Advertising and SEO in Sweden: the Marketing Practices Act, the cookie rule and how to hire an agency in Stockholm

Advertising in Sweden runs on one clear principle: all marketing must be designed and presented so that it is obvious it is marketing, and so that it is obvious who is behind it, under section 9 of the Marketing Practices Act (marknadsforingslagen). Marketing email and SMS to individuals need prior consent under section 19, every marketing email needs a valid stop address under section 20, even to companies, and cookies need informed consent under chapter 9, section 28 of the Electronic Communications Act. Check that an agency builds all of this in before you compare prices, and keep every ad, analytics and Search Console account in your own company's name.

The Swedish market in numbers

StatCounter's figures for September 2026 put Google at 85.86% of searches in Sweden, Bing at 8.44%, DuckDuckGo at 2.11%, Yahoo at 1.89%, Yandex at 1.17% and Ecosia at 0.37%. Bing is large enough to check a Swedish site in Bing Webmaster Tools as well as Google Search Console.

On social media, StatCounter's referral figures show Facebook sending 69.24% of the social visits to websites in Sweden and Instagram 21.32%, with X (Twitter) at 4.98% and YouTube, Pinterest and Reddit each near 1%. Instagram's share is high for Europe, so it belongs in most Swedish consumer plans.

The Marketing Practices Act, section by section

• Section 9, advertising identification. All marketing must be designed and presented so that it clearly appears to be marketing, and it must be clear who is responsible for it. The only exception is a teaser whose sole purpose is to draw attention to a later message. This is the rule behind clear labels on influencer posts, sponsored articles and native ads.
• Section 10, no misleading marketing. A business may not use incorrect statements or present things in a misleading way, for example about a product's nature, qualities or price.
• Section 19, unsolicited marketing. A business may use email, fax or automated calling systems in marketing to an individual only if that person has consented in advance.
• The existing-customer exception. Consent is not needed where you got the person's email address when selling them a product, the person has not objected, the marketing concerns your own similar products, and the person is clearly given a free and simple way to object when the address is collected and in every later message.
• Section 20, the stop address. Every marketing email must contain a valid address to which the recipient can send a request to stop, and this also applies to marketing sent to a legal person.

On top of the law sits Reklamombudsmannen (RO), the business sector's own self-regulation body for advertising. Anyone can report an ad to it, it publishes its decisions, and it publishes advertising rules for influencers under the name Reko content. A brand working with Swedish creators should brief them on both the law and RO's rules.

Cookies: chapter 9, section 28 of the LEK

The Electronic Communications Act (lagen om elektronisk kommunikation, 2022:482) says data may be stored in, or read from, a subscriber's or user's terminal equipment only if the person gets access to information about the purpose of the processing and consents to it. Storage or access needed to transmit a message, or strictly needed to provide a service the user has explicitly asked for, is allowed without consent. In practice, ad and analytics tags wait for a yes in the banner, and the agency's measurement plan has to work around visitors who say no.

Choosing an advertising agency or SEO company in Sweden

Swedish agencies range from full-service advertising agencies to specialist SEO, PPC and social firms. Whichever you pick, get these points in writing:

Service	What to ask for in writing
Advertising and brand campaigns	Who is named as responsible in each ad, as section 9 requires, and the evidence behind every claim
SEO	Pages to be written or fixed each month, in Swedish or English, with Search Console in your name
Google Ads and Meta Ads	Accounts in your name, ads and landing pages written in Swedish, media spend separate from the fee
Influencers	The label on every paid or gifted post, and the record of what each creator received
Email and SMS	Consent records, the objection option in every message, and a valid stop address in every email

Agencies price by monthly retainer, fixed project, hourly rate or a media commission. Compare quotes on hours, named people, deliverables, reports and exclusions, and keep the media budget on your own payment profile. For SEO, refuse any offer that promises a position: Google's own guidance says "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." For the Google Ads side, Google's help centre says the campaign-level language setting is being removed for Search campaigns from September 2026, and Search ads now match the language of the ad, so Swedish searchers need Swedish ads.

Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo

A Stockholm company competing for local customers should own its Google Business Profile, use its real address and opening hours, and add photos of the premises. A firm serving Gothenburg or Malmo as well should have an honest page for each place it really serves, not one page with the city name swapped. Many Stockholm companies also sell abroad in English. Decide which market each page is for and give each language its own URL. Our guide to choosing a multilingual SEO agency covers how to brief that work.

Questions about advertising and SEO in Sweden

Do we need consent to email Swedish companies?

The consent rule in section 19 protects individuals. But section 20 applies to companies too: every marketing email must contain a valid address for asking to stop.

How should an influencer post be labelled in Sweden?

So that it clearly appears to be marketing and shows who is behind it, as section 9 requires. Put a clear label at the start of the post, and follow Reklamombudsmannen's Reko content rules as well.

Can we run analytics before a Swedish visitor accepts cookies?

Not tags that store or read information on the device, unless they are strictly needed for a service the user asked for. Chapter 9, section 28 of the LEK requires information and consent.

Should our Swedish site be in Swedish or English?

Write each page in the language its buyer searches in. Swedish buyers searching for local services search in Swedish, so those pages should be Swedish.

When can we judge whether our agency is delivering?

Read Search Console for impressions, positions and indexed pages, the ad accounts for cost per enquiry, the Business Profile performance report for calls, and your own count of enquiries by source. The outcome depends on competition, your offer and your budget.

What a Swedish buyer hears from ChatGPT

StatCounter's September 2026 chatbot figures for Sweden give ChatGPT 81.92% of use and Gemini 11.46%. When a marketing manager in Stockholm asks ChatGPT for the best advertising agency in Sweden, the answer is a short list taken from what the assistant can read: Swedish trade press, award lists, directories and the agencies' own sites. It is not the same list as Google's results. AI Knows Us measures it for a business, asking its buyers' real questions on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews and showing which firms each answer names and the sources it relied on.