Best Performance Marketing Agencies

Performance marketing is a strategic advertising initiative that leverages paid advertising on channels like Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Google Ads, Snapchat, Pinterest, and more to help companies broaden their customer base. 

Performance marketing is often correlated with ecommerce brands, but it can similarly benefit other B2B and B2C companies looking to expand their audience and reach new customer segments. The distinction here is that this is purely a pay-for-play space, unlike organic and social which uses free tactics like SEO.

When done right, performance marketing can supercharge customer acquisition and bring products to market faster. It's a critical growth lever in a Go-To Market strategy. To help buyers understand their options, we’re listing and reviewing some of the best performance marketing companies that we’ve come across.

1. Obility

Obility ranks among the best performance marketing agencies because it focuses on helping B2B tech and software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses grow through high-performance, multi-channel campaigns. Founded in 2011 and based out of Oregon, US, Obility is an all-encompassing partner for marketing results. Their top services include:

• Paid Search & Social
• Display Advertising
• SEO Services
• Revenue Operations
• Revenue Attribution

As a top performance marketing agency in the B2B space, Obility boasts a deep understanding of business-centric market dynamics and the priorities held by corporate entities. While some agencies serve both B2C and B2B brands, Obility focuses their attention on B2B marketing—a key selling point for many of Obility’s past clients who praise the agency for its tight business focus. Some of their notable clients include Autodesk, Moz, Marketo, and Fastly. Obility serves companies of all sizes, from new startups to enterprises ready for IPO.

A note on pricing for Obility and other agencies on this list: Few creative agencies offer pricing information online. Given the bespoke and long-term nature of performance marketing, most companies prefer to wait until more specific quotes can be given before discussing costs. Know that readers will need to contact each of these companies directly for specific prices.

[See more work from Obility]

2. Level Up Digital

Level Up Digital is our next performance digital marketing agency, which manages targeted ad campaigns across channels like Google and Facebook for SaaS companies. As an agency serving both B2B and B2C markets, Level Up Digital is well-versed in performance marketing on social media across various fields. Their top services include:

• Paid Search Management
• Ecommerce Solutions
• Custom Landing Page Design
• Content Creation
• Conversion Rate Optimization

Level Up Digital ranks among the top performance marketing agencies for their demonstrated mastery over growth-driven marketing campaigns. As PPC specialists, they bring a thorough process for market research, campaign builds, and post-launch optimization. They’ve worked with clients like Kissmetrics, Quimbee, and FormKeep and have great results to show for their efforts.

Notably, Level Up Digital offers partnership opportunities to creative and development agencies that provide turnkey solutions for digital marketing. They also give prospects a free proposal after submission of a contact form, which can provide more concrete details on how their performance creative agency services can help.

[See more work from Level Up Digital]

3. MuteSix

Founded in 2014, and based out of California, US, MuteSix provides full-funnel performance marketing built on data-backed and omnichannel media buys. Their core services include:

• Paid Search Management & SEO
• Retail Media Advertising
• Email & Lifecycle Marketing
• Content Creation
• In-House Data Analysis

MuteSix provides its performance marketing company services to both B2B and B2C markets, helping retailers (digital and brick-and-mortar) master their advertising strategy. While the company typically serves clients on the larger side with five-to-six figure ad budgets, it can provide services to a broader range of growth stages, including startups and SMBs.

And the results they bring to the table are impressive. MuteSix claims to have produced over a billion in trackable revenue for clients and over 27 billion impressions. Some of its notable clients include Disney, GNC, Pinterest, and Ring. Although the services may be out of reach for many small companies, its full-funnel, fast-to-market approach makes it one of the best performance marketing agency candidates in our review.

[See more work from MuteSix]

4. 42 Agency

42 Agency is well-respected in the B2B demand generation space, given its concentration on full-funnel growth marketing for SaaS brands. Founded in 2018 and based out of Toronto, Canada, this company aims to help companies turn their marketing into growth engines by applying key services such as:

• Revenue Operations
• Paid Search Management & SEO
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Consulting
• Marketing Automation Services
• Performance Creative

42 Agency’s tactics as an online performance marketing agency involve strategic improvements across demand generation tasks, internal processes, and creative messaging. By examining each aspect of a client’s process, they’re able to take a big picture view of a client’s funnel and determine how paid and organic advertising can work together to drive results. Some of their notable clients include Guru, Knowify, Nudge, and Synapse.

And unlike some performance based marketing companies, 42 Agency offers some flexibility in their service delivery. Clients can sign up for service packages or opt for hourly contract work on specific tasks. By doing so, they broaden their reach to both companies that want full service support and those that just need a little consulting on key strategic initiatives.

[See more work from 42 Agency]

5. Amsive

Amsive is a data-driven performance marketing agency built around customer acquisition, engagement, and advanced analytics. With several locations across the US, Amsive aims to provide a full range of marketing solutions for its clients:

• Digital Marketing Support
• Paid Search Management & SEO
• Web, Mobile, & App Design
• Performance Creative
• Data Intelligence & Analytics

Amsive solutions are suited to SMBs and larger companies, with past clients including Forbes, Dale Carnegie, Endgame360, and Healthline. From brand positioning to digital media buys to ecommerce platform consulting, Amsive can do it all.

One feature that sets Amsive apart is its Audience Science process, powered by their agency data platform, Xact. This ecosystem offers deep consumer intelligence for audience segmentation, messaging, and performance measurement. In terms of downstream impacts, Audience Science boosts the efficiency of each marketing expenditure and produces faster, more effective audience engagement.

And like other top performance marketing agencies, Amsive brings substantial expertise to their clients, earning designations as Google Partner, Meta Business Partner, Oracle Partner, BigCommerce Partner, and more.

[See more work from Amsive]

6. Phiture

Phiture is a performance marketing agency specializing in solutions for the mobile development and application ecosystem. While other agencies offer full-funnel support for a variety of digital strategies, Phiture has a narrower focus aimed at serving customers as a mobile growth consultancy. Core services include:

• App Store Optimization
• CRM & Retention
• Performance Marketing
• Subscription Optimization
• Growth Consulting

Although the team is based in Berlin, Germany, Phiture coordinates the expertise of designers, writers, engineers and data analysts from 41 unique nations, reflecting the agency’s global reach and diverse perspectives. This is a team that focuses on the mobile experience from end-to-end, leveraging some interesting tactics to drive results.

One notable feature of Phiture’s service is their ability to leverage PressPlay as a generative AI tool, automating creation, deployment, and monitoring of A/B tests directly on Google Play. The tool can rapidly iterate through experiments and save substantial time on campaign refinement. The company is so confident in its services that it guarantees a minimum level of uplift through this service or buyers get their money back.

These unique features position Phiture among the best performance marketing companies for those who need help with mobile marketing.

[See more work from Phiture]

7. Half Past Nine

Half Past Nine is a performance creative agency founded in 2019 and located in New York, US. This company’s focus is to engineer innovative growth programs that help companies identify—and capitalize on—the right opportunities. Its primary services include:

• Market Scaling & Acquisition
• Data Strategy & Governance
• Paid Search Management & SEO
• Revenue Operations
• Performance Creative

Half Past Nine’s strength as a performance marketing company comes from the expertise of its team and the coordination of data and marketing they promote. Its services are all-encompassing across the marketing funnel and can be applied to a variety of industries in technology, ecommerce, healthcare, and more. Some past clients include HireRoad, Providence, Intellect, and Tegria.

[See more work from Half Past Nine]

8. Hotspex Media

Hotspex Media is another of our leading performance marketing companies. Founded in 2013 and located in Toronto, Canada, Hotspex Media focuses its services on advertising management across paid and organic channels. Top services include:

• Search Engine Marketing
• Retail & Ecommerce Services
• Programmatic Ad Buys
• Social Media Advertising
• Conversion Tracking & Optimization

Hotspex Media's process is built on a step-by-step approach of metric identification, conversion tracking, integrated buying, detailed targeting, and unified reporting. Each goal is supported by dedicated processes that bring transparency to the complex world of paid advertising.

The agency tailors its services to larger enterprises, with a work portfolio that includes Amazon, Panasonic, Under Armour, and Sunstar. Better still, Hotspex Media has earned designations among the Deloitte’s 2023 North America Fast 500 and as #1 ranked global agency in North America by Clutch.

While the agency is priced higher than some others on this list, it's repertoire of services and track record speaks for itself. 

[See more work from Hotspex Media]

9. Bamboo

Bamboo is a digital performance marketing agency that brings exceptional results to clients. Located in California, US, Bamboo provides a simple avenue for supporting marketing funnels with high-impact digital advertising. Bamboo’s core services include:

• Paid Search Management & SEO
• Performance Creative
• Growth & Demand Management
• Customer Journey Analysis
• Analytics & Forecasting

Like other performance agencies specializing in paid search and social, Bamboo has prioritized becoming well-versed in a wide range of channels. It's a certified partner of Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Snapchat, and more, and it counts top brands like Adobe, Dropbox, and the New York Times as clients.

A notable feature that catapults Bamboo as a best performance marketing agency is its commitment to growth insights. They leverage a variety of tactics in this realm, including detailed customer journey analyses, cohort reviews, media modeling, and fiscal forecasting. Each of these assessments informs Bamboo’s process and ensures that all ad investments generate the expected results. For companies of any size, from startup to enterprise, Bamboo is a great choice.

[See more work from Bamboo]

Online Performance Marketing Agency FAQs

Should I hire a marketing agency or do it myself?

It's a good idea to hire a marketing agency once you're in the growth stage of your business and have some money to invest. At this time, it's impossible to juggle several hats and you're better off outsourcing some responsibilities to a reliable partner. 

The overview of the best performance marketing agencies demonstrates that while many agencies offer similar services, there are always distinctions in industry focus and marketing channels. Some performance marketing agencies specialize in social, while others take a full-funnel approach.

Consider these specializations as you review services and pricing and make sure you choose a partner whose goals align with your own. This is the best way to ensure that any solutions you go with will deliver the expected results and turn your marketing channels into the growth engines they’re meant to be.

How do I choose the right performance marketing agency?

We've spoken about specializations and pricing, but it's also important to consider an agency's track record of results and delivering ROI. When shortlisting agencies, be sure to ask them about metrics such as customer acquisition cost (CAC), conversion rates, cost per click (CPC), and creative optimization. Any agency that knows what it's talking about will know these numbers on the back of their hand.

How much does it cost to hire a performance marketing agency?

It's hard to answer this question without having an accurate picture of your business goals. Agencies are typically priced anywhere between $2,000 - $10,000 / month based on your ad spend, marketing channels, and the volume with which you want to test and optimize campaigns.