Around 1,600 new marketing companies are registered in the UK every month. A large share of them will never build a website, take on a client, or file a single set of accounts. So before you hand one your budget, here is how to tell a real agency from a paper one, using the public record that every legitimate company sits on.
We ran the numbers on this. Mode pulled every UK company incorporated since 1 January 2025 under the four marketing industry codes and measured how they are actually doing. The findings are blunt: this is a market where being “active” on the register tells you very little, and a few free checks tell you a lot.
What the register actually shows
Companies House holds a live, free, public record of every limited company in the UK. It is the single best tool a buyer has, and almost nobody uses it before signing. Here is the picture it paints of the current wave of new marketing companies, all measured from Mode’s own analysis of the register in July 2026 (method at the foot of this page):
- 29,609 marketing companies were incorporated between January 2025 and July 2026, at a steady rate of about 1,600 a month.
- Of the companies formed in January 2025 (the only group old enough to judge fairly), 27 per cent were already dissolved eighteen months later.
- Among still-active companies in our sample, 17 per cent already had an overdue confirmation statement, the first sign of a company drifting toward being struck off.
- Every dissolved company in the sample went by compulsory strike-off, not formal liquidation. These are abandoned shells, not trading businesses that failed.
- At least a fifth of the whole population is registered at just six virtual-office addresses.
- Only 2.6 per cent had filed any accounts at all.
For context, the Office for National Statistics puts one-year survival for UK businesses as a whole at around 93 per cent. A quarter of new marketing companies gone inside eighteen months is far worse than the economy-wide norm. Some of that is mechanical (never-traded shells getting struck off), but the practical lesson for a buyer is the same: the label “Ltd” guarantees nothing, and “active” is not the same as “in good standing.”
Six checks that take five minutes
You do not need to be an accountant. Search the agency’s name at the Companies House service, open the company record, and work through these.
1. Find the company at all
A legitimate agency has a registered company and will give you its number without hesitation. If you cannot find them on the register, if they trade under a name that is not registered anywhere, or if they dodge the question, stop there. Mode’s number is 16231339, and it is on every page of our site.
2. Check how long they have been going
The incorporation date is on the record. Being new is not disqualifying, plenty of good agencies are young, but weigh it against the survival data above. If a company was formed a few months ago, ask a fair question: what were you doing before this company existed, and can you show me that work?
3. Check that they file on time
Every UK company must file a confirmation statement each year and annual accounts. The register shows the filing history and flags anything overdue. An overdue confirmation statement is the single clearest early warning that a company is drifting, it is exactly what precedes a compulsory strike-off. A real, trading agency keeps its filings current because it has to.
4. Check the registered address
A working agency has somewhere it actually works. A shell often shares one address with thousands of other companies. If the registered office is a well-known formation address or a flat with no other footprint, it is worth asking where the work really happens and who you would meet. This is not automatically damning, but it is a question a real business can answer easily.
5. Check who actually does the work
The register lists the directors and the people with significant control. Cross-check those names against the team page, LinkedIn, and a genuine portfolio. One name, no team, no named case studies, and a stock-photo “about” page is the profile of a business you may struggle to hold to account when something goes wrong.
6. Check they expect to be checked
The businesses worth trusting tend to make themselves easy to verify: published prices, named work you can click through to, real reviews, and a website that a search engine or AI assistant can actually read. Secrecy about price and process is a choice, and it usually tells you something.
The one-minute version
Before you pay a marketing agency: find them on Companies House, check they are more than a paper entity, check their filings are current, look at where they are registered and who runs them, and make sure they publish enough for you to hold them to their word. None of it costs anything. All of it is faster than the regret of paying a company that is gone by the time you notice.
For what it is worth, Mode passes all six. We are a registered UK company (16231339), our filings are current, our registered office is a real London address, our prices are published on this site, and our work is named. That is the standard we think you should hold any agency to, including us.
How we know this
Mode pulled every UK company incorporated since 1 January 2025 under the four marketing industry SIC codes (advertising 73110, public relations 70210, media representation 73120, and market research 73200) from the Companies House Advanced Search API on 12 July 2026, a total of 29,609 companies. Survival status, filing compliance and dissolution timing were read directly from the register. An 800-company sample was profiled for filing health. We publish aggregate figures only and name no individual company. The register is public and free, so every number here is one you can check for yourself.
Common questions
How do I check if a marketing agency is a real company?
Search the agency’s name at the Companies House service (find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk), which is free. Look for a company number, an incorporation date, a filing history, and a registered address. A legitimate agency will also give you its company number if you ask.
Is it a bad sign if a marketing agency is very new?
Not on its own. Many good agencies are young. But pair it with the odds: of UK marketing companies formed in January 2025, 27 per cent were already dissolved within eighteen months. If a company is only a few months old, ask what track record the people behind it have from before it was formed.
What does an overdue confirmation statement mean?
Every UK company must confirm its details to Companies House once a year. If that filing is overdue, it is the earliest public sign that a company is drifting, and it is what typically precedes being struck off the register. A company can still show as “active” while heading in that direction.
Should I worry about a virtual-office registered address?
Not automatically, plenty of legitimate small businesses use one. But at least a fifth of new UK marketing companies are registered at just six formation addresses, so it is a fair prompt to ask where the actual work happens and who you would be dealing with day to day.
Does Mode publish its own company details?
Yes. Mode Marketing Limited is registered at Companies House under number 16231339, files on time, works from a real London registered office, and publishes its prices and named work on this site. That transparency is exactly what we think you should expect from any agency you pay.
Want to see the standard in practice? Mode’s prices are published here, and the work is named, so you can check us the same way we are telling you to check everyone else.