Digital marketing agency in Ottawa

Canada Create™ is a digital marketing agency Ottawa businesses can hire to run search, advertising, websites and follow-up under one plan. Most owners do not need more marketing channels. They need the channels they already pay for to work together: a website that turns visitors into enquiries, search visibility that brings customers without paying for every click, advertising that fills gaps quickly, and follow-up that stops good leads from going cold. Our job is to decide which of those will pay for your business, do the work, and show you plainly what it produced.

We have planned and run digital marketing since 2008 for businesses in Canada and the United States. This page explains what a full-service agency actually does, the main types of digital marketing and when each one pays, how bilingual marketing works, what an agency costs, whether you should hire one at all, and how to tell a good agency from a weak one before you sign anything.

What a full-service digital marketing agency does

A full-service agency takes responsibility for the whole path a customer follows, from the first search or social post to the phone call, the booking and the review they leave afterwards. That responsibility has three parts.

Strategy. Before anything is built or bought, the agency works out who your best customers are, what they search for, what a new customer is worth to you and which channels are most likely to reach them at a sensible cost. The result is a written plan with priorities, not a menu of every service the agency sells.

Execution. The agency then does the work: search engine optimization, Google Ads and other paid campaigns, website improvements or a rebuild, landing pages, content, social media, email, and the follow-up systems that turn enquiries into customers.

Measurement. Finally, the agency tracks calls, forms and bookings back to the channel that produced them, reports what each channel costs and delivers, and moves time and budget toward whatever produces customers at the lowest cost. Without this third part, the first two are guesswork.

The value of having one agency across all three is coordination. When the person running your ads can see which pages convert, and the person running SEO can see which searches produce paying customers in paid campaigns, each channel makes the others cheaper. When those jobs sit with separate suppliers, nobody owns the full picture and budget leaks between the gaps.

The seven main types of digital marketing

People often ask what the seven types of digital marketing are. Lists vary, but for a business that sells to local, regional or national customers, these seven cover nearly everything that matters. Few businesses need all seven at once. The skill is choosing the two or three that will pay first.

1. Search engine optimization

SEO makes your website and Google Business Profile the strongest answer to the searches your customers make. It takes longer than advertising to show results, but each enquiry it produces costs nothing extra, so it lowers your average cost per customer over time. The work covers a page for each service, technical fixes so search engines can crawl and understand the site, the Business Profile, consistent listings on trusted sites, useful content and links from relevant sources. For the full local approach, see our page on SEO in Ottawa.

2. Pay-per-click advertising

Paid search puts your business in front of people searching right now, and within weeks it shows which searches turn into customers. We build campaigns around the services and areas with the best return, write ads and landing pages for each, track calls and forms, and review search terms regularly so you stop paying for irrelevant clicks. As organic rankings improve, spending on searches you already win organically can often be reduced. For campaign details, see Google Ads in Ottawa.

3. Website design and conversion

Every channel sends people to your website, so its ability to turn visitors into enquiries sets the return on everything else. A fast, accessible site with a clear page for each service, real proof and easy ways to call, book or ask a question makes every marketing dollar work harder. When the site is holding marketing back, we rebuild it without losing the rankings it already has. See our approach to web design in Ottawa.

4. Social media marketing

Social media works in two ways. Organic posting keeps your business visible to past and prospective customers and gives people a reason to trust you before they call. Paid social, on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, reaches people by location, interest, job title or industry, which makes it useful for offers, events and B2B campaigns. We recommend social channels only where they fit the business and can be sustained, because an abandoned profile does more harm than no profile.

5. Content marketing

Buyers, especially in government, technology and professional services, want evidence that a supplier understands their world before they make contact. Content provides that evidence at scale: a clear explanation of a compliance requirement, a comparison of two approaches to a common problem, a guide to what a first appointment involves. Each piece answers a real question, is reviewed by someone in your business who knows the subject, and links to the service page it supports.

6. Email and text marketing

Many enquiries do not turn into customers on the first contact. Follow-up by email and text, sent with consent, recovers a share of them, and regular updates keep past customers coming back and referring others. CS+, our CRM, handles missed-call text-back, follow-up sequences, appointment reminders and review requests in one place, so fewer leads are lost between the first enquiry and the booked job.

7. Local search and reviews

For businesses that serve customers locally, the Google Business Profile often produces more calls than the website. We make sure the categories match what the business actually does, every service is listed, hours stay accurate through holidays, real photos are added regularly and questions are answered. Reviews are requested after every job or appointment, and every review receives a professional reply. Businesses without a real local address should not use a virtual office to appear in the map pack, because those listings are regularly suspended; for them, service pages and paid search carry the load.

Other channels worth knowing about

Beyond the core seven, several newer or more specialized channels appear in agency proposals. Each can work in the right situation, and each can waste money in the wrong one.

• Local Services Ads. Google’s pay-per-lead format for eligible service businesses, such as many trades and some professional services. They sit above regular search ads and depend heavily on reviews and fast responses to leads.
• Connected TV advertising. Video ads shown on streaming services through internet-connected televisions. Useful for brand awareness when a business already has strong search and website foundations, and much harder to measure than search.
• Digital out of home. Screens in transit, malls and public spaces, bought by location and time of day. Best for launches and seasonal campaigns with a clear offer.
• Press releases and digital PR. Genuine news, such as a new location, a new service or a community project, shared with relevant publications. Done properly, it can earn mentions and links that help SEO; done badly, it produces paid wire placements nobody reads.
• Showing up in AI answers. More buyers now ask Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT or Gemini to recommend a provider. These tools draw on pages that rank, on reviews and on consistent facts about a business. Clear service pages, consistent business details and structured data improve the chance of being named, though no one can promise a mention.

We will tell you plainly when one of these channels is premature for your business. Most of them work best once search, the website and follow-up are already producing enquiries.

Bilingual marketing that respects both audiences

Many businesses in the capital region serve customers in English and French, and francophone customers notice quickly when French is treated as an afterthought. Bilingual marketing works when both languages are planned together from the start rather than translated at the end.

In practice, that means a separate, properly structured page for each service in each language, with its own title and description; French keyword research, because people do not search with literal translations of English phrases; separate ad groups and ads for each language; a Business Profile that describes services in both languages where appropriate; and follow-up messages sent in the language the customer chose. Results should then be reported by language, so you can see what French searches and campaigns produce and what they cost compared with English ones.

The quality of the French copy matters as much as the structure. Machine translation without review tends to read awkwardly and can damage trust. We plan the structure, keywords and campaigns, and we ask that French copy is written or reviewed by a fluent French writer, whether someone on your team or a translator you already trust, before anything goes live.

Businesses actively selling to customers in Quebec, including across the river in Gatineau, should also be aware of the Charter of the French Language, which sets requirements for commercial communication in Quebec. We plan with that in mind and recommend confirming your specific obligations with a qualified adviser.

Accessibility and privacy built in

Accessibility carries particular weight in the capital because so many organizations are federal suppliers, federally regulated or large Ontario employers with obligations under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Beyond compliance, accessible marketing simply reaches more people. Websites and landing pages we build are designed to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA, videos have captions, images have meaningful alternative text, and emails are designed to work with screen readers.

Marketing also collects personal information at every step: form submissions, call recordings, email lists and advertising audiences. Commercial email and text messages must meet Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation, which requires consent, clear identification and an easy way to unsubscribe, and businesses are covered by federal privacy law. We set up forms, tracking and follow-up to collect only what is needed, record consent where it is required, keep sensitive details out of advertising platforms, and support a clear privacy policy on the website. For organizations with specific obligations, such as health care providers or suppliers with security requirements, we work within the rules their advisers set.

How we work with you

Every engagement follows the same four stages, so you always know what is happening and why.

Listen and learn

We review your website, Business Profile, advertising accounts and analytics, and we talk with you about your customers, your margins, your capacity and the services you most want to grow. Call and form tracking is installed and tested before any budget increases.

Plan together

You receive a written plan: the channels we recommend, the order we would start them in, the languages involved, what each part costs and how success will be measured. You choose what goes ahead. Get a proposal in one business day after we have what we need from you.

Execute and improve

Technical problems on the site are fixed, the Business Profile is completed, the most important pages are improved and paid campaigns start on the services with the clearest return. Over the following weeks, budgets move toward what produces customers, new pages and content go live, review requests run after every job and the first links are earned.

Report and grow

Every month you receive one report covering all channels and a call to discuss it. At the end of each quarter we review results by channel and agree the next quarter’s plan, including which channels to expand, which to hold and which to pause.

How we measure results

The monthly report shows enquiries by source, page and language, cost per enquiry for paid channels, visibility for the searches in the plan, Business Profile activity, new reviews, and the work completed and planned. Where you share outcomes from your CRM, the report also shows customers and revenue by channel, which is the only number that really matters. Every figure comes from accounts you own, and we explain in plain language what changed, why it changed and what we will do next month.

When a channel stops producing results at an acceptable cost, we reduce or pause it and explain why in the report, rather than continuing to spend because it was in the original plan. Your website, ad accounts, analytics and Business Profile stay in your name, and advertising budgets are billed by the platforms directly to you.

Should you hire a digital marketing agency?

Not every business should. An agency makes sense when marketing is important to growth, when the work spans several skills (search, advertising, web development, writing, analytics), and when hiring a full team in-house would cost more than it returns. It also makes sense when the owner is currently doing the marketing personally and that time would be better spent running the business.

An agency is probably not the right choice if you need a single one-off task, if you cannot yet handle more customers than you have, or if the website and follow-up are so weak that any traffic would be wasted. In that last case, fix the foundations first.

The main alternatives are an in-house marketer, freelancers, or a mix. An in-house marketer knows the business deeply but rarely has every specialist skill. Freelancers can be excellent for specific tasks but leave the owner to coordinate them. Many businesses end up with a hybrid: someone inside the business who owns marketing decisions and content, working with an agency that handles the technical and specialist work.

How to choose an Ottawa marketing company

People often ask which agency is best, or which digital marketing agency is considered the best in Canada. Honest answer: there is no single best agency. The right one is the agency that understands your kind of customer, can show you how it would spend your budget, and reports in a way you can check. A large agency with impressive awards may be a poor fit for a local clinic; a small specialist may be ideal.

When you compare agencies, ask each one to:

• Show you a plan for your business rather than a fixed package.
• Explain who will do the work, who you will speak with each month, and who writes content in each language.
• Describe exactly how results will be tracked and reported, and what counts as a result.
• Confirm you will own your website, ad accounts, analytics and Business Profile.
• Confirm that ad spend is billed directly to you and separated from the management fee.

Be cautious of guaranteed rankings, reports full of impressions and no enquiries, and claims you cannot check. A good agency will tell you which channels are not worth your money as readily as which ones are.

Common marketing mistakes we see

• French as an afterthought. Machine-translated pages and English-only ads miss a large audience that is often less competitive.
• Spreading a small budget across every channel. Focus on the one or two channels most likely to pay, then expand.
• Advertising before the website can convert. Paid clicks sent to a slow or confusing site waste money.
• Treating B2B like consumer marketing. Government and enterprise buyers need proof and detail, not discount offers.
• No tracking. Without call and form tracking, decisions rest on impressions and opinions rather than customers.
• Slow follow-up. Enquiries answered the next day often go to the competitor who answered first.
• Owning nothing. Ad accounts and websites held in an agency’s name make it painful to leave, so insist on ownership from day one.

Marketing for new and growing businesses

A new business starts without reviews, search history or a stream of referrals. The first months focus on what can be controlled: a clear website with a page for each main service, a verified Business Profile, accurate listings, a simple follow-up process and a habit of asking every customer for a review. Paid search brings the first enquiries while organic visibility builds. Growing businesses adding a location, a service or a new language follow the same order for each addition: a page before advertising, then tracking, then budget.

Working with us remotely

We do not have an office in the capital, and we say so plainly. Our office is at 126 Willowdale Ave., Suite #3, Toronto, and we serve Ottawa clients remotely by video, phone and email on Eastern Time. Most digital marketing is done online wherever the team sits. What matters is that the plan is built on local data: rankings checked from your area in the languages you serve, the competitors who actually compete with you, and local detail that you review and approve before anything is published. You speak with the same strategist every month.

What a digital marketing agency costs in Canada

How much does digital marketing cost? It depends on a handful of drivers, and a trustworthy agency will explain each of them before quoting.

• Channels. One channel costs less to run than four, and some channels need more hands-on time than others.
• Languages. Running pages and campaigns in two languages adds planning, setup and reporting work.
• Competition. Categories where many businesses compete for the same searches need more work to rank and more careful ad management.
• Your website. A site that needs fixes or a rebuild adds a project cost before marketing can perform.
• Locations and services. More locations and more services mean more pages, profiles and campaigns.

We separate costs into three parts so you can see where each dollar goes. Setup covers tracking, account structure, audits and initial fixes. Monthly management covers the ongoing work. Third-party costs, including your ad spend, are your own budget, paid to the platforms directly.

SEO starts from CAD 1,500/month, with higher tiers by proposal. Google Ads management, websites, social media, email and other channels are quoted in writing after a review of your business, and your advertising budget is set by you. We would rather recommend a smaller plan that works than a large one that spreads effort too thin.

Get a proposal in one business day

A good first conversation should leave you with a clear view of what to do next, whether or not you hire us. We will tell you which channel we would start with, what it is likely to involve, what we would need from your team and how you would know within a few months whether it is working. If your business is better served by fixing its website or its follow-up before spending on ads, we will say so.

Canada Create™ is BBB Accredited with an A+ rating and has served businesses in Canada and the United States for more than 18 years. Call our 24/7* toll-free line at +1 (800) 808-9235 or use the form on this page, and get a proposal in one business day.