where they stand. When reading reviews that have been left by customers, it is important to make sure they are valid by using independent review platforms (rather than the brand's own website). If the reviews are simply posted directly on a company's website and are not from an external review widget, you have no way of determining whether they are valid. It is also important to consider the reviews as a whole; don't let a single comment cloud your judgment (everybody's experience differs and every company will have some problems that are outside of their control). Unfortunately, many marketing clients are unrealistic with their expectations, anticipating that they will reach a top spot on Google in a matter of weeks. This can lead to negative feedback even if the company really does an outstanding job in terms of what was achievable.
All in all, there is no denying that you will need to carefully choose a marketing agency if you want to achieve the desired results.
There are thousands and thousands of marketing agencies in the UK today which can make it very overwhelming and daunting, especially if you don't have any experience in this industry. However, we hope you now have a better idea of some of the best options available, as well as some helpful tips on what you should consider when researching.
If you have any suggestions, please get in touch with us and make your suggestion.
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