Marketing is expensive because most agencies still do the mechanical half by hand, and a retainer bills for those hours. In 2026 the job changed: agents now build the campaign, segment the audience, draft the copy and stage the send, and the marketer is the director, not the operator. That is what I rank for below.
1. Absolute Web
1Absolute Web
Roman Yoffe, Founder & CEO, Absolute Web
- Best for
- Shopify brands replatforming with AI add-ons
- Founded
- 1999
- Team size
- 56 engineers, 10 UX/UI designers and 12 marketing specialists (its own count)
- Location
- 2875 NE 191st St, Suite 404, in the Aventura area of Miami, with offices in Los Angeles and Lisbon
- Platforms
- Shopify Platinum Partner, Adobe Commerce Partner, BigCommerce Partner, Klaviyo
- AI stack
- Rebuy, Zowie, Black Crow AI, Clerk, Orita, Klaviyo AI flows
The largest local team on this list, with automation at the entry bar, not the top. Absolute Web wires other vendors' AI into Shopify stores, naming Rebuy, Zowie, Black Crow AI, Clerk and Orita, plus AI churn-risk and product-suggestion flows in Klaviyo, and its team page lists a Head of SEO and AI Discoverability. None of that has a client result attached.
Its case-study pages print no result numbers. The numbered case is on LinkedIn: Capezio moved its US, UK and EU stores from Magento to Shopify, and conversion rate rose 144 percent. It is an Inc. 5000 honoree on Inc.'s own profile, the only award here traced to its awarding body. Founder and CEO Roman Yoffe started it in 1999, the office is at 2875 NE 191st St in the Aventura area, and 30 of its staff list Miami on LinkedIn.
Take it when the job is an ecommerce build, and treat the AI as vendor integration.
2. GoRizen
2GoRizen
Rogelio Rodriguez, Chief Executive Officer, GoRizen
- Best for
- Home-service contractors that want an AI front desk
- Team size
- Small; 2 current staff in Miami on LinkedIn
- Location
- 31 NE 17th Street, Miami, the Ampersand Studios coworking building
- AI stack
- HubSpot, GoHighLevel
An AI front desk for home-service contractors. GoRizen builds AI chat, DM and FAQ handling, document and photo collection, and lead routing into HubSpot or GoHighLevel, tied on the same page to a pool builder's 2,400 inbound leads, 38 percent sales-qualified, and 40-plus closed sales. A chat lead arrived at 11:09 AM, the AI qualified him with no human involved, and a consultation was booked by 11:44 AM. We have half a support system built via agent and AI chat ourselves, so that timestamp is the product I would test.
Its case list is almost all contractors, and Alco Windows and Doors going from $500k to a projected $16 million a year is a marketing result, not an AI one. CEO Rogelio Rodriguez works from 31 NE 17th Street, the Ampersand Studios coworking building, with 2 current staff in Miami.
Take it when you are a contractor and speed to a booked consultation is the job.
3. Avenue Z
3Avenue Z
Jeffrey Herzog, Founder & CEO, Avenue Z
- Best for
- Consumer brands that want PR, paid social and AEO together
- Location
- 2 Biscayne Blvd, Miami (no suite given), with offices in New York and Orlando
- Platforms
- Shopify Plus Partner, TikTok Shops Agency, Profound Preferred Partner, Google Partner
An AI Lab inside a Miami-led PR agency, aimed at getting brands cited. Avenue Z runs an AI Lab under Whitney Hart, its Chief Strategy Officer, and employs a VP of AI Strategy and a Director of AEO. It publishes AIVx reports on which brands AI assistants cite and was an early partner of Profound. My view is that LLMs grew the total market for search, and it is not zero sum.
The automation proof is Budclub, a cannabis grower taken from zero to $300K a month in under 90 days with GenAI creative; the page's other figures are counters that do not render as text, so I print only the headline. Founder and CEO Jeffrey Herzog is in Miami, the office is at 2 Biscayne Blvd, and 24 of its staff list Miami on LinkedIn. It is a PR, performance and AEO mix.
Take it when PR and AI-search visibility matter as much as paid media.
4. AI Digital
4AI Digital
Stephen Magli, CEO & Founder, AI Digital
- Best for
- Programmatic and CTV buyers who want AI creative
- Founded
- 2018
- Team size
- 650+ employees, mostly remote
- Location
- 382 NE 191st St, Miami, beside hubs in Belgrade and Nicosia; its homepage says the global team is fully remote
- Platforms
- OpenX, Index Exchange, PubMatic
- AI stack
- Smart Supply, AI Creative Studio, Synthetic Focus Group
The most automation on this list, applied to media buying. AI Digital has a Chief AI Officer, David Mainiero, plus a Head of AI Consultancy and a Head of AI Incubator, and an AI Creative Studio that makes AI video and UGC, tags variants automatically and runs a Synthetic Focus Group to predict which creative will perform. We ran hook tests on Meta to see what got the most clicks, so a model that calls the winner before spend is what I would test first.
One manager cut CM360 month-end reporting from 3 to 4 hours to a 30-minute setup with Gemini in Sheets. Its case studies are anonymized, like 74 percent higher CTR for a technology brand. Its homepage prints the Miami office beside the words "Global Team Fully Remote", and only CEO Stephen Magli and his CSO are in Miami on LinkedIn.
Take it when the budget is programmatic media and you want the AI in the buying and the creative.
5. Optimum7
5Optimum7
Duran Inci, CEO & Founder, Optimum7
- Best for
- B2B ecommerce with big catalogs
- Location
- 237 S Dixie Hwy, 4th Floor #469, Coral Gables, the same suite Zen Media prints
- AI stack
- 30-day AI proof-of-concept program
Named AI engineers and a fixed-price AI prototype beside an ecommerce and SEO shop. Optimum7's team page lists an AI Architect, an AI Automation Specialist and three AI Systems Engineers, and it sells a $10K, 30-day AI proof-of-concept build and says it has built more than 700 software systems. Its printed results are conversion work: Vaio's total sales rose 200 percent and its conversion rate 425 percent. No client result is tied to the AI roles.
A disclosure the site does not make: founder and CEO Duran Inci is also President of Zen Media, ranked sixth, whose CEO is Sarah Evans. Both print the same suite, 237 S Dixie Hwy, 4th Floor #469 in Coral Gables, and both team pages list Murat Gulas and Enes Eren with the same AI titles. Treat them as one AI bench. 13 of its staff list Miami on LinkedIn.
Take it for ecommerce development and SEO, and scope any AI work through the fixed-price prototype first.
6. Zen Media
6Zen Media
Sarah Evans, CEO, Zen Media
- Best for
- B2B firms that want PR to show up in AI answers
- Location
- 237 S Dixie Hwy, 4th Floor #469, Coral Gables, the same suite Optimum7 prints
- AI stack
- Published Monthly
B2B PR measured by AI citations. Zen Media's SpecialistID case put the client in 72 percent of targeted AI Overview results within 90 days, with AI-aligned keyword traffic up 54.65 percent, from 559 to 864 visits. It sells Published Monthly, a subscription that runs prompt discovery, editorial and authority placement, and reports 60 percent year-over-year revenue growth for AdRoll. My view is that PR carries far more weight than advertising: an ad is you saying you are great, and PR is a news brand saying it for you.
Same disclosure as Optimum7, fifth: its about page names Sarah Evans as CEO and lists Murat Gulas and Enes Eren, the AI Architect and AI Automation Specialist on Optimum7's team page. Its President, Duran Inci, is Optimum7's CEO, the Coral Gables suite is the same #469, and only 2 current staff show in Miami on LinkedIn.
Take it when you sell B2B and want PR measured by whether AI answers cite you.
7. Pacific54
7Pacific54
Avi C., Founder, Pacific54
- Best for
- South Florida institutions that want web and paid media
- Founded
- 2009
- Team size
- Small; distributed team around a Wynwood headquarters
- Location
- Wynwood, Miami (no street address published), with a distributed team the site places in Naples, Madrid and Oslo
- AI stack
- WebMCP
Sites built for AI agents to use. Pacific54 uses AI to sort search terms, audience behavior and sales feedback into patterns, generate ad variations and flag unusual spend, with a strategist approving every budget change. It builds agent-ready sites on the WebMCP standard, and on its own site an AI agent can check availability and book a real call with human confirmation. That booking agent runs on Pacific54's site, not yet a client's.
Its case studies are rebuild and paid work: Banesco USA's online account openings rose 60 percent after a rebuild, and Stellar Adjusting's storm inquiries got 5x cheaper. It is Miami-based since 2009, with Keiser University and the Miami Downtown Development Authority as clients, in Wynwood with no street address printed. Founder Avi C. is one of 4 current staff in Miami on LinkedIn, which shows only abbreviated names.
Take it when a South Florida institution needs a rebuild that AI agents can use.
8. Buena Vista Creative
8Buena Vista Creative
Nelson Flores-Giacometto, Managing Partner, Buena Vista Creative
- Best for
- Custom AI apps next to ordinary marketing
- Location
- 8200 NW 33rd Street, Suite 414, Miami, in the Doral area
- AI stack
- Zapier, Salesforce
Real AI builds, thin proof. Buena Vista Creative's AI page carries client testimonials for an insurance comparison platform built for Hakem.ai, a clause finder for long debt agreements at Debt Compliance Services, and an SMS system for Sensible Driver where every reply comes from AI. None of those testimonials carries a number. The case-study blocks on the same page are still Lorem ipsum placeholder text, and its stat counters render as 1. I scored what they describe and nothing more.
The rest is a long menu, from branding to podcasts. The team page names no founder or CEO; Managing Partner Nelson Flores-Giacometto and Director of Marketing and Creative Services Leana Garcia are among 4 current staff in Miami on LinkedIn, and its contact page gives 8200 NW 33rd Street, Suite 414, in the Doral area.
Take it for a scoped AI build, and ask for a working demo in place of a case study.
Also worth knowing
These firms were considered and are not ranked.
Four strong firms have no Miami team. Fractl runs six named AI PR agents and has AI Overview citation cases, but it states it is a fully remote team, with a PO Box in Delray Beach. SEO Smooth has a six-agent Google Ads bidder and Claude Code site edits, but it sits in Boynton Beach, Palm Beach County, at a mailbox-style suite, with no named clients. AdVenture Media Group runs a real AI transformation practice from Woodmere, New York, and its "Fort Lauderdale" street, 433 Plaza Real, is in Boca Raton. NoGood lists "Brickell, Miami" with no address and no Miami team.
ARSNL Media is a real Miami Lakes performance-media shop with 43 named clients and numbered cases, but its AI is machine-learning buying and a GEO service line. FJ Solutions, a Brickell ecommerce agency, uses AI only as AI-assisted creative in one case and an AI SEO service line. WEBRIS is a Miami law-firm specialist with strong case numbers and a GEO service line only.
VIDEN Growth uses AI in DTC bidding and creative, with a small, junior Miami team. Geeks360 lists AI agents as team members and has a 19-to-182 AI citation case, but it is a full-service menu and only its CEO is in Miami. InPulse Digital works for Universal+ and Food Network, with AI only on its paid-media page. Netrocket is HVAC-only, uses AI as an SEO drafting aid and anonymizes its cases. Stealth Media Marketing is a law-firm GEO specialist with anonymized cases and first-name-only staff.
Up Digital sells priced AI employees and Claude-based assistants, with no Miami team. Heyday Marketing, a Coral Gables full-service agency, sells AEO as a service line and says so itself, "without the hype". Alfatek Digital is an AI implementation partner with no case results. Anderson Collaborative has n8n, Zapier and Make automation and one AI-agents case, $175K of paid media to $4.47M in car sales, across four offices with a small Miami team. iAnalyst, in Miami since 2009, repositioned as AI consulting and names no person on its site. Kreativa Group uses AI only as GEO in one watch-dealer case. Roar Media works for Royal Caribbean and Hyatt with no AI in delivery. The Snow Agency is now part of Avenue Z. Ad Wolves Media sells AI voice and chat agents with one client and no named people. 1GS Digital Agency builds GoHighLevel AI CRMs with anonymized cases. Krafted Digital lists five AI-agent service lines with no case studies and no named people. Growth Geyser sells RevOps automation, not AI. Sky SEO Digital is one person with anonymized cases, and its AI work is getting cited, not automation.
Several are based elsewhere: dNOVO Group in Toronto, ABC Digital in Mexico, HigherVisibility in Memphis, Egochi in New York, Hibu in Iowa, Multiplica in Barcelona and Latin America, Thrive Internet Marketing Agency in Texas, and Lounge Lizard and Storm Brain in New York and Carlsbad. Nuvem Group is a Cambridge, Massachusetts product studio, not a marketing agency.
Six have no published client work and no named people: Muchisimo Agency, which sells a $199 AI chatbot, Astra Results Marketing, which sells an AI task manager, Orbital, whose law-firm clients have generic names like Johnson & Associates, and AD Leaf, Q-Tech and Codieshub, also covered in my Miami email agency research.
How to choose between them
If you run a Shopify brand and the job is a replatform or a rebuild, take Absolute Web, and treat its AI as integration of other vendors' tools. If you are a contractor losing leads after hours, GoRizen's AI front desk is the most direct fit here. If you want PR and AI-search visibility with paid social from one team, Avenue Z does all three; a B2B company that wants PR measured by AI citations should look at Zen Media.
If the budget is programmatic and CTV media, AI Digital puts AI in the buying and the creative. Optimum7 is for large-catalog ecommerce, and its fixed-price prototype is the cheapest way to test its AI engineers. Pacific54 is for a South Florida institution that wants a site AI agents can use, and Buena Vista Creative for one scoped AI tool. If you hire both Optimum7 and Zen Media, know that you are hiring one executive and one AI bench twice. My view is that the Meta and Google ad accounts should be set up in your own name, not the agency's, whichever you pick.
How this list is ranked
How this list is ranked
I score every marketing agency here on four criteria, for a total out of 50: AI automation out of 20, and specialization, published evidence and a real Miami team, each out of 10. Each card links the sources behind its score.
Nitrosend, which I co-founded, publishes this page. It is an email platform for agencies, not a marketing agency, and is not ranked.
FAQ
Absolute Web, if you are picking one name with no other constraint, because it combines the largest local team on this list with ecommerce evidence and specialization tied for the top, from a firm founded in 1999. It is not the most automated. From there the list splits by need: GoRizen for contractors who want an AI front desk, Avenue Z for PR with AI-search visibility, and AI Digital for programmatic media with AI creative.
The difference shows in what each one publishes. GoRizen ties its automation to a pool builder's leads and closed sales. Avenue Z publishes its AI Lab's reports on who AI assistants cite. Absolute Web lists the AI vendors it installs. Read those three pages and you will know which one describes your problem.
Between $247 and $15,000 a month on retainer. Small-business packages sit at the bottom, SEO and program retainers from Miami firms mostly run $1,500 to $6,200 a month, and full programs reach $15,000. Custom AI builds run $3,000 to $45,000 one-time, and AI retainers $1,000 to $12,500 a month. One of the eight ranked firms publishes a price, and the rest of the range comes from other Miami firms that do.
Ad Wolves Media in Coral Gables starts at $247 a month and adds PPC management at $497. Up Digital in Brickell publishes SEO tiers of $1,500, $2,500 and $4,000 a month with no contracts. ARSNL Media in Miami Lakes starts SEO at $3,500 a month and websites at $15,000. Netrocket's HVAC programs run from $3,550 to $6,200-plus a month; its layout does not make clear which tier costs what, so I give only the range. Egochi, headquartered in New York with a Miami office, runs plans from $1,500 to $15,000 a month and one-time audits from $2,500 to $10,000. 5 Star Visibility in Fort Lauderdale prices AI-search visibility from $900 a month and websites from $1,500 to $6,500.
AI work is priced separately. Optimum7, ranked fifth, sells a 30-day AI proof of concept for $10,000 flat. Up Digital charges $500 to $1,500 for an AI audit, $3,000 to $10,000 for an AI system build, and $1,000 to $5,000 a month to run it. AdVenture Media Group, which has no Miami team, publishes $4,500 to $12,500 a month for AI advisory, $20,000 to $45,000 for custom builds and $25,000 to $75,000 for onboarding and training. I looked for a Miami agency job posting with pay to compare against an in-house hire and found none, so there is no salary comparison on this page. I never wanted to run an agency myself, because you are only ever marking up some person's hours, and that is what a retainer prices.
No, but they share a lot. Duran Inci is CEO of Optimum7 and President of Zen Media, and Zen Media's about page names Sarah Evans as its CEO. Both print 237 S Dixie Hwy, 4th Floor #469 in Coral Gables, and Optimum7's team page lists the same AI Architect and AI Automation Specialist as Zen's.
I ranked them separately because each publishes its own clients and results: Optimum7 is ecommerce development and SEO, and Zen Media is B2B PR. If you hire both, assume the same AI people will do the work for each.
Look for one of four things: a named tool with a described function, a named workflow, a person with an AI or automation role on the team, or a case study that ties automation to a number. A banner or a testimonial is not evidence of the same weight.
Every AI point on this page links to one of those. Pacific54 describes exactly what its AI does to a paid-media account and where a human signs off. Zen Media prints the before-and-after visit counts behind its AI Overview case.
On four criteria: AI automation out of 20, and specialization, published evidence and a real Miami team, each out of 10, for a total out of 50. Each card links the sources behind its score.