Verified data · By creators, for creators · No agency-paid reviews
Small creators launching a Kickstarter get flooded with pitches from marketing agencies promising the world for £800 upfront. Some are worth it. Most are targeting your tight launch budget for money they know they can't earn back. This is a verified database, built by real creators, so you can tell which is which before you pay.
Creators help creators. That's the whole point.
One row per campaign, from creators who have sent in their own figures. Not averages: the spread is the point, because the same agency can return 5x for one project and lose money on the next.
22 agencies covered, 32 campaigns behind them
What each one cost, what came back, and whether it was worth it. Behind a code rather than on this page, because creators only share figures like these on the understanding that they stay between creators and not with the agencies being rated.
£49
One payment. Access for life, including everything added later.
Free with the £750 coaching programme. If I am taking you through a launch it comes with it, along with the pre-launch page (£200), the launch checklist (£99), the campaign page skeleton (£39) and the email sequence (£49) — £436 of tools, none of which expire. What else is included.
Free for life if you add your own campaign. Upload your referrers export, price what you paid, and the code appears on screen. About ten minutes.
Every row is one campaign, from the creator who paid the invoice. Campaign names and creator names are never shown. An agency cannot add itself, and nothing goes in without the referrers export behind it.
Why I'm building this
Small creators are the whole point. If you've saved every spare pound to fund your Kickstarter, you're exactly the person these agencies target. £500. £800. £1,500. Money you can't afford to lose. Most of them know they can't earn it back for you.
I've paid a lot of it myself. Cold-email agencies with impressive names. Guys with "email lists of 50,000 crowdfunding backers." Guaranteed press mentions that turned into a single blog post nobody reads.
Here's the trick they run: "If we don't bring you at least 1:1 in sales for what you paid, we'll refund the rest." Sounds fair. It's not. Creators launching a Kickstarter are the busiest people in the world for those 30 days. They know you won't chase the refund. You won't. You're too busy shipping. That's the whole game.
So I'm collecting the honest numbers. Verified creators only. Real cost, real return, real ROAS. Nobody profits except future creators who don't waste their launch budget on the wrong agency.
The data so far
Total spent on agencies
£57,726
Across 32 campaigns and 22 agencies
Average blended ROAS
1.46x
Per £1, on the 17 campaigns that can be scored
Paid, nothing traceable
£630
1 of 22 agencies
Sample from the database
Full database: names + numbers + notes
Agency #1 · campaign 1 physical-product
Cost
£432
Return
£2,853
ROAS
6.60x
Agency #1 · campaign 2 physical-product
Cost
£432
Return
£330
ROAS
0.76x
Agency #2 physical-product
Cost
£20,909
Return
£27,849
ROAS
1.33x
Free — no database access needed
Important: cold outreach mid-campaign is not a reliable scam signal. Some of the best email-list agencies contact live projects because that's how the model works. Some of the worst do exactly the same. You cannot tell from the pitch alone. Which is why this database exists — it's the only way to separate the real from the fakes with actual numbers from real creators.
1. Ask for three past clients with campaign links.
Not "we helped many campaigns" — specific names + Kickstarter URLs. A legitimate agency has three funded campaigns they'll happily point you to. Message those creators privately (Kickstarter's "message creator" button) and ask what they actually got for their money.
2. Search this database first.
The whole point. If the agency isn't in the database yet, submit them at the form above — I'll add them and reach out to their past clients for verified numbers before your campaign closes.
3. Case studies with real numbers, not adjectives.
"We generated £X in pledges for campaign Y" with a link is credible. "We helped fund hundreds of campaigns" without figures is marketing filler.
4. Watch out for guaranteed pledge counts.
No honest agency guarantees backers — too many variables outside their control. "We will get you 500 backers" is a sales close, not a plan. "Historically campaigns like yours got 30–70 pledges from our list" is credible.
5. Refuse pressure to pay today.
Any legitimate business survives you taking 48 hours to check them. Urgency ("this slot expires tomorrow") is a red flag.
6. Check the domain age.
Whois.com is free. A crowdfunding marketing agency worth using has been around longer than your campaign has been in prep. A six-week-old domain is not automatically a scam, but combined with other flags it usually is.
7. Get the pricing structure in writing.
Is it a flat fee, a percentage of raise, both, or a combo with performance bonuses? Get it in writing before you pay. Some agencies quote a flat fee then invoice a percentage later.
Some are, most are not. In the data I've seen, the majority of cold-outreach email-list agencies deliver ROAS below 1×. A few legitimate ones exist — they typically don't need to cold-message you mid-campaign because they're already booked out. The database identifies which is which.
Every submission requires a valid email plus the Kickstarter campaign URL. I verify the creator identity against the Kickstarter profile before adding a review. No anonymous submissions. No agencies reviewing themselves.
Approximate figures are fine, and the form auto-calculates ROAS from the cost + pledge amounts you enter. The point is honest ballpark data — 0.15× vs 3× is what matters, not whether it's 0.15 or 0.17.
Have three of your past clients submit reviews. Agencies cannot review themselves. That's the whole point.
Because the next small creator launching their campaign next month is going to get the same agency pitch you got. Your ten minutes of honest data helps them not lose £800 to the wrong one. Creators help creators — this only works if everyone contributes.
