Canada
Digital marketing agency for Canadian businesses, CASL-safe by default
Marketing to Canadian buyers carries two constraints that do not exist south of the border. CASL, Canada's anti-spam legislation, is among the strictest in the world and requires documented consent before commercial electronic messages are sent, with substantial penalties attached. And in Quebec, French-language requirements apply to commercial communications, which makes a bilingual programme a legal question rather than a marketing preference.
Most Canadian marketing problems we are asked to fix start with an American playbook applied across the border. The campaign structure usually transfers fine. The email programme frequently does not, because implied consent under CASL is far narrower than the equivalent assumption in the US, and the Quebec audience is being served English pages that should not be English-only.
- CASL-compliant by default
- French-language capability
- Province-level campaigns
- Invoiced in CAD
Working with us in Canada
| Working hours | Eastern morning covered live; Pacific requests answered the same business day |
|---|---|
| Invoicing | CAD, invoiced on your standard terms |
| Compliance we build to | CASL consent, identification and unsubscribe requirements, with the basis for consent documented per list segment |
| Quebec | French-language campaigns and pages written natively, at equivalent quality to the English — not machine translation added to an English site |
| How campaigns are structured | By province and metro. Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary behave as separate markets. |
| Why Canada is good value | Less contested than the US at comparable buying power, partly because American advertisers frequently exclude it |
| Realistic time to movement | Paid search: two to four weeks. Metro organic: three to six months. National terms: six to twelve. |
The market
What is different about marketing in Canada
Canada's population is concentrated in a handful of metropolitan markets — Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa and Edmonton — separated by enormous distances and, in Montreal's case, by language. Provincial and metro campaign structures are the norm for the same reason they are in Australia: national averages hide markets that behave nothing alike.
CASL is the constraint that catches overseas agencies out. It requires express or narrowly defined implied consent before a commercial electronic message is sent, mandates clear sender identification and a working unsubscribe, and puts the burden of proving consent on the sender. Lists built under US assumptions frequently do not meet it, and the correct response is to rebuild consent rather than to hope.
Quebec adds a second layer. French-language requirements apply to commercial publications and communications directed at Quebec consumers, which in practice means the French version of a site or campaign has to be present and of equivalent quality — not a translation widget bolted on. Businesses that treat Quebec as an afterthought are both under-serving a large market and creating a compliance exposure.
Competitively, Canadian search is less contested than the US at comparable buying power, largely because American advertisers frequently exclude it and Canadian competitors are fewer. For many categories, that makes it one of the better value English-language markets available.
Sectors we work with here
- Professional and financial services
- B2B technology and SaaS
- Healthcare, dental and allied health
- Home services and construction
- Ecommerce and D2C brands
- Education and training providers
Areas covered
- Nationwide
- Toronto and Ontario
- Montreal and Quebec
- Vancouver and British Columbia
- Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta
- Ottawa and the National Capital Region
- Winnipeg and the Prairies
- Halifax and Atlantic Canada
Selling in Canada?
Tell us what you sell in Canada
We will tell you where the demand actually is, what it is likely to cost per enquiry, and what we would do in the first ninety days. One call, no deck.
What we do here
How we run digital marketing for Canadian businesses
Email and lifecycle built to CASL
Consent captured expressly wherever possible, the basis recorded per segment, sender identification and unsubscribe handled to the letter, and existing lists audited before anything is sent to them. An inherited list built on American assumptions is a liability, and the honest fix is a re-permission campaign rather than optimism.
Genuinely bilingual programmes for Quebec
French pages and campaigns written by French speakers, at the same standard as the English, with the search research done natively in French rather than translated from an English keyword list. Quebec French search vocabulary differs from European French, and translated copy reads as foreign to a Montreal buyer.
Province and metro campaign structures
Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary have different costs, different competitors and in one case a different language. Campaigns structured accordingly, with budgets allocated to where the return is rather than spread across a national average.
Taking the value while it lasts
Canadian search is measurably less contested than the US at similar buying power, because many American advertisers exclude Canada and there are simply fewer domestic competitors. For businesses that can serve both, running Canada as its own programme is usually the cheaper pipeline.
Questions
Questions about digital marketing for Canadian businesses
What does CASL mean for our email marketing?
That you need documented consent before sending commercial electronic messages to Canadian recipients, that implied consent is far narrower and shorter-lived than the US equivalent, and that the burden of proving consent sits with you. Practically, we audit existing lists before sending to them, record the basis of consent per segment, and run a re-permission campaign where the basis is not defensible.
Do we need French content for Quebec?
If you are marketing to Quebec consumers, effectively yes. French-language requirements apply to commercial communications directed at Quebec, and beyond compliance it is simply better marketing — Quebec buyers respond considerably better to French written natively than to translated English. We do the keyword research in Quebec French rather than translating an English list, because the vocabulary differs from European French.
Can we just extend our US campaigns into Canada?
The paid search structure usually transfers; the email programme and the Quebec audience do not. Canadian click costs, competitors and consumer expectations differ enough that a shared campaign tends to let US performance dictate Canadian bidding. Run as its own programme, Canada is often the cheaper pipeline of the two.
Is Canadian search less competitive than the US?
In most categories, yes, and often substantially. Many American advertisers exclude Canada from their targeting, and there are fewer domestic competitors at a comparable level of buying power. For businesses that can serve Canadian customers, this is one of the better value English-language markets currently available.
How much does digital marketing cost in Canada?
Local retainers commonly run from around CAD 3,000 a month for a single channel to CAD 20,000 and above for multi-channel programmes, with media separate. A bilingual programme covering Quebec properly costs more than an English-only one, and is usually worth it — the French-language audience is large and considerably less contested.
Services
Our services for businesses in Canada
SEO
Technical fixes, content built around real buying questions, and the local visibility that decides who gets the call.
Email Marketing
Flows, campaigns and segmentation that turn a dormant list into a predictable monthly revenue line.
Performance Marketing
Paid search, paid social and remarketing, run against a cost per qualified lead you agree before anything is spent.
Next step
Growing a business in Canada?
Tell us what you sell and who buys it. We will tell you where the demand actually is, what we would do first, and whether we are the right people to do it — including when we are not.