New York is the largest and most contested advertising market in the United States, and the agency landscape reflects that. It is the headquarters of the global holding-company system, which sets two things a buyer feels directly: the depth of available media talent, and the price of it. The practical result is that New York agencies skew toward specialisation rather than generalism, and the question you are really answering is not who can buy media but which specialism matches your P&L.
This guide is an independent shortlist of the media buying agencies worth considering in New York in 2026: what each one is actually built for, what media buying costs in this market, and how to choose without overpaying. We publish benchmark data on what advertising costs around the world, so our interest is in helping you compare like-for-like, not in steering you toward any one firm.
Disclosure. Criterion Global is a partner of International Media Buying and appears first in this list. The rest of this guide is editorially independent: every other agency is included on the strength of its New York media-buying credentials, our selection criteria are stated openly below, and no agency paid for placement or ranking. See our methodology for how we work.
Why New York is a distinct media market
Most “best agency” lists treat every city as interchangeable. New York is not. Three things make it its own market, and they shape which agency is right for you.
The talent is deep and the talent is expensive. Because the holding companies are headquartered here, the pool of senior buyers, planners and negotiators is larger than anywhere else in the country. That depth is real and useful. It also means retainers reflect Manhattan cost structure, so you are paying for seniority whether or not your account needs it.
The roster is specialised, not generalist. The verified shortlist below clusters in Manhattan, on Wall Street, Broad Street, Fifth Avenue, Broadway, in the Flatiron district and on East 24th Street, with Long Island City as the outer-borough anchor. It splits cleanly by discipline: cross-border and international buying, luxury and brand-led media, performance and e-commerce acquisition, local broadcast and out-of-home negotiation, app and mobile user acquisition, and attribution-led measurement. Almost nobody here is trying to be all of those at once.
The client verticals mirror the city’s economy. Finance and banking, luxury and beauty, retail and direct-to-consumer, hospitality and real estate, legal and healthcare recur across these agencies’ published work. If your category is on that list, you can find a New York agency that has already solved your specific version of the problem. If it is not, the local premium is harder to justify.
What media buying actually costs in New York
The single most useful thing an independent publisher can add to an agency roundup, and the thing agency-written lists almost never include honestly, is what the media itself costs. An agency’s fee is only part of your budget. The auction is the rest.
There are two cost layers to understand:
- The agency’s fee: how they charge you, whether that is a retainer, a percentage of spend, or a performance-linked model. New York minimums sit above the national average, and at least one shortlisted agency publicly states an average retainer above $20,000 per month, which is a useful anchor for what senior Manhattan teams expect.
- The media cost: the CPMs and CPCs you actually pay in the auction. New York advertisers largely compete in the U.S. ad auctions, so U.S. market benchmarks are the right reference point, with a premium layered on for New York DMA targeting in broadcast and out-of-home, where price is negotiated rather than auctioned.
Market-level cost benchmarks land here
This section is where our sourced, market-level cost figures embed: a composite view of what search and paid-social cost in this market, drawn from the same dataset behind our benchmarks. We publish these at market level deliberately. It’s the more useful view for planning a budget, and it’s the number an independent source should stand behind. Every figure is dated and sourced per our methodology.
The practical takeaway: before you sign with any agency, know roughly what your channels cost in-market, so you can tell whether a proposed budget is realistic and whether an agency’s fee is a sensible fraction of your total spend. In New York this matters more than elsewhere, because the fee itself is higher and the temptation to accept it as the cost of doing business is stronger.
How to choose a media buying agency
Once you have a budget in mind, the choice comes down to fit. The best agency for a $15k per month e-commerce acquisition account is rarely the best one for a national luxury launch or a New York DMA broadcast schedule.
What is the single outcome this budget has to produce in the next 90 days, and can this agency show you they have done that specific thing before?
Work through four things, in order:
1. Channel and specialism fit. Match the agency’s core strength to your actual need: paid search and paid social for direct response, brand and creative-led media for launch and category building, negotiated broadcast and out-of-home for local reach, cross-border capability if you are expanding into new countries. In a market this specialised, a generalist that “does everything” is usually a signal to keep looking.
2. How they charge. A flat retainer, a percentage of spend, and a performance model each create different incentives. Percentage-of-spend can quietly reward the agency for spending more, not spending well. A flat fee does not, but it also does not flex when your budget does. None is wrong, but you should understand the incentive you are buying.
3. Transparency and ownership. Insist on owning your ad accounts, your data and your creative. Ask exactly what reporting you will get and how often. Several New York agencies run proprietary platforms for attribution and optimisation, which can be genuinely valuable, so ask the follow-up question: what happens to your data and your measurement if you leave.
4. The team, not the pitch. The people in the sales meeting are rarely the people running your account day to day. In a market where senior talent is the product you are paying a premium for, ask specifically who does the buying, how many accounts they carry, and who your point of contact is.
Before you sign anything
- Which of my channels do you consider your core strength, and can you show results in it?
- How do you charge, and what does the total cost look like at my spend level?
- Do I own my ad accounts, data and creative outright?
- If you use a proprietary platform, what do I keep if the relationship ends?
- Who runs my account day to day, and how many other accounts do they handle?
- What does reporting look like, how often, and which metrics do you hold yourselves to?
The agencies
Our selection criteria are simple and stated up front: each agency has a genuine media-buying focus (not just SEO, PR or web development), a verifiable New York presence stated on its own site, and a public track record you can check. This is a curated shortlist rather than an exhaustive directory. We excluded directory sites, competitor listicles, holding-company network units, and several credible-looking firms whose New York office we could not verify from their own published material. Firms are grouped by fit, not by fee, and inclusion is never paid.
1. Criterion Global
Criterion Global describes itself as an international media buying agency and in-house paid media partner, positioning its work as capital-efficient media buying that supports new customer acquisition and global expansion. Its stated service lines span TV media buying and video, retail media networks, out-of-home, radio, performance marketing, white-label buying for other agencies, and primary research consulting. The New York office is listed at 121 E 24th St, 12th Floor, and the agency calls New York “the center of the media universe” and a fitting home for an international media buying agency, alongside offices in Miami (LATAM HQ), Singapore (APAC HQ), Tokyo, Zurich and London, with the site published in seven languages. Best fit: mid-market, enterprise and PE-backed advertisers running paid media across multiple countries from a New York base.
2. The Charles Group
The Charles Group is a full-service creative and digital agency headquartered at 200 Broadway in Lower Manhattan, with additional offices in Chicago and London. Founded in 2011 by Aaron Edwards (CEO) and Samantha Edwards (CCO), it works across five practice areas: strategy, campaigns and content, branding and design, technology, and media, with media buying, programmatic and performance creative delivered in-house. Its published client roster includes Cartier, Omega, IWC, Aveda, St. Regis Hotels, Marriott Bonvoy, HP, IBM, Seagate and Birkenstock, and it offers project, retainer and full agency-of-record engagements under what it calls a Flex Model. Best fit: luxury, beauty, hospitality and real-estate brands that want media planning bundled with brand-level creative.
3. WITHIN
WITHIN calls itself a performance branding company: a digital-first, integrated media and creative agency built around a framework that aligns brand and performance objectives rather than treating them as separate budgets. Its Paid and Owned Media practice operates as media agency of record across the full customer journey, alongside an in-house creative team producing performance creative. Published work and testimonials name The North Face, Timberland, Ben & Jerry’s, Ruggable, Foot Locker, Parachute, Rite Aid and Onewheel, and the company lists a New York City office in Long Island City, Queens. Best fit: retail and DTC brands that want a single media AOR handling paid, owned and performance creative together.
4. Direct Agents
Direct Agents is a performance marketing agency founded in 2003, headquartered at 149 Fifth Avenue, 16th Floor, with additional offices in Culver City, California and Austin, Texas. It organises its offering around e-commerce, subscription and B2B SaaS clients, focusing on efficient scale, customer acquisition cost and lifetime value rather than volume metrics. The agency runs a proprietary platform it calls Kanopy AI for optimisation, incrementality and attribution, plus specialist offerings in generative engine optimisation, full-service Reddit marketing, and a “Launchpad” media-management product aimed at growth-stage companies. Named client work includes Bazooka Candy Brands, Belkin, BritBox and Carhartt. Best fit: e-commerce, subscription and B2B SaaS advertisers who need acquisition economics defended channel by channel.
5. Stella Rising
Stella Rising is an independent New York agency specialising in beauty, health, food and lifestyle brands. Its stated approach unifies media strategy and activation, paid search, paid social, traditional media, video, SEO and answer-engine optimisation, content, influencer and affiliate, Amazon and retail marketplace strategy, and analytics under one roof, balancing long-term brand building against short-term performance. The agency reports client work with Stamford Health, Coldwell Banker, CCRM and Big Y, publishes case results including 129 percent e-commerce revenue growth, and in 2026 announced wins for both Digital Agency of the Year and Media Buying Agency of the Year at the U.S. Agency Awards. Best fit: beauty, wellness and CPG brands where retail media and marketplace strategy sit alongside the media buy.
6. 43 Oak
43 Oak is a media buying and planning agency at 99 Wall Street, Suite 1943, and describes its core role as representing the client in negotiations with the major media companies. Its channel list spans traditional and digital: television, radio, podcast, OTT and connected TV, billboards, social, sports and creative production, including TV commercial production and billboard advertising in New York City. The site cites more than 10 years of experience and over 100 campaigns, and names clients including Pond Lehocky, Garces Grabler LeBrocq, Malamut Law, Eat Clean Bro, Dello Russo, All American Auto Group, Dentistry for Life and MoneyLion. Best fit: regional advertisers in legal, auto and healthcare buying local broadcast, radio and out-of-home in the New York DMA.
7. Moburst
Moburst is a mobile-first, full-service digital marketing agency whose New York office is listed at 149 5th Avenue. Its service set includes media buying and influencer marketing, organic awareness and app store optimisation, creative and content, marketing strategy, and product and web development, so acquisition sits next to the product surface it drives traffic to. Published case studies cover Samsung’s Galaxy Store, the Discovery+ launch, Reddit’s organic app growth, Reflectly, Calm, Pango and PinkPark, several of them driven by media buying and creative optimisation. The agency cites recognition from Adweek as one of the fastest-growing agencies three years running, a Bloomberg TV feature, and a Mobile Marketing Association Smarties X Digital Agency of the Year award. Best fit: app-first and mobile products where user acquisition, ASO and paid media have to be bought as one system.
Compare any agency's numbers against the market.
Before you commit to a budget, check what your channels actually cost in-market. Our benchmark database is free to browse and free to cite.
8. CB/I Digital
CB/I Digital is a digital marketing and platform development firm at 85 Broad Street, 17th Floor, focused on growing traffic and revenue for DTC e-commerce brands and traditional enterprises. Its services span paid advertising, SEO and AI search, analytics and conversion-rate optimisation, e-commerce development, and cloud and mobile app development, which puts media buying next to the storefront and the tracking infrastructure rather than upstream of them. Named client work includes Fresh (LVMH), First Citizens Bank, Suntory, Rainbow, Hammitt, Chan Luu, Melinda Maria, Miz Mooz and Bokksu, with published results including 400 percent revenue growth over five years for Miz Mooz and a 290 percent Amazon revenue increase in three months for Uncle Todd’s. Best fit: DTC e-commerce brands that need paid acquisition and the underlying commerce platform handled by the same team.
9. Ai Media Group
Ai Media Group is a performance marketing and attribution agency in New York built around its proprietary Atrilyx platform for multi-touch attribution and real-time spend optimisation. Services include full-service media planning and buying, paid search, paid social, programmatic and creative, with real-time budget allocation, automated A/B testing and dynamic creative updates. The agency states that it guarantees revenue growth on the same dollar spend and works on a shared-incentive model, and its listed credentials include two-time Google Agency Cup winner, Google Premier Partner, Microsoft Advertising Elite Partner, Meta Business Partner and Minority Business Enterprise certification. Best fit: advertisers with messy attribution, meaning long sales cycles, call centres or offline conversion, who need measurement fixed before they scale.
How to measure media-buying ROI
A good agency will hold itself to outcomes, not activity. Agree the metrics before the first campaign runs.
Define the conversion that matters. A qualified lead, a booked call, a purchase, or a return-on-ad-spend target: pick the one that maps to revenue and make it the scoreboard. Impressions and reach are inputs, not results. In New York this discipline matters early, because the fee base is high enough that a vague success metric quietly becomes an expensive one.
Insist on real attribution. With third-party cookies gone and signal loss now the norm, credible measurement means server-side tracking, first-party data and, at larger budgets, incrementality testing that shows the ads caused the sales rather than merely accompanied them. Several agencies here sell proprietary attribution as a core differentiator, which is worth taking seriously and worth interrogating: ask what the model actually does, what it assumes, and whether you can audit its outputs.
Judge over the right horizon. Direct-response channels give early signal in weeks but a trustworthy read in two to three months, once campaigns exit the learning phase. Brand, broadcast and out-of-home buys take longer and need a different measurement approach entirely. Any agency promising instant ROI is selling, not measuring.
What’s changing in 2026
Three shifts are reshaping media buying in New York and everywhere else, and they are worth raising with any agency you shortlist.
Retail media and commerce networks are now a core line item rather than an experiment. Amazon, Walmart and a widening field of retailer networks capture budget that used to go to search and social, and several agencies on this list have built explicit marketplace and retail media practices around it. Ask how a prospective agency treats that budget line and who inside the team actually owns it.
Connected TV has matured into a measurable performance channel rather than a brand-only play, which changes the calculus for anyone buying the New York DMA. The distinction between the shops that negotiate linear inventory and the shops that buy CTV programmatically is narrowing, and the agencies handling both are the ones worth a longer conversation.
Signal loss and first-party data now define what good targeting means. The agencies pulling ahead are the ones helping clients build and activate their own data, and the ones investing in measurement infrastructure, rather than leaning on third-party audiences that are steadily disappearing. This is the clearest dividing line on the current New York roster.
How to shortlist from here
Use this list as a starting point, not a verdict. New York’s advantage is specialisation, so the highest-leverage move is to identify which of the disciplines above your budget actually needs, shortlist two or three agencies whose core strength sits squarely in it, and take them through the questions above. Go into those conversations knowing what your media should cost, so you can tell a realistic proposal from an optimistic one. That last part is what we are here for.
- Agency profiles compiled from each firm’s official website, August 2026: Criterion Global, The Charles Group, WITHIN, Direct Agents, Stella Rising, 43 Oak, Moburst, CB/I Digital, and Ai Media Group.
- Directory sites, competitor roundups, holding-company network units, and firms whose New York office could not be verified from their own published material were excluded from consideration.
- Media cost benchmarks and sourcing policy: International Media Buying Methodology.