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Choosing a Digital Marketing Agency for Startups in 2025

Learn how to find and work with the right digital marketing agency to support business growth as a startup in 2025.

Trusted By Industry Leaders
Trusted By Industry Leaders

Introduction

Our text compare tool is a fantastic, lightweight tool that provides plagiarism checks between two documents. Whether you are a student, blogger or publisher, this tool offers a great solution to detect and compare similarities between any two pieces of text. In this article, I will discuss the different ways to use the tool, the primary features of the tool and who this tool is for. There is an FAQ at the bottom if you run into any issues when trying to use the tool.

What makes Originality.ai’s text comparison tool stand out?

Keyword density helper – This tool comes with a built-in keyword density helper in some ways similar to the likes of SurferSEO or MarketMuse the difference being, ours is free! This feature shows the user the frequency of single or two word keywords in a document, meaning you can easily compare an article you have written against a competitor to see the major differences in keyword densities. This is especially useful for SEO’s who are looking to optimize their blog content for search engines and improve the blog’s visibility.

Ways to compare

File compare – Text comparison between files is a breeze with our tool. Simply select the files you would like to compare, hit “Upload” and our tool will automatically insert the content into the text area, then simply hit “Compare” and let our tool show you where the differences in the text are. By uploading a file, you can still check the keyword density in your content.

URL compare

Comparing text between URLs is effortless with our tool. Simply paste the URL you would like to get the content from (in our example we use a fantastic blog post by Sherice Jacob found here) hit “Submit URL” and our tool will automatically retrieve the contents of the page and paste it into the text area, then simply click “Compare” and let our tool highlight the difference between the URLs. This feature is especially useful for checking keyword density between pages!

Simple text compare

You can also easily compare text by copying and pasting it into each field, as demonstrated below.

Features of Originality.ai’s Text Compare Tool

Ease of use

Our text compare tool is created with the user in mind, it is designed to be accessible to everyone. Our tool allows users to upload files or enter a URL to extract text, this along with the lightweight design ensures a seamless experience. The interface is simple and straightforward, making it easy for users to compare text and detect the diff.

Multiple text file format support

Our tool provides support for a variety of different text files and microsoft word formats including pdf file, .docx, .odt, .doc, and .txt, giving users the ability to compare text from different sources with ease. This makes it a great solution for students, bloggers, and publishers who are looking for file comparison in different formats.

Protects intellectual property

Our text comparison tool helps you protect your intellectual property and helps prevent plagiarism. This tool provides an accurate comparison of texts, making it easy to ensure that your work is original and not copied from other sources. Our tool is a valuable resource for anyone looking to maintain the originality of their content.

User Data Privacy

Our text compare tool is secure and protects user data privacy. No data is ever saved to the tool, the users’ text is only scanned and pasted into the tool’s text area. This makes certain that users can use our tool with confidence, knowing their data is safe and secure.

Compatibility

Our text comparison tool is designed to work seamlessly across all size devices, ensuring maximum compatibility no matter your screen size. Whether you are using a large desktop monitor, a small laptop, a tablet or a smartphone, this tool adjusts to your screen size. This means that users can compare texts and detect the diff anywhere without the need for specialized hardware or software. This level of accessibility makes it an ideal solution for students or bloggers who value the originality of their work and need to compare text online anywhere at any time.

In a startup, it can feel like you’re juggling a thousand different tasks, all of them priorities. At the same time, if you’ve got limited resources and a competitive market, where do you turn? Working with a digital marketing agency can be a smart investment. 

The right agency can help you build your brand, generate leads, and scale your business into a major player in your industry. 

Use this guide to help make deciding on a digital marketing agency for your startup easy and straightforward.

Key Takeaways (TL;DR)

  • Before you choose a digital marketing agency for your startup, establish your goals and objectives, target audience, budget, and the marketing channels you want to focus on.
  • Assess an agency based on factors like their communication, deliverables, reporting, case studies, and industry expertise.
  • Ask questions that give you insight into what services the marketing agency will provide for your startup such as what tools they use and how they measure campaigns.
  • Watch for red flags such as agencies that guarantee instant results (while content does sometimes go viral, typically improving search engine rankings takes time) or agencies that aren’t transparent about what strategies they’ll implement for your campaigns.

Looking for a best-in-class suite of tools for content professionals and marketers? Check out Originality.ai’s Predictive SEO Tool, AI Checker, Plagiarism Checker, and Grammar Checker.

Before You Choose a Digital Marketing Agency

Before you even start research, it’s important to have a complete understanding of: what you want out of hiring a digital marketing agency, the goals for your startup, and the expectations involved. 

This helps the marketing agency better understand how to go about reaching your startup’s goals in a way that’s backed by data and designed to help your business grow. 

That’s why, before you choose a digital marketing agency, consider the following questions: 

  • What are your startup’s goals and objectives for hiring the marketing agency? 
    • Do you want to increase traffic to your web pages? 
    • Grow your brand awareness
    • Generate leads or drive sales?
  • Who is your target audience
    • Do you have a big-picture idea of your audience?
    • How about a more granular view of their interests, tech usage (do they prefer mobile or desktop), or customer pain points?
  • What is the budget that you want to allocate to digital marketing initiatives? 
  • Across what marketing channels does your audience spend the most time? 
    • Do they primarily use Google, social media, or email? 


Once you’ve got a solid grasp on your goals, expectations, and budget as well as the basics about your audience, it’s time to do some research. 

Researching Potential Marketing Agencies for Startups

To help you narrow down the field of potential digital marketing agencies for startups, start by asking around for recommendations or research online. 

  • Look for agencies with experience working with startups or who excel in your particular industry.
  • Keep in mind that some agencies only specialize in certain services like SEO (search engine optimization), social media marketing, PPC (Pay-Per-Click), and others. 
  • Make sure that whichever digital marketing agency you choose offers services that match what you’re looking for. 
  • Check reviews from previous clients, their portfolios, and testimonials. 
  • Pay close attention to case studies as they show how the company was able to help its clients overcome specific challenges.

What to Know When Evaluating an Agency Portfolio

A solid portfolio is the hallmark of a talented agency. Depending on your needs, you’ll want to specifically check their portfolio for: 

Case studies

What kind of results did they get for other clients? Were those clients in the same (or a similar) industry or completely different from yours? 

Working with a company that has experience in your specific industry can help you fast-track much of the back-and-forth process that comes with the agency learning about your business, the clients you serve, and so on.

Metrics

Look for measurable outcomes like ROI (Return on Investment), website traffic growth, conversion rates, or lead generation. 

Creativity

What kind of ads, content, or campaigns do they create and what kinds of results do they get? Evaluate whether the marketing materials they are creating are not just on-brand, but also unique, innovative, or creative. 

How to Assess an Agency’s Expertise: 7 Tips

How do you properly evaluate a digital marketing agency for startups? Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Consider what the agency specializes in

As you browse each company’s services, portfolio, and reviews, ask: 

  • SEO: Can the company help you rank well for the keywords you want to target? If you’re not sure what keywords to choose, can they help you research and come up with a list of both long-tail and short-tail keywords? 
  • PPC: Can the company create and manage affordable advertising campaigns on platforms like Google Ads? What kind of numbers have they been able to generate for other companies in your sector and at what cost?
  • Social media marketing: Can they help you build an engaging presence on social media, including tailoring your message for different platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok?
  • Content marketing: Can the agency help you create high-quality, interesting, and unique content that ranks well on search engines and attracts and retains visitors?
  • Email marketing: Does the agency provide you with strategies or can they tailor email marketing campaigns that help you gain leads or customers? 
  • Analytics: Can the digital marketing agency show you the kinds of results their campaigns and messages bring once you start working together? How often will you meet to discuss analytics data? What is the process if you need to make changes or if ads aren’t converting? 

2. Find out how the agency communicates

Every marketing agency is different, but understanding how they handle communication and how transparent they are with data can make you feel secure that you’ve chosen a reliable and reputable agency for your startup. 

Here are some questions to consider:

  • How quickly do they respond to your questions? 
  • Do they give you regular updates and detailed reports on campaign performance? 
  • Have they set KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)?
  • How do they measure progress? 

Be sure that whichever digital marketing agency you choose, is open to discussing your ideas and values your input. 

3. Learn about the agency’s pricing structure

Price is a major consideration, especially for startups that may have a limited marketing budget. Be sure that the agency you choose is transparent about their prices. Inquire as to whether or not they offer customized packages that can meet your needs. 

Remember that the cheapest option isn’t always the best — look for companies that are experienced and can help maximize your return on investment. 

4. Get to know the team

Knowing the people you’ll be working with is important for establishing trust and what will hopefully be a long-term partnership. It’s a good idea to get to know the people who will be handling your account, including designers, analysts, and marketers. 

Ask them about their qualifications and their past work, and take steps to make sure their work style blends in well with your company culture and the type of image you want your brand to project. 

5. Ask the right questions

Even by taking these steps it may still be a challenge to narrow down your list; after all, there are a lot of marketing agencies out there. 

Even looking at agencies that offer specific services that cater to distinct industries (like PPC for the SaaS or software as a service industry) can still result in countless potential results to go through. 

That’s why it’s so important to ask the kinds of questions that give you insight into the agency’s expertise while also making it clear that you’re working with a winner.  

Here are some questions to help: 

  • What marketing strategies do you suggest for businesses in my industry/niche?
  • How do you measure whether or not a campaign is successful?
  • What tools and technologies do you use in your marketing campaigns?
    • What AI-powered innovations does your agency incorporate into workflows?
  • Can you provide references or connect me with past clients?

6. Start With a (paid) test project

Many startups will give potential marketing agencies a small (paid) trial project as a test. This is a great opportunity to evaluate their creativity and communication. 

Example of an SEO test project

For example, if your goal is to improve your website’s organic traffic, an SEO-focused trial can show you how experienced the agency is in helping you rank your pages in the search engines. The scope could be to optimize anywhere from 3-5 of your web pages for relevant keywords. 

Deliverables could include

  • An audit of your current website’s search engine optimization
  • Keyword research with recommendations
  • On-page optimization such as titles, meta description, headings, and internal linking
  • Content recommendations or content optimization
  • A basic backlink strategy such as writing guest posts or doing outreach 

You’ll then want to evaluate how effective their recommendations are. Although your ranking will not increase overnight, with a measurable time frame, you should see improvements.

Alternatively, if results are taking longer than expected the agency should be able to explain how they are adapting their strategy based on the metrics.

If they’ve prepared content for you, you should also note the quality of the content and how well it reflects your brand, as well as how well it engages readers.

Example of a PPC test project

If you’re running pay-per-click for your startup, doing a small-scale PPC campaign can help you evaluate the agency’s ability to drive results with limited ad spend. Start by running a 2-4 week Google Ads or social media ad campaign with a small budget.

The deliverables in this case could include:

  • An audience-targeting strategy
  • Ad copy and creative design
  • Campaign setup and management
  • Performance tracking and reporting

You’ll want to look at the click-through rate (CTR), cost per click (CTC) and conversion rate of the resulting campaign to gauge the effectiveness of the results. 

Outline expectations for the trial or test before it begins

No matter what kind of project you’re testing, it’s important to outline your expectations before a single task is started: 

  • Set a realistic but firm deadline (typically 2-4 weeks)
  • Define a fixed budget for any paid ads or additional expenses
  • Outline what success looks like (CTR benchmarks, a percentage increase in engagement, or conversions)
  • Agree to do weekly check-ins or reports

7. Look for long-term growth potential for your startup

When evaluating a digital marketing agency for your startup, you’ll hopefully be able to find a company you can work with over the long term. 

You want a company that can keep up with your growth, which means that not only do they have the capacity to handle you as a startup today, but also as your business grows. 

A reputable and reliable marketing agency is more than just a company that you contract out to. They’re like an extension of your team and are as invested in your success as you are. 

Red Flags to Watch For

Even with diligent research, it’s possible to discover an agency that’s not up to your standards. Here are a few red flags to watch out for:

Agencies that guarantee immediate results

It would be nice if content climbed Google rankings overnight or if social media accounts were filled with engaged followers from one day to the next, but that’s typically not how it works. 

Even the best marketing agencies and the most beloved brands recognize that building brand awareness and developing a winning content marketing strategy is an ongoing process.

Agencies that aren’t transparent

Agencies that aren’t willing to share client testimonials, case studies, their methods, or results raise concerns. Reliable digital marketing agencies are all too happy to share their strategies and how they plan to help you market your business and build your brand.

Agencies that overpromise and underdeliver 

Some marketing agencies will overpromise in an attempt to win business. If they make bold, claims or only give you vague strategies, it’s best to continue your research.

Digital Marketing Agencies for Startups: Final Thoughts

With these points in mind, you’ll be able to find a reputable marketing company that you can work with over the long term, that’s clearly invested in your brand, and ready to help you scale, reach the next level, and go from startup to success.

Discover a best-in-class suite of tools for content professionals. Check out Originality.ai’s Predictive SEO Tool, AI Checker, Plagiarism Checker, and Grammar Checker.

Then, learn more in our marketing agency series:

Sherice Jacob

Sherice Jacob is a seasoned copywriter and content professional fluent in English, Spanish, and Catalan, with over 25 years of experience crafting high-converting copy. Passionate about AI, she enjoys exploring the new innovations and possibilities it brings to the world of content creation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to fill out the entire form?

No, that’s one of the benefits, only fill out the areas which you think will be relevant to the prompts you require.

Why is the English so poor for some prompts?

When making the tool we had to make each prompt as general as possible to be able to include every kind of input. Not to worry though ChatGPT is smart and will still understand the prompt.

In The Press

Originality.ai has been featured for its accurate ability to detect GPT-3, Chat GPT and GPT-4 generated content. See some of the coverage below…

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Featured by Leading Publications

Originality.ai did a fantastic job on all three prompts, precisely detecting them as AI-written. Additionally, after I checked with actual human-written textual content, it did determine it as 100% human-generated, which is important.

Vahan Petrosyan

searchenginejournal.com

I use this tool most frequently to check for AI content personally. My most frequent use-case is checking content submitted by freelance writers we work with for AI and plagiarism.

Tom Demers

searchengineland.com

After extensive research and testing, we determined Originality.ai to be the most accurate technology.

Rock Content Team

rockcontent.com

Jon Gillham, Founder of Originality.ai came up with a tool to detect whether the content is written by humans or AI tools. It’s built on such technology that can specifically detect content by ChatGPT-3 — by giving you a spam score of 0-100, with an accuracy of 94%.

Felix Rose-Collins

ranktracker.com

ChatGPT lacks empathy and originality. It’s also recognized as AI-generated content most of the time by plagiarism and AI detectors like Originality.ai

Ashley Stahl

forbes.com

Originality.ai Do give them a shot! 

Sri Krishna

venturebeat.com

For web publishers, Originality.ai will enable you to scan your content seamlessly, see who has checked it previously, and detect if an AI-powered tool was implored.

Industry Trends

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it important to check for plagiarism?

Tools for conducting a plagiarism check between two documents online are important as it helps to ensure the originality and authenticity of written work. Plagiarism undermines the value of professional and educational institutions, as well as the integrity of the authors who write articles. By checking for plagiarism, you can ensure the work that you produce is original or properly attributed to the original author. This helps prevent the distribution of copied and misrepresented information.

What is Text Comparison?

Text comparison is the process of taking two or more pieces of text and comparing them to see if there are any similarities, differences and/or plagiarism. The objective of a text comparison is to see if one of the texts has been copied or paraphrased from another text. This text compare tool for plagiarism check between two documents has been built to help you streamline that process by finding the discrepancies with ease.

How do Text Comparison Tools Work?

Text comparison tools work by analyzing and comparing the contents of two or more text documents to find similarities and differences between them. This is typically done by breaking the texts down into smaller units such as sentences or phrases, and then calculating a similarity score based on the number of identical or nearly identical units. The comparison may be based on the exact wording of the text, or it may take into account synonyms and other variations in language. The results of the comparison are usually presented in the form of a report or visual representation, highlighting the similarities and differences between the texts.

String comparison is a fundamental operation in text comparison tools that involves comparing two sequences of characters to determine if they are identical or not. This comparison can be done at the character level or at a higher level, such as the word or sentence level.

The most basic form of string comparison is the equality test, where the two strings are compared character by character and a Boolean result indicating whether they are equal or not is returned. More sophisticated string comparison algorithms use heuristics and statistical models to determine the similarity between two strings, even if they are not exactly the same. These algorithms often use techniques such as edit distance, which measures the minimum number of operations (such as insertions, deletions, and substitutions) required to transform one string into another.

Another common technique for string comparison is n-gram analysis, where the strings are divided into overlapping sequences of characters (n-grams) and the frequency of each n-gram is compared between the two strings. This allows for a more nuanced comparison that takes into account partial similarities, rather than just exact matches.

String comparison is a crucial component of text comparison tools, as it forms the basis for determining the similarities and differences between texts. The results of the string comparison can then be used to generate a report or visual representation of the similarities and differences between the texts.

What is Syntax Highlighting?

Syntax highlighting is a feature of text editors and integrated development environments (IDEs) that helps to visually distinguish different elements of a code or markup language. It does this by coloring different elements of the code, such as keywords, variables, functions, and operators, based on a predefined set of rules.

The purpose of syntax highlighting is to make the code easier to read and understand, by drawing attention to the different elements and their structure. For example, keywords may be colored in a different hue to emphasize their importance, while comments or strings may be colored differently to distinguish them from the code itself. This helps to make the code more readable, reducing the cognitive load of the reader and making it easier to identify potential syntax errors.

How Can I Conduct a Plagiarism Check between Two Documents Online?

With our tool it’s easy, just enter or upload some text, click on the button “Compare text” and the tool will automatically display the diff between the two texts.

What Are the Benefits of Using a Text Compare Tool?

Using text comparison tools is much easier, more efficient, and more reliable than proofreading a piece of text by hand. Eliminate the risk of human error by using a tool to detect and display the text difference within seconds.

What Files Can You Inspect with This Text Compare Tool?

We have support for the file extensions .pdf, .docx, .odt, .doc and .txt. You can also enter your text or copy and paste text to compare.

Will My Data Be Shared?

There is never any data saved by the tool, when you hit “Upload” we are just scanning the text and pasting it into our text area so with our text compare tool, no data ever enters our servers.

Software License Agreement

Copyright © 2023, Originality.ai

All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

  1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

  1. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Will My Data Be Shared?

This table below shows a heat map of features on other sites compared to ours as you can see we almost have greens across the board!

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