Whenever I have to research influencer campaigns, I look at case studies from leading influencer marketing agencies. And I’m often so blown away by the expertise and creativity of those agencies that it makes me want to highlight them instead of focusing on the campaign alone.
With agencies bridging the gap between brands, creators, and communities, they play a key role in campaign success. And today’s leading agencies are no longer just campaign executors but also talent managers and long-term brand partners.
So the best ones need a shoutout – whether it’s for potential brand partners or creators who want to be a part of their roster.
In this post, I highlight some of the best influencer marketing agencies in the world and how they’ve matured over time. These agencies were evaluated based on the following criteria:
And with that, let’s get right into it.
The Goat Agency is a London-based agency with a decade-long footprint in the influencer marketing industry and a presence across 37 markets all over the world. They’re the first agency to leverage influencers’ media channels to run paid ads for brands. With expertise in multiple industries, The Goat Agency has worked with leading brands like Calvin Klein, IBM, Tesco, and Ford, to name a few.
The Goat Agency is a pioneer in combining creator-first content with paid media to help brands “influence everywhere.” Their strength lies in data-informed creator alignment, helping brands connect with influencers who truly speak to their community.
For example, their “War Within” campaign for World of Warcraft involved using their data tool to identify crossover niches and creators that aligned with gaming. So instead of speaking to an echo chamber of existing WoW fans, they could tap into a bigger audience outside of the gaming niche.
While The Goat Agency has seen plenty of success over the years, their initial focus on speed would sometimes lead to results that were short-lived and unmemorable. Now that they’ve realized the importance of creative depth, they’ve been able to execute campaigns that authentically connect with consumers who are culturally engaged.
The agency’s long-term partnership with NIVEA is a shining example of a campaign that successfully established cultural relevance among a younger audience.
Goal
Shifting brand perception of being “for older people” and building relevance among younger consumers
Approach
Results
Obviously is a full-service influencer marketing agency that can create an integrated creator network tailored for your brand. With over 150k influencer collaborations under their belt, the agency has expertise across categories like automotive, B2B, retail, healthcare, and tech, among others.
Obviously’s biggest strength lies in large-scale creator orchestration, helping brands build exclusive creator networks to power their campaigns. For instance, they activated and managed 733 influencers for Lyft.
The more creators you engage, the harder it is to stay on top of their content and ensure that everything remains consistent. This was one of the biggest struggles for Obviously at the start. The brand has since mastered the art of maintaining consistency across hundreds of creators.
In Lyft’s case, for instance, the agency focused on correlating their promotions with the brand’s values to ensure consistency.
One of Obviously’s most iconic campaigns involves the #DatingIsLike multi-influencer activation for Bumble.
Goal
Building awareness and driving new users to the Bumble app
Approach
Results
Viral Nation considers themselves the largest creator agency in the world and the #1 talent representation for digital stars. The agency has spearheaded campaigns for a number of leading brands and particularly excels at tech and gaming activations.
Viral Nation excels at launching performance-driven global campaigns. For instance, their multi-platform campaign for PUBG’s first Mobile Star Challenge managed to reach millions of people across 15 countries.
Since Viral Nation’s client roster mostly consists of major brands, the agency originally struggled to maintain creator authenticity for enterprise-scale campaigns. Over the years, they’ve gotten much better at striking the right balance, especially since they now hand-pick influencers whose content naturally aligns with each client’s target audience.
Viral Nation built a standout campaign for MGM Resorts during F1 Week in Las Vegas.
Goal
Driving bookings using high-impact influencer content
Approach
Results
The Influencer Marketing Factory is a full-service influencer marketing agency with a global team that speaks 11 languages. Their influencer marketing expertise spans multiple industries, including CPG, finance, beauty, travel, food, B2B, and ecommerce.
The Influencer Marketing Factory has spearheaded campaigns for a number of leading global brands and is particularly known for their TikTok-native activations. For example, their TikTok-based campaign for O-Cedar got so successful that the platform became a top traffic source for the brand.
With the agency striving for virality, they often made the mistake of chasing trends without brand context. This resulted in campaigns that felt forced and out of place. Now they’re focusing more on authentic storytelling, where client products are seamlessly integrated into the daily lives of creators.
The Influencer Marketing Factory helped Purito drive global visibility for its new Centella skincare line.
Goal
Drive awareness for the brand’s new Centella skincare line
Approach
Results
Jive PR + Digital is an agency that prides itself on building cult brands where superfans do the marketing for you. The agency offers PR and influencer marketing services to clients across industries like consumer brands, food and beverage, health and wellness, and entertainment.
Jive specializes in enabling cultural agility and real-time storytelling, allowing brands to effectively scale their presence across global markets. That’s exactly how they helped drive cultural relevance for Zero Latency, with global influencers generating authentic user-generated content around the launch event.
Over the years of being in PR, Jive has learned how to scale campaigns without losing creative intimacy. This often involves letting influencers be their authentic selves so they can effectively connect with their respective communities.
Jive PR + Digital’s campaign for Daiya Foods helped the brand drive awareness in a saturated market of dairy-alternative foods.
Goal
Reinvigorate brand awareness and attract new and existing customers
Approach
Results
HireInfluence is all about creating human-to-human influencer campaigns, with tailored strategies to suit each client’s goals and KPIs. The agency has been involved in successful campaigns across fashion, travel, food, beauty, and entertainment.
HireInfluence’s expertise shines through in campaigns that involve bespoke experiential storytelling. This includes campaigns like the first Taiwan Expo U.S. event, where influencers previewed the venue to build excitement.
With the high cost involved in building experiential activations, HireInfluence has faced limitations related to cost and scalability. The agency has since skillfully adapted their strategies to balance these two elements in their influencer campaigns.
HireInfluence’s six-month campaign for Grammarly helped position it as an essential tool for students and professionals across multiple verticals.
Goal
Boosting brand awareness among students and professionals
Approach
Results
inBeat is an influencer marketing agency that prides itself on producing data-driven creative that performs. The agency has worked with performance driven brands across industries like CPG, ecommerce, health and wellness, and mobile apps.
inBeat drives authentic storytelling by helping brands produce micro-influencer UGC at scale. For example, they’ve helped brands Nielsen generate multi-lingual content in over 15 languages with the help of 250+ creators.
While inBeat’s strength lies in producing high volumes of UGC, there’s also a risk of quality control issues. So they take the time to build strong briefs and share comprehensive brand guidelines to guide creators.
inBeat helped American Dairy plan and execute the viral #GotMilk challenge on TikTok.
Goal
Building brand awareness to reach a Gen Z audience
Approach
Results
OpenInfluence is a global influencer marketing agency that’s successfully launched creator marketing campaigns across 70+ countries. These campaigns span verticals like entertainment, automotive, finance, and even public sector/government.
OpenInfluence is mostly known for their narrative-driven creator matching, such as the aspirational, creator-led celebration showcased in the campaign for Mercedes Benz Dream Days event.
With major enterprise brands in their roster, the biggest struggle for OpenInfluence has been managing their operational complexity at scale. They’ve since overcome this with years of experience building and overseeing narrative-driven campaigns.
OpenInfluence helped DICK’S Sporting Goods launch a winning brand awareness campaign for the holidays.
Goal
Building brand awareness and inspiring audiences to shop at DICK’S during the festive season
Approach
Results
The Shelf is a data-first influencer marketing agency with a global team spread across 10 countries and speaking 16 languages. They’ve used this local expertise to craft winning campaigns that resonate across industries like CPG, food, fashion, lifestyle, and entertainment.
The Shelf prides itself on providing psychology-led audience insights to inform their campaigns. This helps them build messaging that resonates with specific target audience groups. For instance, they built a campaign for Ello where the content provoked feelings instead of highlighting features.
The agency originally struggled to balance longer planning cycles with clients’ speed to market goals. They’ve since built a four-stage process that allows for smarter and more efficient campaign iterations.
The Shelf helped Savers/Value Village pull off a winning go-to-market activation to coincide with the opening of 23 new stores.
Goal
Create community buzz around the store openings and drive foot traffic
Approach
Results
The Outloud Group delivers world-class marketing campaigns with a specialization in podcast marketing. They’ve been involved in over 42k brand sponsorships with clients in gaming, lifestyle, automotives, and more.
The Outloud Group establishes long-term performance partnerships, which also translates to long-term client relationships. For example, companies like Sunday have partnered with the agency for over four years.
Over the years, The Outloud Group learned to balance experimentation with ROI discipline. They’ve consistently delivered creative campaigns and high-quality traffic for high-growth brands.
The Outloud Group helped Magic: The Gathering successfully engage new and lapsed fans.
Goal
Attract new fans and encourage them to learn, play, and collect cards, as well as drive fans to participate in game events
Approach
Results
The best influencer marketing agencies didn’t get everything right from day one. What sets them apart in 2026 is how they learned from mistakes, systemized success, and built sustainable creator ecosystems.
For brands, choosing the right agency is no longer about who can deliver the biggest names — it’s about who can build trust, relevance, and performance at scale.
The Goat Agency, Obviously, Viral Nation, The Influencer Marketing Factory, and Jive PR + Digital are some of the top five influencer marketing agencies.
A creator can join an influencer agency by applying to be a part of their talent roster/creator marketplace.
Creator agencies represent influencers and connect them with brands that are aligned with their respective values. They help negotiate deals and manage contracts that are beneficial for the creator.
Brands should look for an influencer marketing agency whose values are aligned with theirs. Besides this, their credibility, previous campaign success, tech stack, and pricing are other factors to consider.