Key Takeaways

• Identify Paid Listings for Credibility: When searching for PR agencies, be aware of which listings are paid. Some agency listing sites prioritize paid placements, which may not always represent the best options available.
• Examine Pricing Variability: When assessing PR agencies, consider the pricing ranges provided. Agencies with different pricing strategies often reflect their expertise and service quality, helping you find a suitable match for your budget and needs.
• Focus on Review Quality and Consistency: Look beyond the sheer number of reviews for PR agencies. Prioritize platforms that verify reviews to ensure authenticity, and pay attention to the quality and consistency of feedback to make an informed choice.

If you’re looking to hire a PR agency or any other creative services, chances are during your Google search, you’ve run across some PPC ads and then encountered some agency listing sites. What’s the deal with these sites? Are they credible? What about the agencies on them? And how should you make sense of the overwhelming amount of information on services listing websites? Let’s dive into them more deeply.

A few words about agency listing sites in general:

Most offer free and paid listings:
With some exceptions, these agency listing sites’ business model is priority (paid) listings. There’s nothing wrong with this, but users should know when they are clicking on paid listings, and some sites do better than others at disclosing this. Below we note now to identify the paid listings. The is important because it’s easy to just click on the top 2-3 agencies at the top, and those agencies may very well be a great fit, but you might also want to look more deeply.

Agency Rates and Fees: 
There are a large number of variables that go into pricing your needs.  So when you’re asking yourself “how much does this PR agency cost?” remember your mileage may vary. You can tell a little bit about the positioning of certain agencies from the pricing ranges they provide. For example, the least expensive agencies position themselves as the cheapest, while the more expensive agencies may have certain specialties or more tailored services. Only you know what’s right for you, but my recommendation would always be to find a range of pricing options and see for yourself which suits you best.

The Number of Reviews: 
A lot of reviews is good, right? I would encourage you to look past the number and into the quality and threads of consistency in the reviews. Some agency listing sites reviews are harder to game than others. Some agencies with a relatively large number of reviews are probably churn and burn agencies, or the reviews may not be authentic. Still PR agency reviews are a good starter filter for identifying the best PR agency for you.

Here’s a list of some popular agency listing and referral sites, each with a brief description of its offerings:

1. Clutch
Paid Placement: Yes. “Featured Providers” are paid listings. 
Focus: B2B service creative service providers and consulting firms in the United States.
Description: A well-known platform for reviews and rankings of service providers in areas like public relations, marketing, IT, and business consulting. Agencies are listed by their expertise, industries, and verified reviews.
What to Look For: Clutch actually conducts the reviews on their verified reviews, adding credibility to their reviews. Because this requires an extra step for clients, many agencies choose one site to funnel their reviews to, and Clutch is a popular one. The site was purchased in 2024, so it may or may not continue with this process.

2. UpCity
Paid Placement: Yes. “Certified Partners” are paid.
Focus: B2B service providers, including marketing, creative, and PR agencies, as well as IT and software development.
Description: Owned by Gartner, who owns several different review sites. Specializes in helping businesses find marketing, advertising, and digital service agencies. Agencies are vetted based on customer feedback and UpCity’s proprietary rating algorithm.
What to Look For: UpCity also verifies the reviews on their site. And they have a wide range of ways to search from industry and business size, along with cities.

3. Agency Spotter
Paid Placement: Yes, but not distinguishable. 
Focus: Creative, marketing, and digital agencies.
Description: Offers an easy-to-navigate database for finding agencies by their services, such as branding, PR, digital marketing, or advertising, with reviews and client testimonials.
What to Look For: This is a relative newcomer, but I’m not personally crazy about the layout of the results, but your mileage may vary. The results are not complete. It appears that only agencies with on-site reviews show up in the search. The site also offers an RFP service. Ask how it chooses the agencies and how many you will receive.

4. Sortlist
Paid Placement: Yes, but not distinguishable. 
Focus: EU-based focused. Advertising, marketing, creative and PR agencies alongside IT services.
Description: Matches businesses with agencies based on their project needs. Sortlist specializes in connecting companies with public relations, digital marketing, design, and development firms globally.
What to Look For: This company provides a matching service, but it’s unclear how it prioritizes the agencies it matches.

5. The Manifest
Paid Placement: Yes,”Sponsored”
Focus: B2B firms across various industries, including creative, IT, marketing, PR and financial and even real estate.
Description: A sister site of Clutch, it provides shorter, high-level summaries of agency services, reviews, and case studies, allowing businesses to assess potential partners quickly.

6. DesignRush
Paid Placement: Yes.
Focus: Design, development, and digital marketing.
Description: A marketplace for creative agencies, offering detailed directories with customer reviews. It covers design agencies, branding firms, digital marketing, and web development specialists.

7. Expertise.com
Paid Placement: Yes.
Focus: Local and regional agencies.
Description: Lists top service providers in various categories – from home improvement to financial and agencies –  based on a combination of public data, reviews, and internal research, primarily focusing on agencies within specific cities or regions.
What to Look Out For: If finding a PR firm near me is important to you, this is a great place to start.

8. Credo
Focus: Marketing, SEO, and PPC agencies.
Description: Curates a network of vetted marketing professionals specializing in SEO, PPC, and digital marketing. They help businesses find the right agency by matching them with a curated list based on specific needs.
What to Look Out For: This is designed to be a boutique matching experience, so you can expect to have a phone call with Credo after you fill out their form before they match you.

9. Breef
Paid Placement: No.
Focus: PPC, Digital, Marketing, PR Agencies
Description: Paid agency match-making through a global directory of advertising and communication agencies, featuring portfolios and case studies of creative campaigns, making it easy for brands to discover potential partners.
What to Look For: They offer factored and delayed invoicing through their services, which allows clients to stretch out their payments.

10. GoodFirms
Focus: Location-based IT, marketing, and business services.
Description: A research-based listing platform that ranks companies based on quality, reliability, and ability, helping businesses find the right service provider in areas such as software development, design, and digital marketing. These platforms provide valuable resources for finding and vetting agencies across various specialties and industries.

Finding the best PR agency reviews will still mean putting some time into identifying what you want and what’s most important in PR, hiring the right agency for you. But many of these sites will help you narrow down your choices, and maybe even find a diamond in the rough.