Looking for a Social Media Agency in NYC? Start With These (2026 Update)

Let's face it, New York has more social media agencies per block than most cities in the US. That makes choosing one harder than it should be.

Because of that, we reviewed over 80 Social Media Agencies in New York City. Our team checked for real NYC offices, verified client work, and platform-specific experience across paid and organic channels.

Some looked strong on the surface but didn't hold up once you looked at actual results.

So, this list narrows it down to the teams that passed those checks, split into two groups: agencies where social media is the actual core offering, and full-service or performance agencies with real, documented social media experience but a broader focus. You'll see who they work with, what they focus on, and where they fit.

But if you also want broader support beyond social, you can check our guide to the top digital marketing agencies in NYC for more options. If not, let's start with our list.

What Is a Social Media Agency?

A social media agency is a company that plans, creates, and manages content and paid campaigns across platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook on a brand's behalf, with the goal of turning that activity into measurable engagement, community growth, or revenue.

Some social media agencies focus exclusively on this work; others offer it as one service inside a broader marketing practice, which is exactly the distinction this guide is built around.

Top 25 Social Media Companies in New York City (NYC) Compared

We compared a shortlist of NYC agencies based on focus, best-fit use cases, and strengths. This gives you a quick way to narrow options before going deeper.

Disclaimer: inBeat is included on this list and placed first in the Social-First Agencies tier. That placement follows the same verification standard applied to every other entry: real NYC presence, genuine social-first focus, and checkable client work with solid results.

How We Chose These Social Media Agencies in New York City

The truth is that most "best agency" lists are paid placements or directories with no clear criteria. Well, this one is different.

Like we previously mentioned, we reviewed over 80 Social Media Agencies in New York City and filtered them based on what actually matters when you're investing in social. That included:

• Verified client work
• Platform-specific expertise
• Whether the agency operates with a real NYC presence (we excluded those with a remote-only setup)

We also looked at how each team connects content to outcomes. Agencies that focused only on posting frequency or surface-level engagement didn't make the cut. The ones included here show a clear link between strategy, execution, and measurable results across paid and organic channels.

Finally, we split the list into two groups.

• The first group treats social media as the actual core offering.
• The second group is genuinely full-service, spanning search, web, CRM, or broader brand work, but each agency in it still has real, verifiable social media results worth knowing about.

Neither group is ranked above the other; they suit different needs.

Social-First Agencies

These are the agencies that treat social as the main channel. If your brand needs to show up natively on TikTok and Instagram, build real creator relationships, or scale content that actually performs, this is the category worth starting with.

1. inBeat Agency

inBeat Agency is a NYC social media agency built around creator-led performance campaigns. It treats UGC creators and influencer collaboration as acquisition channels, unlike other agencies that only view these as brand awareness plays.

This agency is a good fit for DTC, eCommerce, and mobile app brands that need content produced, tested, and scaled quickly against customer acquisition costs.

The NYC Votes work is a clean example. This is where 10 local TikTok creators produced platform-native videos that pulled over 2.5 million video views and a 70% average view-through rate.

Best for: inBeat Agency's clearest strength is turning creator content into paid social assets that can be tested against acquisition goals quickly.

Key services:

• Influencer and UGC campaigns
• Paid social advertising
• Creator sourcing and management
• Performance tracking and optimization

2. We Are Social

We Are Social runs its US operation out of a Tribeca office in the AT&T Building, part of a global network of 19 offices founded in London in 2008. It's genuinely social-first: the agency describes its own approach as "social thinking" put at the center of every campaign.

The agency's real client roster backs that up, real, current work for adidas, Netflix, Google, HSBC, Audi, Bose, YouTube, McDonald's, and Universal, spanning design, editorial and content, and creative campaign development.

Best for: Brands that want a globally-networked, genuinely social-first agency capable of culturally-tuned creative at real scale.

Key services:

• Social strategy and creative campaigns
• Editorial and content production
• Community and platform management
• Cross-market creative concept development

3. Likeable Media

Likeable Media has operated out of New York since 2006 and describes itself as one of the first-ever pure-play social media agencies, a positioning it's held onto since well before the like button existed. It's female-led and employee-owned, with headquarters at 240 W 37th Street.

The agency's model treats social as more than a posting channel: research, audits, and bespoke strategy work feed into content built for screens of every size, backed by full-service community management to keep brands part of the conversation on and off owned channels.

Best for: Brands that want social handled end-to-end by a team with nearly two decades of pure social-media focus.

Key services:

• Social strategy and audits
• Content production for every platform and format
• Community management
• Paid, organic, and influencer distribution

4. Socialfly NY

The real value from working with Socialfly is campaign cohesion, where creator casting, story direction, and paid rollout all support the same message. This way, campaigns don't feel fragmented across channels.

It focuses on shaping narratives that translate into real social interaction by using creators and content that align with current behaviors. That inspires more trust and gets better results compared to forcing brand messaging on your prospects.

The Max Halloween campaign shows how that plays out in practice. That campaign generated 35 million impressions with a 7% engagement rate on TikTok and 3% on Instagram through well-matched influencer content.

Best for: Socialfly fits best when the goal is to build cohesive campaigns that grow social communities while maintaining strong creative consistency across platforms.

Key services:

• Social media strategy
• Influencer partnerships
• Paid media campaigns
• Creative production

5. The Social Shepherd

The Social Shepherd is a social-first agency that does organic content, paid media, and creator-led execution. Its teams develop social communities with platform-specific content, and they support that organic growth with structured paid campaigns.

What makes it different is how they put creative output in the service of performance. They make content an integral part of your media spend, which is great for accountability, and it maintains consistency as campaigns scale across platforms.

Best for: This agency fits best when you want to grow online communities while still keeping acquisition and conversion in focus, so you get both engagement and measurable outcomes.

Key services:

• Social strategy
• Paid social campaigns
• Social-first creative production
• Influencer and creator campaigns

6. Artisan Council

Companies consider the Artisan Council when their brand needs to feel part of the culture. The agency works best for lifestyle, beauty, and fashion brands that rely on community buy-in and creator alignment.

You can expect community-first campaigns built around creators, where content feels native to online communities and reflects current social behaviors. Basically, it leans into formats that audiences already engage with.

For NYX Professional Makeup, this approach drove 200 million views, 5 million engagements, and a 25% growth rate over six months through creator-led content.

Best for: Its clearest strength is creator work that feels native to beauty and lifestyle culture instead of reading like a standard paid campaign.

Key services:

• Influencer and creator campaigns
• Content production
• Paid social campaigns
• Community-focused strategy

7. NinjaPromo

NinjaPromo focuses on social growth for tech, SaaS, and Web3 brands, with a model built around ongoing content, paid media, and community activity.

The main difference between NinjaPromo and other agencies is its subscription model. It gives tech brands a steady stream of content, ads, and community work without restarting scope each time.

For CEEK VR, this approach helped drive over 300,000 new followers and significantly increase engagement through targeted social execution.

Best for: Tech, SaaS, and Web3 brands that need a steady, subscription-based flow of content, paid media, and community management without rebuilding scope each time.

Key services:

• Social media management
• Paid social campaigns
• Content production
• Community management

8. Ruckus

The Axonius campaign featuring Simone Biles and Amy Bream is a sharp example of what Ruckus can pull off at scale. Ruckus Marketing achieved 72 million impressions, a 690% lift in website traffic, and over 201,000 clicks captured.

What makes it unique is how it balances big creative swings with proper analytics and reporting discipline.

Ruckus has a location in NYC and works across digital ads, social, and broader channels like TV and outdoor. It's a good fit for brands that need a digital campaign designed to actually get noticed.

Best for: Ruckus's precise attribution is amazing for agencies that lean heavily into concept-driven work.

Key services:

• Campaign concept development
• Social and paid media creative
• Brand positioning
• Performance analytics

9. The Charles NYC

The Charles NYC operates out of New York, Chicago, and London with a focus on brand narrative and visual storytelling that fits companies with premium positioning.

The Turnberry's One Park Tower work is a clean example. The Charles NYC positioned the property as Miami's luxury waterfront icon through immersive storytelling and a video-first approach that drove real engagement with the right buyers.

Its unique edge is how seamlessly it ties visual identity into every touchpoint of a brand campaign.

Best for: This agency is a good fit for luxury, lifestyle, and hospitality brands that need creative solutions with real depth.

Key services:

• Brand and creative direction
• Social-first content production
• Visual storytelling campaigns
• Digital experience design

Full-Service Agencies with Documented Social Media Experience

These agencies aren't social-first, social media is one channel inside a broader performance, brand, or technical practice. But each one has real, verified social media work behind it, and for a brand that wants social handled by the same team managing search, web, or paid media more broadly, that's a legitimate, honest fit, well beyond a consolation prize.

10. Socium Media

Socium Media runs over $100 million in annual ad spend out of NYC, which buys it the kind of platform relationships smaller shops can't match. What really differentiates it is the reporting, which is built around the metrics each client actually cares about.

The Industrious campaign shows what that looks like in practice, with a 159% jump in form submissions and brand CPC cut by 32% in just 30 days.

Best for: Mid-market brands that need serious paid social performance with custom reporting built around the metrics that actually matter to their business.

Key services:

• Paid social and search campaigns
• Performance creative
• Conversion-focused optimization
• Reporting and analytics

11. Metric Theory

Metric Theory is best for brands with serious ad budgets that need multiple paid channels working in sync. It runs out of NYC across paid search, paid social, programmatic, shopping ads, and Amazon.

Their Wild One campaign shows exactly what that looks like for clients. The agency pulled a 170% revenue increase and a 20% lift in return on ad spend through Facebook, Pinterest, and search working together.

Best for: Brands with large ad budgets that need multiple paid channels working in sync without a drop in execution quality.

Key services:

• Paid search and social
• Programmatic display
• Amazon advertising
• Analytics and reporting

12. Hunter Digital Marketing

The Ibkul campaign is a sharp example of how Hunter Digital Marketing operates. The agency achieved a 12X ROAS and close to $2M in added sales through refined targeting on Google and Meta.

What makes it different from most performance agencies is the sustained focus on DTC and eCommerce specifically. Hunter Digital Marketing has been running out of NYC since 2010 with over 500 clients and $25M+ in managed budgets.

Best for: DTC and eCommerce brands that need paid media campaigns built around real returns.

Key services:

• Paid social and search campaigns
• E-commerce marketing strategy
• Conversion rate optimization
• Performance analytics

13. Power Digital Marketing

What sets Power Digital Marketing apart is running campaigns on its own proprietary tech stack, something most performance agencies don't offer.

Its feminine fashion brand restructure is a solid example. It achieved a 21% year-over-year revenue lift and 85% gain in marketing efficiency after reshaping Meta, TikTok, affiliate, SEO, and Google working together.

Best for: Brands that want more than agency intuition behind their media decisions, particularly those ready to leverage proprietary technology for a measurable edge.

Key services:

• Paid media campaigns
• Data analysis and audience targeting
• Cross-channel growth strategy
• Performance tracking and reporting

14. NoGood

NoGood runs a data-first operation out of NYC that spans performance branding, SEO, paid media, and CRO, with rapid testing built into every campaign.

Their numbers back that up with an 84% client retention rate. Their work for Merlin Investor is a clean example, with a 300% jump in new user signups and a 515% lift in site traffic.

Best for: Fast-moving companies that need a partner willing to run experiments, learn quickly, and double down on what works.

Key services:

• Paid acquisition campaigns
• Conversion rate optimization
• Growth experimentation
• Performance analytics

15. Converge

This agency's two-decade track record speaks for itself: over $5 billion in media budgets steered, $2 billion driven in client sales, and more than 1 million leads captured, figures independently corroborated by its own acquisition announcement and recent press coverage.

Converge Marketing runs in NYC with integrated media planning, lead generation, and creative production, tied directly to revenue outcomes, though it does track engagement metrics too for complete attribution. Paid social is one channel in that mix, alongside print, display, search, email, and CTV.

Best for: This agency is a good fit for brands that need paid media, including paid social, to produce actual business results as part of a broader lead-generation program.

Key services:

• Paid media campaigns, including paid social
• Lead generation strategy
• Creative production
• Performance analytics

16. AMP Agency

What sets AMP Agency apart is how it coordinates creative across many channels at once. It runs a 300+ person team across New York, LA, Seattle, Boston, Austin, and the Dominican Republic since 1995.

The agency brings national scale with a local feel and can adapt to each market without losing creative edge. Its work spans product experience, digital strategy, social, PR, media, and experiential campaigns.

Best for: AMP Agency is a good fit for larger brands that need many channels, social included, working in sync.

Key services:

• Omnichannel campaign execution
• Social media strategy and content
• Consumer insights and analytics
• Digital experience development

17. Lounge Lizard

Lounge Lizard runs a NYC shop built around design-first thinking, with branding, UI/UX, and web foundations feeding directly into every social media platform it touches.

Their LOOP-LOC work is a solid example. It drove a 73.2% jump in Facebook engagement, a 90.1% increase in Instagram followers, and a 47% lift in online conversions.

Best for: This agency is a good fit for brands that need a full visual overhaul with social media management included, beyond content layered on top of an existing identity.

Key services:

• Branding and visual identity
• Social media management
• UI/UX and web design
• Conversion-focused digital strategy

18. R/GA

R/GA runs a 2,000-person global operation, headquartered in New York since its founding in 1977, that blends creative storytelling with technology. This team treats social as one layer inside a broader system that includes brand design, digital products, CRM, and AI-driven work, with real current clients including Google, Samsung, Nike, Moncler, TurboTax, and Eli Lilly.

Its Nike For Every Body work is a clean, verifiably social-media-specific example: a Snapchat AR experience recognized in the Social Media category at the Clio Awards, where real community members replaced traditional mannequins in-store. The campaign drove 10x the average Snap lens engagement time, a 43% increase in Gen Z women membership signups, and a 20% increase in Nike Members transactions.

Best for: This agency is a good fit for enterprise brands with real business goals that need social baked into a larger digital architecture.

Key services:

• Social and brand experience design
• Digital product and platform development
• Data-driven campaign strategy
• Customer experience and CRM integration

19. Acronym

Acronym's unique edge is its in-house KO™ platform, which merges media, content, and data validation into one system. It operates out of NYC's Empire State Building with offices in Toronto, Berlin, and Singapore, running campaigns across 70+ countries.

Its GAF case study is a genuinely paid-social-specific example: tasked with driving both contractor sign-ups and homeowner education for the roofing manufacturer, Acronym built lookalike and remarketing audiences specifically for paid social, producing a 46% increase in efficient site visits year-over-year for one audience segment and a 10% rise for the other.

Best for: Acronym works well for enterprise brands managing paid performance, including paid social, across multiple regions at once.

Key services:

• Paid search and social campaigns
• Data and performance analytics
• Global SEO and content strategy
• Cross-channel media optimization

20. Major Tom

Major Tom runs a tight digital operation across New York, Toronto, Vancouver, and San Francisco, handling strategy, creative, development, and marketing under one roof.

Its work for OUAI is a clean example, with a paid campaign driving a 63% lift in customer acquisition and a 73% revenue increase.

Best for: Its clearest strength is keeping strategy, build, and paid execution, social included, under one operating team, which cuts handoff friction across larger digital programs.

Key services:

• Digital strategy and planning
• Paid media campaigns
• Web and experience development
• eCommerce growth strategy

21. Aumcore

Aumcore operates in NYC with 16 years of experience running 246+ initiatives across six continents for both B2B and B2C brands, and unlike some names in this section, it runs a genuinely dedicated social media marketing practice, well beyond a passing mention: strategy, content creation, paid social advertising, community management, and influencer marketing are all named services in their own right.

Its Nature's Organic Ice Cream work shows that practice in action alongside a broader digital rebuild: a managed social content calendar contributed to a twofold increase in the brand's online community, part of a campaign that also delivered 227.95% growth in overall traffic, 248.50% growth in organic traffic, and a 20%+ revenue boost.

Best for: This agency is a good fit for brands running multi-market campaigns that need social media managed alongside creative and technical execution moving in sync.

Key services:

• Social media strategy and management
• Digital campaign execution
• UX and experience design
• Paid and organic search strategy

22. Flightpath

Flightpath runs a NYC shop focused on strategic marketing across website design, social media, content, SEM, CRM, email campaigns, and video production.

Its work for Merck is a clean example, with an integrated UX, social, and paid media approach driving a 115% surge in site visits.

Best for: This agency is an equally good fit for B2B and consumer brands that need channels, social included, working as one pipeline.

Key services:

• B2B digital strategy
• CRM and email integration
• Paid and organic media coordination
• Performance analytics

23. Crafted

What sets Crafted apart is its rapid video-testing framework, which lifts client conversions by 2-5x through constant iteration and feedback at scale, especially useful for brands fighting creative fatigue on Meta Ads.

It operates out of NYC with brand strategy at the center of every project, covering branding, content, UX/UI, web builds, and eCommerce setups.

Best for: This agency is a good fit for brands that need conversion gains tied directly to creative decisions, including paid social, beyond polished brand work alone.

Key services:

• Brand and experience design
• Video content testing and optimization
• Paid social campaigns
• Conversion-focused strategy

24. Fishbat Media

The Clarity Benefit Solutions project is a clean example of how Fishbat operates. With a 308% surge in clicks in a single month, it fed qualified traffic straight into the lead pipeline.

Fishbat runs in NYC with digital marketing services that span strategy, advertising, SEO, and content for B2B and B2C brands, tying it all into one lead flow.

Best for: This agency is a good fit for brands where lead generation is the main goal and every channel, including paid social, needs to feed the pipeline consistently.

Key services:

• Lead generation strategy
• Content and SEO integration
• Paid media campaigns
• Performance tracking

25. Maxburst

MAXBURST builds functional digital experiences out of NYC, with custom web design, e-commerce development, SEO, PPC, social, and media buying all handled in-house.

The agency tightly connects website performance to social, making sure traffic from your online communities actually lands in a funnel that converts.

Best for: This agency is a good fit for brands where the website is the main conversion point and social needs to feed directly into it.

Key services:

• Web and UX development
• Social media management
• Paid media campaigns
• Conversion optimization

Social-First vs. Full-Service: Which Fits Your Brand?

A social-first agency specializes in channels such as TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube, while a full-service agency can connect social media with paid search, programmatic advertising, influencer marketing, SEO, PR, and broader brand strategy.

The right choice depends less on agency size and more on what you need the agency to own.

• A social-first agency is the stronger fit when social media is the main product. These agencies tend to move quickly, understand platform culture, and produce content that feels native to each channel. They can be particularly valuable for brands competing through personality, community, trends, and a steady flow of creator-led content.
• A full-service agency makes more sense when social media is one part of a larger growth system. It can coordinate creative development, paid distribution, landing pages, audience strategy, and measurement around the same business objective. This reduces the risk of social content being managed separately from the campaigns expected to generate leads or sales.

Some brands need a hybrid model: a social-first agency for organic content and community management, supported by an internal team or another partner for media and analytics.

Whichever model you choose, clarify ownership before signing.

Ask who controls strategy, production, approvals, media buying, reporting, and cross-channel coordination. The agency’s operating model should match the work you actually need completed.

How to Pick the Right Social Media Agency in NYC

New York offers endless options, but not all of them will fit your goals. So let's explore how to separate the right agency from the rest.

Check Their NYC Legal and Compliance Expertise

Always check if your agency keeps up with NYC local and federal laws around data use, influencer marketing, and sponsored content.

Ask if they review their contracts with legal professionals and how they approach compliance in areas like privacy or sweepstakes. Violations of the FTC guidelines can result in civil penalties of up to $50,120 per infraction.

Look for Strong Local Market Awareness

Look for an agency with a real handle on New York's neighborhoods, cultural micro-trends, and ever-shifting audience moods. Ask how they track trends across boroughs or how they adapt creative for local versus tourist engagement. That's essential because every third consumer discovers new products and brands through social media.

Ask for Clear Performance Metrics

It's easy to talk big, but numbers matter. Any agency you consider should give you a clear plan for how they'll track success: impressions, engagement, conversions, and even sentiment.

We recommend asking for sample reports or dashboards. Request case studies with before-and-after results, and find out how frequently they review metrics with you.

Prioritize Clear Processes and Communication

The best agencies move quickly but always keep you in the loop. Ask how they manage communication and what your main point of contact will be, and how they handle approvals, unexpected feedback, or last-minute changes.

Remember that 58% of agencies send client reports on a monthly cadence, a rhythm that builds trust, so look for a team that matches or exceeds that standard.

Scale Your Social Media Strategy With inBeat

You've seen how different agencies approach social, from creator-led campaigns and paid performance to brand storytelling and full-service teams with real documented social results.

The right choice depends on how social fits into your growth strategy. If content and creators drive your results, a social-first agency makes sense. But if you want social handled by the same team managing your search, web, or broader marketing, a full-service agency with real social proof is a legitimate option too.

Before making a decision, focus on how each agency operates, not just what it lists online as services. Once that's clear, narrowing down the right partner becomes much more straightforward.

P.S. If you want content that looks good and performs even better, don't miss our list of top performance creative agencies in New York. It's built for brands that care about both numbers and visuals.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does social media marketing cost in New York?

In New York, social media marketing costs can vary widely based on the agency's expertise and the scope of services. On average, agencies charge between $70 and $190 per hour for comprehensive campaigns, including strategy, content creation, and analytics. Monthly packages typically range from $2,500 to $9,000, depending on your needs and goals.

What's the difference between a social-first agency and a full-service agency with social experience?

A social-first agency (like Socialfly, We Are Social, or Likeable Media in this guide) treats social media as its actual core product, with the deepest platform-specific and creator expertise. A full-service agency with social experience (like Acronym, R/GA, or Aumcore) runs social as one real, documented capability inside a broader search, web, CRM, or brand practice. Neither is inherently better; the right choice depends on whether you want a specialist or one team managing everything.

Are the "big 5" agencies social media agencies?

No, not directly. WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, Interpublic Group, and Dentsu are advertising holding companies, not social media specialists themselves. They own dozens of individual agencies (including some with genuine social media practices) across creative, media buying, PR, and data, but none of the five holding companies operates as a social-first shop the way the agencies in this guide do.

What is the 5-5-5 rule for social media?

It's a content-mix guideline suggesting you spend time on five posts engaging with others' content, five posts sharing your own content, and five posts curating or resharing relevant content from other sources, meant to keep a social presence from feeling purely promotional. It's a useful starting heuristic for a brand with no content strategy at all, but most professional agencies build a more tailored content ratio based on your specific audience and goals instead of following it literally.

What is the 50-30-20 rule in social media marketing?

The 50-30-20 rule is a content balance framework: 50% educational or value-driven content, 30% curated or community-focused content, and 20% promotional content. This mix helps you stay engaged and useful without overwhelming audiences with sales messages.

What should you look for in a social media agency in New York?

You should look for agencies that match how you plan to use social. Some focus on creator-led content and platform-native formats, while others specialize in paid social and performance tracking. It also helps to verify that the agency has experience with brands similar to yours and can show measurable results tied to engagement, acquisition, or revenue.