How Competent Are Baltic B2B Marketing Agencies?

The short answer: they struggling to cross the line into excellence.

Norstat asked Baltic B2B marketers (who work with marketing agencies) to rate the competence of their agency partners on a scale from 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent), the results painted a clear picture of where agencies stand today.

The majority of marketers—43%—rated their agency as “good”, while another 31% placed them at “average.” This suggests that agencies are generally delivering solid results, though not always exceeding expectations. Only 12% awarded the highest rating of “excellent,” highlighting that top-tier performance remains the exception rather than the rule.

On the lower end, just 5% described their agency as “poor” and 1% as “very poor.” While these figures are small, they indicate that a minority of relationships fall significantly short of expectations.

Looking at regional differences, the average rating for agency competence in Estonia is 3.7, in Latvia 3.4, and in Lithuania 3.8. This shows that while agencies in all three Baltic markets are seen as competent overall, there are clear variations in perception. Lithuanian marketers rate their agencies slightly higher, while Latvian agencies have more work to do to close the gap.

Overall, the data suggests that most agencies are meeting client needs reliably but are struggling to cross the line into excellence. 

For agencies, the opportunity lies in moving more clients from “good” to “excellent.” For marketers, these results are a reminder to challenge partners not just to deliver, but to innovate, surprise, and truly differentiate.