10 best digital marketing agencies in Vancouver (2026)

Last updated: September 2026

Vancouver's digital marketing agencies range further in size and focus than most buyers expect: A deep bench of small, sharp specialists at one end, a handful of full-service teams at the other, and not much that looks the same from one to the next. That's good news, because it means there's usually a right-sized fit for your stage. It's also why a ranking on its own won't tell you much.

So here are ten of them, with what each one is genuinely built for, roughly what it costs, and one honest limitation apiece. The order is a starting point, not a verdict, so read down until a "best for" sounds like your situation.

This is our home market, so a word up front. Yes, we put ourselves at number one on a list we wrote. We considered slotting in lower to look modest, then realized that's just a politer kind of bias. So it's in plain sight, on the same terms as everyone else: The reviews, the published results, and the limitation we'd give you on a first call.

At a glance

Clutch and Google figures are both verified from each agency's public profiles as of September 2026. All Inclusive Marketing's Google Business Profile has no reviews yet, so only its Clutch record is shown. Where an agency has more than one office, we've combined its Google profiles rather than quoting the best one, which is why our own figure is 4.7, not the 4.9 on our Vancouver listing alone. Hourly rates are self-reported directory figures, so they won't be what separates these agencies.

How we chose

We've spent years working alongside some of these agencies and competing with others, so this is a first-hand read rather than a directory scrape. Four things decided who's on the list, and between them they explain why some familiar local names aren't.

A real digital marketing focus. Every agency here runs the channels that move the numbers: Search, paid media, websites, email, analytics and the measurement that ties activity to revenue. That's the job this list is about.

Clutch and Google reviews, together. Clutch verifies the client and the engagement; Google adds the volume. Neither alone tells the whole story.

Where the team actually sits, not where the letterhead says. Plenty of agencies rank for Vancouver on a location page or a serviced address with no local staff. We've kept the list to agencies with people actually working in the market, and said where they are, including ours.

Evidence of real work. Named clients and published engagements, with a case study or a client review behind them.

1. Major Tom

Best for mid-market and enterprise teams running several channels at once, with more than one stakeholder to answer to, that want one partner running brand, media, search, web and measurement together, so every effort is working toward your business goals rather than just its own numbers.

We've been running since 2000, headquartered here in Vancouver with offices in Toronto and New York. Most teams find us at an inflection point: A website rebuild, a rebrand, a push into a new market, or a growth target the current setup can't hit. What they usually want is one team to own the whole thing, not four agencies that don't talk to each other. That's what we're built for: The work spans paid media, programmatic and CTV, SEO, brand strategy, websites and analytics, and most of our relationships run for years. When you're in it for the long haul, the channels stop being separate problems.

Clients include PepsiCo, SAP, DoorDash, Criteo, MEC, Westland Insurance, Clarins, Teck Resources, and COBS Bread.

Published results worth checking rather than taking our word for: A 73% year-over-year retail sales growth for Rieker through programmatic media and attribution, a 65% reduction in B2B lead costs for Bakkt through precision targeting in a regulated market, a 63% increase in customer acquisition for OUAI after a paid-media shift toward new-customer growth, and a 611% increase in web leads for IPEX after an accessibility-led site rebuild.

The limitation: We're built for that complexity. A startup or a small business running one or two straightforward channels doesn't need the breadth or the operating structure we're set up to provide, and several agencies on this page would be a better fit.

Insider tip: Bring us the business problem rather than the channel you think you need. The engagements that work best are the ones where our experts got to look at the whole picture before anyone decided what the answer was.

2. Marwick

Best for local and service businesses that want Google Ads and local SEO from a dedicated specialist team on a smaller budget.

Marwick has been a data-driven digital marketing agency since 2012, with a staffed Vancouver office and its head office up the highway in Squamish. The work skews to SEO, Google Ads and local search for small and mid-size service businesses, run by a structured team with a specialist on each channel and transparent reporting. Published client results include Coffee Addicts and Orcades Marine.

The limitation: Marwick is a search and paid-media performance specialist for small and mid-size businesses, and the head office is in Squamish rather than the city. For a brand-led brief or an enterprise program, ask which senior specialist would lead it and to see directly comparable work.

Insider tip: For a service business, especially in trades, clinics or retail, this is a team built around local search: A specialist per channel, plain reporting, and budgets that suit a smaller operation. Ask how they'd run Google Ads and local SEO together.

3. Jelly Marketing

Best for brands that want earned media and search visibility together, aimed at a British Columbia or Western Canada audience.

Jelly is a digital marketing and PR agency running since 2012, with a staffed office in Fort Langley, in the eastern part of Metro Vancouver. Its core is SEO, PR and social, and it runs a marketing podcast that reflects how media-relations-minded the team is. Clients include Coast Capital, Choices Markets and Oakwyn Realty.

The limitation: Jelly's strengths are PR, SEO and social for British Columbia and Western Canada audiences. It's a boutique rather than a national enterprise media shop, so for large-scale, multi-market paid media, ask how that scope would be staffed.

Insider tip: The distinctive strength is running PR, SEO and social as one amplification play. If you want earned media and search visibility working together for a Western Canada audience, that combination is where they add most.

4. Optimized Webmedia

Best for eCommerce and retail brands that want Google and Amazon handled under one roof.

Optimized Webmedia is an award-winning SEO, PPC and eCommerce agency running since 2013, with its head office in Vancouver and a second team in Toronto. It positions itself as a one-stop shop across SEO, Google and paid social, Amazon and marketplace, and web design, and manages sizeable monthly paid-search budgets.

The limitation: The offer is broad by design, spanning search, paid social, Amazon and web. That makes it a strong generalist rather than a deep single-discipline specialist, so for one highly technical channel, confirm who would own it.

Insider tip: This is one of the few local shops that runs Google and Amazon paid search side by side. If you sell on both, having them managed together is worth more than splitting them across two agencies.

5. The Status Bureau

Best for technical and organic search, led by senior specialists you actually work with.

The Status Bureau is a boutique SEO and digital marketing shop that has been running since 2006, with its office on West Pender Street in Vancouver and a second in Edmonton. The work is search-led, spanning SEO, Google Ads, Meta ads, analytics and conversion rate optimization, and it's co-founder run, so the senior people are on the account.

The limitation: This is a small, search-focused boutique. It's not a full-service brand or creative team, and it isn't set up to run large-scale multi-market media, so match it to briefs where search is the priority.

Insider tip: Because it's principal-led, you get senior SEO judgment directly rather than through an account layer. Bring them your technical and organic search problems and expect a straight answer.

6. 1UP Digital Marketing

Best for advertisers who want an underperforming paid or organic account turned around, without a long contract.

1UP is a performance shop running since 2013, with its office on Homer Street in Vancouver and a second team in Victoria. The mix is SEO, PPC, paid search and conversion rate optimization, and its pitch is fixing campaigns that aren't working, with no long-term lock-in.

The limitation: 1UP is a small paid-media and search specialist. It isn't a brand, creative or PR partner, so keep it to performance briefs.

Insider tip: The no-lock-in model makes them a low-risk second opinion. If a current agency's paid or organic results have stalled, they'll give you a data-led read before you commit.

7. All Inclusive Marketing

Best for brands standing up or scaling an affiliate and partnership program.

All Inclusive Marketing, or AIM, is a performance marketing agency that has specialized in affiliate and partnership marketing since 2009. Its head office is on Homer Street in Vancouver, with further offices in Montreal. The affiliate depth is real, with B2B software clients including Asana, Later and Unbounce.

The limitation: AIM is specialized in affiliate and partnership marketing. It isn't a general SEO, paid-search or creative shop, so bring it a partner-program brief rather than full-funnel media.

Insider tip: Dedicated affiliate specialists are rare in Canada, and rarer still with genuine B2B software experience. If the goal is a referral or affiliate program, this is the team built for it.

8. Soulpepper

Best for eCommerce and DTC brands that want performance channels tied to a values-aligned partner.

Soulpepper is one of the oldest agencies here, an online marketing agency running since 1998 and a certified B Corp, based in Vancouver. The work centres on eCommerce and lead generation through SEM, SEO, paid search, conversion rate optimization and email, with retail and apparel clients including Indochino, OBEY Clothing and Palladium Boots.

The limitation: Soulpepper is focused on eCommerce and lead-gen performance for retail and DTC, rather than full-service brand or PR work. For a brief outside that core, ask for recent, directly comparable case studies.

Insider tip: If your buyers care about sustainability and values, the B Corp certification is a real signal, not a slogan. Pair it with a long eCommerce track record and it's a natural fit for mission-driven retail brands.

9. Digital Hot Sauce

Best for owner-led SMB eCommerce and local service businesses that want a hands-on paid and email partner.

Digital Hot Sauce is a small, founder-operated shop running since 2014, based on West 5th Avenue in Vancouver and Premier Verified on Clutch. The work is paid ads across Google, Meta and Bing, plus SEO, content and eCommerce email, for online retailers and local service businesses.

The limitation: This is a very small boutique suited to SMB eCommerce and local-service budgets, rather than enterprise or large multi-market campaigns.

Insider tip: You work directly with founder-operators who have run businesses themselves, and who are candid about what isn't working. For an owner-led brand that wants a transparent, senior, hands-on paid and email partner, that's the draw.

10. SetSail Marketing

Best for lead-generation SMBs that want paid media plus conversion-focused web and video in one team.

SetSail is a performance-driven, Google Partner agency running since 2015, based on Boundary Road in Vancouver. The work pairs Google and Meta advertising with landing pages, funnels, and web and video production, with a particular line in the construction and trades vertical.

The limitation: SetSail is a younger, mid-size shop with a modest verified-review count so far, strongest on paid ads and conversion creative and lighter on deep technical SEO. Confirm the scope you need is one they lead directly.

Insider tip: The paid-media-plus-conversion-assets model works well for lead generation, especially in construction and trades. If you need ads and the landing pages behind them built by the same team, that's the fit.

What a Vancouver agency actually costs in 2026

Two things before the numbers. The rate bands agencies list on directories are self-reported, meaning an agency typed them into its own profile. And agency fees sit on top of your media spend, not inside it.

Hourly rates. Most Vancouver agencies land in a similar range, so the rate itself is rarely what should decide your pick. The agencies on this page sort into three tiers: A value end around $50 to $99, a mainstream band at $100 to $149, and a premium band at $150 to $199. That lines up with the wider market. Clutch's Vancouver listing puts most specialized work between about $120 and $200 an hour, its Canada-wide pricing data lands at $100 to $149 for core channels like SEO, PPC and social, and Promethean Research has the most common band globally at $175 to $199. What's worth watching is less the rate than how it's charged: As AI trims the hours behind a deliverable, expect more agencies to price for the outcome rather than the clock.

Minimum project sizes and retainers. Most local retainers run somewhere between $3,000 and $15,000 a month depending on how much you're taking on, which matches both Clutch's Vancouver guidance and the packages agencies publish, where paid media often starts at a few thousand a month. If you're after a one-off project instead, the floor is lower: Around $1,000 at the smallest local shops and about $5,000 at an established boutique, rising from there with the scope and complexity of the work.

How agencies charge. There are really four models, and most agencies mix them. Retainers are now the default, at about 85% of agencies, up from 81% in 2024. Project fees suit a defined piece of work like a website build or a brand identity. In paid media you'll often pay a percentage of media spend that drops as your spend grows, and a fair rule of thumb is keeping the management fee under about 20% of the budget. Pure pay-for-performance exists, but it's still rare.

What we cost. We don't publish a rate card, because the honest answer depends on what you're trying to change. That said, for a rough anchor, our hourly rate sits within the range most Vancouver agencies list on Clutch, so we're in the market, not above it. Most engagements are a monthly retainer plus your media spend, and we'll often start with a focused first phase, an audit or a strategy sprint, before anyone commits to a larger retainer. We scope to the work that will actually move the business rather than spread a budget thin across every channel at once, and if what you want and what you've set aside don't line up, we'll say so early instead of taking the brief anyway. The starting point is the outcome you're after, and the number follows from there.

One more thing, on the number itself. The most common expensive mistake isn't overpaying an agency, it's underfunding a plan. Lyn's version: "You can't spend $5,000 a month on Google ads and target all of North America and expect that your spend's going to do anything." A budget spread across five channels does less than the same budget behind one or two.

The capability trap

You're probably evaluating agencies on capability, because it's what the RFP asks for and what every agency website leads with. The trouble is that capability is the least differentiating thing about an agency. The ten shops on your shortlist will all do SEO, paid media and web, all have case studies, all say strategy comes first. Score them on a matrix and you'll get ten near-identical scores and a decision you make on instinct anyway, three weeks late.

What actually separates them is narrower and harder to score: Who does your work day to day, what the agency is bad at, how they behave when something goes wrong, and whether they'll tell you an idea is bad before you've spent the budget on it. None of that shows up on a capabilities deck, and all of it decides whether the relationship works.

Lyn Bryan, our President, puts it in perspective: "Any good agency will produce great results. That's table stakes. But partnering with a group that you want to learn and grow with, and that you want to actually push the limits and test with, is different."

So four questions, which will tell you more than any RFP response:

Match the agency's scale to the attention you need. A budget that's a rounding error to a large network can be a priority account at a smaller shop. Make sure yours is material enough to earn the senior time you're expecting, and size the agency to the problem rather than to your ambition.

Ask who does the work. The people in the pitch aren't always the people on the account. Ask for names, titles and the percentage of time each will spend on your account, then get it written into the contract.

Ask what they wouldn't take on. An agency that can name what it's not built for is showing you its judgment, and telling you where you'll want another partner. The ones that claim to do everything equally well rarely do.

Look at measurement before creative. Measurement debt is the quiet tax on every marketing decision, and it compounds. An agency that can't explain how it'll connect activity to revenue is asking you to take the whole thing on faith, and faith is expensive.

Frequently asked questions

A few things we hear a lot when you're weighing up Vancouver agencies.

How much does a digital marketing agency in Vancouver cost?

Most Vancouver agencies charge between about $100 and $199 an hour, with monthly retainers commonly between $3,000 and $15,000 depending on scope. Minimums range from around $1,000 at small local shops to well into five figures at mid-size and enterprise agencies. Remember that agency fees sit on top of your media spend, not inside it.

Should I hire a small specialist or a full-service agency?

It depends on your stage. A specialist is the better value when you have one clear problem and someone in-house to coordinate the pieces: A search shop for organic growth, a paid-media team to scale ad spend. A full-service agency earns its keep when you're running several channels at once, answering to more than one stakeholder, or you don't have the internal capacity to stitch specialists together. On this list, the team-size column is a quick proxy: The smaller shops go deep on a channel, the larger ones connect them.

What's the difference between an independent agency and a network agency?

Network agencies, owned by WPP, Omnicom, Publicis and the rest, give you scale, global reach and specialist resources you can pull in when you need them. Independents tend to offer more senior attention, faster decisions and more continuity, though it varies by shop, so treat those as tendencies to check rather than guarantees. Most of the agencies on this page are independent.

Should I hire a Vancouver agency or a national one?

Hire locally when the work depends on the market itself: Media relationships, in-person workshops, regional consumer insight. Look nationally when you need depth Vancouver doesn't have, or when your audience is spread across the country. Some agencies here are headquartered in Vancouver with teams elsewhere, or the reverse, which is often the useful middle.

How many agencies should I shortlist?

Three to five for a formal process. Past five you won't give any of them enough attention to judge fairly.

Does it matter whether an agency has worked in my industry before?

Less than you might think, and it's worth knowing why you're asking. Usually the question is really about confidence that the work will land. Our President Lyn Bryan's take: "We're not industry experts, we're digital experts. There's a difference." An agency that has run your category for a decade knows its conventions, which cuts both ways, because conventions are also what makes a category's marketing look identical. What matters more is whether the agency has a real process for learning your business quickly, and whether it will challenge your brief rather than take the order.

Which Vancouver agency is best for B2B?

B2B rewards agencies that are strong on measurement, long sales cycles and multi-stakeholder buying. On this list, Major Tom, The Status Bureau and All Inclusive Marketing lean furthest that way, at three different scales, with AIM the specialist if your goal is a partner or affiliate program. Whoever you're talking to, ask for a B2B case study with a pipeline or revenue figure on it, not an impressions number.

What should an enterprise company look for in a digital marketing agency?

Senior ownership of the account, genuine multi-channel integration rather than a stack of separate specialists, and measurement that ties activity to revenue or pipeline. Then the operational side: The experience to manage several stakeholders, business units or markets at once. Ask who makes the day-to-day decisions, how they'll share data with your internal team, and how they handle competing priorities across the organization.

How long before an agency shows results?

Paid media can move within weeks. SEO and content compound over six to twelve months. Brand work is slower again. Any agency promising fast results across all three is telling you what you want to hear, not how the work behaves, which is why the credible ones ask for a three to six month minimum.

Before you call anyone

Five things to settle before your first conversation. The agencies worth hiring will ask for all of them, and having your answers ready shortens the process by weeks.

1. The business outcome, not the tactic. Pipeline, revenue, qualified leads, applications, donations. Which channel gets you there is their job to recommend.
2. A budget range, even a rough one. Without it you'll get a proposal built on assumptions, and you'll spend a round correcting it.
3. Who owns this internally, and how much time they have. Agencies do their worst work for clients with no capacity to engage.
4. What's already running and how it's performing, including the parts that aren't working.
5. Your decision process and timeline. Who signs off, what they need to see, and when.

When Major Tom is the right fit

If you're managing multiple channels, stakeholders or markets, and the problem is bigger than a single campaign, that's usually where our integrated digital work fits best. Tell us what's not working and we'll tell you what we'd look at first.

Not there yet, or still building a shortlist? Send it to us for a second opinion. We'll be candid about whether Major Tom belongs on it, and what to ask each agency before you decide.