How to Choose a Branding Agency: 801 Case Studies

Most guides to choosing a branding agency tell you to look at its portfolio, its creative process and its client list. That is good advice, because for branding the portfolio is most of the evidence there is. Most branding case studies describe what was made, not what it changed.

This guide shows what to check, and what to agree before you start. Each step below comes from 801 branding case studies published by 115 agencies and indexed in OpenServed's directory. We counted what agencies deliver, what they measure and what they leave out, so every piece of advice here comes with evidence.

Data as of November 2026. The full numbers are in Branding Statistics 2026.

The short answer

1. Decide exactly what you're buying. 39% of branding case studies mention a website and 25% an identity or logo. Only 3% mention brand guidelines.
2. Judge identity work on the work itself. 80% of case studies that mention logo or identity work contain no number at all.
3. Agree how you'll measure the brand before you start. Only 3.9% of branding case studies measure awareness or sentiment, and 3% give a before and an after number.
4. Know what a measured result looks like. Where branding case studies state a gain, the median is 91% for website traffic and 64% for revenue, but 44% contain no number.
5. If you need results you can measure, pair branding with marketing. 89% of branding case studies sold with PPC include a number, against 32% of branding sold alone.
6. If a new website is part of it, protect your search traffic. 48% of branding case studies also list web design, and only 12% of those list SEO.
7. Check that branding is a core service. 78 of the 115 agencies have five or fewer branding case studies.
8. Ask whether the client confirmed it. Only 6.1% of branding case studies are Client-verified.

1. Decide exactly what you're buying

"Branding" covers very different projects. A website is the deliverable branding case studies mention most, in 39% of them. A visual identity or logo appears in 25%, video or photography in 9%, print, signage or merchandise in 8% and messaging or positioning in 8%.

The strategic parts are mentioned least. Naming appears in 3% of case studies, brand guidelines in 3% and packaging in 1%. Guidelines are what keep a brand consistent after the agency leaves.

Many results are just a list. 14% of branding case studies have a result that starts with "Delivered", such as "Delivered brand identity".

What to do: ask for a written list of deliverables before you sign: research, positioning, messaging, naming, identity, guidelines, templates and launch assets. Two agencies quoting for "a rebrand" may be quoting for very different amounts of work.

2. Judge identity work on the work itself

Identity projects almost never report a result. 200 branding case studies (25%) mention logo or visual identity work. 80% of them contain no number, and only 6% report revenue, leads or conversions.

That is normal for identity work. A new logo's effect is hard to separate from everything else a business does at the same time, and agencies mostly don't try. For identity work, the design is the evidence.

What to do: judge identity work on the portfolio. Ask to see work for clients like you, from first concepts to the finished system, and ask the agency to explain the reasoning behind each choice. Ask to see the brand in use a year later, not only the launch mock-ups.

3. Agree how you'll measure the brand before you start

Most branding case studies contain no number at all. 44% of the 801 report no figure of any kind, only descriptions of the work.

Brand awareness is almost never measured. Only 31 case studies (3.9%) report awareness, recall, consideration or sentiment, though that is usually what a brand is bought for. Branded search or direct traffic appears in 6 case studies (0.7%).

Baselines are rare. Only 3% give a before and an after number, 9% mention any time period, and only 5 of the 801 say how long the project took. No case study states a budget.

What to do: agree on a measure and take a baseline before the work starts. A brand awareness survey, branded search volume, direct traffic, enquiries or sales can all show change after launch, but only if you know where you started. Agree when you will measure again.

4. Know what a measured result looks like

The figures below come from the minority that measured. Treat them as what a measured branding project reports, not what branding typically achieves.

The median reported increase in website traffic is 91%. 81 case studies state one, with the middle half between 31% and 250%. For social media growth it is 75% (43 case studies), for revenue or sales 64% (45) and for conversions or leads 163% (36).

Awareness gains are too few to measure. 12 case studies state a percentage change in awareness, sentiment or consideration, with a median of 22%.

What to do: if an agency quotes results, ask what was measured, how and when. A traffic jump after a relaunch and a lasting change in how people see you are different results.

5. If you need results you can measure, pair branding with marketing

Branding is measured when marketing carries it. 89% of branding case studies sold with PPC include a number, 81% with social media ads and 77% with SEO. With content marketing it is 63%, with web design 45%, and for branding sold alone 32%.

Business results follow the same pattern. 51% of branding case studies sold with PPC report revenue, leads or conversions, against 11% of branding sold alone.

A brand needs a launch. A new identity on its own reaches no one. The ads, social posts, content and search that put it in front of people are where change can be seen and measured.

What to do: ask how the new brand will be launched, who runs the marketing that carries it, and how the two agencies, if there are two, will work together.

6. If a new website is part of it, protect your search traffic

Half of branding projects include a website. 387 of the 801 branding case studies (48%) also list web design.

Brand-and-website projects are measured less often. 55% of them contain no number, against 34% of branding without web design. When they do report traffic, the median gain is 108% (53 case studies).

SEO is rarely part of it. Only 12% of branding case studies with web design also list SEO. A relaunch with new URLs, new page names and new copy is when a site is most likely to lose search traffic.

What to do: if the rebrand includes a new website, ask who is responsible for search: redirects, page titles and tracking traffic before and after launch. If the branding agency doesn't do SEO, involve whoever does before the site launches.

7. Check that branding is a core service

Many agencies list branding and have only a few case studies for it. 115 of the 330 agencies in our directory have published a branding case study. 68 of them have four or fewer, 78 have five or fewer, and 8 have 20 or more.

Branding is the main service for a few. Of the 88 agencies that have ten or more case studies in total and list branding, 11 have it in at least half of them.

The largest publishers mostly don't measure. The Branx, Elevation Marketing and ClearBrand account for 21% of the branding case studies. 59 of The Branx's 68 contain no number, as do 40 of Elevation Marketing's 65 and 31 of ClearBrand's 38.

What to do: count how many branding case studies an agency has, and how many are for companies like yours. Ask who does the strategy and who does the design, whether they are in-house, and to see brands launched in the last year.

8. Ask whether the client confirmed it

Only 6.1% of branding case studies are Client-verified. That is 49 of 801, from 29 agencies. On OpenServed, Client-verified means the client has confirmed the results. Everything else is as reported by the agency.

Verified case studies are more likely to include a number. 35% of verified branding case studies contain no number, against 45% of agency-reported ones. No metric has enough verified data points to compare results.

What to do: ask whether you can speak with the client behind a case study, and how the brand has held up since launch. A reference call is a reasonable thing to ask for before you sign.

Questions to ask a branding agency

Each question below comes from one of the eight steps. A good answer is specific; a warning sign is a description with nothing behind it.

1. What exactly will you deliver? A good answer is a written list: identity, guidelines, messaging, website and assets. A warning sign is "a new brand" with no list of deliverables.
2. Can we see the work, before and after? A good answer is real identity and launch work for clients like you, with the reasoning. A warning sign is mock-ups only, or work you can't trace to a client.
3. How will we measure the brand, and from what baseline? A good answer is an agreed measure, such as awareness, branded search or sales, taken before launch. A warning sign is no measure, or one picked after launch.
4. What results have past projects shown? A good answer gives numbers for clients who measured, and what they measured. A warning sign is deliverables listed as results.
5. Who runs the marketing that carries the brand? A good answer is a plan for the ads, social or SEO that put the brand in front of people. A warning sign is a brand handed over with no plan to launch it.
6. What happens to our website and search traffic? A good answer is SEO checked before relaunch, with redirects and traffic tracked. A warning sign is a new site with no one responsible for search.
7. How much of your work is branding? A good answer is many branding case studies, for companies like yours. A warning sign is a handful of brand projects among other services.
8. Can we speak with the client, or is the result verified? A good answer is a reference call or a client-verified case study. A warning sign is no named client and no reference.

Red flags when hiring a branding agency

• No list of deliverables. Branding can mean a logo or a full system. Get it in writing.
• Deliverables presented as results. 14% of branding case studies list "Delivered…" as a result.
• A promised lift in awareness with no baseline. Only 3.9% of case studies measure awareness, and 3% give a before and an after number.
• No plan to launch the brand. Branding sold alone includes a number only 32% of the time.
• A new website with no one responsible for search. Only 12% of brand-and-website case studies also list SEO.
• Branding as a side service. 78 of the 115 agencies have five or fewer branding case studies.
• No reference. Only 6.1% of branding case studies are Client-verified.

One more thing to settle before you sign: get the fee, the deliverables, the number of design rounds and who owns the final files and trademarks in writing. Our data has no pricing or project lengths, so we can't tell you what is fair, but you should know exactly what you are paying for.

Related guides

• How to choose a digital marketing agency, the general guide across every service.
• How to choose a social media ads agency, if paid social will carry the new brand.
• How to choose a content marketing agency, if content will carry it.

Find a branding agency

OpenServed's branding agency directory lists agencies by the case studies they have published, so you can check each of the steps above before you make contact. You can narrow it to your industry, such as SaaS, nonprofit or manufacturing, or to your size, such as small business or enterprise. Look for the Client-verified badge on results the client has confirmed.

About the data

The figures in this guide come from the 801 case studies in OpenServed's directory that list Branding as a service, published by 115 agencies, as of November 2026. Results are as reported by each agency; only 49 have been confirmed by the client. Agencies publish their best work, so these numbers describe successful projects, not average ones. Deliverables are counted when a case study's results mention them. Medians use stats that state a percentage change, one per case study, and stats that name ads or email are left out. A business result means revenue, leads, conversions or conversion rate.