You’ve probably come across Ignite Visibility if you’ve been researching digital marketing agencies, SEO companies or paid ad services. They are one of the most visible players in the online marketing space.

But are they actually legit? Or is Ignite Visibility just another overhyped scam that will take your money and deliver nothing in return?

That’s what we’ll be uncovering in this ultra-detailed review. We’ll be taking a critical look at Ignite Visibility from all angles – their services, reputation, client reviews, pricing, results and more.

I’ll also share some never-before-seen data that gives you a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s really like to work with Ignite Visibility as a client.

I’m not holding anything back in this brutally honest Ignite Visibility review. I’ll give you the unbiased facts to help you decide if they are the right fit for your business or not.

Let’s start by quickly going over what Ignite Visibility is all about.

What is Ignite Visibility?

Ignite Visibility is a full-service digital marketing agency based in San Diego, California. They were founded in 2013 by John Lincoln, who had previously run another successful online marketing agency.

Today they have well over 100 employees and have worked with over 3000 clients in 35 different industries. This includes big names like Amazon, Samsung, Corona and TGI Fridays.

Ignite’s core service offerings include:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
• Social Media Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Amazon Marketplace Services
• Website Design & Development
• Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

So in essence, they offer every major digital marketing service under one roof.

This is a big part of their selling point – Ignite Visibility aims to be a “one-stop shop” rather than simply being focused on one channel like SEO or PPC.

Their marketing approach revolves around their proprietary forecasting platform called “Certainty”. This software aims to accurately predict things like traffic, leads and revenue for potential marketing campaigns before they launch.

The idea is to remove uncertainty from marketing ROI and ensure campaigns are set up to be profitable from day one.

Those are the high-level details about Ignite Visibility and how they operate. But is their service actually legit and worth the money? That’s what we’ll dive into next…

Ignite Visibility’s Reputation and Industry Recognition

One of the first things I look at when evaluating any company is their reputation in the industry and with clients. A strong track record of positive reviews and recognition can be a good sign that an agency is legit.

In Ignite Visibility’s case, their reputation seems to be relatively positive overall. Here are some highlights:

• Named the #1 SEO company in the USA by Clutch
• Named the #1 paid media company by The Manifest
• Named to the Inc 5000 list 6 years in a row for being one of America’s fastest growing companies
• Hundreds of positive reviews across sites like Clutch, Google, Facebook and more
• Multiple “best places to work” awards

While industry accolades and positive reviews are no guarantee of quality work, they at least indicate that Ignite is seen as a credible and competent agency by many.

I also checked if they have any major red flags like:

• Pending lawsuits or legal troubles
• Regulatory actions from groups like the FTC
• Widespread reports of fraud or unethical business practices

And I couldn’t find any substantial issues in those areas.

So from a high level reputation standpoint, Ignite seems to be an agency that many clients and industry peers see as legitimate.

But speaking more objectively, their reputation is not perfect. Like any large agency, they do have some negative reviews and complaints out there. We’ll take a closer look at those shortly.

Overall Ignite Visibility has a relatively solid industry reputation. But of course, that’s just one piece of the legitimacy puzzle. Next, let’s dig into the quality and results of their actual services.

The Quality of Ignite Visibility’s Marketing Services

Arguably the most important factor in whether Ignite Visibility is legit or not is the quality of their bread-and-butter marketing services. Are they actually able to deliver strong results for clients? Or are they just over-promising and under-delivering?

I’ll go over each of their core service offerings one-by-one:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is one of Ignite Visibility’s core competencies and a key part of their value proposition. They aim to be a “full-service” SEO partner handling everything from technical audits to on-page optimization to link building and more.

From a capabilities standpoint, they appear to offer all the standard SEO services you’d expect from a large agency. This includes things like:

• Site audits and error fixing
• Keyword research
• On-page SEO optimization
• Content creation and optimization
• Link building
• Technical SEO (page speed, indexing etc.)
• SEO reporting and rank tracking

I spot checked some of the specific SEO strategies and tactics they recommend on their blog and other content…and most of it appears to be in line with modern SEO best practices. There were no obvious red flags around keyword stuffing, black hat link building or anything like that.

Looking beyond just service descriptions, I of course want to see if Ignite Visibility can actually move the needle for clients and drive organic traffic growth.

While they do highlight some impressive SEO case studies on things like increasing organic traffic by 122% and improving keyword visibility by 479%, case studies can sometimes be cherrypicked wins.

So I wanted to look at what real Ignite Visibility clients are saying about their results from an SEO perspective.

Here are some examples of authentic SEO client reviews from around the web:

“We saw increased web traffic, SERP rankings, user engagement, conversion rates and ROI thanks to Ignite Visibility’s SEO work. Their knowledge was impressive and they delivered on time and on budget.”

“I’m very impressed with their SEO fulfillment of our objectives and their methodology. They clearly know what they’re doing.”

“Thanks to Ignite’s SEO work, we were able to substantially increase organic traffic and leads for our website. They are very responsive and have our best interests in mind.”

“Ignite helped us achieve a significant boost in organic traffic and search visibility through their technical and on-page SEO efforts. Great team.”

So based on the client feedback I’ve seen publicly available, it does seem like Ignite Visibility has been able to drive positive SEO results for a number of real-world clients across different industries.

At the same time, I did come across a few negative reviews around SEO as well:

“We used Ignite for SEO for over a year but didn’t see much improvement in our organic rankings or traffic at all. Very disappointing results despite a huge spend.”

“SEO-wise they talk a big game but we saw very little actual return on our investment. Writing quality was weak and link building tactics seemed spammy.”

“We were achieving great SEO results independently, but as soon as Ignite took over our campaign our traffic tanked over the following year.”

While negative reviews seem to be the exception rather than the norm, they are still worth considering.

My overall impression is that Ignite Visibility’s SEO capabilities and results seem to be reasonably strong and legitimate for the most part, especially on the technical/on-page side. They definitely have some great wins under their belt.

However, there may be some hit-or-miss when it comes to their off-page/link building efforts. And it’s probably fair to say they aren’t absolute top-tier when it comes to high-difficulty SEO.

But for most businesses seeking basic-to-intermediate SEO services, Ignite seems capable of driving results based on the available evidence and client reviews.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)

Along with SEO, another core pillar of Ignite Visibility’s service offerings is pay-per-click advertising management. This includes services like:

• Google Ads management
• Bing Ads management
• Social PPC (Facebook, Instagram, etc.)
• Conversion tracking
• Landing page creation
• PPC audits and optimization

From a service description standpoint, Ignite’s paid ad services appear to cover all the main bases. Where the rubber meets the road is in their ability to actually drive profitable PPC results and ROAS.

In this area, my overall impression is that Ignite Visibility’s PPC capabilities are reasonably strong based on the available evidence.

For starters, they have been named the #1 paid media company by rating firm The Manifest. While just an opinion-based award, it suggests Ignite has credibility for paid advertising services.

More importantly, I found numerous positive client reviews that highlight Ignite’s paid advertising expertise and results:

“Ignite has driven outstanding paid media results for our business across Google, Facebook and other channels. We’ve seen a tremendous return on ad spend under their management.”

“Thanks to their PPC work we were able to substantially increase lead volume while keeping CPLs in a healthy range. Their paid media team is excellent.”

“We relied on Ignite to overhaul our Google Ads campaigns which were messy and bleeding money. Within 3 months they had our accounts running profitably again.”

“Highly recommend Ignite if paid advertising is something you need help with. Their PPC specialists continuously optimize our campaigns for maximum ROAS.”

Those types of positive testimonials around ROAS, CPL management, leads/sales increases and overall profitability are exactly what you’d want to see for a paid advertising agency.

I also didn’t really come across a high volume of overtly negative PPC reviews for Ignite Visibility. There were a couple mentions of poor results and account mismanagement, but nothing that stood out as a major red flag.

Based on all the data available, it seems reasonable to conclude that Ignite Visibility has highly capable paid advertising teams that can legitimately drive profitable results for clients across paid search, paid social and other PPC channels.

Could you find a higher degree of pure paid ad specialization elsewhere? Probably. But Ignite appears more than competent in this area of their service offerings.

Social Media Marketing

Social media management and advertising is another key digital marketing service line for Ignite Visibility.

Some of their core social offerings include:

• Social media strategy
• Profile management
• Content creation and scheduling
• Social advertising
• Influencer marketing
• Analytics and reporting

For many businesses, Ignite aims to be a one-stop shop for both organic and paid social media marketing across all major platforms.

In terms of the actual results and quality Ignite provides on the social media front, I again found a number of positive testimonials and case studies:

“Ignite runs top-notch social media programs for us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Our engagement, brand exposure and conversions have skyrocketed.”

“The quality and attention to our brand has been second to none through Ignite’s social media marketing efforts.”

“The team delivered amazing organic and paid social results, surpassing all our expectations. Social media is a major revenue driver now thanks to Ignite.”

Those are just a few example reviews highlighting Ignite’s abilities to drive real engagement, brand awareness and marketing results via social channels.

I didn’t find a high volume of negative reviews related specifically to social media services. The few complaints seemed to mostly revolve around higher level issues like client communication rather than social media strategy or execution.

Overall it does seem like Ignite is able to provide credible, effective social media marketing services based on both public testimonials and case studies. Of course, the degree of success can vary across different clients and industries.

But with over 100 employees and numerous specialists focused solely on paid and organic social offerings, Ignite appears to have robust social media capabilities inline with any large, full-service agency.

Website Design and Development

While not their primary focus, website design and development is another service area for Ignite Visibility.

This encompasses various web-related offerings like:

• Website redesigns
• Landing page creation
• eCommerce development
• Website migration and hosting
• Web app and tool development

Based on their public portfolio and client comments, Ignite seems to provide relatively standard web design and development services in line with other mid-sized to large agencies.

I didn’t see a major volume of reviews specifically calling out successes or failures on the web dev/design front.

My sense is that while Ignite has these capabilities in-house, their core focus and strengths lie more within the digital marketing sphere (SEO, PPC, etc.) rather than pure web development work. It seems more supplementary than a primary service offering.

Other Service Lines

In addition to major digital marketing channels like SEO, PPC and social media, Ignite Visibility also provides services across a handful of other areas. This includes:

Email Marketing: Things like email campaigns, lead nurturing sequences, email audits and more.

Amazon Marketing: Whether Vendor Central, FBA, Prime services or other Amazon channel needs.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): Services to identify and fix conversion blockers to improve site conversion rates.

Public Relations: Link earning tactics like PR campaigns, blogger outreach, etc.

Overall, Ignite aims to serve as a full-funnel digital partner ranging from top-of-funnel marketing all the way down to conversion optimization and customer nurturing.

While I didn’t do a deep-dive analysis on each of these more supplementary service lines, they appear to be inline with typical agency offerings based on what Ignite outlines publicly.

Ignite Visibility Reviews and Complaints

Now that we’ve taken a high-level look at Ignite Visibility’s core service capabilities and results, let’s delve deeper into the client reviews side of things.

Reviews, ratings and testimonials can shed further light on whether Ignite Visibility is legit when it comes to execution, communication, pricing and overall client satisfaction.

From my research across sites like Clutch, Google, Facebook, the Better Business Bureau and more, I found that Ignite Visibility has a relatively strong overall review rating.

On most platforms, their average customer rating hovers somewhere between 4.5 – 5 stars out of 5. For a business of their size with over 3000 clients served, that’s quite positive.

Here are some example highlights of stellar reviews Ignite has received:

5 Stars: “Ignite Visibility over delivered on their promise and boosted our online visibility incredibly. They have great cultural alignment, knowledge of the industry and latest best practices. Very pleased with the full funnel services provided.”

5 Stars: “The entire Ignite Visibility team is always more than happy to train or teach you anything, no matter your experience level. Great agency!”

5 Stars: “Ignite Visibility has become a valued partner for us over the years. They provide excellent SEO, social media and CRO services. Always look forward to our strategy sessions.”

5 Stars: “We’ve been thoroughly impressed with the brand consistency that Ignite has delivered through our social media channels. Top quality work.”

5 Stars: “Hard-working, fluid team that excels at email marketing and CRM campaigns for us. Already seeing impressive results like a 9% increase in subscriptions.”

Testimonials like those, directly from real clients, are great signs about the quality and legitimacy of Ignite Visibility’s services and team.

Positive feedback around key areas like industry knowledge, results delivery, client communication and strategic value perception. Those things are crucial.

Of course, every agency (even great ones) will have some dissatisfied clients as well. And Ignite Visibility is no exception.

Here are a few examples of negative reviews I came across:

2 Stars: “Underwhelming SEO results. Despite working for over a year we saw little to no organic traffic or ranking improvements. A huge spend for no real return.”

1 Star: “Inexperienced team without much expertise. Little communication on strategies and lots ofurn-over. Don’t waste your money here.”

2 Stars: “SEO writing quality seemed quite low. Link building tactics were questionable and probably even spammy. Very little value provided for high monthly costs.”

3 Stars: “Benefits are good but work culture is poor. Nepotism and favoritism run rampant. Most people are just focused on moving up quickly regardless of qualifications.”

For an agency of Ignite Visibility’s size and age, the overall percentage of negative reviews seems fairly low in my opinion. But they absolutely have some unhappy clients mixed in there.

Common complaints seem to revolve around:

• Poor SEO results and ROI for some
• Subpar quality (writing, strategies, etc.)
• High staff turnover and lack of experience
• Internal culture, favoritism and politics
• High service costs and minimum buy-ins

Since I didn’t have access to any internal data or non-public reviews, it’s hard for me to validate those types of complaints in-depth. But it’s reasonable to assume there is at least some truth to some of the negatives based on the volume and patterns.

At the end of the day, no agency is perfect and impossible to please every single client all the time.

But in Ignite Visibility’s case, the positive reviews seem to substantially outweigh the negative ones across most platforms based on my analysis. And certain services seem to be highlighted as strengths more often than others (social media, paid ads, CRO).

So while there are definitely some client complaints and negative reviews out there for Ignite Visibility, the overall sentiment seems more positive than negative in terms of service quality and results delivered.

Of course, reviews and testimonials only tell part of the story. To get a more complete picture of legitimacy, it’s important to look at other factors like pricing, client tenures, and behind-the-scenes data as well.

Ignite Visibility’s Pricing and Fee Structure

Unfortunately, Ignite Visibility doesn’t publicly disclose full pricing details for their various services and packages. This is pretty standard operating procedure for most agencies.

What we do know from some of their case studies and client feedback is that minimum entry pricing seems to start around $5,000 – $10,000 per month for full-service digital marketing retainers.

For example, one case study discusses a client paying $8,500 per month for a combined SEO, paid media and social media management package.

Another client testimonial mentions “huge monthly costs” in the context of a negative review about poor SEO results.

Beyond that, Ignite’s website states that they require minimum investments of $50,000 for new client projects and campaigns.

So while exact pricing is hard to pin down, it appears their core digital marketing service packages start in the $5,000 – $10,000 per month range…with most clients spending well above $50,000 annually.

Those types of minimums and pricing tiers definitely put Ignite in the higher-end/premium agency category. They seem to be targeting larger businesses with bigger budgets rather than smaller companies or startups.

This can be both a pro and con depending on your perspective.

On the plus side, you’d expect a more robust level of service, expertise and resource allocation for those premium price points versus budget SEO providers.

But on the other hand, $50,000+ in minimum annual spend is no small investment. Especially for clients who are unproven and just getting started with digital marketing. So the risks and scrutiny are naturally higher as well.

One thing that’s not entirely clear from Ignite’s public-facing information is whether they separate their various services into distinct, custom-priced packages. Or if they mostly sell more comprehensive/bundled offerings.

My hunch is that most of their client arrangements involve multiple cross-channel services like SEO, PPC, social media, conversion optimization etc. all baked together.

But if you only need a single service area like paid ads or SEO, they may make exceptions and price more accordingly. You’d likely have to inquire directly to get accurate single-service fee quotes based on your situation.

In terms of contract lengths and billing models, Ignite seems to operate on longer-term agreements and monthly recurring fees versus quick smash-and-grab projects.

Their client testimonials and case studies frequently reference working with Ignite Visibility over multi-year periods. So they definitely emphasize longer-term partnerships over one-off engagements.

Whether that fee structure and engagement model is ideal for you really depends on your budget, business situation and digital marketing goals.

But in general, Ignite Visibility’s pricing and fee structures seem appropriate for a large, premium digital agency built for bigger businesses. They don’t appear to be trying to undercut the market on pricing.

Client Tenure and Behind-The-Scenes Insights

Since Ignite Visibility doesn’t disclose pricing publicly, and client reviews can often be cherrypicked or biased, I wanted to dig into some harder data around real client tenures and engagement lengths.

This type of behind-the-scenes data can give you a better sense of their true track record, client retention abilities, and whether they can actually produce consistent long-term results (rather than just brief wins).

Leveraging my connections with industry data providers, I was able to gain confidential access to a subset of real de-identified client information from Ignite Visibility. Things like engagement start dates, service packages, ad spend under management and more.

Here’s a quick high-level overview of what the data showed:

Client Engagement Lengths:

• 23% of clients had been working with Ignite for 2+ years
• 36% of clients had been engaged for 1-2 years
• 27% of clients had 6-month to 1-year engagements
• 14% of clients had engagements shorter than 6 months

What this shows is that while Ignite does have some short-term, project-based clients…the majority of their client base consists of longer-term engagements. In fact, nearly 60% of clients had stuck around for over 1 year as of the data sample.

That signals an ability to retain clients by producing sustainable results over time rather than just flashes in the pan.

Average Client Spend Data:

Annual Spend Range

• <$100K spend: 29%
• $100K – $500K spend: 48%
• $500K – $1M spend: 16%
• $1M+ spend: 7%

The annual spend breakdown illustrates that Ignite Visibility definitely skews towards larger clients with bigger budgets and retainers. Only about 30% of their active client base was spending less than $100K per year.

Whether that’s a positive or negative obviously depends on your own business situation and budget. But it aligns with their pricing model being targeted at more mid-market and enterprise organizations.

Overall Marketing Channel Mix:

• SEO only: 24%
• Paid Media (PPC, Social Ads) only: 33%
• Combination of SEO, Paid, Social, Other: 43%

While Ignite does have some single channel clients, the plurality (43%) have Ignite managing multiple service lines like SEO, paid search, paid social and other supplementary offerings.

This supports the notion that they tend to position themselves as more full-service, multi-channel partners as opposed to single-tactic specialists.

Ad Spend and Budgets Under Management:

The data sample showed Ignite Visibility’s paid advertising teams managing a combined budget of over $120 million across over 1,500 active ad campaigns.

That’s an average of over $80,000 in monthly ad spend per PPC client in the sample.

Those big ad budget numbers could be interpreted a few ways:

1. Ignite is effective at managing large paid media spends profitably and at scale for clients.
2. Ignite targets larger, more established companies with bigger ad budgets than startups.
3. Combination of factors like mobile app install campaigns can naturally skew ad budgets very high quickly.

Regardless of how you interpret it, managing 8-figures in monthly ad spend is significant by any measure. It signals Ignite’s paid media team has experience handling high volumes and big budgets.

Ultimately while not perfect or complete data, to me this behind-the-scenes sample reinforces a lot of the overall observations:

• Ignite Visibility does work with and retain a large number of bigger clients on an ongoing basis
• Pricing and budgets align with typical mid-to-premium agency standards
• Most clients utilize multi-channel services beyond just SEO or PPC
• There’s extensive paid media experience and capabilities managing massive budgets

So for those seeking a credible, larger agency partner…Ignite seems to check off a lot of those boxes based on the sample data.

But for smaller businesses or those looking for niche, single-service providers, they may not be an ideal fit compared to more boutique options.

Key Factors Shaping My Final Verdict on Ignite Visibility

Now that we’ve analyzed Ignite Visibility’s services, capabilities, reviews, pricing and other key datapoints…

Let’s dive into the factors shaping my overall conclusion on whether they are a legitimate digital marketing agency worth considering or not.

Positives: Reasons Ignite Visibility Appears to be Legit

Strong Industry Reputation and Track Record of Success

From being named a top agency by multiple ratings firms…to their long list of big-name clients…to thousands of positive reviews, there’s no denying Ignite Visibility’s strong reputation.

They’ve built a track record of delivering results over nearly a decade in operation. While past performance doesn’t guarantee future results, it signals staying power and quality overall.

Diversified, Full-Service Offering at Scale

Unlike many niche agencies, Ignite offers a robust suite of digital marketing service lines from SEO and PPC to social media, email marketing, CRO and more. Having so many specialists and capabilities under one roof can be a pro for clients seeking more of a strategic partner.

Especially considering the sample data showing most of their client engagements are multi-channel.

Proven Ability to Drive Sustainable Results

Both publicly-available testimonials and the confidential data paint a picture of Ignite Visibility driving long-term profitable growth and retention for many real clients over years.

Things like high client tenure lengths, growing budgets under management, multi-year partnerships and case studies around compounding ROI all point to sustainable results.

Conclusion: Is Ignite Visibility Legit or a Scam?

After an exhaustive review of Ignite Visibility’s services, reputation, client feedback, pricing and behind-the-scenes data, my overall assessment is that they are a legitimate and credible digital marketing agency for the right types of clients.

Do they have some negative reviews and room for improvement in certain areas? Absolutely. No agency is perfect.

But the overwhelming evidence points towards Ignite Visibility being a well-established, results-driven organization with strong industry expertise and quantifiable performance success across clients, channels and long-term engagements.

Here are the key factors that solidify their legitimacy in my opinion:

• Long track record with extensive list of well-known clients
• Numerous industry accolades and strong reputation signals
• Large team with diversified service capabilities and in-house talent
• Proven ability to drive sustained profitability and ROI for clients over years
• Pricing and engagement model aligned with premium-tier agency standards
• Sample data indicating high client loyalty, budget scale and tenure lengths

At the same time, Ignite isn’t necessarily the ideal fit for everyone. Some potential downsides to consider include:

• Premium pricing that puts them out of reach for smaller businesses/startups
• Lower volume of experience for niche services like development or CRO
• Some client complaints around favoritism, turnover and custom strategies
• Not a pure-play speciality firm for any single channel or tactic

So in summary, Ignite Visibility is legitimate and not a scam whatsoever based on the available evidence and data. They are a credible, trustworthy digital marketing partner for serious businesses.

But they may not be the perfect fit for companies seeking more affordable pricing, speciality/boutique services or wider a la carte offerings. It really depends on your unique requirements and situation.

Ignite gets two thumbs up from me if they fit your target profile, budget and goals as a well-rounded, multi-channel digital agency. But do your due diligence, get pricing details and ensure they check all your boxes before signing on the dotted line.