SmartSites vs Pulse Advertising

Why brands weigh up influencer agency options

Brands comparing agencies like SmartSites and Pulse Advertising are usually trying to understand which partner can turn creator relationships into real sales, not just social buzz. You want to know who understands your audience, which services matter most, and how hands-on each team will be with your budget.

Under the surface, you are really choosing between different working styles, levels of creative control, and long term growth paths. The right influencer partner should feel like an extension of your marketing team, not just a vendor sending posts and invoices.

What each agency is known for

The primary keyword for this topic is influencer marketing agencies. Both teams sit inside broader digital marketing worlds, but their roles around creators and social content are different enough that it affects your results and daily workflow.

SmartSites began as a performance driven digital agency. Its reputation is grounded in website design, paid media, SEO, and conversion-focused campaigns, with some brands layering influencers into their broader media mix through SmartSites.

Pulse Advertising, by contrast, built its name squarely around influencer and social-first work. The agency positions itself as a global player in creator campaigns, social storytelling, and brand collaborations, especially for lifestyle and consumer-facing brands.

In practice, SmartSites is often chosen by teams wanting strong performance marketing and a single partner for many channels. Pulse tends to attract marketers who see influencers as a centerpiece of their brand story and want deeper creator culture insight.

SmartSites in simple terms

SmartSites is best understood as a full-service digital marketing shop that can include influencers as one piece of a bigger growth puzzle. Its roots are in measurable, performance-based advertising paired with solid website and landing page work.

Services SmartSites typically offers

SmartSites is known for broader marketing support. For many brands, this is helpful when you want every click from an influencer to lead somewhere optimized and ready to convert.

• Website design and development
• Search engine optimization and content
• Google Ads, Meta Ads, and other paid media
• Email and CRM-driven follow-up campaigns
• Analytics and conversion rate optimization
• Selective influencer and social collaborations

Influencer work here is usually integrated into wider funnels, not treated as an isolated activity. That appeals to brands wanting clear links between creator posts and revenue.

How SmartSites tends to run campaigns

Campaigns from SmartSites usually start with traffic and conversion goals. Influencers may be folded in once messaging, offers, and landing pages are already tested through paid search or social.

The agency may help identify creators whose audiences overlap your existing paid performance wins. Content is then aimed at driving measurable actions rather than only reach or awareness.

Reporting often leans on metrics like leads, sales, and return on ad spend, with influencer efforts judged alongside other acquisition channels rather than in a separate silo.

Creator relationships and collaboration style

Because SmartSites is not solely a creator-focused firm, it may lean more on researching and sourcing talent as needed instead of relying on a tightly curated internal roster.

Expect a structured process: brief development, brand guidelines, asset review, and tracking links. This can work well if you prioritize control and consistency over looser, creator-led experimentation.

Some brands appreciate that balance, since it keeps messages and offers aligned across search, paid social, and influencer content in a single unified approach.

Typical brands that choose SmartSites

SmartSites often fits marketers who want creators to support an already working sales engine. Instead of building a brand story first, they focus on channels that convert and let influencers amplify those efforts.

• Direct-to-consumer brands driven by paid search and social
• B2B companies needing leads rather than just reach
• Local or regional businesses wanting more calls or visits
• Founders who value detailed tracking and reporting over creative risks

If you want one partner running your site, ads, and influencer activity together, this broader setup can be attractive, especially when internal resources are thin.

Pulse Advertising in simple terms

Pulse Advertising positions itself as an influencer-first, social-first agency. Its core promise is to connect brands with the right creators, shape stories that feel natural in social feeds, and turn that attention into demand.

The team is often described as a specialist in balancing brand needs with creator authenticity, something many marketers struggle with when trying to run influencer outreach on their own.

Services Pulse Advertising is known for

Pulse is built around influencers, social content, and related creative. Many offerings support that center of gravity rather than starting from search or websites.

• Influencer discovery and vetting across platforms
• Campaign strategy, concepts, and creative direction
• Contracting, approvals, and rights management
• Content planning for TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and more
• Social media campaigns and paid amplification of creator posts
• Reporting on reach, engagement, and campaign outcomes

The focus here is often on building cultural relevance, social storytelling, and sustained creator partnerships instead of only short bursts of performance.

How Pulse usually runs creator campaigns

Pulse tends to begin with your audience and brand story. The team then looks for creator communities that already speak to those people in a natural way, rather than forcing a message into any available feed.

They assemble groups of influencers with different sizes and roles, such as hero creators, mid-sized partners, and smaller voices with tight-knit followings. This mix aims to balance reach and trust.

Deliverables typically include detailed concepts, posting schedules, content review steps, and coordination of usage rights so you can reuse winning posts elsewhere.

Creator relationships and everyday working style

Because Pulse is heavily focused on creator work, it has ongoing relationships with many influencers, managers, and talent networks. This can speed up casting and improve the quality of matches.

Brands often lean on Pulse to manage the tricky parts of influencer work: negotiations, compliance, brand safety checks, and delivering clear feedback to creators without killing their voice.

You can usually expect more emphasis on the creative process and cultural fit than on landing page tweaks or non-social channels.

Typical brands that turn to Pulse

Pulse tends to attract brands that see social and influencer storytelling as central to their identity. They are willing to invest time and budget into getting that story right across many creators.

• Fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands with strong visual identities
• Consumer tech and app companies targeting younger audiences
• Travel, hospitality, and experience-based businesses
• Global brands needing localized campaigns with local creators

If your main question is “Which creators can move the needle for us and how do we work with them at scale?”, Pulse fits naturally into that picture.

How the two agencies really differ

Although both can touch influencers, the everyday experience of working with each partner can feel very different. That difference comes down to focus, structure, and how they define success.

Focus: performance engine versus creator heartbeat

SmartSites usually treats influencers as one channel inside a larger growth machine built on search, ads, and websites. Pulse treats influencers as the main engine for awareness, engagement, and social proof.

If you need your first priority to be conversions and lead cost, the SmartSites model may feel familiar. If cultural relevance and shareable content are your north stars, Pulse will feel more aligned.

Scale and geography

Pulse promotes itself as a global influencer marketing player, with access to creators in multiple regions and languages. That global reach can be vital for brands growing across borders.

SmartSites, while also serving many markets, is more often associated with performance-driven work for US-based and international companies that value digital advertising and SEO fundamentals.

Client communication and reporting

SmartSites generally sends reporting that ties all channels together, showing how influencer traffic fits beside search and paid social. Many marketers appreciate this single view of acquisition efforts.

Pulse is more likely to break down influencer and social results in detail. Expect creator-specific metrics, content performance, and recommendations based on audience behavior within social platforms.

Creative control and risk tolerance

Pulse’s influencer-first mindset tends to leave more room for creator experimentation, edgy ideas, and social trends. SmartSites may stay closer to polished brand messaging crafted across channels.

Your comfort with creative risk should help drive the choice. Some brands want tight scripts. Others want to hand creators the mic and lean into authenticity.

Pricing approach and engagement style

Neither agency publishes simple price tags, because every engagement depends on project scope, brand stage, and where influencers fit into the plan. Instead of looking for flat rates, it helps to understand how money usually moves.

How SmartSites tends to charge

SmartSites usually works through a mix of ongoing retainers and channel-specific budgets. Influencer activity, if included, sits alongside paid search, social ads, and other services within your overall marketing investment.

Costs can be influenced by how many services you bundle, how complex your campaigns are, and how much content or creative the agency develops for you.

Influencer fees themselves may pass through as part of campaign budgets, with SmartSites charging for planning, negotiations, tracking, and performance optimization.

How Pulse often structures fees

Pulse’s pricing usually centers on influencer planning, creator management, and campaign execution. You might work on a project-by-project basis or enter a larger retainer for ongoing creator programs.

Your total spend will depend on how many influencers are involved, their follower size, content types, and whether you want long-term deals or one-off bursts. Multi-country programs can add more cost.

Management fees usually cover discovery, creative concepts, legal checks, day-to-day communication, and performance reporting, with talent fees billed on top.

What tends to drive cost higher for both

• Well-known creators or celebrities with high visibility
• Complex creative concepts or multi-video shoots
• Usage rights that allow broad re-use in ads and other media
• Multiple social platforms per creator
• Fast turnarounds that require rush coordination

If budget control is a core concern, being clear about must-haves versus nice-to-haves in your brief can prevent overbuilding campaigns that look impressive but overshoot your limits.

Strengths and limitations to keep in mind

Every agency comes with trade-offs. Understanding those trade-offs early will save you from disappointment later and help you communicate expectations clearly from day one.

Where SmartSites often shines

• Strong performance marketing foundations and analytics
• Ability to connect influencer traffic to high-converting pages
• Single partner managing search, paid social, and creators
• Clear reporting around leads, sales, and return on ad spend

This structure works especially well when influencers are a supporting act in a broader demand engine, not the main star of your marketing mix.

Potential SmartSites drawbacks

• Less of a pure “creator culture” focus than specialist influencer shops
• Risk of influencer work feeling more like ads than authentic posts
• Possible limits if you need deep relationships across niche creator communities

Some marketers worry that performance-focused agencies might not fully capture the nuance and community feel of influencer culture.

Where Pulse Advertising often excels

• Deep experience designing creator-led social stories
• Access to a wide network of influencers and talent partners
• Stronger emphasis on authenticity and cultural relevance
• Comfort with multi-country and multi-language rollouts

For brands that live or die by how they show up in feeds, this relentless focus on social content can become a meaningful advantage.

Potential Pulse Advertising drawbacks

• Less emphasis on non-social performance channels and website optimization
• Success sometimes harder to tie directly to revenue for complex sales cycles
• Global programs can become pricey if scope is not carefully controlled

If your leadership team demands strict performance metrics above all, you may need to invest extra effort aligning Pulse’s social-first reporting with your internal dashboards.

Who each agency is best for

Instead of asking which agency is “better,” it is more useful to ask which one fits your current stage, budget, and internal strengths. Your answers here should narrow the field quickly.

SmartSites is usually a good fit if you

• See influencers as one channel within a broader growth plan
• Need help with your website, SEO, and paid ads alongside creators
• Have leadership focused heavily on measurable sales and leads
• Prefer one main partner instead of several specialized agencies
• Are early in influencer marketing and want to test it modestly

In this setup, influencers support performance campaigns rather than replacing them. It suits founders and teams who want an organized, numbers-first approach.

Pulse Advertising is usually a good fit if you

• See social and influencer presence as central to your brand
• Are ready to invest in creative storytelling and community building
• Need structured access to many creators across countries
• Value authenticity and trend awareness over rigid scripts
• Have internal teams covering performance marketing already

This path works especially well when you are prepared to commit, experiment, and give creators some room to shape how your brand speaks online.

When a self-serve influencer platform makes sense

Not every brand is ready for full-service agency retainers. If you want more control or have a smaller budget, a platform-based approach can be smarter than forcing a large agency engagement.

Tools like Flinque let brands handle influencer discovery, outreach, and campaign tracking directly, without hiring a separate team to manage each step. You still work with creators, but you guide the strategy yourself.

This approach can be helpful if you already have in-house marketing staff, but need better structure and search tools. It is also easier to start small, run tests, and scale only what works.

On the other hand, running everything through a platform requires time, process, and negotiation skills. If your team is overloaded or inexperienced with creators, an agency may still be the better call.

FAQs

How should I choose between SmartSites and Pulse Advertising?

Decide whether you care more about performance marketing across many channels or deep, creator-led storytelling on social. Then match that priority to the agency whose strengths align closest with your main goal and internal gaps.

Can either agency work with small budgets?

Both can sometimes support smaller budgets, but full-service influencer campaigns rarely come cheap. If you are highly budget-constrained, consider starting with a focused test, fewer creators, or a platform-based approach before scaling up.

Do I need an agency if I already know some influencers?

If you only work with a few creators, handling them in-house may be fine. Agencies become more useful once you want structured programs, larger creator groups, multi-market coordination, or help with contracts and brand safety.

How long does it take to see results from influencer campaigns?

Simple campaigns can launch within weeks, but building strong creator relationships and repeat content usually takes several months. Expect to test, refine, and scale what works rather than relying on a single post or short trial.

Should I use influencers for awareness or sales?

Influencers can support both, but it is important to pick one primary goal per campaign. Awareness campaigns favor reach and storytelling, while sales-focused efforts need strong offers, optimized landing pages, and careful tracking.

Conclusion

Choosing between these influencer marketing agencies comes down to priorities. If you want influencers folded neatly into a wider performance engine, SmartSites’ broader digital skill set may serve you best.

If you want an influencer-first partner that lives inside creator culture and builds social-native stories at scale, Pulse Advertising offers a more specialized path with deeper emphasis on community and content.

Consider your budget, internal strengths, and appetite for creative risk. Brands with tight teams and complex funnels often prefer an integrated shop. Brands chasing cultural relevance and social buzz may lean toward a creator-focused specialist.

If you are still unsure or budgets are limited, exploring a platform like Flinque for hands-on experiments can reveal what works before you commit to a full-service relationship.

Disclaimer

All information on this page is collected from publicly available sources, third party search engines, AI powered tools and general online research. We do not claim ownership of any external data and accuracy may vary. This content is for informational purposes only.