Playbook

Find every marketing agency in the US, UK, Ireland and DACH.

No single database holds every agency. Most agencies have fewer than ten people, many have no LinkedIn page, and in Germany the commercial register has no industry code. A complete list comes from five sources merged on the website domain, with every row checked against the agency's own site.

01 / The steps

Five sources, one merge, one check

Each source finds agencies the others miss. The database finds the established ones, registries and map search find the small ones, and directories tell you what each one specializes in.

1. Decide what counts: "Marketing agency" covers advertising, digital and performance, SEO, social, content, PR, branding and design, media buying, and web shops that sell marketing. Write down which types you keep before you search. It changes the list size more than any source does.
2. Base layer: the B2B database: Filter companies by LinkedIn industry (Advertising Services, and Public Relations and Communications Services) and by country. This returns the agencies with a LinkedIn page and an employee count. It misses most one- to five-person shops.
3. Registries: Use the registries that carry an industry code: Companies House in the UK, WKO in Austria, a purpose-text search in Zefix for Switzerland. Registries find agencies that never made a LinkedIn page.
4. Map search, city by city: Run each search term in each city above a size you choose (for example, every city over 50,000 people). One search per term per city, because a map search returns at most a few dozen places. This is how you reach the long tail, and in Germany it is the main source.
5. Directories and partner programs: Read the directories and partner lists below. They add agencies the other sources miss, and they tell you the agency's specialty (Google Ads, HubSpot, Shopify).
6. Merge on the domain: The same agency appears in four sources under four spellings. Merge on the root website domain, never on the name. Rows with no website go to a separate list, because you cannot check them.
7. Check every row: An AI column reads each homepage and answers: is this an agency that sells marketing to clients? It drops in-house marketing teams, freelancer portfolios, dead sites and software vendors. Every answer keeps the URL it came from. A row with no source is removed, not guessed.
8. Enrich: Add employee count, services, the founder or managing director, and a verified work email. In Germany and Austria, the Impressum page names the Geschäftsführer, so it is the best source for the decision maker.
9. Keep it current: Rerun the registry and map steps each month and add only new domains. Agencies open and close fast, so a list older than a year has many dead rows.

02 / Country by country

Where each country keeps its agencies

Industry codes help only where a registry publishes them. Search in the local language: a German agency calls itself a Werbeagentur, not a marketing agency.

United States

English

No national company register. Companies register per state, and state records carry no industry code.

Codes: NAICS 541810 advertising agencies, 541613 marketing consulting, 541820 PR, 541830 media buying

marketing agencyadvertising agencydigital marketing agencySEO agencyPR agency

United Kingdom

English

Companies House. Its free API filters active companies by SIC code, so this is the most complete source of the six.

Codes: SIC 73110 advertising agencies, 73120 media representation, 70210 public relations

marketing agencycreative agencydigital agencyadvertising agencyPR agency

Ireland

English

Companies Registration Office (CRO). Search is by name, not by industry code.

Codes: NACE 73.11 advertising agencies, 70.21 public relations

marketing agencydigital agencyadvertising agencycreative agency

Germany

German

Handelsregister and Unternehmensregister. Neither carries an industry code, and most small agencies are not in it at all (GbR, sole traders).

Codes: WZ 2008 73.11 Werbeagenturen, 70.21 Public-Relations-Beratung

WerbeagenturMarketingagenturDigitalagenturOnline-Marketing AgenturSEO AgenturSocial-Media-AgenturKommunikationsagentur

Austria

German

WKO Firmen A-Z. Every agency must be a member of the Chamber of Commerce, so the trade group Werbung und Marktkommunikation is close to a full census.

Codes: ÖNACE 73.11 Werbeagenturen, 70.21 Public Relations

WerbeagenturMarketingagenturDigitalagenturOnline-Marketing AgenturSEO Agentur

Switzerland

German (also French and Italian)

Zefix, the central business name index. It has no industry code, but each entry has a purpose text (Zweck) you can search for Werbung or Marketing.

Codes: NOGA 731100 Werbeagenturen, 702100 Public Relations

WerbeagenturMarketingagenturKommunikationsagenturDigitalagenturagence marketing

03 / Directories

Directories, partner lists and associations

Use these to add agencies and to label their specialty. None of them is complete on its own.

Review directories: Clutch, Sortlist, DesignRush, GoodFirms and Agency Spotter. Strong on agencies that sell online, weak on local shops.
Partner programs: Google Partners, the HubSpot Solutions Directory, Meta Business Partners and the Shopify Partner directory. Each partner is an agency that runs paid media, CRM or ecommerce work.
US associations: The 4A's (American Association of Advertising Agencies) and the PR Council list their members.
UK and Ireland: IPA, PRCA and DMA in the UK. IAPI (Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland) in Ireland.
Germany, Austria, Switzerland: GWA and BVDW in Germany, the WKO trade group in Austria, Leading Swiss Agencies in Switzerland. Agency rankings in trade press (W&V, iBusiness, Horizont) name the larger ones.

04 / Before you email

The email rules differ by country

This is a summary, not legal advice. Check with your own counsel before a campaign.

United States: CAN-SPAM allows cold B2B email with your address and a working unsubscribe link.
UK and Ireland: Email to a company address is allowed with a clear opt-out (PECR in the UK, the ePrivacy rules in Ireland). Email to a personal address needs consent.
Germany and Austria: Advertising email needs prior consent, also between businesses (UWG §7 in Germany, TKG §174 in Austria). Most teams reach DACH agencies by LinkedIn, phone or a first email that asks permission.
Switzerland: The UWG requires consent for mass advertising email, with exceptions for existing customers. Keep sends small and personal.

05 / Run it in Orange Slice

Paste this into the chat

The agent runs the steps, merges the sources and checks each row. It shows you the count and the cost before the large steps, and nothing runs until you say yes.

Find every marketing agency in the US, UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

1. Pull companies from the B2B database with LinkedIn industry "Advertising Services" or "Public Relations and Communications Services" in those six countries.
2. Pull active UK companies from Companies House with SIC 73110, 73120 or 70210.
3. Search Google Maps city by city with the English and German search terms from this playbook.
4. Merge everything on the website domain.
5. Read each website and keep a row only if it is an agency that sells marketing services to clients. Add columns: agency type, services, country, language, employee count, source URL.
6. Show me the count per country and the cost before you run steps 3 and 5.

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