# What Is a Creative Agency? Know Services and Benefits | Capterra | Capterra > With our guide, learn what a creative agency is, the types of creative agency services, and how to choose the right creative agency for your business needs. Source: https://www.capterra.com/resources/what-is-a-creative-agency --- Marketing 101Marketing # What Is a Creative Agency? Know Services and Benefits By Katherine McDermott Katherine McDermott Katherine McDermott is a writer and marketer specializing in product marketing and B2B software and technology. She is a frequent contributor to trusted busi... [See bio & all articles](https://www.capterra.com/resources/author/kmcdermott/) Published September 27, 2023 7 min read ## The right creative agency can strengthen your business’s digital presence, helping you stand out among competitors. If you’re a small-and-midsize business (SMB) leader looking for quick, cost-effective ways to market and grow your business, creative agencies are a popular solution for you. Creative agencies focus on your business’s marketing and branding to strengthen your digital presence. They enhance your business’s reach by introducing your products or services to the right audience. Hiring a creative agency can help your business adopt effective advertising strategies, which may assist you in cost-effectively luring your ideal customers.  Learn what creative agencies do, the services they provide, and how to determine if hiring a third-party creative agency can unlock the next stage of success for your business. ## What is a creative agency, and what does it do? A creative agency is a team of experts who plan, execute, and strategize another business’s marketing and advertising initiatives. These professionals split marketing between advertising, consulting, designing, and other digital services to help brands achieve their goals.  SMBs can hire a creative agency over multiple full-time employees to ramp up their advertising efforts quickly. A third-party agency can help businesses: ###    Save internal bandwidth Forty-four percent of companies utilize [business service providers](https://www.capterra.com/resources/business-services-for-smbs/) because they don’t have the bandwidth—even though they have in-house expertise. Creative agencies can save your internal team time and resources, which can be spent on other important tasks. According to Gartner, 44% of marketing budgets took a midyear budget cut in 2020, and marketing leaders are still facing condensed resources, forcing them to vet external partners at a much higher level than ever before.[\[1\]](#sources) Businesses are aiming to maximize output by hiring creative agencies to gain higher levels of responsiveness, faster execution, and better performance. ###    Expert skills at your disposal Creative agencies have several team members specializing in design, ads, messaging creation, and more, allowing your business to take advantage of highly diverse skill sets. Hiring and retaining experts in these areas would be expensive and time-consuming for your SMB. ###    Scalability for different seasons Your SMB might have seasonal variability, such as a slow summer or busy holiday season. Creative agencies can step in at critical times to help with an increased workload. Likewise, you can maintain a short-term contract of three months or so to offboard them when they’re no longer needed. Also, a creative agency typically has a quick ramp-up and onboarding time instead of the standard six months for an employee to become truly productive. ###    Cost-efficiency An average small business may have to pay $255,000 per year[\[2\]](#sources) to build just a three-person, averagely skilled marketing team. On the other hand, an average digital marketing agency costs anywhere between $2,500 to $12,000 per month[\[3\]](#sources), saving significant money while completing more work in less time. Typically, creative agencies charge a monthly retainer for a set number of hours. ## What types of services do creative agencies provide? Depending on the type of creative agency, they can offer a wide variety of services. Typically, these services are divided into [marketing vs. branding](https://www.capterra.com/resources/branding-vs-marketing/). Branding services encapsulate the visual elements of your business, including your brand vision, brand story, and other messaging components. Marketing services work to get your business’s name out in front of your target audience. Here are some of the most common offerings of a creative agency. ### Advertising services Creative agencies might offer advertising services, such as ad creation, media buying, and design. They can also help SMBs determine where to spend their advertising budget. For example, a creative agency may recommend local automobile dealerships to market using social media ads and out-of-home billboards. For a recently established fashion brand, the creative agency might recommend advertising on Instagram, TikTok, or local magazines. ### Consulting services Creative agencies might offer various consulting services, including brand strategy, graphic design, content creation, web development, market research, and event planning. All these consulting services will help you utilize various channels to improve effective communication with your audience. ### Design services Design is the primary component of most creative agencies’ services. From overall brand imagery and logos to website creation, creative agencies are skilled at creating an impactful and differentiated visual identity for your business. ### Digital services Creative agencies can also offer services that a digital agency otherwise provides to improve your digital presence. These services include [social media management](https://www.capterra.com/social-media-management-software/), content creation, blog writing, SEO, public relations, event coordination and web development. ## What’s the difference between a creative agency and other related agencies? There are many types of marketing and advertising agencies, including PR, lead generation, design, social media, search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing businesses. Depending on your business’s industry, goals, budget, and needs, you might need to decide between a creative agency and another type of digital marketing agency. Here are a few key differences between a creative agency and other related agencies. - Specialized agencies focus on a singular marketing pillar, such as SEO and social media. - Creative agencies focus on “creative” elements, such as brand designing, messaging, copywriting, video production and logo creation. - Creative agencies develop holistic creative strategies while other firms focus on marketing strategy Despite their differences, creative agencies and other marketing firms can work together. Here are a few similarities between creative agencies and other digital marketing firms. - Often work on a monthly retainer basis. - Often specialize in a specific industry, such as real estate, insurance and beauty. Here are some key benefits of hiring a creative agency over other related agencies. ### Design skills Talented graphic designers are often hard to come by and are equally expensive. At their core, creative agencies are skilled in all visual branding elements, from logos to color palettes to imagery and graphic design. Creative agencies typically have one or several highly skilled graphic designers for your business needs. Hiring a full-time graphic designer for your small business will be much pricier than getting help from a creative agency. ### User research Creative agencies typically conduct extensive user research to craft compelling brand identity and messaging. They aim to understand your ideal customer’s pain points and interests deeply. All this information goes into developing an impactful brand identity that clearly resonates with your target audience. ### End-to-end project completion An experienced creative agency can execute a project from scratch, from ideation to project management to publishing. This saves the time and effort of your internal team as they don’t have to worry about how to finish a project. Some creative agencies may have dedicated project managers who work with businesses throughout all the project stages. ### Innovative ideas Good creative agencies are often known for their unique ideas, which can help you stay ahead of your competitors. If you want your small business to stand out, you can hire a creative agency with experienced and dynamic professionals who can orchestrate unique marketing campaigns for your business. ## How to choose the right creative agency - **Set clear expectations and goals.** Having unclear expectations will inevitability damage your relationship with your creative agency. Align upfront goals and metrics to track the projects and deliverables that need to be created. Creative briefs help maintain alignments as they distinctly state brand goals, metrics, timelines and budgets. - **Make sure they understand your business.** Many creative agencies specialize in multiple industries, such as beauty, insurance, and technology. Look for a creative agency with expertise in your niche industry and positive testimonials from your industry. This will help ensure their capabilities and understanding of your target audience. - **Vet through testimonials and referrals.** Many creative service agencies feature the best customer testimonials on their website. Contact the businesses listed on their website for a behind-the-scenes review and get insight into other small business owners’ thoughts. This will help you get a more unbiased opinion and make an informed decision. Explore creative agencies for your small business As a small business leader wearing multiple hats, you need to have expert help in every corner of your business. Since hiring full-time staff is time-consuming and expensive, a creative agency can work as a cost-effective marketing and advertising partner. From saving internal bandwidth to supporting seasonal volatility, a creative agency can enhance your marketing and branding in many ways. Want to learn more about marketing vs. branding for your small business? Go through these resources: - [Branding Tips for Small Businesses](https://www.capterra.com/resources/branding-tips-for-small-businesses/) - [Digital Marketing Tips and Strategies for Your Small Business](https://www.capterra.com/resources/digital-marketing-strategies-for-small-business/) - [How to Choose a Web Development Company](https://www.capterra.com/resources/how-to-choose-a-web-development-company/) ## Capterra's 2026 Software Buying Trends Report ### Download our 2026 Software Buying Trends Report to see how successful software adopters avoid disappointment and how your business can, too. * * * Sources 1. [8 Top Findings in Gartner CMO Spend Survey 2020-2021](https://www.gartner.com/en/marketing/insights/articles/eight-top-findings-gartner-cmo-spend-survey-2020-2021), Gartner 2. [How Much Does a Small Marketing Team Cost?](https://robotcreative.com/blog/how-much-does-a-small-marketing-team-cost/) Robot Creative 3. [Digital Marketing Pricing](https://www.webfx.com/digital-marketing/pricing/), WebFX * * * ### Was this article helpful? * * * ## About the Author [### Katherine McDermott](https://www.capterra.com/resources/author/kmcdermott/) Katherine McDermott is a writer and marketer specializing in product marketing and B2B software and technology. 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