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Who ChatGPT recommends · October 2026

Who ChatGPT recommends: marketing agencies in 10 US cities

By Maksim Shchegolev, founder of OperStack · Measured 3 October 2026 · Published 3 October 2026 · Data: CC BY 4.0, cite OperStack with a link

How we measured: 3 buyer questions in each of 10 US cities, asked in ChatGPT on chatgpt.com with web search on, the way a person asks it, through an automated browser session (Bright Data), 2 runs, 3 October 2026. All 60 answers were usable.

What the data shows

  1. 3 of 10

    In 3 of 10 cities at least one business was named in all 6 answers; in the rest no business made every answer.

    City counts where some business appears in every one of the 6 answers (3 questions × 2 runs); cities with fewer than 6 usable answers are not counted.
  2. 35 of 204

    35 of 204 named marketing agencies were mentioned without any link to their own website.

    A business counts as linked if its own website appears in a map card, in a link next to its name, or among the cited sources.

City by city

New York, NY

6 answers · 27 businesses named · 65% named again in run 2

BusinessNamedFirst
Jives Media3 of 61
Leadige Media Group2 of 61
VaynerMedia2 of 61
1MDE2 of 60
9AM Performance Marketing Agency2 of 60
BBDO Worldwide Inc2 of 60
Chauncey Agency2 of 60
Clear Ops AI2 of 60
Digital Drew SEM2 of 60
Havas2 of 60

Plus 17 more named less often.

Sources cited: clutch.co (3), builtinnyc.com (1), busyseed.com (1), improvado.io (1), smartsites.com (1), webfx.com (1)

Chicago, IL

6 answers · 24 businesses named · 82% named again in run 2

BusinessNamedFirst
EM Search Consulting, LLC4 of 63
RedShark SEO4 of 62
Allevi8 Marketing4 of 60
Sixth City Marketing4 of 60
Comrade Digital Marketing Agency3 of 60
Straight North3 of 60
Ogilvy2 of 61
Digital Marketers Chicago2 of 60
VisualFizz2 of 60
1o81 of 60

Plus 14 more named less often.

Sources cited: clutch.co (5), builtinchicago.org (2), semrush.com (1)

Los Angeles, CA

6 answers · 18 businesses named · 94% named again in run 2

BusinessNamedFirst
Coalition5 of 62
Just Digital Inc4 of 61
HawkSEM3 of 60
icepop Digital Marketing Agency3 of 60
Tower 25 Digital Marketing Agency3 of 60
Deutsch2 of 61
The Los Angeles SEO Company2 of 61
405 Ads SEO Los Angeles2 of 60
Branding Los Angeles2 of 60
Eclipse Marketing2 of 60

Plus 8 more named less often.

Sources cited: clutch.co (6), builtinla.com (1), nitrosend.com (1)

Houston, TX

6 answers · 18 businesses named · 85% named again in run 2

BusinessNamedFirst
INFINI Marketing6 of 61
Symphony Advertising5 of 62
Ascendly Marketing and Website Design3 of 61
ASTOUNDZ SEO3 of 60
Adcetera2 of 61
Love Advertising2 of 61
BrandNation2 of 60
Local Spear Leads2 of 60
Marketing Refresh2 of 60
Red Houston SEO Company2 of 60

Plus 8 more named less often.

Sources cited: clutch.co (6), agencyreview.dev (1), symphonyadvertising.com (1), thesocialtech.net (1)

Dallas, TX

6 answers · 22 businesses named · 56% named again in run 2

BusinessNamedFirst
Rise Local4 of 60
CONNECTIVE AGENCY3 of 61
Ascendly Marketing and Website Design3 of 60
The Loomis Agency3 of 60
White Unicorn Agency3 of 60
Search Pros2 of 62
TRG2 of 62
Moroch Partners2 of 60
The Dallas SEO Company2 of 60
Miller Ad Agency1 of 61

Plus 12 more named less often.

Sources cited: clutch.co (6), andersoncollaborative.com (2), yably.com (1)

Atlanta, GA

6 answers · 18 businesses named · 77% named again in run 2

BusinessNamedFirst
M16 Marketing6 of 60
20North Marketing5 of 63
YEAH! Local4 of 62
Blueprint Digital4 of 60
Marketwake2 of 61
BBDO Atlanta2 of 60
Brown Bag Marketing2 of 60
Connect Social2 of 60
MOCK, the agency2 of 60
Trebol Media Group2 of 60

Plus 8 more named less often.

Sources cited: clutch.co (6), expertise.com (1), nationalmarketingawards.com (1), semrush.com (1)

Miami, FL

6 answers · 20 businesses named · 63% named again in run 2

BusinessNamedFirst
Jives Media4 of 60
Rocket Marketing and Design3 of 62
Your Marketing Agency3 of 61
1111 Media Group3 of 60
Jeremy D. Boyd Advertising + Digital Marketing3 of 60
Kukic Advertising3 of 60
Trueba Media LLC3 of 60
Anderson Collaborative2 of 62
Dharma Digital Marketing Agency2 of 60
Digital Marketing by MC Corp2 of 60

Plus 10 more named less often.

Sources cited: clutch.co (5), smartsites.com (2), expertise.com (1), lotiva.com (1), nationalmarketingawards.com (1), nitrosend.com (1), runningwithstrategy.com (1), sealglobalholdings.com (1)

Philadelphia, PA

6 answers · 18 businesses named · 71% named again in run 2

BusinessNamedFirst
Brolik5 of 62
1DIGITAL AGENCY4 of 61
215 Marketing4 of 60
Momentum Digital3 of 62
WebFX2 of 61
Cedarbrook Marketing2 of 60
Defy®2 of 60
DMi Partners2 of 60
Local Marketing Solutions2 of 60
Make Your Mark Digital2 of 60

Plus 8 more named less often.

Sources cited: clutch.co (6), expertise.com (3), semrush.com (2), birdeye.com (1), nationalmarketingawards.com (1), nitrosend.com (1)

Phoenix, AZ

6 answers · 19 businesses named · 55% named again in run 2

BusinessNamedFirst
Fanntastic Media6 of 62
Digitaleer SEO & Web Design5 of 61
DMD DIGITAL SEO MARKETING AGENCY5 of 61
OH Partners2 of 62
Get Visible Digital Marketing Agency2 of 60
Manley Creative2 of 60
ON Advertising2 of 60
Ad Genius1 of 60
Colling Media1 of 60
Commit Agency1 of 60

Plus 9 more named less often.

Sources cited: clutch.co (5), adgenius.com (1), azmedia.org (1), collingmedia.com (1), expertise.com (1), ohpartners.com (1)

San Diego, CA

6 answers · 20 businesses named · 62% named again in run 2

BusinessNamedFirst
2POINT Agency5 of 60
Omnipresent Marketing4 of 62
Beehive Web Solutions4 of 61
Ignite Visibility4 of 61
WISE Digital Partners4 of 61
Click Track Marketing2 of 61
Power Digital2 of 60
Rank Harvest Digital Marketing2 of 60
Storm Brain2 of 60
Hang 10 Digital1 of 60

Plus 10 more named less often.

Sources cited: clutch.co (4), greenflagdigital.com (4), clicktrackmarketing.com (1), icatchgroup.com (1), semrush.com (1)

"Named" is how many of the city's answers mentioned the business, "First" how often it came first. Up to the 10 most named per city.

Where ChatGPT gets its picks

Answers that cited each domain at least once, all 10 US cities.

How stable are the answers

Across all 10 US cities, 71% of the marketing agencies ChatGPT named in the first run were named again in run 2. 3 of 204 were named in every answer in their city.

Share of businesses from the first run that ChatGPT named again in run 2, by city.

Method and limitations

How to cite

Source: OperStack, Who ChatGPT recommends: marketing agencies, October 2026, https://oper-stack.com/who-ai-recommends/marketing-agencies/

Further reading