How to choose an advertising agency in the US

An advertising agency is hired for creative and for media: the idea, the assets, and the plan for where they run. Those are related and they are not the same invoice.

A campaign number that mixes production and media is not comparable to a retainer for ongoing creative. Split them before you shortlist.

Write these down before you talk to an advertising agency. A vague brief produces a vague price.

• Say whether this is one campaign or an always-on relationship.
• Name the media you believe the audience actually uses. Let the agency argue with that.
• Set a production ceiling separately from the media budget.
• Decide who approves creative, and how many people that is. Committees are a cost.

Ask each firm the same list. The useful part is the difference in the answers, not a polished version of the question.

• Is media planned and bought in-house, or handed to someone else?
• What is the production estimate, and what would make it move?
• Who concepts, and who has done that job for a client like us?
• How do you judge a flight besides the vanity metrics in the deck?
• What do you need from us before you can price production for real?

This is a short list of advertising agencies that do the work at a national scale. It is not a directory of every firm in the United States. State and city pages show where the listed firms are based, and only where the list has enough firms to say something.

Hiring across states is normal for this work. Ask which time zone the account runs on, who attends your meetings, and where the people doing the work sit.

13 advertising agencies are on this list in the US, re-checked September 28, 2026. Nobody pays to be ranked. They are based in New York, NY (6); Los Angeles, CA (2); Austin, TX (1); Brooklyn, NY (1); Portland, OR (1); Richmond, VA (1); San Francisco, CA (1).

Where a team size is stated: 4 are 201–500 people, 6 are 500+ people. 3 do not state a size.

12 of 13 state a founding year. The earliest stated year is 1891 and the latest is 2020.

11 of 13 name a leader. 9 of 13 name at least one client. 0 of 13 publish a price. If a profile leaves a line out, no source stated it.

Specialties named by more than one firm: creative (11); holding company: Omnicom (4); brand campaigns (3); media (3); broadcast and Super Bowl campaigns (2); consumer brands (2).

In the list's order: Wieden+Kennedy, Mischief @ No Fixed Address, Ogilvy, BBDO, TBWA\Chiat\Day, McCann, Droga5, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, The Martin Agency, GSD&M, 72andSunny, Horizon Media, Mother New York.

Write the job in one paragraph. Keep the two or three firms whose reason for being here matches that job.

Open each profile. It says who leads the firm, work they can show, and a price if they published one. If they did not publish a price, the profile shows a typical estimate and says it is not a quote.

Then ask each firm for one piece of work like yours, and the name of the person who would do it.

The order weighs how long the firm has done the work, clients it can name, its size, and how clear its specialism is. Nobody pays to be ranked.

This list has no featured card. Nothing on it is paid placement.

If a profile leaves out a leader, a price, or a founding year, no source stated it.

• Editorial standards
• Advertising agency cost guide
• FAQ

Open a firm for who leads it, work it can show, any price it published, and why it made the list.

• 01 Wieden+Kennedy — Portland, OR
• 02 Mischief @ No Fixed Address — New York, NY
• 03 Ogilvy — New York, NY
• 04 BBDO — New York, NY
• 05 TBWA\Chiat\Day — Los Angeles, CA
• 06 McCann — New York, NY
• 07 Droga5 — New York, NY
• 08 Goodby Silverstein & Partners — San Francisco, CA
• 09 The Martin Agency — Richmond, VA
• 10 GSD&M — Austin, TX
• 11 72andSunny — Los Angeles, CA
• 12 Horizon Media — New York, NY
• 13 Mother New York — Brooklyn, NY

These pages group firms that share a city or a state on this list. A place with one listed firm links from the comparison page straight to that firm's profile.

• Where they are based
• New York, NY (6)
• Los Angeles, CA (2)
• New York (7)
• California (3)