How to choose a marketing agency in the US

A marketing agency, as this list uses the term, is one team that can hold brand, campaigns, content and media together. You hire one when the work crosses channels and you do not want to be the person stitching vendors together.

You are buying a team that can finish a defined job. The useful question is which parts they do themselves and which they subcontract, and whether the people in the first meeting are the people who do the work the week after.

Write these down before you talk to a marketing agency. A vague brief produces a vague price.

• Write the job in one paragraph: what you sell, who buys it, and what done looks like in ninety days.
• Name the channels that are in scope, and the ones that are not.
• Separate the fee from the media budget before you compare two proposals.
• Decide whether you need a strategist, a production team, or both.

Ask each firm the same list. The useful part is the difference in the answers, not a polished version of the question.

• Who does the work, and are they on staff?
• What will you have in hand at thirty, sixty and ninety days?
• Which of your current vendors stay, and which does the agency replace?
• What is included in the monthly fee, and what is billed on top?
• Can you show one client with a problem close to mine, and say what changed?

This is a short list of marketing agencies that do the work at a national scale. It is not a directory of every firm in the United States. State and city pages show where the listed firms are based, and only where the list has enough firms to say something.

Hiring across states is normal for this work. Ask which time zone the account runs on, who attends your meetings, and where the people doing the work sit.

13 marketing agencies are on this list in the US, re-checked September 28, 2026. Nobody pays to be ranked. They are based in New York, NY (4); Los Angeles, CA (2); Minneapolis, MN (2); Austin, TX (1); Brooklyn, NY (1); Chicago, IL (1); Kansas City, MO (1); Portland, OR (1).

Where a team size is stated: 1 is 201–500 people, 3 are 500+ people, 1 is 51–200 people. 8 do not state a size.

12 of 13 state a founding year. The earliest stated year is 1898 and the latest is 2020.

13 of 13 name a leader. 12 of 13 name at least one client. 0 of 13 publish a price. If a profile leaves a line out, no source stated it.

Specialties named by more than one firm: creative (9); design (4); media (4); brand strategy (3); consumer brands (3); full-service (2).

In the list's order: Wieden+Kennedy, Mischief @ No Fixed Address, Johannes Leonardo, R/GA, Tinuiti, Wpromote, BarkleyOKRP, Cramer-Krasselt, Mother New York, Preacher, Zambezi, MONO, Broadhead.

Write the job in one paragraph. Keep the two or three firms whose reason for being here matches that job.

Open each profile. It says who leads the firm, work they can show, and a price if they published one. If they did not publish a price, the profile shows a typical estimate and says it is not a quote.

Then ask each firm for one piece of work like yours, and the name of the person who would do it.

The order weighs how long the firm has done the work, clients it can name, its size, and how clear its specialism is. Nobody pays to be ranked.

One card is marked Featured. It is paid placement for Fracs, which shares this list's publisher. It sits outside the ranking.

If a profile leaves out a leader, a price, or a founding year, no source stated it.

• Editorial standards
• Marketing agency cost guide
• FAQ

Open a firm for who leads it, work it can show, any price it published, and why it made the list.

• 01 Wieden+Kennedy — Portland, OR
• 02 Mischief @ No Fixed Address — New York, NY
• 03 Johannes Leonardo — New York, NY
• 04 R/GA — New York, NY
• 05 Tinuiti — New York, NY
• 06 Wpromote — Los Angeles, CA
• 07 BarkleyOKRP — Kansas City, MO
• 08 Cramer-Krasselt — Chicago, IL
• 09 Mother New York — Brooklyn, NY
• 10 Preacher — Austin, TX
• 11 Zambezi — Los Angeles, CA
• 12 MONO — Minneapolis, MN
• 13 Broadhead — Minneapolis, MN

These pages group firms that share a city or a state on this list. A place with one listed firm links from the comparison page straight to that firm's profile.

• Where they are based
• New York, NY (4)
• Los Angeles, CA (2)
• Minneapolis, MN (2)
• New York (5)
• California (2)
• Minnesota (2)