Sketch Trades review (2026): the Birmingham trades marketing agency, its UK number one claim, unpublished prices, and a simpler alternative
Sketch Trades is the trades and home improvement division of Sketch Creative, a Birmingham agency incorporated in 2016, selling websites, branding, Google and Meta ads, email and SMS, video and SEO. It calls itself the UK's number one agency for the sector and does not publish prices. It shows a 4.9 Google rating from 71 reviews. Growth Bull is £69 a month for the Google review and ranking part.
Written by Tom Riley, founder of Growth Bull
8 min read Prices checked October 2026
Sketch Trades is the trades arm of Sketch Creative, a Birmingham design and marketing agency. It sells the full set to trades and home improvement firms: websites, branding, Google and Meta ads, email and SMS, video and SEO, and it calls itself the UK's number one agency focused solely on the sector. It does not publish prices; the way in is a discovery call. Its homepage shows a 4.9 Google rating from 71 reviews, and we could not find a Trustpilot page.
Growth Bull is not an agency. It is £69 a month of software that gets Google reviews from every paid invoice and shows where you rank. This review is for the kitchen fitter, driveway firm or builder deciding whether the next spend is a full agency retainer or the reviews every campaign depends on.
Written by Tom Riley, founder of Growth Bull. Where Sketch Trades is the better choice, we say so. Facts checked 1 October 2026.
For the other trades agencies, see our One Base Media review and our Welch Marketing review, and for the wider market, marketing for tradesmen compared.
Growth Bull vs Sketch Trades
Sketch Trades is a full-service agency for a trades or home improvement firm that wants its brand, website, ads and content handled by one team with a wider agency behind it, while Growth Bull is a £69 a month tool that does one thing from your invoices: get the Google reviews every campaign depends on.
Choose Growth Bull if
you want more Google reviews and a clear view of your map, search and AI rankings for a fixed monthly price, with no discovery call and no retainer.
Starting price: £69/mo, no contract
Choose Sketch Trades if
you want branding, a website and paid ads built together by an agency with a design pedigree, and you are comfortable getting the price and the term on a call.
Starting price: Not published; discovery call
Side by side
What each company says about itself, on its own website, next to ours.
Both screenshots show the public websites as they looked on 1 October 2026. The Sketch Trades screenshot belongs to Sketch Trades and is shown here for a fair, like-for-like comparison.
At a glance
Growth Bull ahead: 4Sketch Trades ahead: 2Level: 2
| What you get | Growth Bull | Sketch Trades |
|---|---|---|
| What you are buying | Software: review requests, Rank Map, Keyword Tracker, AI Visibility | Websites, branding, Google and Meta ads, email and SMS, video, SEO |
| Gets new Google reviews automatically | Yes, one text and one email after every paid invoice | Not described |
| Runs paid ads for you | No | Yes, Google, Facebook and Instagram |
| Map and search rank tracking | Yes, Rank Map and Keyword Tracker on Complete Growth | Not described |
| Published price | Review Builder £69 a month, Complete Growth £129 a month | Not published |
| Commitment | None, 7-day free trial, cancel any month | Not published |
| Public reviews | Growth Bull is new; see the live examples on our site | Google 4.9 from 71 reviews shown on site; no Trustpilot page found |
| Company | UK, prices in pounds and dollars | Sketch Creative Limited, Birmingham, incorporated 2016 |
The tick marks the stronger option on that row. Prices per month, checked 1 October 2026.
Who are Sketch Trades and what do they sell?
Sketch Trades describes itself as the marketing division of the award-winning agency Sketch Creative. The company behind both is Sketch Creative Limited (company number 10349356), incorporated on 27 August 2016, registered at X+ Why Foundry, Brindley Place in Birmingham, and active with a specialised design SIC code. Crunchbase gives 2014 as the agency's founding year. Sketch Creative's about page lists a team of around 25 and names David Thompson as Creative Director and Jordan Butcher as Operations Director; Crunchbase names Jacob Cauchi as Marketing Director. The parent agency's other work includes dental marketing, e-commerce and apps, which is unusual for a trades specialist and explains the design emphasis.
What a trades firm buys is the full service:
- Website design and development, and logo and brand design.
- Paid advertising on Google, Facebook and Instagram.
- Email and SMS marketing, video content, and SEO with Google Business Profile optimisation.
The site's claims are that it is the UK's number one agency for the sector, that it guarantees leads with a focus on quality over quantity, and that results typically show within the first two to four weeks once campaigns and systems are live. Those are the agency's claims; we found no independent ranking either way.
What does Sketch Trades cost and what is the commitment?
Sketch Trades does not publish prices or terms. The homepage is built around a discovery call form, described as a proper conversation with no pressure, and the price comes from that call. We treat the price and the minimum term as not published.
In our view a full-service agency will always price on a call, because a brand, a site and an ad campaign together are a bespoke job. The questions to ask are the build cost, the monthly retainer, the ad budget on top, the minimum term, and who owns the website, the brand files and the ad accounts if you leave.
What do customers say about Sketch Trades?
Sketch Trades shows a Google rating of 4.9 from 71 reviews on its homepage, and Sketch Creative's about page refers to more than 100 reviews across the agency. We could not find a Trustpilot page for sketchtrades.com in October 2026, and we could not verify the Google count from a public page we could load, so the figure here is the badge on the site. As with every agency, ask for two or three client references in your trade and ring them.
Who does Sketch Trades suit?
Sketch Trades suits a trades or home improvement firm that wants to look like a bigger company: a new brand, a designed website, video and ads built to match, run by a team with a design background and the resources of a wider agency. For kitchens, bathrooms, driveways, extensions and the home improvement trades where the brand sells the job, that is a reasonable purchase.
It suits a sole trader with a working van and a quiet phone less well. A brand refresh does not change your Google Business Profile, and a retainer that covers six services is a lot of money if the one thing you need is more reviews.
Where Growth Bull fits instead
Growth Bull does the one thing underneath every campaign. Growth Bull's Review Builder connects to Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, FreeAgent, HubSpot or Pipedrive and sends one text and one email asking for a Google review after every paid invoice. More Google reviews lift you in the map pack (the box of three businesses with a map at the top of Google), and they are what a homeowner reads before clicking any ad or any beautifully designed site. It is £69 a month, with a 7-day free trial and no contract.
Complete Growth at £129 a month adds Rank Map, which scans a grid of points around your town and names who holds number one for your trade; Keyword Tracker, which follows your search positions, and is a fair way to check what an SEO retainer is delivering; and AI Visibility, which asks ChatGPT, Claude and Google's AI who they recommend in your town and shows whether you are named.
Growth Bull does not design brands, build websites or run ads. If you need those, an agency is the right purchase, and the two run well together: the agency for the look and the campaigns, the tool for the reviews and the proof.
Verdict
In our view, Sketch Trades is a credible full-service choice for a home improvement firm that wants design-led marketing, backed by a real agency with a public team. The gaps are the unpublished price and terms, and a number one claim that is the agency's own. Get the retainer, the term and the ownership of your assets in writing.
If what you need first is reviews and rankings, Growth Bull's Review Builder is £69 a month with a 7-day free trial at growthbull.io/signup, or book a call with Tom.
Questions people ask
How much does Sketch Trades cost?
Sketch Trades does not publish prices or contract terms. Its homepage leads with a discovery call booking form, and every service page points to the same call. We treat the price and the minimum term as not published (checked October 2026).
Is Sketch Trades really the UK's number one trades agency?
That is the agency's own claim, worded on its site as the UK's number one agency focused solely on the trades and home improvements sector. We found no independent ranking that supports or contradicts it. What is verifiable is that Sketch Trades is the trades division of Sketch Creative, a Birmingham agency with a 25-plus person team, and that it shows a 4.9 Google rating from 71 reviews.
Who runs Sketch Trades?
Sketch Trades describes itself as the marketing division of Sketch Creative. The company, Sketch Creative Limited, number 10349356, was incorporated on 27 August 2016 and is registered at Brindley Place in Birmingham. Sketch Creative's about page names David Thompson as Creative Director and Jordan Butcher as Operations Director; Crunchbase lists Jacob Cauchi as Marketing Director and 2014 as the founding year of the agency.
What does Sketch Trades do?
It sells website design and development, logo and brand design, paid advertising on Google, Facebook and Instagram, email and SMS marketing, video content, and SEO and Google Business Profile optimisation, all for trades and home improvement firms. Its site says results typically appear within the first two to four weeks once campaigns are live, which is the agency's claim.
Does Sketch Trades get Google reviews for you?
Its services include Google Business Profile optimisation, but nothing on the site describes a review request sent after each paid job. That is what Growth Bull's Review Builder does, from your accounting or CRM software, and it runs alongside any agency.
What is a cheaper alternative to Sketch Trades?
If your brand and website are fine and the gap is reviews and rankings, Growth Bull's Review Builder is £69 a month with a 7-day free trial and no contract, and Complete Growth at £129 a month adds map, keyword and AI visibility tracking. If you need a brand and a site built, an agency is the right purchase and the tool runs alongside it.