How we rank agencies

1. Where the data comes from

We collect public Google Business Profile listings for marketing agencies in each city we cover: name, website, address, phone number, Google rating, number of reviews, business categories and the topics Google extracts from reviews. Agencies without a website are left out. The data is refreshed monthly, most recently in September 2026.

Each agency is tagged with the services its listing evidences, such as SEO, Google Ads or web design, based on its Google categories and listing details. An agency appears in a service ranking only if its listing supports that service.

2. The Scout score

A raw star rating is misleading on its own: a 5.0 from three reviews says far less than a 4.8 from a hundred and twenty. We use a Bayesian average, the method behind well-known film rankings, which pulls each rating toward the average for all agencies until it has enough reviews to stand on its own:

score = (v / (v + m)) * R + (m / (v + m)) * C

• R is the agency’s Google rating (1 to 5).
• v is its number of Google reviews.
• m is the prior weight: 15 reviews.
• C is the mean rating across all agencies in our data (currently 4.74).

Agencies without a rating score zero, so they never rank above a rated agency. When two agencies have the same score, the one with more reviews goes first, then alphabetical order decides.

Worked example

Using the current dataset mean, 4.74:

• An agency rated 5.0 from 3 reviews scores 4.78.
• An agency rated 4.8 from 120 reviews scores 4.79.

The second agency ranks higher, because its rating is backed by forty times more reviews.

3. Who gets ranked

• An agency needs at least 3 Google reviews to be ranked. Agencies with fewer still get a profile page and appear in their city’s A to Z directory.
• A ranking page for a service in a city is published only once at least 5 agencies qualify. Below that, a comparison isn’t meaningful.
• Agencies are ranked only against others in the same city offering the same service.

4. What we don’t do

• We don’t sell positions, badges or “featured” slots in rankings.
• We don’t move agencies up or down by hand. Corrections fix data (a wrong address or service tag), not scores.
• We don’t publish agencies’ own marketing copy as our assessment. Summaries are written from the data above.

5. Limits of the data

Google reviews measure client satisfaction, not every aspect of an agency’s work. New agencies and those that don’t ask clients for reviews are at a disadvantage, and review profiles can be manipulated. Treat a ranking as a well-evidenced shortlist, then talk to the agencies. Our rankings pages include questions to ask before you sign.

6. Corrections

If a listing is wrong, or you run an agency and want it corrected or removed, email hello@agencyscout.co.za or read how listings work.