About Strategic and Marketing
We are not a magazine, not an award scheme, and definitely not another "top 10" blog. We are a filter: a U.S. directory of marketing agencies built on public data, a published method, and an editorial team with veto power.
It started with a spreadsheet
Not with a eureka moment. Not with a vision statement. With a very long spreadsheet.
Some time ago we were helping a client shortlist marketing agencies in three different cities, and we made the mistake of doing it properly: the same questions for everyone, the same data for everyone, one row per agency.
The spreadsheet grew to forty-something columns: Google ratings, review volume and recency, Clutch and G2 profiles, verifiable certifications, the age of their domains, the keywords their own websites ranked for, and whether their case studies contained numbers or just adjectives.
Two things became obvious very quickly. First: almost every agency looks excellent. When the average sits around 4.8 stars, a 4.8 stops being a signal and becomes background noise. The information was never missing. The comparison was.
Second: the signals that actually separated great agencies from well-presented ones were measurable. Consistency across review platforms. Organic visibility for their own website. Case studies with real numbers. Certifications that can be checked against official directories instead of just claimed.
That spreadsheet kept growing until it outgrew its purpose: it had become a method. So we did the only reasonable thing with a good method: we published the rules, applied them city by city, and gave the whole thing a permanent home. This is the method.
The claims, and what we check instead
An agency sells perception, so every claim arrives professionally polished. Our eight scoring factors translate the most common claims into something measurable.
| The claim | What we measure instead | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| "Rated 5 stars" | Nearly everyone is. We cross-check Clutch, G2, Trustpilot, Facebook and Yelp, weighted by each platform's credibility. Consistency across platforms is the real signal. | 20% |
| "We know how to rank websites" | Their own Domain Authority, estimated organic traffic, and rankings for competitive terms in their niche. If an agency cannot win visibility for itself, that is the whole argument. | 18% |
| "Hundreds of happy clients" | Volume alone can be bought or incentivized. We score total volume, recency (the last 6-12 months) and steady flow over time. | 15% |
| "Proven results" | We read the case studies and count the ones with actual numbers: conversions, ROAS, traffic growth. Adjectives score zero. | 12% |
| "Award-winning agency" | Anyone can be award-winning on a Monday. We only score verifiable certifications and partnerships: Google Partner (especially Premier), Meta, HubSpot, Shopify, Microsoft Advertising. | 10% |
| "Full-service, 360 solutions" | Usually a warning sign. We reward specialization: coherence between the services offered, the case studies published and the keywords they rank for. | 10% |
| "Established, experienced" | Years of continuous operation, domain age and LinkedIn company history. A light factor, so young agencies with proof are not punished for being young. | 8% |
| "World-class team" | Headcount and ratio of specialized profiles via LinkedIn, scored in bands so a 12-person specialist shop can beat a 150-person generalist on merit. | 7% |
| Total | 100% | |
The full criteria, including how each factor is scored and why the weights are what they are, are documented in How We Select.
Why marketing agencies? Because they are the hardest to evaluate
We did not choose this category because it is easy. We chose it because it is where a generic directory fails the most.
Their product is perception
Judging an agency by its website is like judging a hairstylist by their own haircut: it says something, but not enough. We look past the packaging at signals an agency cannot design at will.
Everyone rates 4.8 or better
Star ratings stopped separating anyone years ago. In our method they work as a floor to get in (4.0 stars, 10 reviews), never as a reason to rank.
Awards are self-declared
Most industry awards cannot be checked by a reader. Certifications can: we verify them against official partner directories, not against the agency's own badge wall.
From a spreadsheet to a directory
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Chapter 1
The spreadsheet
One client, three cities, forty-something columns. The first draft of what later became our eight scoring factors.
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Chapter 2
The discovery
Data was never the problem; comparison was. We started weighting every signal by how hard it is to fake.
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Chapter 3
The method
Three stages, written down and published: an objective pre-filter, a scoring algorithm, and an editorial review with veto power.
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Chapter 4
The directory
Strategic and Marketing opens for the United States, city by city and discipline by discipline.
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Today
Nothing is published and forgotten
Ratings and review data are re-verified periodically, and agencies that stop meeting the minimums are removed.
The method, in three numbers
The automatic pre-filter every agency must clear before anything else. Below it, there is no listing.
A weighted composite score from 0 to 100, built exclusively from public, verifiable data.
Only those passing the pre-filter, the algorithm and the editorial review get published.
What we are, and what we are not
What we are
- A filter: three public stages applied identically to every agency, in every city
- Free for companies: no registration, no paywalled reports, no lead forms disguised as content
- Periodically re-verified: listings are monitored, not published and forgotten
- Independent: no commissions on hires, no sponsored positions
What we are not
- Not a lead broker: we never sell your contact data to agencies
- Not a "top 10" blog: no listicles built to rank and collect clicks
- Not pay-to-play: the contact form is a door, not a shortcut
- Not an agency: we do not sell marketing services, so we never compete with the agencies we list
The directory today, in numbers
Verified reviews on Google Maps
Registered agencies and professionals
Marketing disciplines
Average rating
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