Launching into an ad campaign for any business is daunting. After all, the process can be complicated and often takes time to research and begin.
Looking for the best tools can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack. Even if you find the tools you want, stress brought by the need to match budget constraints just adds to the pressure.
So, we produced this list to help you out. This run down of 10 tools includes who it’s for, when to use it, unique features, and prices.
|
Name |
Main Use |
What You Can Do with It |
Pricing |
| Campaign Management |
Monitor your own ad campaigns and quickly spot issues to fix them in a timely manner. |
Costs $129 per month |
|
| Competitor Analysis |
Keep tabs on your competitors. Study their ad campaigns across 35 different channels. |
Costs $169 per month |
|
| Ad Generation |
Quickly generate digital assets for your ad campaigns on Google Display and your socials. Hundreds of filters are available for AI photo shoots. |
Costs $109 per month |
|
| Campaign Management |
Prepare your Google Ads campaigns and get downloadable reports on your campaign performance. |
Free |
|
| Competitor Analysis |
Monitor the performance of your pay-per click competition’s ad performance. |
Starts at $139.95 per month |
|
| Landing Pages & Testing |
Quickly build landing pages for your ad campaigns with no coding knowledge required. Launch AB tests to play around with your options. |
Costs $49 per month |
|
| Paid Social Management |
Create and publish ads across your portfolio of Meta platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp. |
No startup fee |
|
| Paid Social Management |
Manage your paid social media campaigns from one place. Quickly adapt posts across social media from one place. |
Starts at $99 per month |
|
| Landing Pages & Testing |
Carry out all manner of landing page tests. Take the results and personalise pages based for your target audience. |
Free to $2000+ per month |
|
| Audience Research |
Research your audience and get to know them intimately. Find where your audience hangs out to better plan ad publications. |
Free to $225 per month |
Competitor Analysis & Audience Research
These tools help you research your target audience and your ad campaign before you get started, helping you to locate potential customers and use effective strategies to target them.
1. AdClarity
AdClarity goes behind enemy lines to keep tabs on how the competition is doing. You can use it to keep tabs on your rivals’ display, social, and video advertising campaigns, as well as how they are performing.
Who it’s for
AdClarity is for campaign and marketing managers who need to know what other players in the market are doing with their advertising campaigns.
When to use it
Gain a comprehensive view of your competitors’ digital ad activities across 35 markets. Use it to identify successful campaigns and spot the most effective platforms and traffic sources for you to use.
By typing in Rightmove, you get results on the property website’s ad spend and performance. Check out your rivals’ ad campaigns at the click of a button.
The app can investigate any advertiser’s spend and campaigns on display, social media, and video advertising channels, giving you a wide picture.
Top feature
Use it to monitor how your competition’s ads are performing. You can keep tabs on their key stats, including impressions, ad spend, views, and clicks, among other metrics, in up to 50 reports per day.
Pricing
After a free trial, you can subscribe to AdClarity starting at $169 per month.
2. Advertising Research
Estimate your competitors PPC ad spend, keywords and ad copy to take note of what’s working for them, as well as what isn’t.
Who it’s for
Advertising Research from Semrush is for teams running paid search campaigns who want to keep close tabs on their competition and find insights for their own campaigns.
When to use it
Use it to research the pitfalls of any planned ad campaign. See where the competition has succeeded to learn from what they’ve done well. Notice any months where they started or stopped bidding on certain keywords.
Start by searching for your competition and get the low-down on their ad campaigns.
Top Feature
You can use Advertising Research to identify who your top PPC competitors are. Once you’ve found them, you can look into the desktop and mobile keywords they are bidding on. Check out keywords and ad texts in more than 20 languages for over 100 countries.
Pricing
Free with limited use. The tool can also be used in full with any paid Semrush subscription (starting at $139.95 a month).
3. SparkToro
Find where your target audience hangs out online. Your ads can’t achieve their potential if they aren’t where your audience is – get eyes on your content to generate conversions.
Who it’s for
SparkToro is for busy teams who want to connect with their target audience on its home turf, as quickly as possible.
When to use it
SparkToro is always useful, but especially so during the launch of a new product or company. Find out key information on your demographics to better target your ads and squeeze out a better return on investment.
Top feature
Find your audience’s key affinities. Based on demographics including age, gender, profession and others, you can find out which social media sites your audience is using, drilling down as deep to specific types of posts and Subreddits.
Pricing
SparkToro opens with a limited free option, rising to $225 per month. Discounts are available for people who opt to be billed annually.
Advertising Management
These tools help you keep tabs on your ad campaigns and spot issues when they occur, helping you overcome them in the process.
4. Ads Launch Assistant
Use Ads Launch Assistant to give your Google Ads campaign the best possible start. Artificial Intelligence generates high-quality suggestions for every step of your campaign.
Who it’s for
Marketing teams and beginners who want some additional help when running their Google Ad campaigns.
When to use it
Use Ads Launch assistant when you are ready to begin your Google Ads campaign. All you have to do is select your budget, and you’re off.
Top feature
The Ads Launch Assistant helps analyse campaign performance by producing a visual report that’s easy for anyone to understand, from novices to experts. You can also control your ads by turning specific keywords on or off, based on the results they are bringing in.
Start a new campaign in just a few clicks.
Set your parameters and get started! It’s as simple as that.
Pricing
The Ads Launch Assistant is free to use.
Set your budget, and if you spend $500 on your Google Ads campaign in the first 60 days, you’ll get an extra $500 to use in future campaigns.
5. Ad Assistant
Ad Assistant helps you boost campaign performance, avoiding poor results and unhappy clients. It lets you monitor ad performance across up to five accounts for six different platforms.
Who it’s for
Ad Assistant is for any busy marketing manager focused on getting results from paid ads across search and social media.
When to use it
You can use Ad Assistant to monitor ads across Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. It’s especially helpful for staying updated while you’re away and can’t afford to miss any major events in your campaign.
Top feature
Ad Assistant lets you set alerts to help spot issues with any given campaign. For example, alerts can help you spot when impressions drop, how your ads are trending, and even forecast future performance.
Pricing
After a free seven-day trial, users can subscribe for $129 per month. Subscriptions include unlimited alerts, channels, and campaigns.
Landing Pages and Testing
The next two tools help you build landing pages and run tests on them to make sure they are as effective as possible.
6. Landing Page Builder
Landing Page Builder helps ensure traffic from ads converts into potential customers. Build tailored landing pages for ad campaigns, social media ads, and email marketing.
Who is it for
Landing Page Builder is for busy teams who don’t have time to code out new landing pages for each ad campaign.
When to use it
Use Landing Page Builder to easily create high-converting landing pages. The app helps streamline your workflow with fewer tools, which results in saved time and money.
Top feature
No coding required. Landing Page Builder lets you start creating from templates and edit hundreds of pages at a time with its one-click update feature, Smart Sections. Get your landing pages ready at speed.
Pick a template…
…then start editing! The drag and drop editor makes it easy for any beginner to build their first landing page in hardly any time at all.
Pricing
After a seven-day free trial, it costs just $49 per month.
7. VWO
Testing platform VWO lets you experiment across your websites and applications. Test different variations of all your digital properties to see what works best to turn hard-won ad traffic into conversions.
Who it’s for
VWO is for dev teams who are trying to test their landing pages and make sure they are optimised for given audiences and ad campaigns.
When to use it
Do you feel that your apps and websites are more of an obstacle than an asset for making the most of traffic gained via ads? Jump onto VWO to run A/B tests, backed up by customer data, to see what could work better for converting traffic into customers.
Top feature
Better personalise your websites and applications with successful testing. The results help you build customer-focused journeys that include perfect prompts. Triggers can be based on visitor personas, refresh times and scroll depth, to make sure you keep traffic engaged.
Pricing
VWO offers a range of packages and pricing options. There are a few limited free packages, with prices rising to over $2,000 per month, billed annually, based on the size and needs of your organisation.
Paid Social Management
In this section, we take a look at tools that social media teams and community managers can use to schedule ads and related posts.
Meta Ads Manager helps you quickly roll out ad campaigns across the whole Meta offering, including Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and relative newcomer, Threads.
Who it’s for
Meta Ads Manager is for ad campaign managers who want to schedule posts and quickly ramp up efforts.
When to use it
Quickly duplicate your ads while setting your parameters, such as targeting and budget, in one place. Get all your metrics in one place and make changes as needed, based on the information you’re getting.
Top feature
Complete artistic control. You can make your own ads as you see fit, straight from your centralised command centre. Get set up and get creative.
Pricing
No cost to sign up, charges start rolling in as you start publishing ads.
9. Hootsuite Advertising Dashboard
Hootsuite is a veteran of social media ad tools. Use its advertising dashboards to manage your social media ad campaigns from one place.
Who it’s for
Get Hootsuite for your paid social teams and advertising managers. They’ll thank you for speeding up their efforts to repurpose content across different platforms.
When to use it
Use Hootsuite when you have a lot of different social media channels to manage. This platform can generate ad copy with the help of artificial intelligence and help you monitor performance across your channels with timely reports.
Top feature
Hootsuite’s top feature helps you automatically turn your best organic posts into paid ads, boosting their reach and capitalizing on your strong social media success.
Pricing
Two plans offer a 30-day free trial and are priced at either $99 per month or $249 per month, depending on how large your team is and how many accounts – up to 20 – you’ll be managing. For anything larger, you’ll need to jump on a call to discuss an enterprise package.
Ad Generation
The following tool helps you create great media and images for your ad campaigns. No muss, no fuss.
10. Adcreative.ai
AdCreative.ai is an artificial Intelligence-driven advertising creator that helps make data-driven decisions for building ad campaigns. Developed by Adcreative.ai and hosted in the Semrush App Center, it can generate visual display ads for your campaigns in more than 20 languages.
Who it’s for
Content teams and advertising managers who want to quickly produce great ad materials – including images – will get the most out of Adcreative.ai.
When to use it
Jump into Adcreative.ai before you start your campaign to gather all the resources you need for success.
Top feature
Use Adcreative.ai to produce excellent photo shoots of your product, with half the fuss. Upload a product image and let artificial intelligence do the rest.
The generative AI will remove the background and let you choose from more than 100 presets (or prompt your own custom background) to leave you with a stunning, ad-ready visual.
Pricing
After a three-day trial, the app costs $109 per month.
Get Better Results from Your Advertising Toolkit
By leveraging these tools, you can enhance your advertising efforts, stay ahead of the competition, and achieve better results.
Whether you’re a seasoned marketing professional or just starting out, these tools cater to various budgets and requirements, making them invaluable assets in your advertising toolkit.
Ready to elevate your advertising? Sign up for Semrush today and unlock the full potential of your campaigns!