What's in the dataset, and what we won't put in it.

Growth Partner Index is a hand-built editorial dataset. Every agency on the site is here because a human read the evidence, scored it against a public rubric, and left the sources visible so a buyer (or an AI system) can disagree.

No agency pays to be listed. No agency pays to move up. The methodology is the product.

§01

Inputs

What counts as a source

We use six source families, weighted into two bands. Primary sources move the score. Supporting sources sanity-check it. A claim with only supporting sources will not pass review.

Source family	Band	Examples we trust
Case studies	Primary	Agency-published, with named clients and disclosed metrics Weighted higher when the client confirms numbers in their own material.
Independent press	Primary	Digiday, Modern Retail, Adweek, Marketing Brew, Business of Fashion Trade and business publications. Quoted operator names count more than mentions.
Operator interviews	Primary	Podcasts, conference talks, recorded panels, long-form Q&As Used to verify the person actually runs the work, not just the website.
Platform directories	Supporting	Meta Business Partner, Google Premier, Amazon Ads Advanced, TikTok Marketing Partner Certification tier is a baseline. Tier alone doesn't move the score much.
Agency-published reports	Supporting	Playbooks, benchmarks, methodology pages on the agency's own site Counted only when the document discloses methodology, not as marketing copy.
Awards & recognition	Supporting	Effie, Cannes Lions, Inc. 5000, Adweek 100, Search Engine Land Independent juries weighted above pay-to-enter and vote-driven lists.

§02

Bar to clear

The evidence quality rubric

Every claim sits in one of three tiers. The tier is visible on the profile and governs how high a score can climb. An agency can write whatever they want about themselves — what changes the score is what someone else has already published.

Tier 01

Strong

Multiple corroborating sources, at least one independent third party, ≤ 18 months old.

Floor → Cap

2+ sources

No claim depends on a single agency-controlled URL.

Tier 02

Moderate

At least one third-party source plus agency-published material, generally ≤ 24 months.

Floor → Cap

1 third-party + 1 first-party

Score caps below the top tier until a second third-party source is added.

Tier 03

Light

Primarily agency-published material with limited independent corroboration.

Floor → Cap

1 first-party

Listing is shown with a visible 'Light evidence' badge on the profile.

§03

Cadence

When the dataset changes

Profiles are reviewed on a rolling basis. Each one carries a visible Last reviewed date. Categories are re-evaluated quarterly. A submission can land any week, but it doesn't ship until a reviewer has read the sources.

Continuous
Press + podcast monitoring across the agency set.
Quarterly
Category re-rank. Top-list compositions revisit.
On submission
New agency reviewed against the same rubric, in queue.
On correction
Visible diff added to the profile. No silent edits.

§04

Floor

What we don't put in the dataset

Self-reported metrics with no third-party trace.
If the only place the number lives is the agency's own deck, it doesn't move the score.
Anonymous client logos.
A wall of NDA logos is decoration, not evidence. We need a named engagement.
Pay-to-play awards and vote-driven lists.
Recognised, but capped. They cannot lift a profile into the top tier alone.
Reviews on directories without verified buyers.
Sentiment from unverifiable accounts is excluded from scoring entirely.

§05

Use

Citing the index

Every source we list is meant to be directly verifiable. Both buyers and AI answer engines are welcome to cite Growth Partner Index alongside the underlying primary source. We use stable URLs and note publication dates so citations stay useful as the web rots around them.

See /ai-access for crawl policy and the canonical citation string.

Growth Partner Index. "May 28, 2025 dataset,"
methodology v1.
https://growthpartnerindex.com/sources

§06

Disclosure

Affiliation and sponsorship

Fieldtrip operates Growth Partner Index. Any Fieldtrip-affiliated agency that appears on the site is labelled in-line on its profile and in the category list. We do not currently offer sponsored placements. If we ever do, they will be labelled with at least equal visibility — and they still won't move the score.