Digital Marketing Agency: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

SmartSites remained the coverage leader in the Digital Marketing Agency benchmark in September 2026, holding valid recommendation coverage of 58.7%. That figure was unchanged from 58.7% in August 2026 and down from 62.1% in July 2026. The gap to the second-place brand, LYFE Marketing, widened to 38.2 percentage points in September 2026, up from 30.0 percentage points in July 2026, as LYFE Marketing's coverage fell to 20.5%. SmartSites' lead is widening not because of its own gains but because the rest of the tracked field is losing ground.

Two tracked brands saw their valid recommendation coverage decline beyond normal month-to-month variation this month. LYFE Marketing fell from 27.6% in August 2026 to 20.5% in September 2026, a decline of 7.1 percentage points. M16 Marketing declined from 6.3% in August 2026 to 3.7% in September 2026, down 2.6 percentage points. These two brands accounted for the only significant movement this month, and both moved downward. Cardinal Digital Marketing also moved lower, from 5.1% in August 2026 to 3.9% in September 2026, a fall of 1.2 percentage points that fell within normal month-to-month variation. No tracked brand increased its coverage beyond normal variation this month.

Across the full three-month series, SmartSites has held the lead in every month. Cardinal Digital Marketing, LYFE Marketing, and M16 Marketing have each declined in both of the two months since the July 2026 baseline, and no tracked brand posted a significant increase in valid recommendation coverage over the same period. LYFE Marketing recorded the largest decline in the category, both since the July 2026 baseline (down 11.6 points, from 32.1% to 20.5%) and this month (down 7.1 points). The category's competitive structure is consolidating around SmartSites while the middle tier erodes.

The qualification funnel began with 733 prompt-surface observations in September 2026 and produced 624 qualified benchmark observations after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Recommendation-shaped answer share rose by 10.9 points, but the share of valid recommendations within those answers fell by 6.9 points — a divergence worth investigating. 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 August 2026, recommendation-shaped answer share stood at 46.2% and valid recommendation shortlist share at 74.0%.

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

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 Market Discovery Methodology for full details.

Current Brand Standings

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 Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Grater Digital: Current Position

Grater Digital recorded zero presence, coverage, placement, and sentiment in every month of the series. SmartSites records 58.7% 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. This is not a placement or ranking gap behind a leader — every other tracked brand in the category, including the smallest, AIS Media, at 1.3% valid recommendation coverage and a 1.3% presence rate, has registered at least some qualified recommendation activity across the three-month series. Grater Digital has not appeared in a single qualified observation, valid recommendation, top-three placement, or rank-one placement in July, August, or September 2026. That is a material gap against the entire tracked field, not just against the category leader.

Highest-priority diagnostic: What is preventing Grater Digital from generating any presence or valid recommendations in qualified AI/search observations for this vertical, and what would need to change for the brand to register its first measurable appearance?

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Largest Decline: LYFE Marketing

LYFE Marketing recorded the category's largest decline, falling 11.6 percentage points since July 2026. LYFE Marketing fell from 32.1% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 20.5% in September 2026, a decline of 11.6 percentage points beyond normal month-to-month variation. The brand declined in each of the two months since the July 2026 baseline. Its presence rate fell from 49.6% in July 2026 to 34.6% in September 2026, its top-three rate dropped from 20.4% to 13.0%, and its rank-one rate fell from 10.1% to 5.5%. In the most recent month, LYFE Marketing declined from 27.6% in August 2026 to 20.5% in September 2026, down 7.1 percentage points.

Category Leader: SmartSites

SmartSites remained the category leader in September 2026 at 58.7% valid recommendation coverage, unchanged from 58.7% in August 2026 and down from 62.1% in July 2026. The decline since baseline was within normal month-to-month variation on the primary coverage metric. Presence rate rose from 70.7% in July 2026 to 71.3% in September 2026, while top-three rate fell from 43.1% to 32.9% and rank-one rate fell from 22.3% to 13.9% — a stable coverage score hiding a much weaker first-choice position.

Cardinal Digital Marketing declined from 8.0% in July 2026 to 3.9% in September 2026, and M16 Marketing fell from 8.4% to 3.7% over the same period. Each has declined in both months of the series. AIS Media, Grater Digital, and Joseph Studios remained within normal month-to-month variation throughout.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the two leading brands, SmartSites held a top-three rate of 32.9% in September 2026, down from 43.1% in July 2026. LYFE Marketing's top-three rate was 13.0% in September 2026, down from 20.4% in July 2026.

Both leading brands saw their top-three and rank-one rates decline sharply, even where coverage held steady — the issue is recommendation prominence, not discoverability. Even where coverage is similar, first-position rates can differ meaningfully, so placement matters alongside raw coverage. Among the next tier, M16 Marketing held a rank-one rate of 1.9% in September 2026 against a top-three rate of 2.6%, while Cardinal Digital Marketing held a rank-one rate of 0.6% against a top-three rate of 2.2%.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

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

This benchmark cannot yet answer pricing, value, or head-to-head comparison questions — those buyer-intent classes have no public signal in the current dataset.

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

The three-month series is not yet long enough to treat any movement as an established trend.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI 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.

Research links:

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

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The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper. The public percentages cannot identify the specific prompts, competitors, or sources causing a given result.

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