Digital Marketing Agency: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Who currently leads the Digital Marketing Agency benchmark by valid recommendation coverage, and by how wide a margin?
• How much did the category's recommendation-shaped answer share shift since July 2026?

SmartSites remained the coverage leader in the Digital Marketing Agency benchmark in October 2026, holding valid recommendation coverage of 67.8%. That was up from 62.1% in July 2026, a gain of 5.7 percentage points, and up 9.1 points from 58.7% in September 2026. The gap to the second-place brand, LYFE Marketing, widened to 45.7 percentage points in October 2026, from 30.0 percentage points in July 2026, and that gap has widened in every month of the series.

SmartSites posted the largest increase, rising from 58.7% in September 2026 to 67.8% in October 2026, a gain of 9.1 percentage points beyond normal month-to-month variation. Three tracked brands recorded significant coverage declines. LYFE Marketing fell from 32.1% in July 2026 to 22.1% in October 2026, a decline of 10.0 percentage points. Cardinal Digital Marketing fell from 8.0% in July 2026 to 4.4% in October 2026, down 3.6 percentage points. M16 Marketing fell from 8.4% in July 2026 to 3.8% in October 2026, down 4.6 percentage points. AIS Media, Grater Digital, and Joseph Studios remained within normal month-to-month variation across the series.

The qualification funnel began with 707 prompt-surface observations in October 2026 and produced 611 qualified benchmark observations after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. All six families were represented in each month of the series. In September 2026, recommendation-shaped answer share stood at 49.8% and valid recommendation shortlist share at 70.4%; in August 2026, 46.2% and 74.0% respectively.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Digital Marketing Agency

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• What separates a raw prompt-surface observation from a qualified benchmark observation?
• Why do brand-level percentages use qualified observations rather than the full raw collection?

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. See the AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology for full details.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• How does a brand's top-three rate compare to its rank-one rate in the October 2026 standings?
• Which tracked brands registered positive presence but very little rank-one placement?

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in any form.
• Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand receives a valid recommendation.
• Top-three rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in the top three recommended positions.
• Rank-one rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is the top-ranked recommendation.
• Net sentiment: positive mentions minus negative mentions divided by total mentions, scored from -1 to 1.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Company Spotlight: Grater Digital

Questions This Section Answers

• Why did Grater Digital generate zero qualified presence or recommendation observations across all six AI/search surface families over four consecutive months?
• What does it mean that Grater Digital has no measured foothold at any stage of the recommendation funnel?

Grater Digital recorded a presence rate of 0.0%, valid recommendation coverage of 0.0%, a top-three rate of 0.0%, a rank-one rate of 0.0%, and net sentiment of 0.0 in October 2026, with no change across the measured series from July through October 2026. Across all four months of the benchmark, Grater Digital did not register a single qualified observation in which it appeared, was recommended, placed in the top three, or placed first.

SmartSites records 67.8% on valid recommendation coverage, while Grater Digital stands at 0.0%. The more important issue is what that gap means for Grater Digital's recommendation position: in a category where SmartSites now captures two-thirds of qualified observations and the number-two brand, LYFE Marketing, still holds 22.1%, Grater Digital has no measured foothold at any stage of the recommendation funnel, from presence through rank-one placement. This is not a narrow placement deficit behind the leader; it is a complete absence from the qualified observation set across every tracked metric and every month measured.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Why does Grater Digital generate zero qualified presence or recommendation observations across all six AI/search surface families over four consecutive months, while five other tracked competitors — including brands with coverage as low as 1.0% — register measurable presence in the same category?

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand recorded the largest coverage gain since July 2026, and was that move concentrated in a single month?
• Where did the category's largest coverage decline come from, and did it exceed normal month-to-month variation?

Largest Increase: SmartSites

SmartSites recorded the category's largest increase, rising 5.7 percentage points since July 2026, from 62.1% valid recommendation coverage to 67.8%. The move was concentrated in the most recent month, up 9.1 percentage points from 58.7% in September 2026. Presence rate rose from 70.7% in July 2026 to 72.0% in October 2026, and top-three rate moved from 43.1% to 39.9% over the same period, a change within normal month-to-month variation. Rank-one rate fell from 22.3% in July 2026 to 12.4% in October 2026, down 9.9 percentage points.

Largest Decline: LYFE Marketing

LYFE Marketing recorded the category's largest decline, falling 10.0 percentage points since July 2026, from 32.1% valid recommendation coverage to 22.1%. The brand's presence rate fell from 49.6% in July 2026 to 34.4% in October 2026, its top-three rate dropped from 20.4% to 14.9%, and its rank-one rate fell from 10.1% to 6.4%. In the most recent month, LYFE Marketing rose from 20.5% in September 2026 to 22.1% in October 2026, up 1.6 percentage points, a change within normal month-to-month variation.

Cardinal Digital Marketing declined from 8.0% in July 2026 to 4.4% in October 2026, and M16 Marketing fell from 8.4% to 3.8% over the same period. Both declines exceeded normal month-to-month variation, though each brand posted a small increase from September 2026 to October 2026 that fell within normal variation. AIS Media, Grater Digital, and Joseph Studios remained within normal month-to-month variation throughout.

Category Leader: SmartSites

SmartSites led the category in each month of the series, at 62.1% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026, 58.7% in August 2026, 58.7% in September 2026, and 67.8% in October 2026. The gap between SmartSites and LYFE Marketing has widened in every month of the series, reaching 45.7 percentage points in October 2026, up from 30.0 percentage points in July 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• Why did SmartSites' coverage rise while its rank-one rate fell?
• Which brands show tighter top-three rates but meaningfully weaker first-position rates?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the two leading brands, SmartSites held a top-three rate of 39.9% in October 2026, down from 43.1% in July 2026. LYFE Marketing's top-three rate was 14.9% in October 2026, down from 20.4% in July 2026.

SmartSites' coverage rose while its rank-one rate fell, so a higher share of qualified observations carried a recommendation without carrying a first-position placement. Among the next tier, M16 Marketing held a rank-one rate of 1.8% in October 2026 against a top-three rate of 3.3%, while Cardinal Digital Marketing held a rank-one rate of 1.1% against a top-three rate of 2.5%. Even where coverage is close, first-position rates can differ meaningfully.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in each month of the series fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

The current public series measures brand recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the pricing and value or multi-brand comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure:

• Market share or sales attribution
• Every possible AI response to every possible query
• Organic-search ranking positions
• Social media mention volume
• Private or sponsored channel performance
• Causality from a metric movement alone

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains do AI platforms cite most often in the Digital Marketing Agency category?
• What role do directory and review platforms play in the citation landscape?

Across all AI platform responses in this measurement period, 5,491 citations were observed across 1,387 unique domains.

Citations are moderately concentrated: the top ten domains account for roughly one third of the 5,491 citations observed, while the remaining citations spread across more than 1,370 other domains. One tracked brand's own domain, lyfemarketing.com, appears in the top ten at rank six. Directory and review platforms (clutch.co, goodfirms.co, designrush.com, agencies.semrush.com) account for the largest clustered share of citations, with general consumer platforms (google.com, youtube.com, reddit.com, facebook.com) and one agency-owned domain also represented.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index is a neutral, industry-level measurement of how AI/search surfaces recommend brands within a vertical. It tracks presence, recommendation coverage, placement, and sentiment across the six canonical AI surface families.

• AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Visibility Authority Value

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