Best Shopify Marketing Agencies in 2026: 13 Compared on Fees, Minimums and Contracts

Read ten agency websites and you will find ten identical service menus: paid social, search, email, conversion. The menu tells you nothing. The paperwork does. What an agency makes you spend before it starts, how you get out, who holds the keys to your ad accounts and what shows up in the monthly report decide whether the year goes well.

So this page compares thirteen Shopify marketing agencies on those terms, taken from their own sites. Where an agency boasts a result, we pass it on as a boast.

What Does a Shopify Marketing Agency Do?

A Shopify marketing agency plans and runs the channels that bring buyers to a store and bring them back: Shopify PPC and paid social, email and SMS marketing for Shopify, Shopify SEO and conversion rate optimisation. It does demand work. Building or changing the store is a different job.

Shopify Marketing Agency vs General Digital Marketing Agency

A Shopify specialist should know the platform’s product feeds, its checkout and apps, and Klaviyo flows, while a general agency treats the store as one more website. Several agencies here, such as SmartSites and Hawke Media, are generalists, so ask for a Shopify reference store and the named people who would work on your account.

Shopify Development Agency vs Marketing Agency

Builders change the store and marketers drive traffic to it. If visitors arrive but do not buy, hire builders first, and read our Shopify development agency guide. For search work specifically, use the Shopify SEO agency guide.

Free Shopify Marketing Services to Use Before You Hire an Agency

Shopify Messaging, the tool formerly called Shopify Email, sends email, SMS and WhatsApp with prebuilt abandoned cart, browse abandonment, welcome and win-back flows. Shopify’s Messaging page says the first 10,000 emails a month are free, then about $1 per 1,000, and SMS is billed separately in a few countries. Shop Campaigns buys ads in the Shop app and charges only when a sale happens. Autopilot suggests marketing actions from your store data. Flow is free on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus. Audiences exists only for eligible Plus stores in the US and Canada, and Collabs is not accepting new creator signups at the moment.

If your whole problem is a missing welcome email, you do not need an agency yet. If it is choosing which channel to scale, you probably do.

When to Hire a Shopify Marketing Agency

Hire when the decision is which channel to scale, not when an email flow is missing. Typical triggers are ad spend that you cannot manage yourself, a channel that has gone flat, or several channels that need one plan. Under the minimums below, an agency is probably not worth it yet, and the free tools above are the realistic start.

In-House Marketer vs Shopify Marketing Agency

An in-house marketer knows the brand but covers one or two channels, while an agency brings a team across paid, email and conversion. No agency here publishes a salary comparison, so compare the monthly retainer with the full cost of a hire, and keep ownership of your accounts either way.

The 13 Shopify Marketing Agencies at a Glance

Shopify PPC and Paid Media Agencies

• Top Growth Marketing (Los Angeles): paid media across Meta, Google, TikTok, Pinterest and Amazon DSP for ecommerce only, with email and creative. It says it is a Shopify Partner and Plus partner, though most of its results are unnamed.
• Common Thread Collective (Costa Mesa): paid media on Meta, Google and TikTok Shop, with its own forecasting software. Its site never mentions Shopify and it has no email, SEO or conversion line.
• SmartSites (New Jersey): search, paid and email across many industries, where Shopify is not a stated specialty. It names no conversion page.
• 1Digital Agency (Miami): search and ecommerce PPC with product-group reporting. A Shopify store gets no fixed price.
• Darkroom (New York): paid social, connected TV, retail media and Shopify builds for large brands.
• Fluency Firm (Los Angeles): paid media first with lifecycle as one service, 130 or more DTC brands claimed, premium positioning.

Email Marketing for Shopify Agencies

• Underground Ecom (remote, UK roots): retention only, with 100 or more people by its own count. No price, contract or headquarters on its site.
• Climb & Conquer (Stockton-on-Tees, UK): email, SEO and ads from one team. It is not a Shopify partner, and its price list differs from the one on Klaviyo’s directory.

Shopify CRO and Store Build Agencies

• Rocket CRO Lab (Kyiv): conversion tests, plus an email arm called Inbox Lab. Its homepage and about page disagree on team size.
• eCommerce Today (Romania and the US): builds plus email and ads. It also uses Omnisend and Brevo, so it may not default to Klaviyo.
• Eastside Co (UK): in-house Shopify builders that also run PPC, paid social, email and SEO.

Full-Service Shopify Marketing Agencies

• Hawke Media (Los Angeles, New York, Chicago): a very wide list from paid media to PR and design, 6,000 or more brands claimed, no stated Shopify or Klaviyo tier.
• Coalition Technologies (Los Angeles area): paid, email and SMS, SEO and builds. Its own site blocked automated reading. Klaviyo’s directory lists it as a Platinum Master.

Five agencies that appear in other lists are not here: Disruptive Advertising says little about Shopify, Single Grain is mainly B2B, Thrive Agency is mostly local, Email Marketing Pros’ site would not load and Fluid Commerce has no email service.

Minimum Budget and Revenue Shopify Marketing Agencies Require

Minimums quietly rule out most buyers. Top Growth Marketing states a floor of $100,000 a year in revenue. SmartSites asks for at least $2,500 a month in ad spend on ecommerce accounts, and that is before its own fee. Rocket CRO Lab wants about $50,000 a month in store revenue. Darkroom says it is a poor fit under about $5 million, and it aims at brands from $10 million to $500 million. Underground Ecom lists clients from $1 million to over $500 million.

Fluency Firm takes only a limited number of partners a year. If you are under those lines, skip the agency and use the free tools, or look at the agencies with no stated floor: Climb & Conquer, 1Digital, Eastside Co and eCommerce Today.

How Much Does a Shopify Marketing Agency Cost?

Shopify Marketing Agency Fees in Print

• Top Growth Marketing: $2,000 to $10,000 a month by revenue tier and scope, though three of its pages give three different ranges.
• 1Digital Agency: search retainers from $899 to $5,999 a month, and ecommerce PPC at $185 an hour for custom scope.
• SmartSites: email from $750 a month and a $2,000 tier, with the management fee for ads not stated.
• Rocket CRO Lab: email flow setup at $2,500, $4,500 or $5,500 one time, and newsletters at $1,200, $1,800 or $2,500 a month.
• Climb & Conquer: indicative monthly prices of 400 pounds, 900, 1,500 and 2,400 or more.
• eCommerce Today: retainers sold as blocks of 20, 40 or 80 or more hours, with unused hours rolling over within limits.
• Darkroom: websites from $60,000 as a 16-week project. Its retainers are not priced.

Common Thread Collective, Underground Ecom, Fluency Firm, Hawke Media and Eastside Co publish no marketing prices. Other publishers’ roundups put Shopify marketing retainers at roughly $3,000 to $15,000 or more a month, but the authors sell marketing and their figures contradict each other. Use them only to sanity-check a quote.

Shopify Marketing Agency Pricing Models

Agencies bill in four ways: a flat monthly retainer (Top Growth Marketing, Climb & Conquer), a block of hours (1Digital Agency, eCommerce Today), a one-off project (Darkroom’s websites, Rocket CRO Lab’s email flow setups) and, in some cases, a share of ad spend that almost nobody publishes. Ask for the model in writing, and for the ad-spend minimum, because it can be bigger than the fee.

Shopify Marketing Agency Contracts: Notice Periods and How to Leave

Contract terms are where agencies differ most. Top Growth Marketing says it is month to month with 30 days’ notice and a first-month money-back guarantee. Rocket CRO Lab and Climb & Conquer both say there is no 12-month contract. 1Digital Agency commits you to the first six months, although its own pages disagree about the length of the contract.

Common Thread Collective does not publish terms but says the average client stays 14 months or more. That is a retention boast, not a clause. Treat a long average stay as a reason to ask why clients stay: because results are good, or because leaving is hard.

Who Should Own Your Ad Accounts and Shopify Store Access?

Your ad accounts, your Klaviyo account and your store admin should be yours, in your name, with the agency added as a collaborator. SmartSites says clients own their ad accounts, which is the right answer. Most agencies do not say either way on their sites, so ask, and write it into the contract. Shopify’s help page on collaborator accounts explains how an agency requests store access with a code you issue and how you set its permissions.

What a Shopify Marketing Agency Report Should Include

1Digital Agency reports revenue, new-customer return on ad spend and blended return, by product group, with weekly optimisation. SmartSites gives clients a live hub with spend and revenue from week one. Top Growth Marketing promises weekly reports and a live dashboard. Common Thread Collective says a named engineer compares forecast to target every day. Rocket CRO Lab sends a 30 day revenue report after an email launch.

Which KPIs Should a Shopify Marketing Agency Report?

• Marketing efficiency ratio: total revenue divided by total marketing spend. No single platform can claim credit for it.
• Cost to win a new customer: ad spend divided by new customers, not orders, so repeat buyers cannot hide a rising cost.
• Contribution margin after ads: what remains after cost of goods, shipping and marketing.
• Share of revenue from email and SMS: how much of your sales come from lists you own.

How Long Does It Take to See Results from a Shopify Marketing Agency?

Nobody can promise a date, and the estimates are the agencies’ own. 1Digital Agency says targeted fixes show in one to two weeks and scaling takes four to six. Climb & Conquer says to give email changes six to fifteen weeks. If an agency promises results inside a month without looking at your store, treat that as a sales line.

Klaviyo and Shopify Partner Badges: Do They Prove an Agency Is Good?

Klaviyo’s partner program has two tracks, Advisor and Master, with tiers from Bronze through Gold and Platinum up to Elite on the Master track. According to Klaviyo’s training pages, a tier reflects the Klaviyo subscription revenue an agency refers or manages and how many of its staff have finished Klaviyo’s courses. It does not measure how your store performs. More trained people is useful. It is not a promise about your results.

The practical problem is that agency sites and Klaviyo’s directory do not always agree:

Klaviyo tier: what the directory showed and what each agency says (checked 4 November 2026)

Ask each agency to show the tier inside its Klaviyo partner portal, name the certified staff on your account and give you a client to call. eCommerce Today’s Plus partner status is confirmed on Shopify’s own directory, with a 4.9 rating from 216 reviews and 400 or more stores; Top Growth Marketing’s Shopify claims were not checked there.

Shopify Plus Marketing Agencies

If you run Shopify Plus, ask whether the agency has worked on a Plus store and whether it links its Shopify Partner Directory profile. Among these thirteen, eCommerce Today is confirmed there, Top Growth Marketing claims Plus status, and Coalition Technologies appears in Shopify’s directory as a long-standing service partner. For the platform side of Plus, see our Shopify Plus agency guide.

How to Choose the Right Shopify Marketing Agency: Questions to Ask and Red Flags

• Which channel is my problem? Choose the agency that leads with it, not the longest service menu.
• What is the minimum? Ask for the revenue floor and the ad-spend minimum before the first call.
• How do I leave? Get the notice period and what you keep in writing.
• Who holds the accounts? Ad accounts, Klaviyo and store access stay in your name.
• Who works on my account? Ask for names, certifications and a reference client.
• Red flag: results promised in a month without looking at your store.
• Red flag: badges with no proof. Check Klaviyo’s directory and Shopify’s Partner Directory yourself.

Shopify Agencies for Store Builds and Conversion Rate Optimization

If visitors arrive but do not buy, hire builders before media buyers. Eastside Co says it has built 500 or more stores and has 50 or more people, runs support retainers from 10 hours a month for back-end work and 30 for front-end, and offers conversion work as an audit only. Its prices for marketing are not published and it bills in pounds. eCommerce Today lists migration, B2B set-up and apps beside email and ads, and may suggest a different email tool because it is platform-agnostic. For the build side, our guide to hiring Shopify experts explains how to find and judge a studio.

Shopify Influencer and Affiliate Marketing Agencies

Hardly any agency here runs creator or affiliate programs as a main service. If creators are in your plan, read the Shopify influencer marketing guide and then agencies that manage Shopify affiliate programs. Ainfluencer, the site publishing this page, links Shopify stores with creators, and this page explains the Shopify connection. That product is ours.

Switching Shopify Marketing Agencies: A Handover Checklist

• Confirm the ad accounts are in your name and remove the old agency’s access.
• Export your Klaviyo flows, lists and templates.
• Collect creative files, tracking IDs and reporting access.
• Remove the old agency’s collaborator account from your store and check the 90 day access rule on Shopify’s help page.
• Ask the new agency for a baseline report before any changes.

Frequently Asked Questions About Shopify Marketing Agencies