10 best performance creative agencies for DTC brands in 2026

Most DTC brands that come to us with a "creative problem" do not have a creative problem. They have a volume problem, a testing problem, or a nobody-owns-this problem. The ads are fine. There are not enough of them, they are too similar, and nobody can say which of the last forty moved cost per acquisition.

That is what a performance creative agency is for. A steady supply of ads for Meta and TikTok, built to be tested, read and replaced.

The shape of that service varies. Some agencies produce hundreds of assets a month and bill on results. Some are creator networks with a strategy layer on top. Some are two people who write the brief and let your editors do the rest. The wrong shape costs you a quarter.

This list covers ten options across the U.S. and Europe. Every detail comes from the agency's own website or a page we read directly. Where an agency does not publish something, we say so.

The short version

Top pick for a senior strategy layer without a production retainer: HYLN Hub. Research to brief to test readout, your team makes the assets. Our own studio, so weigh that.
Best for very high volume, pay on results: TubeScience. In-house Los Angeles studio, ads that miss target cost nothing.
Best full-service growth partner at mid-market scale: Darkroom. Performance creative plus paid media, retention and Amazon under one roof.
Best UK-based creative volume for Meta and TikTok: Fraggell. 700+ ads a month across UGC, studio and statics, from Manchester.
Best if you need creators first: UGC Shop or Neads. Creator-led, one in Los Angeles with published packages, one in France.

Quick comparison

Agency	Based in	Best for
HYLN Hub	Barcelona	Brands that can make assets and need a senior strategy lead
TubeScience	Los Angeles	Brands spending at scale that want video volume and results-based fees
Darkroom	New York	Brands wanting creative, media and retention run by one partner
Fraggell	Manchester, UK	DTC brands needing a steady creative pipeline for Meta and TikTok
BARK	London	European ecommerce brands wanting creative, media and measurement in one UK team
Y'all	San Antonio, Texas	U.S. DTC brands wanting a small integrated external-internal team
UGC Shop	Los Angeles, with creators worldwide	Brands needing reliable creator content at a known price
Neads	France (the site does not name a city)	Brands selling in French-speaking markets wanting creator content and TikTok expertise
Noise Media	London, with offices in Los Angeles and New York	UK or U.S. brands wanting social-first creative and media together
9AM	New York	Brands wanting media buying to lead with creative strategy inside

Details, sources and the honest note on fit are in each entry below.

How we chose

Four criteria.

Public work. The agency shows named clients or case studies on its own site.

Specialism. The core offer is ad creative for paid social: Meta and TikTok video, UGC, static and motion, with creative testing built in. Agencies that only buy media, or only make brand film, are out.

Geography. A spread across the U.S. and Europe, with each location taken from the agency's own site.

How they describe their process. We quote what the agency says about how work moves from brief to test to iteration. We do not verify claims like "average CPA down 30%" and we mark them as the agency's.

Ranking agencies is subjective. The order reflects fit for a typical DTC wellness, beauty or lifestyle brand on Meta and TikTok, not a verdict that number ten is worse than number two.

The list

1. HYLN Hub

HYLN Hub is our own studio, so weigh this entry accordingly. HYLN is a creative strategy studio for DTC brands in Europe and the U.S., run by two senior strategists, a husband and wife: Eda Burcu Senel, strategy lead, a decade in marketing, and Santiago Correal Mantilla, client and growth lead, with a background in AI research and engineering.

There is no production team. HYLN does the thinking and the direction: research, concepts, creative briefs, creative testing, performance analysis and creative team management. Briefs go to the brand's editors, designers and creators; HYLN approves and hands to the media buyer.

Best for: DTC wellness, supplements, beauty and lifestyle brands on Meta and TikTok that can make assets and need a senior lead on what gets made.

Based in: Barcelona.

Fit note: With no editor or designer, you will need one alongside HYLN. Published result: a 7-figure DTC beauty brand, under NDA, from $0 to $2.4M in 12 months, 3.3x Q4 ROAS.

2. TubeScience

TubeScience makes video ads for paid social on what it calls a "pay-for-performance model": "ads that beat your target earn budget. The ones that miss cost you nothing." The site describes strategy, production and post handled in-house in a 100,000 square foot Los Angeles studio, alongside media buying across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and CTV.

The client list on the site runs to more than 60 brands, including HelloFresh, Hims & Hers, Athletic Greens, Allbirds and Dr. Squatch, across D2C, ecommerce, healthcare, beauty, wellness, food and fashion.

Best for: Brands spending at real scale that want video volume and a fee tied to results.

Based in: Los Angeles.

Fit note: The model is built around scale. A brand testing its first ten ads is unlikely to be the right shape for it. Pricing is not published; the site frames the model as performance-based rather than fee-based.

3. Darkroom

Darkroom describes itself as an "AI-native, full-service growth marketing agency." Performance creative sits alongside paid media, retention marketing, Amazon management, website development and growth strategy. The performance creative page says the agency delivers "250 to 600 production-ready assets per cycle, then continuous iteration on what scales," across "UGC, static, motion, and high-production edits."

Delivery runs on a two-week cadence with feedback through Figma and Frame.io. Named clients include Everlane, Olipop, Nécessaire and Laundry Sauce. The site positions the agency for consumer brands in the $10M to $500M revenue range.

Best for: Brands that want creative, media and retention run by one partner and measured against contribution profit.

Based in: New York.

Fit note: A full-stack engagement. If you only want creative and already have a media buyer you trust, you may pay for scope you do not use. Pricing on request.

4. Fraggell

Fraggell produces "700+ data-backed ads a month across UGC, studio and statics for Meta and TikTok" for direct-to-consumer brands. The site describes a five-stage loop: research, creative strategy, produce, data review, and back around, with concepts drawn from "reviews, communities, ad-account data."

Named clients include ALOHA, Chomps, Govee, Leaf Shave, Nip + Fab and Portland Leather. The site says the agency works with 7 and 8 figure DTC and CPG brands and quotes a minimum of roughly $70k a month in paid social spend, with a standard three-month contract. The "average client: CPA down 30%" figure on the site is the agency's own claim.

Best for: DTC brands past the early stage that need a steady creative pipeline for Meta and TikTok and a partner that treats production as a testing loop.

Based in: Manchester, UK.

Fit note: The spend threshold rules out smaller brands. Fees not published.

5. BARK

BARK is a London paid media and creative agency that describes itself as "the UK's only independent agency, certified by Meta for strategy, creative and data." Its creative offer covers strategy, ad creative, content shoots, UGC, creative localisation and creative audits, next to paid social, paid search and a data science practice covering attribution, lifetime value analysis and forecasting.

Named clients include HelloFresh, Huel, Who Gives A Crap, Chilly's and Colvin. The site says it works with "global ecommerce brands and retailers" and lists Google Partner and TikTok Marketing Partner status.

Best for: European ecommerce brands that want creative, media and measurement in one UK team, especially those expanding into new markets and needing localised creative.

Based in: London.

Fit note: Creative here is one leg of a wider paid media agency, not a standalone studio. Pricing is not published.

6. Y'all

Y'all calls itself "a boutique performance creative and marketing agency for direct-to-consumer brands." Services span strategy, UGC production, measurement, and media buying across Meta, TikTok, Google and X, with creative production in static, animated and video formats. The site sums up its method as: "Every ad we ship is part of a system: hypothesis, production, testing, learning, repeat."

Named clients include FlavCity, Dermaflash, Field Company and Loverboy, across wellness, food and beverage, fashion, home and beauty. On budgets, the site says "most engagements start at around $50K/month in ad spend (note: that's media budget, not agency fee)."

Best for: U.S. DTC brands in wellness, food or beauty that want a small integrated team acting, in the agency's words, as an "external-internal team."

Based in: San Antonio, Texas.

Fit note: Y'all publishes its own ranking of agencies in this category, so treat its list, and ours, as views from inside the market. Pricing on request.

7. UGC Shop

UGC Shop is a creator-led shop: UGC production, creator casting and creative strategy for paid ads on Meta, TikTok and Google, plus Meta Partnership Ads and TikTok Spark Ads through creator handles. The site describes a six-step process from brief to strategy, casting, production, delivery and "Performance Testing & Scaling."

It is one of the few agencies here that publishes prices. Four packages are listed: Trial at $850, Growth at $2,400, Scale at $6,300 and Creative Engine at $12,400. Brand logos shown include Charlotte Tilbury, Casetify, Revolut, Bumble and Asics.

Best for: Brands that need a reliable flow of creator content at a known price, and can handle strategy and testing themselves or with a partner.

Based in: Los Angeles, with creators worldwide.

Fit note: A packaged model is efficient but less bespoke. Check what strategy each tier includes before you buy.

8. Neads

Neads is a French social media agency, founded in 2021 by Nathan Elmaleh, that describes itself as "the creative agency that transforms attention into performance." Its creative studio produces organic and ad videos, including UGC, TikTok, Reels and Shorts content and motion design, alongside influencer campaigns, whitelisting, live shopping and paid social on Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube. It is a certified TikTok Creative Partner.

The site cites more than 5,000 videos produced and a network of more than 1,500 creators. Named clients include Nivea, Jonak, Lancel, Jules, Monoprix and Amazon Music.

Best for: Brands selling in France or French-speaking markets that want creator content and TikTok expertise from a local team.

Based in: France (the site does not name a city).

Fit note: The roster leans toward larger retail and consumer names rather than small DTC. Pricing is not published.

9. Noise Media

Noise Media is a "social-first marketing agency connecting creative and media, to turn attention into growth." Services include creative production (UGC, video, photography), influencer marketing, paid media on Meta, TikTok and Google, and strategy. The site says the agency manages budgets "from £50k to £5M+" and works across more than 20 markets.

Named clients include Sky, Apple, TaskRabbit, Davines, Nanit and Audio-Technica, with wider figures of £250M+ in managed spend and 85+ brands scaled.

Best for: Brands in the UK or U.S. that want social-first creative and media together and are comfortable with an agency whose clients span consumer tech and hospitality as well as DTC.

Based in: London, with offices in Los Angeles and New York.

Fit note: Not a pure DTC shop. Pricing is not published; the site asks for your monthly ad budget on enquiry.

10. 9AM

9AM describes itself as a "performance media agency that scales revenue." Media buying is the core, with creative strategy, influencer marketing, growth strategy and analytics alongside it, across paid social, search and shopping, programmatic and CTV. Platforms named include Meta, TikTok, Google and Shopify.

Named clients include Bumble, Hopper, Prose, The Farmer's Dog and Mindbloom. The site cites $250M+ in ad spend managed and 120+ brands.

Best for: Brands that want media buying to lead and creative strategy to sit inside it, particularly consumer apps and subscription products.

Based in: New York.

Fit note: If your bottleneck is creative output rather than media management, 9AM is the least creative-first name here. Pricing on request.

Which shape of partner fits your stage

The ten above fall into four shapes. Match the shape to the problem before you compare names.

Strategy only, your team makes the assets. HYLN Hub sits here. It works when you already have an editor, a designer or creators, and what you lack is someone senior to decide what to make, write the brief and read the results.

Creator-led. UGC Shop and Neads. Good when the missing ingredient is authentic footage at volume. Weak if nobody is deciding which angles the creators film, because a hundred clips with the same hook are one test, not a hundred.

Volume production with testing built in. TubeScience and Fraggell. Right when the account can absorb dozens of variants a month and the numbers can tell winners apart. Both publish or imply spend thresholds for a reason.

Full-service growth. Darkroom, BARK, Y'all, Noise Media, 9AM. Creative plus media plus, in some cases, retention and retail. Simplest to manage and hardest to leave, because the agency holds the account structure as well as the creative.

Whichever shape you pick, make creative testing a named part of the contract, not an assumption.

What to ask on the first call

Five questions that separate a performance creative partner from a content vendor.

How do you decide what to make? The answer should mention your customer research, your ad account data and your competitors before it mentions their creators or their studio.
What does one test look like? Ask for a single test they ran: the hypothesis, what changed, what happened next. Vague answers here predict vague reporting later.
How many concepts versus how many variations? Fifty ads that are one concept with different hooks is not diversity. You want genuinely different angles and formats, then iteration on what wins.
Who owns the readout? Someone has to read the results every week and turn them into the next brief. Find out if that person is a strategist or an account manager.
What do you need from us? A good partner will list things: product access, customer reviews, past ad data, approval turnaround. A partner that needs nothing from you is going to guess.

Working with HYLN Hub

HYLN Hub is a creative strategy studio for DTC brands, run by two senior strategists in Barcelona and working with brands in Europe and the U.S. We take a limited number of brands at a time. We do the research, the concepts, the briefs, the creative testing plan and the performance analysis; your editors, designers and creators make the assets, and we approve and hand to your media buyer. Industries: DTC wellness, supplements, beauty and skincare, lifestyle, on Meta and TikTok. If that shape fits your stage, apply at hylnhub.com/apply or see the portfolio.

FAQ

What is a performance creative agency?

An agency whose main product is ad creative built for direct response on paid social, usually Meta and TikTok. The output is video, UGC, static and motion ads produced in batches, tested in the account and iterated on results. The ads are disposable by design and the measure of success is performance, not craft.

How much does performance creative cost?

Most agencies on this list do not publish fees. UGC Shop lists packages from $850 to $12,400. Others state a minimum media spend, around $50k a month at Y'all and roughly $70k a month at Fraggell. Ask what a quote includes: creator fees, usage rights, revisions and strategy time are often separate lines.

Should I choose a U.S. or a European agency?

Choose by market first. If you sell mainly in the U.S., a U.S. agency will know the creators, the tone and the competition. If you sell across Europe, localisation matters and a European team is more likely to have it built in. Weekly feedback loops are also easier when working hours overlap.

How long before I know if it is working?

Give a new partner a full testing cycle, usually two to three months. The first batch is largely learning what does not work. Judge the partner on whether the second and third batches build on that learning, not on whether the first produced a winner.

Sources

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