From streamlining your project management workflows and automation, to client onboarding, tracking metrics, and more, having the right agency tools can help you soar past your competitors and give you back precious time to spend on your clients.
However, determining which marketing tools are best for your tech stack can become an overwhelming task when you’ve got a business to run.
We’re here to help! Let’s explore the nine must-have tools you need in your toolkit to make data-informed decisions, collaborate more efficiently, and craft highly targeted digital marketing campaigns.
Note: These marketing tools were found during our online research while writing this article.
1. Bitly
Bitly is a link management tool helping agencies turn their links into powerful marketing assets by creating short custom-branded links, QR Codes, or Link-in-bio landing pages.
From our all-in-one platform, you can create, share, and monitor your links with comprehensive tracking metrics. Offering integrations with nearly every social media platform and digital marketing tool, Bitly provides a seamless and secure way to create and share encrypted links at-scale while building and protecting your brand.
Get started for free to transform your digital marketing agency’s links into powerful tools!
Who is it best for?
Bitly is best for businesses that want to:
- Track and manage campaigns, links, QR Codes, and Link-in-bio clicks across social media and other platforms.
- Leverage social media to amplify and build brand awareness.
- Manage their campaigns at scale.
Key features
- Aggregate, manage, and track all of your links from a single, centralized location.
- Create, manage, and track marketing campaigns, from email and social media to digital ads and offline media, all in one place.
- Build UTM parameters and create links in bulk for marketing channels and campaigns all at once.
- View performance across paid, earned, and owned channels, down to city-level and organic shares.
Price
The free version of Bitly includes 10 links and two QR Codes per month (independent of one another), and a Link-in-bio page. With it, you also get five custom back-halves, PNG and JPEG QR Code download formats, and a UTM Builder.
The Core plan ($8 per month) is designed for individuals and small businesses who need more advanced link management capabilities. It offers 100 links and five QR Codes per month. You also get QR Code customizations, 30 days of click and scan data, and link and QR Code redirects (plus everything from the Free plan!).
Bitly’s Growth plan ($29 per month) offers 500 links and 10 QR Codes per month, and a Link-in-bio page. With it, you get everything from lower-tier plans plus a complimentary custom domain, additional QR Code download formats, four months of click and scan data, and bulk link shortening.
The Premium plan ($199 per month) is targeted at larger businesses and organizations with higher link management needs. With it, you get 200 QR Codes and 3,000 links per month, a Link-in-bio page, and all the features of the lower-tier plans, plus one year of click and scan data, custom campaign-level tracking, city-level and device type click and scan data, and mobile deep linking.
Bitly also offers a custom-priced Enterprise plan with 10,000+ links and QR Codes per month, one Link-in-bio per group, and everything in Premium plus multiple user seats, group permissions, at-scale link generation, 99.9% SLA uptime, and account manager support.
2. Ahrefs
With over 11 billion keywords and more than 400 billion indexed pages, Ahrefs is a popular all-in-one SEO software suite. It provides tools for link building, keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking, and site audits designed to help you reach higher on Google results pages.
Ahrefs is widely regarded as one of the leading SEO tools in the industry due to its extensive data, user-friendly interface, and comprehensive suite of features.
Who is it best for?
Ahrefs is used by small businesses and freelancers to lead in-house marketing teams, agencies, and enterprises who want to:
- Identify content opportunities, analyze competitor strategies, and track the performance of their marketing campaigns.
- Offer data-driven SEO services to their agency clients, helping them make informed decisions and demonstrate the impact of their marketing efforts.
- Review crucial data to monitor the health and performance of their websites, identify and fix technical SEO issues, and understand their backlink profile.
Key features
- Competitor research
- Keyword research
- Website audit
- Content research
Price
Ahrefs offers a range of pricing plans to cater to various user needs. For site owners, there’s a free lifetime Standard plan providing basic website health, keyword, and backlink monitoring.
The Advanced plan is $399 per month and is perfect for growing businesses. It offers all the Standard features along with two years of history, Site Structure report in Site Explorer, Google Data Studio, and Dashboard folders.
Enterprise, starting at $999 a month, is tailored to larger agencies, providing unlimited history, access management, and the option to pay by invoice (in addition to all the Advanced features).
3. Teamwork.com
Teamwork.com is project management software built specifically for client work. It’s a great collaboration tool for team members. This all-in-one platform allows you to deliver work on time and on budget, eliminate client chaos, and understand profitability.
Trusted by over 6,000 agencies around the world, Teamwork.com lets you manage multiple complex client projects with ease, never miss a billable minute, and have unlimited free access for your clients.
Who is it best for?
Teamwork.com is best for professional services, creative teams, and agencies who want:
- Real-time team collaboration that keeps clients, teammates, and leadership on the same page
- A project management tool that has everything you need to keep client work on track and avoid scope creep all in one place
Key features
- Task management
- Resource management
- Scheduling
- Project monitoring
- Time tracking
- Dependencies
- Custom reporting
Price
Teamwork.com offers a range of pricing plans. Free Forever is perfect for small teams starting out, with support for up to five users and essential project management features.
Deliver is $9.99 per user per month and offers automations, project status reports, and team management. The Grow plan at $19.99 per user per month is ideal for agencies managing complex client projects. Scale, with custom pricing, is tailored to more productive and profitable client work, with features like retainer management, unlimited custom reports, and a resource scheduler.
4. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a robust social media marketing platform that empowers agencies to manage their clients’ social media presence across a variety of channels.
With an intuitive interface and a wide range of features, Sprout Social simplifies the process of content creation, scheduling and publishing social media posts, monitoring social media activity, engaging with audiences, and analyzing performance metrics.
Who is it best for?
Sprout Social is best suited for marketing agencies, social media managers, and businesses:
- Looking to streamline their marketing and management processes
- Needing a centralized location for various social media accounts on a single platform due to high client volume
Key features
- Social analytics
- Social publishing
- Campaign optimization
- Competitor analysis
Price
Sprout Social offers several pricing tiers, including Standard starting at $249 per user per month, Professional starting at $399 per user per month, and Advanced starting at $499 per user per month.
Each plan comes with varying levels of features and capabilities, making it a scalable solution for marketing agencies of all sizes.
5. WordStream
Does your agency offer PPC (pay-per-click) advertising? WordStream provides a suite of tools designed to help marketing agencies and businesses optimize their online advertising campaigns and maximize their return on investment (ROI).
The platform streamlines the process of creating, managing, and optimizing PPC campaigns across widely used platforms such as Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and Facebook.
Who is it best for?
WordStream is best for businesses and agencies that:
- Want to efficiently manage and optimize their PPC advertising efforts.
- Need a centralized place to manage multiple accounts.
- Require high-level insights to enhance campaign performance.
Key features
- Campaign dashboard
- Campaign optimization
- Targeting
- Custom reports
Price
WordStream’s pricing is based on the level of advertising spend the user manages through the platform. It offers three main pricing tiers: Pro, Premier, and Enterprise.
For detailed information, users can contact WordStream’s sales team to get a customized quote based on their specific needs and advertising budget.
6. Databox
Databox is a powerful business analytics platform that enables marketing agencies to track and visualize key performance indicators (KPIs) from various data sources in real time.
This analytics tool gathers data from multiple marketing and analytics platforms, presenting it all in an optimized and visually appealing dashboard.
Databox is known for helping agencies make data-informed decisions, monitor campaign performance, and communicate results to clients efficiently.
Who is it best for?
Databox is like an analytics Swiss army knife for agencies, digital marketers, and businesses who are:
- Seeking a centralized solution to consolidate data
- Managing multiple client accounts
- Needing to simplify the process of monitoring and reporting on diverse marketing metrics
Key features
- Data integration to seamlessly connect with popular data sources, including Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, HubSpot, Salesforce, and many more
- Customizable dashboards
- Automated reporting
Price
Their tiered pricing model is based on the size of the business. The Professional plan for small and mid-sized businesses starts at $135 per month. It provides hourly monitoring and analysis, with 3+ data source connections, 9+ data boards, and support for up to 25 users. Users can access 24 months of historical data, updated hourly.
The Performer tier is geared towards companies serious about performance improvement and begins at $231 per month. It offers on-demand monitoring, unlimited data boards, and unlimited users. Users can access endless historical data, updated hourly.
7. Clearscope
If you’re an agency that’s ready to offer SEO content marketing to your clients, Clearscope is a must-have.
Boasting a 4.9 rating on G2, Clearscope helps marketing agencies analyze search intent, identify relevant keywords, and provide valuable insights to improve content quality and ranking potential. As a result, marketers and content creators can craft high-performing, SEO-friendly content for themselves and their clients.
Who is it best for?
Clearscope is best suited for marketing agencies, content marketers, and SEO professionals who want to:
- Create content that ranks well in search engine results and attracts organic traffic.
- Optimize their content strategy and stay ahead of the competition.
Key features
- Search rank metrics
- Keyword research for SEO content and rankings
- Competitor analysis
Price
Clearscope offers three plans catering to different needs.
At $170 per month, Essentials includes one user seat, 10 content reports, 20 content inventory pages, and support for five languages. The Business plan, with custom pricing, includes everything in the Essentials plan, along with 5 user seats, custom content reports and inventory pages, SAML single sign-on (SSO), and customized account setup. The Enterprise plan offers custom solutions with custom pricing.
8. Hootsuite
Launched in 2008, HootSuite enables marketing agencies and businesses to efficiently manage and schedule their social media content across various platforms. It offers a centralized dashboard, automation tools, and analytics, making it incredible for managing multiple social media accounts and engaging with audiences effectively.
Who is it best for?
HootSuite is best for marketing agencies, social media managers, and businesses:
- Looking to streamline their marketing efforts and processes
- Who need support agencies with multiple accounts and large-scale social media campaigns
Key features
- Social publishing
- Campaign optimization
- Report customizability
- Competitor analysis
- Post performance
Price
Pricing starts with the Professional plan for independent entrepreneurs, freelancers, or marketers at $99 per month. It includes up to 10 social profiles, one user, unlimited message scheduling, real-time analytics, and monitoring of incoming messages.
The tier most suitable for agencies is the Business plan. Starting at $739 per month, it’s great for companies seeking to build their brand, grow followers, and manage social media more efficiently as a team. It includes 35 social profiles, five users with unlimited add-ons, message approvals, campaign planning, tagging, and reporting, as well as premium app integrations.
9. HubSpot
HubSpot was founded in 2006, making it the grandfather of marketing software. This all-in-one platform offers a comprehensive suite of tools to manage various aspects of marketing, sales, and customer relationship management (CRM) efficiently.
Focusing on inbound marketing, HubSpot empowers marketing agencies and businesses to attract, engage, and delight customers.
Who is it best for?
HubSpot is best suited for marketing agencies, sales teams, and businesses of all sizes who want:
- To enhance their inbound marketing efforts, automate sales processes, and improve customer relationship management
- An integrated solution to attract leads, convert them into customers, and provide exceptional customer support
Key features
- Social publishing
- Campaign optimization
- Reports and dashboards
- Social analytics
Price
HubSpot offers a flexible pricing model from freemium to premium. The Professional plan starts at $800 per month and offers enhanced marketing automation, sales automation, and reporting features. It’s suitable for medium-sized businesses and agencies.
Enterprise starts at $3,200 a month and provides full access to HubSpot’s advanced marketing, sales, and customer service features. It’s built for large organizations and agencies with complex needs.
Boost your marketing efforts with Bitly
Marketing technology is one of the fastest-growing sectors, with the global market reaching $338 billion in 2022. Thriving agency owners with the goal of growing and scaling their businesses know that having the right tech stack is crucial for success.
With so many different options on the market today, it is a good idea to vet them all thoroughly before you spend your budget, train your teams, and experiment with client projects.
