{
  "report": "The State of AI Agency Recommendations 2026",
  "publisher": "Empire325 Marketing",
  "author": "Milton James Acosta III",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0",
  "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "url": "https://empire325marketing.com/research/state-of-ai-agency-recommendations-2026",
  "date_published": "2026-07-22",
  "last_reviewed": "2026-07",
  "date_window": "2026-06-12 to 2026-07-22",
  "query_set": {
    "n_buyer_queries": 16,
    "pattern": "best <vertical> marketing agency",
    "verticals": [
      "hedge fund", "private equity", "asset management", "financial services",
      "healthcare", "real estate", "biotech", "legal", "insurance", "SaaS",
      "ecommerce", "education", "manufacturing", "AI", "B2B", "enterprise"
    ]
  },
  "engines": [
    {
      "engine": "Claude (claude-opus-4-8)",
      "type": "in-model citation",
      "baseline_date": "2026-06-12",
      "reruns": "daily through 2026-06-25",
      "queries": 16,
      "unique_domains": 124,
      "cited_pages_classified": 154,
      "citation_type_mix": {
        "listicle_comparison": {"count": 115, "pct": 74.7},
        "vendor_other": {"count": 37, "pct": 24.0},
        "directory_review": {"count": 2, "pct": 1.3}
      },
      "empire325_verticals_cited": 0,
      "top_domains_by_verticals": [
        {"domain": "firstpagesage.com", "verticals": 5},
        {"domain": "thriveagency.com", "verticals": 4},
        {"domain": "amraandelma.com", "verticals": 3},
        {"domain": "silverbackstrategies.com", "verticals": 3},
        {"domain": "dataally.ai", "verticals": 3},
        {"domain": "directiveconsulting.com", "verticals": 3},
        {"domain": "collateral.com", "verticals": 2},
        {"domain": "prosek.com", "verticals": 2}
      ]
    },
    {
      "engine": "ChatGPT",
      "type": "in-model citation",
      "dates": ["2026-06-13", "2026-06-15", "2026-06-22"],
      "rows": 48,
      "queries_per_date": 16,
      "empire325_verticals_cited": 1,
      "empire325_note": "empire325marketing.com/industries/asset-management cited in-model on all 3 dates; brand 'Empire325' listed among recommended agencies.",
      "top_domains_by_verticals_2026_06_13": [
        {"domain": "dataally.ai", "verticals": 5},
        {"domain": "amraandelma.com", "verticals": 2},
        {"domain": "exponentialaum.com", "verticals": 2},
        {"domain": "nogood.io", "verticals": 2}
      ]
    },
    {
      "engine": "Perplexity",
      "type": "in-model citation",
      "dates": ["2026-06-13", "2026-06-15", "2026-06-22"],
      "rows": 48,
      "queries_per_date": 16,
      "empire325_verticals_cited": 0,
      "top_domains_by_verticals_2026_06_13": [
        {"domain": "reddit.com", "verticals": 11},
        {"domain": "firstpagesage.com", "verticals": 4},
        {"domain": "g-co.agency", "verticals": 4},
        {"domain": "directiveconsulting.com", "verticals": 4},
        {"domain": "thriveagency.com", "verticals": 4}
      ]
    },
    {
      "engine": "WebSearch live organic SERP",
      "type": "organic ranking snapshot (not in-model citation)",
      "date": "2026-07-22",
      "verticals_covered": 9,
      "verticals_not_run": ["private equity", "legal", "insurance", "education", "manufacturing", "biotech", "real estate", "enterprise"],
      "empire325_verticals_in_page1": 0,
      "most_pervasive_agency": {"name": "NoGood (nogood.io)", "verticals_with_result_link": 4},
      "per_vertical_leaders": {
        "hedge fund": ["Amra & Elma", "Collateral Partners", "Fundmarketers", "Croton Content"],
        "asset management": ["Amra & Elma", "ProperExpression", "Bird", "Arro Communications", "Select Advisors"],
        "financial services": ["Cramer-Krasselt", "Amsive", "Fintel Connect", "Mint Studios"],
        "healthcare": ["G&CO", "Healthcare Success", "Intrepy", "Weinbach"],
        "B2B": ["Siege Media", "Digital Agency Network", "Altitude", "Directive"],
        "SaaS": ["Animalz", "Directive", "The B2B Playbook", "Rubicon"],
        "fintech": ["Siege Media", "Martal", "Mint Studios", "RightLeft"],
        "AI": ["Field Trip", "Influencer Marketing Hub", "Omniscient Digital", "Tofu"],
        "ecommerce": ["Clutch", "DesignRush", "Sweat Pants Agency", "Silverback"]
      }
    }
  ],
  "cross_method_recurring_domains": [
    "nogood.io", "directiveconsulting.com", "amraandelma.com", "collateral.com",
    "silverbackstrategies.com", "mintcopywritingstudios.com", "amsive.com",
    "beomniscient.com", "influencermarketinghub.com", "clutch.co", "g-co.agency"
  ],
  "empire325_status": {
    "claude": "0 of 16 buyer queries",
    "chatgpt": "1 of 16 verticals (asset management), all 3 dates",
    "perplexity": "0 of 16 buyer queries",
    "live_serp": "0 of 9 verticals run"
  },
  "limitations": "Not a full Perplexity/Gemini/AI-Overviews panel (Gemini and AI Overviews absent; Perplexity/ChatGPT are three-date single-vendor samples). Live SERP is an organic-ranking signal, run once, no variance measure, 9 of 16 verticals. The 51-day citation-probes.jsonl aggregate is excluded from citation-rate claims (all 49 Anthropic direct-API probes returned HTTP 401; only 253/792 rows error-free). Small samples: 16 queries x 1-3 dates per engine. Every figure is an observed data point, not a population estimate.",
  "raw_source_files": "/home/hq325/empire325-seo/citation-tracking/ (citations-claude-2026-06-12.jsonl, citations-chatgpt-2026-06-13/15/22.jsonl, citations-perplexity-2026-06-13/15/22.jsonl, tracker-baseline.log)"
}