Which Marketing Agencies Does AI Recommend in Belgium and the Netherlands? (Q4 2026)

AI doesn’t recommend one fixed “best” marketing agency in Belgium or the Netherlands.

Even the most-named agency shows up in at most 1 in 9 answers.

Short answer: which marketing agency ChatGPT or any other AI tool recommends depends on the question, the language, the tool and the moment. And above all on the sources AI reads: agency directories and lists, such as Sortlist.

On 12 November 2026 we asked four AI tools 751 questions from buyers looking for an agency.

That gave us 3,004 answers from Flanders, French-speaking Belgium and the Netherlands.

Key findings:

1. No fixed winner. The most-named agency per market shows up in 9 to 12% of answers.
2. About 5 names per answer. In about 8% of answers, AI names no agency at all.
3. The AI tools disagree. On the same question, ChatGPT and Google AI Mode share 4 to 6% of their names on average.
4. Answers shift. Ask the same question again and 41% of the agencies named before stay.
5. Directories steer the answer. 51 to 57% of answers cite a directory or review platform, mostly Sortlist.
6. Local stays local. 75 to 81% of the agencies named are Belgian or Dutch.
7. Google rankings don’t carry over to AI by themselves. On city questions where we’re top 3 in Google, no AI tool named us.

Which marketing agencies does AI name most often in Flanders?

In Dutch-language Belgian answers, AI named Customer Impact most often.

ClickForest, Conversal and Beyond Marketing follow.

Look at the gaps between the bars in the chart: they’re small.

Share of 960 AI answers to Dutch-language Belgian buyer questions, translation questions left out. Our own prompt measurements, November 2026.

The top 10 sits between 4% and 12%.

So the gap between 2nd and 6th place is only a handful of answers.

Why is Customer Impact at the top?

Mostly because of our own pages. It’s not a sign we’re better.

In 95% of the answers that name Customer Impact, the AI also cited customerimpact.be, usually our own agency comparisons.

For the other agencies in the top 5, that share is 23 to 35%.

And those are often our lists too.

It works today, but it’s fragile.

If an AI tool starts weighting self-published lists differently, we drop.

Which agencies does AI name in Wallonia and Brussels?

For French-language Belgian questions, Clef2web comes out on top.

Izoard, Customer Impact and Universem follow, almost level.

Share of 932 AI answers to French-language Belgian buyer questions. Our own prompt measurements, November 2026.

Same story here: in 93% of the answers that name us, the AI cited our own site.

Which agencies does AI name in the Netherlands?

In the Netherlands, AI mostly names WADM, Searchlab, Lead Today and Dapper.

Customer Impact barely shows up: 8 of 908 answers.

Share of 908 AI answers to Dutch buyer questions. Our own prompt measurements, November 2026.

So Belgian and Dutch buyers get different names.

Only iO turns up regularly in both countries.

Our takeaway: a Belgian agency is close to invisible in Dutch AI answers, even with Dutch-language pages.

That goes for us too.

Which agency does AI name per service in Flanders?

The top changes a lot from service to service.

Here we use the AI recommendation score (0 to 100): how often, how high and how broadly AI names an agency.

The method section below explains how the score’s built.

Each service name links to our own page on that service.

AI recommendation score (0 to 100) per service, Dutch-language Belgian questions, ties sorted by number of mentions. 60 to 112 answers per service: read the numbers as a direction, not an exact standing.

What stands out per service?

Specialists win their niche. Izoard scores 41 on LinkedIn Ads, XLTAG 29 on tracking and ViaVerbia 32 on translation.

Broad agencies show up in every top 5, but rarely far ahead.

Where does Customer Impact itself stand?

It varies. The chart shows our own score per service, including where it’s low:

Customer Impact’s score per service, Dutch-language Belgian questions. Our own prompt measurements, November 2026.

We’re 1st for lead generation and Google Ads. For AI visibility (GEO), our own core service, we’re 24th. For websites, 71st.

Tip: looking for an agency for one service? Compare per service.

That’s what our lists do for SEO agencies, lead generation, Google Ads, content marketing and LinkedIn Ads.

Which sources does AI use to recommend an agency?

AI bases its agency picks mainly on agency directories and on lists that agencies publish themselves.

Look at the difference between the tools in the chart:

Share of answers citing at least one agency directory or review platform (Sortlist, Clutch, Semrush Agency Partners, The Manifest, Trustoo and similar). 3,004 answers, November 2026.

Perplexity cites a directory in nearly 8 of 10 answers.

Gemini does so in 1 in 3.

Which types of sources count most?

Sources by type, across all markets:

• Agency directories: 51 to 57% of answers, Sortlist first.
• Lists published by agencies: about 60% cite a URL that looks like a list.
• LinkedIn: 4 to 5%.
• Reddit and YouTube: under 1%.

Do you see the same in Google?

Yes. Across the 148 search terms we checked, sortlist.be was in Google’s top 10 65 times. An AI Overview showed up on 147 of the 148.

That fits how Google describes it.

AI Overviews and AI Mode show “a wider and more diverse set of helpful links” and run several related searches to get there (Google Search Central).

Tip for agencies: a complete directory profile with recent reviews is the fastest way into AI answers.

Why does AI name different agencies every time?

AI picks from whatever it finds at that moment, answer by answer.

So the names differ per tool and per attempt.

Three numbers from our measurement:

• Per tool: only 21 to 25% of the agencies named show up in two or more tools.
• One-offs: about two thirds of all names came up exactly once.
• Asked again: 41% of names stayed on a second or third attempt.

That matters for any “AI scan” built on one question.

One screenshot tells you very little.

Measure across many questions and several runs, as we explain in AI share of voice.

Does an agency that ranks well in Google also show up in AI?

Not automatically. Our own data makes that clear.

We took the search terms where our pages rank at the top of Google and asked them as questions to AI.

For “SEO-bureau” in Turnhout, Genk, Mechelen and Sint-Niklaas we rank between position 1.7 and 4.1 in Google.

On those city questions, no AI tool named us.

Where AI did name us, a comparison page was the source.

So a good ranking for a service page isn’t enough.

Ahrefs’ research across 75,000 brands points the same way.

Branded web mentions correlate most strongly with visibility in AI Overviews, at 0.664 (Ahrefs).

Bottom line: for AI, mentions on other sites count for more than your own rankings.

How did we measure this?

We asked buyer questions the way a company asks an AI tool, in three markets and four tools.

Questions, markets and tools

• Questions: 751 questions from someone looking for an agency, across 12 services plus general questions about B2B, SEO and digital agencies.
• For example: “What are the best SEO agencies in Belgium?” or “I’m looking for an SEO agency in Mechelen. Who would you recommend?” (asked in Dutch).
• No names: none of the questions contained an agency name.
• Markets: Dutch-speaking Belgium, French-speaking Belgium and the Netherlands, each in its own language (local terms, real cities).
• Tools: ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini and Perplexity.

Note: Gemini and Perplexity don’t let you set a country, so we couldn’t pin them. There, the market comes from the language and the question.

Timing and repeats

All questions ran on 12 November 2026.

We asked 42 questions 2 extra times on three tools to measure stability.

How do we recognise agencies?

A script pulls the company names out of every answer.

In a manual check of 32 answers, 97% of the names found were correct.

The script misses 10 to 15% of names, mostly ones that only appear in running text.

We removed headings like “Part 1” and software brands by hand.

How does the AI recommendation score work?

Named in is the share of answers that name an agency. It’s our main ranking per market.

We use the AI recommendation score (0 to 100) per service and market.

It combines six things:

• how often AI names the agency (40%);
• how high up in the answer (20%);
• whether it’s a real recommendation (15%);
• whether AI cites the agency’s own site (10%);
• how many tools name it (10%);
• whether it comes back on a new attempt (5%).

ChatGPT counts for 40%, Google AI Mode 30%, Gemini and Perplexity 15% each.

That weighting is our own assumption.

What are the limits?

• Small numbers: 60 to 112 answers per service, so small gaps don’t mean much.
• Volatile: AI answers change every week. This is a snapshot of November 2026.
• Country setting: Gemini and Perplexity aren’t pinned to a country.
• Self-mention: we’re in the data ourselves, and our own pages influence the answers.

Everything here comes from our own prompt measurements, November 2026.

We publish the numbers per agency. We don’t publish the full AI answers.

Further reading: how AI visibility differs by sector is in our benchmark by industry.

An earlier measurement for a single SaaS brand: our AI visibility study.

What does this mean if you’re looking for a marketing agency?

Use AI to start a shortlist. Don’t let it make the final call.

The answer depends too much on chance and on sources.

You’re not the only one using AI this way.

In a survey of 350 B2B buyers, nearly two thirds used AI as much as, or more than, search engines to research vendors (Responsive).

Three steps we recommend to everyone:

1. Ask two tools the same question. Names that come back in both are stronger candidates.
2. Open the sources. Is it a directory with real reviews, or an agency’s list about itself?
3. Ask for proof. A named client, a number and a time frame, as in how to choose a marketing agency.

Searching more broadly? Our comparisons of digital marketing agencies, full-service agencies and growth marketing agencies are a second source next to AI.

Read them critically: we’re a party there too.

What does this mean if you’re an agency or B2B company yourself?

You get into AI answers by being where AI reads.

That means directories, reviews and other people’s lists.

What the most-named agencies have in common:

• A complete profile with reviews on Sortlist, Clutch or Semrush Agency Partners.
• Mentions on other people’s lists, not just on their own site.
• A clear specialism, such as LinkedIn Ads or tracking.
• Local proof in the country where they want to be named.

Want to know where your company stands?

Run the free AI visibility check or read how review platforms affect your AI visibility.

Frequently asked questions

Which marketing agency does ChatGPT recommend most in Belgium?

In our November 2026 measurement, AI named Customer Impact most often in Dutch-language Belgian answers. Across all four tools, the gap with ClickForest, Conversal and Beyond Marketing is small. In 95% of the answers that name us, the AI cited our own site.

Is the agency AI recommends also the best agency?

No. AI names agencies that appear often in its sources, and that isn’t a quality label. That says something about visibility, not about the quality of the work. Always ask for proof and references.

Why does ChatGPT name a different agency than Google AI Mode?

Each tool searches and reads different sources. On the same question, ChatGPT and Google AI Mode shared only 4 to 6% of their names on average.

How does an agency get into ChatGPT’s answers?

By being mentioned in the sources AI cites: agency directories with reviews and comparisons by others. More than half of the answers cited such a directory.

Will you repeat this study?

Yes, with the same questions, so you can see who rises and who falls. The next measurement is planned for February 2027.

Why is Customer Impact itself in the results?

Because we don’t take anyone out of the data, and that includes us. The order comes from the measurement. We also show that AI names us mainly through our own site.

Want to measure this for your own company?

We measure and improve AI visibility for B2B companies.

Take a look at our GEO agency approach and book a call: you’ll get a proposal for a first measurement within 24 hours.