The Most Competitive Cities for Marketing Agencies in 2026

Seven Brazilian cities appear in the top 20, with Sao Paulo (736 agencies), Belo Horizonte (697), Campinas (687), Rio de Janeiro (686), Porto Alegre (662), Curitiba (658), Brasilia (624), and Recife (624) all featuring. No other country places more than two cities in the ranking.

The concentration of Brazilian cities is striking. The country accounts for roughly a third of all entries in the top 20, and its cities tend to cluster in the upper half of the table. Belo Horizonte, Campinas, and Rio de Janeiro all sit within a range of eleven agencies of each other, at 697, 687, and 686 respectively, suggesting a highly competitive domestic market spread across multiple urban centers rather than concentrated in a single hub.

Outside Brazil, Asian cities form the next largest cluster. Nagoya (695), Delhi (683), Indore (669), Hong Kong (662), Nagpur (622), and Shenzhen (619) all appear in the top 20, alongside Karachi from Pakistan with 706 agencies, the second highest total globally.

Tel Aviv (630 agencies) is the sole Middle Eastern representative and ranks thirteenth overall, sitting between Curitiba and Brasilia. Its average rating of 4.88 is among the higher scores in the dataset, shared with Curitiba, Brasilia, and Casablanca.

Average ratings across the top 20 cities are notably compressed, ranging from 4.32 to 4.91. Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro share the highest average rating of 4.91, while Nagoya records the lowest at 4.32, a full 0.59 points below the next lowest city, Karachi and Shenzhen, which are both at 4.76.

Nagoya's combination of a high agency count (695, fourth overall) and the lowest average rating in the dataset is the most notable outlier in the study. Whether this reflects genuine variation in client satisfaction, differences in rating culture, or sample composition is not determinable from the data alone. Marrakech and Recife both achieve 4.90, placing them among the highest-rated cities despite sitting outside the top ten by agency count.

Two Moroccan cities, Marrakech (619 agencies, rated 4.90) and Casablanca (617 agencies, rated 4.88), appear near the bottom of the top 20, separated by only two agencies. Lagos, Nigeria, ranks eighth with 679 agencies and an average rating of 4.82, making it the only African city in the top ten and the highest-ranked city on the continent overall.

The geographic spread of the ranking, covering Brazil, Pakistan, India, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Israel, Turkey, Nigeria, and Morocco, indicates that dense agency markets are not limited to traditionally recognized advertising hubs in Western Europe or North America, none of which appear in this top 20.