The best agencies according to objective Google assessments
It can be hard to judge which are the best agencies and to distinguish genuine credibility from delusional self aggrandisement.
There are a number of proxies but each has its limitations. Most awards are pay to enter giving a limited pool, that is then subjectively assessed based on the quality of the entry. Client performance data is closely guarded making and AB testing is rare making detailed analysis almost impossible. Case studies and before/after uplift stats give a flavour but are also selected by the agency in question. This presents clients with a difficult task when selecting an agency based on limited information and having to rely on gut feel and chemistry more than they would like.
There is however one organisation that does have access to all the performance data you could ever wish to analyse across all agencies and all clients - Google.
Unfortunately Google doesn’t directly release this data set. But it does provide a unique insight via the Google EMEA Agency Excellence Awards.
These awards are unique because there is no application process. Google automatically assesses the performance of accounts run by every known agency and objectively determines the best performers across a number of categories. The top 8 are shortlisted.
We analysed the nominations data across all core categories to determine the best agencies in EMEA according to Googles own data.
The methodology was to count nominations from the awards covering 2024 to 2025 across all objectively assessed categories. These were Media Unification, Lead Generation, Search Transformation, Online Sales, Creative Coverage, App Growth, Measurement Solutions and International Growth. This excluded Best Workplace which was based on self selection. Winners were used in tie break situations only since the final award was subjectively determined and provides a much smaller data set that can easily be skewed, whereas being a Top 8 agency in any of these categories is an impressive achievement and recognition of providing clients with the highest level of service.
So which are the best performance marketing agencies in Europe and the UK according to Google?
In Europe the top two agencies, with 3 nominations each were Boosmart (Turkey) and Making Science (combining nominations across both France and Spain offices). However Boosmart takes the top spot due to also notching 2 wins.
In the UK only 3 agencies achieved double nominations, so the best UK search agencies according to Google are Kinase, Brainlabs and Mediacom.
Some other interesting stats:
The UK had the most winning agencies scooping 4 out of the 8 awards.
Germany and the UK each had 3 multi-nominated agencies
The remaining multinominated countries were France, Spain and the Czech Republic
This shows quite a concentration of expertise in a handful of key markets.
Of course, the best agency will vary from client to client according to specialisms, chemistry and so much more, but we hope this provides a helpful guide when it comes to shortlisting potential new agencies.
Post script: Google does not host historic data on nominees and winners, but we have requested data from previous years to see what other patterns emerge.
In 2025-2026 they will also be changing their name to the Google Ads Agency Awards with 5 categories: Data Innovation, Media Achievement, Creative Impact, AI Excellence, International Growth, all of which have a heavy weighting towards AI adoption reflecting Google’s priorities. Kinase hopes to continue our run of 6 nominations in 3 years.
