Best Digital Marketing Agencies in Canada for 2026

There are thousands of digital marketing agencies in Canada, from two-person social studios to firms with developers, media buyers and a film crew. This guide narrows that to four, each checked against the same public record, with a plain account of what each agency does well and who it suits. Canada Create, the publisher of this guide, is listed first. The other three are agencies in Vancouver and Ottawa with strong, well-supported reviews and a clean record. We last checked every fact about the four agencies on November 4, 2026, and the update log at the end of this guide lists each change.

The list is only half the job. The rest of this guide sets out the ten things a digital marketing agency worth hiring can show you, the questions to ask in the first meeting, the warning signs, and what a good first six months looks like, so you can judge any agency in the country on the same terms, Canada Create included.

The best digital marketing agencies in Canada at a glance

How we chose these agencies

The same five tests were applied to every agency. They work just as well for any agency you are considering that is not on this list.

• Strong public reviews with real volume. A Google rating of 4.7 or higher from at least 50 reviews, last read on November 4, 2026.
• No pattern of serious complaints. We read each agency’s newest reviews for repeated problems with billing, missed work or communication.
• A clean Better Business Bureau record where one exists. A C rating or lower meant exclusion.
• Digital marketing work it delivers itself, described on its own site, with a business address in its city.
• Based in Vancouver or Ottawa. Canada Create is a Toronto agency and publishes this guide, so the other places went to strongly rated agencies in two other major Canadian markets rather than to our Toronto neighbours.

Rating figures are public numbers on the date we checked. They change every week, so open each profile before you decide.

The four digital marketing agencies

1. Canada Create (Toronto)

Canada Create is a Toronto digital marketing agency that has worked with Toronto and Canadian businesses since 2008, from its office at 126 Willowdale Ave., Suite 3. One team handles SEO, Google Ads, web design, social media advertising, lead generation, branding and video, AI search optimization and the CRM that ties enquiries together, so the channels are planned as one system rather than bought separately.

Every engagement starts with discovery and a written custom proposal with fees quoted in writing. The website, hosting, Google Business Profile, Analytics, ad accounts and social pages stay in the client’s name, and reports lead with enquiries and cost per enquiry. Canada Create is a BBB Accredited Business with an A+ rating and zero complaints, holds Google Partner and Shopify Partner status, and shows its 2021 Clutch and DesignRush badges. Its Google reviews are live on its profile, and delivered work is in the portfolio.

• Office: 126 Willowdale Ave., Suite 3, Toronto, ON
• In business since: 2008
• Services: SEO, local SEO, Google Ads, social ads, web design, ecommerce, branding, video, CRM, AI search
• Public record: BBB Accredited, A+ rating, zero complaints
• Often a fit for: Businesses that want search, ads, the website and lead follow-up handled by one accountable team

2. Evolve (Vancouver)

Evolve, also known as Evolve Branding, was founded in Vancouver in 2009 and describes itself as a branding, marketing and film agency. Its services run from brand strategy and identity to SEO, web design and development, graphic design and video production, and its site cites more than 500 projects across over 20 industries. That breadth suits a business that needs its brand, website and marketing rebuilt together rather than one channel at a time.

With 335 Google reviews averaging 4.9 when we checked, Evolve had the largest review base of any agency we looked at in either city, and its BBB profile carries an A+ rating. Ask which team members will run ongoing marketing once the brand and site work is finished, and how results are reported.

• Office: 1500 W Georgia St., Suite 1300, Vancouver, BC
• Founded: 2009
• Services: Branding, SEO, web design and development, graphic design, video
• Public record: 4.9 from 335 Google reviews and a BBB A+ rating, checked November 4, 2026
• Often a fit for: Brands that want identity, website and marketing planned together

3. Keepers Digital (Vancouver)

Keepers Digital is a Vancouver agency focused on paid advertising: Google Ads, paid social and PPC management, with landing page and conversion work around the campaigns. It describes itself as a verified Google Premier Partner for 2025, a team of eight, and its founder as having more than ten years in digital advertising. It works with clients across Canada.

Its Google profile showed 63 reviews averaging 4.9 when we checked, spread across several years. It suits businesses whose growth depends on paid search and paid social and who already have a site and content in reasonable shape. If you also need SEO or a new website, ask who will handle those parts.

• Office: 333 Seymour St., Vancouver, BC
• Services: Google Ads, paid social, PPC management, landing pages
• Public record: 4.9 from 63 Google reviews, checked November 4, 2026
• Often a fit for: Businesses that grow mainly through paid search and paid social

4. LGG Media (Ottawa)

LGG Media, short for Lead Generation Group, was founded in Ottawa in 2018 by Juan Colicchio. It runs Google Ads, Meta and Microsoft Advertising with a strong focus on attribution, checking campaign results against client CRM, payment and point-of-sale data. Its site says it works mostly with advertisers spending at the high end, in industries where the sale happens days or months after the first click, such as legal, health insurance, moving, automotive and ecommerce. It is a Google Partner.

Its 54 Google reviews averaged 4.9 when we checked. It suits larger advertisers with long sales cycles who need to know which campaigns produce revenue. Smaller local businesses will usually be better served by an agency built for their size.

• Office: 2435 Holly Ln., Suite 100, Ottawa, ON
• Founded: 2018
• Services: Performance marketing, Google, Meta and Microsoft ads, attribution, lead generation
• Public record: 4.9 from 54 Google reviews, checked November 4, 2026
• Often a fit for: Large advertisers with long sales cycles

The four agencies compared

Ratings for the other three agencies are as shown on their public profiles on the date above. Canada Create’s reviews are live on its Google profile.

What a digital marketing agency does

A digital marketing agency plans and runs the online channels that bring a business its customers: search, paid ads, social media, email, the website and the systems that track and follow up on enquiries. Some agencies do all of it; most are strongest in one or two channels. The useful question is never which agency is biggest, but which one is strongest at the channel that matters most for you and can support the others.

Work out which channels matter before you shortlist

Most businesses need two or three channels, not ten. A plumber in Scarborough lives on local search, Google Ads and reviews. A private school needs its website, search and a careful advertising calendar around admissions. A B2B software company needs content, search and LinkedIn with a website that converts. Start by listing where your best customers came from in the last year and where your competitors are visible. That list tells you which agencies to talk to: one whose strength is the channel that matters most, with the ability to support the others.

Then write the one-page brief every good agency will ask for anyway: what you sell, who buys it, where you can serve, what an enquiry is worth and what success looks like in twelve months.

Full-service or specialist

A specialist agency goes deep on one channel; a full-service agency connects several. Specialists are a good choice when one channel decides your results and you have someone in-house to coordinate the rest. Full-service agencies make sense when the channels depend on each other, which is most of the time: ads need landing pages, search needs content, social needs video, and all of them need measurement in one place. Ask any full-service agency which services are done in-house and which are subcontracted, and ask any specialist how they work with the other people touching your marketing.

Ten things a digital marketing agency worth hiring can show you

These ten points make a checklist you can put in front of any agency, including the four above. Ask each one to show you, not tell you, where it meets them.

It reports enquiries, not impressions

Start with the business outcome: qualified enquiries, bookings, completed sales or repeat purchases. Report these separately and show the relevant costs. An agency that leads its monthly report with impressions, reach or “engagement” is reporting its activity, not your results. Agree which events will be tracked, the privacy requirements and how results will be verified. A phone click is not a completed call, and a submitted form is not automatically a qualified enquiry. Good lead generation is planned backwards from that number.

It treats your website as the sales floor

Many campaigns send visitors to a web page; others use calls, platform forms or direct bookings. If that page is slow, unclear or hard to contact, the campaign pays for visitors who leave. A serious agency reviews speed, mobile layout, calls to action and trust signals before it spends on traffic, and it fixes what it finds. Ask to see a site the agency built and load it on your phone. The site should be built to rank and to convert on a platform your team can run; see what goes into website design done that way.

It plans from real search demand

Good agencies do keyword research with data, not opinion: what your customers search, how often, what it costs per click and who already ranks. That research decides which pages get written, which ads run and which cities are worth a campaign. Ask to see the demand data behind its recommendation before the work begins. SEO planned this way starts with that research.

It owns the Google Business Profile properly

For a local business the Map Pack is the front door, and the Google Business Profile is the key. Keep categories, services, hours and contact information accurate, add useful photos and updates, and assign responsibility for reviews and responses. An agency that “sets it up once” is not managing it. See what local SEO management includes and agree a review cadence that fits the business.

It runs paid search on cost per lead

Judge Google Ads beyond click-through rate: compare cost per qualified lead and acquired customer with the contribution the business can retain after acquisition costs. That means tight keyword themes, negative keywords cleaned every week, landing pages built for the offer, and conversion goals tied to calls and forms. Ask to see a relevant, permission-cleared or anonymized search terms report, and see how Google Ads management reports on leads and cost per lead.

It knows when social advertising helps and when it does not

Meta, LinkedIn and TikTok ads reach people who were not searching yet, which can support launches, offers and retargeting. For an urgent service, compare that role with reaching people already searching for help. An agency that proposes social ads for every client has a product to sell rather than a plan. Social media advertising should be planned around the buying moment, not the platform.

It connects marketing to a CRM and follow-up

Leads leak between the website, the phone and the inbox. The agencies that grow clients set up a CRM, route every enquiry to an owner, automate the first follow-up and report what happened to each lead. That is the job of CRM setup and integration and, for businesses that miss calls, an AI receptionist that answers and books at any hour.

It is honest about pricing and scope

Proposals should state what is included, what is not, what it costs and how long it takes, in writing, before any work starts. Setup fees, ad spend, licences and third-party costs belong on the page, not in month three.

It is reachable when it matters

Ask how requests are received outside office hours, which issues are covered and when a person is expected to respond. A clear answer, given before you hire, avoids most of the frustration owners describe in agency reviews.

It has a record you can check

Years in business, accreditation, reviews you can read on Google and a portfolio you can click through are worth more than any claim in a proposal. Ask every agency on your shortlist for the same evidence and read what comes back.

The ten points as meeting questions

What to ask to see

• A client in a comparable industry, live. Their website, where it ranks, what the ads look like, how the social accounts are run. Results you can check beat results on a slide.
• A plan written for your business. It should name your channels, your pages, your enquiry types and the order of work. A plan that would fit any company is a template with your logo on it.
• The team. Who strategizes, who writes, who builds, who buys media, and where they are. You should know whether the people in the pitch will work on your account.
• One report for everything. Ask for a sample monthly report that shows enquiries by channel and cost per enquiry, not a separate deck per channel full of impressions.
• A current client to call. Someone who has worked with the agency for a year or more.

Questions worth asking in the first meeting

• Who owns the accounts? Website, hosting, Google Business Profile, Analytics, Ads, social pages and the CRM belong to the business, with the agency as a manager.
• What will you do in the first thirty days, and what will we see in ninety?
• How do you decide where the budget goes between channels, and how often do you change it?
• Which industries do you know well enough to handle their advertising rules? Clinics, law firms, financial services, real estate and schools each have regulators with opinions about marketing.
• How do you handle AI search? More searches are answered directly by Google’s AI features, ChatGPT and Perplexity, and an agency should know how to make your pages the ones they quote.
• What do you refuse to do? Fake reviews, bought links, misleading claims and tactics that risk a Google penalty should all be on the list.

Warning signs

• Every client gets the same package. If the proposal is a menu of bundles, it was written before anyone looked at your business.
• Promised results. Nobody controls Google, Meta or your competitors. Promises of rankings, leads or growth before discovery are sales talk.
• Reports that never show a decline. Real marketing has bad months. An agency that only reports wins is choosing what to show you.
• No interest in your sales process. Leads that nobody follows up are wasted. A good agency asks how enquiries are handled and often suggests CRM or response improvements.
• Accounts in the agency’s name. Ownership problems surface exactly when you want to leave, which is the worst time to discover them.

How to compare agencies fairly

Score every proposal on the same lines: understanding of your business, channel choice and reasoning, the specificity of the plan, the people doing the work, measurement and reporting, ownership of accounts, and the honesty of the timeline. Fees belong in the comparison, but only after you have compared what each proposal includes. Ask each agency to quote the work in writing after a proper discovery conversation, because a scope built on your business is the only one that will hold.

What a good first six months looks like

The first month is discovery, tracking and foundations: analytics and conversion tracking confirmed, Google Business Profile and website faults fixed, the channel plan agreed. Months two and three bring the first campaigns and content, with weekly adjustments. By month four, enquiries should be traceable to channels and the cost per enquiry should be trending toward the number you agreed at the start. By month six you should be able to say which channels earn their budget and which do not, and the plan for the second half of the year should follow from that evidence rather than from habit.

Where businesses usually get this wrong

The common mistake is buying channels instead of a system. An SEO vendor, a separate ads freelancer and a web designer who has moved on, each reporting their own numbers, and nobody accountable for the enquiry that never arrived. The second mistake is choosing on price alone. A low or high retainer does not establish value. Compare the included work, delivery capacity, additional costs and verified outcomes on the same basis. The standard above sidesteps both: it makes every agency prove the same ten things, and it makes one team responsible for the whole path from search to sale. Use it to judge every agency, including the ones on this list.

Regulated industries need an agency that knows the rules

Clinics, dental practices, law firms, financial services, real estate and private schools each market under a regulator’s rules on testimonials, claims, titles and before-and-after images. A digital marketing agency should name the regulator that governs your marketing and explain what it changes in your ads and pages before it writes anything. Canada Create keeps separate pages for healthcare marketing and law firm SEO for that reason.

What drives the cost of a digital marketing agency

Agency fees follow scope. The things that move it are the number of channels, how much content and creative each one needs, whether the website needs work before traffic is sent to it, the number of locations or markets, reporting and CRM work, and how competitive your industry is online. Ad spend paid to Google, Meta or LinkedIn is separate from the agency’s management fee and should be shown separately in any proposal, along with licences and other third-party costs. Compare what each proposal includes first, then the fees.

Digital marketing agencies and AI search

More buyers now ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI Mode which agency to hire, and those tools answer from agency websites, directory profiles, reviews and lists like this one. Your own customers do the same for your business. Ask any agency how it checks what AI tools say about you, how it corrects wrong facts, and how it keeps your details consistent across the web. AI search optimization covers that work.

Next step

Write the one-page brief described above, send it to two or three agencies, and score the proposals on the same lines. If you want Canada Create to be one of them, start with our digital marketing services. Looking for a specialist instead? See the best SEO companies in Canada and the best web design companies in Canada.

Update log

Each check and each change to this list is recorded here, newest first.

• November 4, 2026: We checked each agency’s Google rating and review count, Better Business Bureau rating, website and address again. No figure changed. The office test now reads “a business address in its city”, which describes it more precisely.
• November 3, 2026: The shortlist of four agencies, the five selection tests and the comparison table were added.
• October 24, 2026: First published as a guide to choosing a digital marketing agency.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best digital marketing agencies in Canada?

This guide lists four agencies that passed the same checks, last run on November 4, 2026: Canada Create in Toronto, Evolve and Keepers Digital in Vancouver, and LGG Media in Ottawa. Each had a strong, well-supported public rating, a clean record and real services described on its own site. Canada Create publishes the guide and is listed first; the other places went to Vancouver and Ottawa agencies so the list does not rank our Toronto neighbours.

How were the agencies on this list chosen?

Each needed a Google rating of 4.7 or higher from at least 50 reviews, no pattern of serious complaints in its newest reviews, a clean Better Business Bureau record where one exists, marketing work it delivers itself, and a business address in Vancouver or Ottawa. Agency size and self-description were not used.

What are some good digital marketing agencies in Toronto?

Canada Create is a Toronto digital marketing agency at 126 Willowdale Ave. and is listed first in this guide as its publisher. To judge any Toronto agency, ask to see a live client in your industry, a plan written for your business, the people who will do the work and a sample report that leads with enquiries, then compare two or three proposals on the same lines.

How much does a digital marketing agency cost in Canada?

Agency fees follow scope: the number of channels, the content and creative each needs, website work, locations, reporting and CRM work, and how competitive your industry is online. Ad spend paid to Google, Meta or LinkedIn is separate from the management fee. Ask for a written quote after discovery and compare what each proposal includes before comparing fees.

Is it worth hiring a digital marketing agency?

It is worth it when the agency is measured on enquiries and sales rather than impressions, and when it runs your website, search, ads and follow-up as one system. By month six you should be able to say which channels earn their budget and which do not.

What does a digital marketing agency actually do?

It plans and runs the online channels that bring a business customers: search, paid ads, social media, email, the website and the systems that track and follow up on enquiries. Most agencies are strongest in one or two channels, so ask which they do in-house and which they subcontract.

Is AI replacing digital marketing agencies?

AI tools now handle parts of the work, such as drafting, reporting and bid adjustments, but someone still has to choose the channels, judge what the data means, protect the brand and stay inside advertising rules. AI search also adds work: checking how ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Mode describe your business and correcting wrong facts at the source.

Should a Toronto business hire a full-service marketing agency or a channel specialist?

A specialist suits you when one channel decides your results and someone in-house coordinates the rest. A full-service agency makes more sense when channels depend on each other, which they usually do: ads need landing pages, search needs content and everything needs measurement in one place. Ask a specialist how it works with the other people touching your marketing. Ask a full-service firm what it subcontracts.

Who should own the accounts a digital marketing agency manages for me?

Your business should own the website, hosting, Google Business Profile, Analytics, Ads, social pages and CRM, and the agency given manager access only. When the agency's name is on those registrations, the trouble usually shows up at the worst possible moment. Ask about ownership in the first meeting and get the answer in writing. It costs nothing to set up correctly at the start.

Can a marketing agency promise rankings or leads?

No agency controls Google, Meta or your competitors, so promised rankings, leads or growth before discovery are sales talk. Honest reporting also shows the bad months alongside the good ones. An agency that only reports wins is choosing what you see. Judge agencies on the plan and on results you can check yourself.

What usually goes wrong when Toronto businesses buy digital marketing?

They buy channels instead of a system: an SEO vendor, a separate ads freelancer and a web designer who has moved on, each reporting their own numbers while nobody owns the enquiry that never arrived. Choosing on price alone is the other trap, since a low or high retainer says nothing about value.

How should an agency run and judge a paid search campaign for your business?

On cost per qualified lead and acquired customer, compared with what the business keeps after acquisition costs, rather than click-through rate. That takes tight keyword themes, negative keywords cleaned every week, landing pages built for the offer and conversion goals tied to calls and forms. A permission-cleared or anonymized search terms report shows how the work is done.

Why should a Toronto digital marketing agency connect your leads to a CRM?

Leads leak between the website, the phone and the inbox. A CRM routes every enquiry to an owner, automates the first follow-up and records what happened to each lead, so reporting can follow it through to a sale. Ask any agency where a lead goes after the form is submitted.