12 Best Advertising Agency Project Management Software in 2024

If you’re running a creative agency, you know how challenging it can be. There are many challenges to tackle, from staying competitive and ahead of your target audience to coping with the latest trends, operating within your budget, etc. 

Since you have to deal with unique challenges daily, you should use every advantage and tool available to streamline daily operations and ensure your agency runs as smoothly as possible. That’s where advertising agency project management software comes in.

Project management software for advertising agencies enables marketing and advertising professionals to monitor productivity, automate workflows, maintain daily operational continuity, streamline task management, enhance team collaboration and communication, etc.

The advertising agency project management system can help you tackle everyday challenges, identify your business’s strengths and weaknesses, track your operational expenses, and ensure your agency has everything it needs to grow and expand. 

With that in mind, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of the 12 best ad agency project management software you should know about in 2024. Our detailed review of project management for ad agencies gives you insights into various rating criteria, from features and pricing models to pros and cons for each tool. 

Read on to learn more.

The best advertising agency project management software shortlist

1. Ayanza – Best for collaborative advertising project management;

2. Asana – Best for agile project management;

3. Scoro – Best for web design and digital marketing;

4. Productive – Best for creative agency project management;

5. Planable – Best for social media team collaboration;

6. Monday – Best for combining CRM and advertising project management;

7. Workamajig – Best for creative teams tracking and reporting;

8. ClickUp – Best for streamlining data management;

9. Workzone – Best for creative project management at scale;

10. Wrike – Best for cloud-based creative advertisement;

11. ProofHub – Best for automating advertising project management workflows;

12. Trello – Best for visualizing advertising project management tasks.

What is advertising agency project management software?

Agency project management software allows creative agencies, advertising businesses, and professional marketers to centralize all their client projects and resources so they can manage all their needs from a single hub. 

How does project management software for advertising agencies work?

Agency project management tools work by providing a unified platform for managing client projects. 

Advertising professionals and digital marketing agencies rely on the latest project management solutions to manage everyday tasks, such as: 

• Handling complex projects; 

• Determining project objectives;

• Monitoring task dependencies; 

• Gathering client reviews and feedback; 

• Creating, optimizing, and automating custom workflows, 

• Establishing efficient collaboration between project managers and team members.

Project management in advertising agencies is critical to getting a real-time 360-degree overview of all ongoing projects and tracking project progress. An agency project management tool helps you track project progress to ensure you stay on track with your clients and deliver the expected results within a given deadline.

In addition, you can use an AI-powered digital agency project management solution to manage your budget and track time, tasks, and timelines across multiple projects and communication channels. 

The advanced project management tool empowers you and your entire team to efficiently tackle challenges, handle unforeseen obstacles, and streamline client communication to ensure everyone stays on schedule. 

Here are some key features the best project management app for creative agencies should provide:

• AI project manager;

• Strong collaboration features;

• Project tracking;

• Resource management features, including allocation and planning;

• Top integrations to seamlessly integrate the tool with your existing tech stack;

• Resource scheduling;

• To-do lists;

• Task creation and task scheduling;

• Customizable workflow automation;

• Unified project dashboard;

• Time tracking feature;

• Real-time reporting.

These features here are just the tip of the iceberg. Below is a more detailed introduction to some of the essential features of a project management platform for advertising and marketing teams.

Features of advertising agency project management software

A comprehensive project management tool is an all-in-one solution that offers a wide range of features you can access via a customizable dashboard. Let’s briefly review some key features and their contribution to your daily advertising efforts.

Streamlined client management

According to a recent Havas Creative Network study, only 56% of clients are satisfied with their relationships with their advertisers. That’s quite staggering, especially considering the importance of a healthy relationship with your target audience. 

Since maintaining top connections with your client base is critical to growing your creative agency business, you must do everything possible to improve your brand image and establish long-term connections. A project management tool can make that happen by enabling you to take a proactive approach to delivering successful projects. 

It empowers you to establish transparent and efficient project management, budgeting, and financial forecasting processes so your team can get ahead of project changes across multiple phases of the project management lifecycle, from planning and scheduling to execution.

Such transparency gives your clients a clear understanding of the project’s progress and the expected costs. Clients are happy and satisfied when the fees are under control and everything goes according to plan – it’s as simple as that.

Real-time team collaboration

Streamlined team collaboration is critical to improving project outcomes and exceeding client expectations. 

Project management tools empower advertising agencies with real-time collaboration between team members by providing features like:

• Custom dashboard – quickly switch between different project dashboard views to streamline project progress and time tracking and make the project timeline transparent to your creative team;

• Project workflow balancing – empower team leaders with resource and project planning features to make data-driven decisions and establish a centralized overview of current team engagement by member, ensuring even task workload distribution and reducing human error;

• Real-time document collaboration – create a centralized real-time collaboration source of truth to keep your internal team members and clients updated with the latest project-related events and business decisions.

Task management and automation

Automating repetitive tasks reduces human error, increases data accuracy, and improves decision-making. An AI task manager ensures your data becomes more reliable and removes repetitive tasks from your team’s daily to-do list.

Aside from improving business decisions and avoiding financial errors, automation is also critical to saving your team’s time for the core tasks. In addition, task management features allow your creative team to stay on course with their daily tasks and accomplish their objectives according to schedule. 

When combined, team management and automation enable creative teams to move projects seamlessly through their marketing and advertising channels.

Project analytics and advanced reporting

Project-related analytics and metrics are crucial for staying ahead of the project progress and meeting client’s initiatives. They ensure your clients and team members get a streamlined overview of the latest events, current tasks, and everything else they need to know about ongoing projects in your agency.

The benefits of ad agency project management software

Here are the top benefits creative agencies and marketing professionals can derive from successful project management software implementation. 

1. Top project transparency

A project management system gives your creative team full transparency of all communications, files, and briefs by bringing them all under one roof. You get access to a single source of truth that your team members can use at any time. 

On the other hand, you can also use your source of data to build an external database that your target audience can use as a client portal to get a summary of your work and track the status of projects on demand.

2. Effective resource management

Project management solutions for ad agencies come with resource management capabilities that empower advertising companies to manage resources and make more effective business decisions. 

Additional features include:

• Resource allocation;

• Resource planning.

With streamlined resource management, you can manage your resources across all projects, allocate the means where they are needed most, and ensure your team has everything they need to meet the deadline. 

In addition, project managers can rely on streamlined resource management to determine what resources are required when assigning new projects or tasks.

3. Automate manual tasks

Repetition and mundane tasks are the archenemy of every team anywhere on Earth. They consume time, effort, and resources, leaving entire companies completely disorganized. Thankfully, you can eliminate all the tedious tasks by automating processes with AI tools for time management. They can automate tasks such as project tracking, updating spreadsheets manually, handling administration, etc. 

Instead of wasting time manually uploading multiple spreadsheets and risking missing important project updates, you can tap into all relevant project-related data from a single location and streamline information sharing across your organization.

4. Streamline project planning and scheduling

The top-grade project management solutions for ad agencies enable your team to plan projects, schedule tasks accordingly, set reminders, track progress, and use all that info to allocate resources to ensure successful project delivery.

Each software solution comes with a user-friendly dashboard you can use to distribute real-time updates as you receive them, thus empowering your agency to work smart rather than hard.

5. Real-time reporting

Project management tools for advertisers give your team real-time visibility into projects with tasks by team member, department, etc. You can organize projects however you prefer, manage project-related and administrative tasks on the go, and track progress to generate reports for your clients and team members to ensure your agency never skips a beat.

6. Highlight creative value across your agency

Top project management solutions for creative agencies can help creative teams manage clients, stakeholders, etc., to establish transparency in the quality of work your business provides. 

Your clients can tap into various metrics, such as budget, project progress, deadline status, etc. That brings more value to your target audience and helps improve your brand image and reputation.

7. Expedite time to market 

Establish the most viable and feasible organized frameworks to manage ongoing projects, ensure your team meets deadlines, and speed up time to market for your advertising campaigns. An additional benefit here is that you can turn around campaigns faster than usual to restructure and mitigate negative customer reviews.

8. Tap into digital asset management

Digital asset management is critical for effective resource allocation. It allows you to identify all your digital assets and fetch them on demand and according to your ongoing project-related needs. 

With a project management tool in your tech stack, your team will never lose sight of available assets and resources as they can access all the means they need from a single software. 

An ad project and task management tool has a digital library that lets users quickly locate campaign-related assets and distribute them according to their needs.

How to choose the best project management software for advertising agencies

Now that we’ve shared basic knowledge about ad project management tools, their features, and their benefits, let’s discuss the best practices for choosing the best tool for your creative agency.

Consider the following factors before investing in a project management tool for your creative agency:

• Scalability – look for a solution that can scale with your business as your agency grows. Instead of wasting time switching between multiple tools every time your organization reaches a milestone, support your business growth with a scalable tool that can easily manage the ever-increasing volumes of contracts, clients, projects, etc.

• Flexibility – since your team needs to use other tools for different tasks, such as billing, customer relationship management, marketing automation, and time tracking, bring all these functionalities under one hub with a centralized project management tool that can seamlessly integrate with other solutions in your tech stack.

• User-friendliness – you can have the best software solution in the world, but it will mean nothing if your team can’t use it properly. Therefore, look for a tool with a simple and intuitive user interface that your team can easily manage to stay up-to-date, track time, schedule projects, etc. 

In addition, the tool you opt for should also be client-friendly to empower your clientele to navigate your software, customize its interface, and more.

• Customization – customization options are vital to harnessing the full potential of the project management solution you opt for. Opt for software with rich customization features that allow you to set reports and everything else according to your team’s preferences. 

Customization also plays a vital role in client collaboration because it empowers your client base to interact with your brand via their preferred channels and devices. An extra benefit is that you can feature your agency’s branding across all available communication channels.

• Essential features – numerous project management tools come with various features. However, the more features a solution offers, the more expensive it gets, so the trick is to think about the critical features your team will use daily. 

Weigh your options based on the features your agency really needs and invest in a solution that can cater to your essential requirements.

• Email integration – though many would think email is obsolete, that isn’t the case. According to most recent research, nearly 4.26 billion people still rely on email as their main communication channel. Think about all the leads you could capture from establishing connections with clients who prefer communicating via Outlook or Gmail.

• Customer support – each project management solution is unique and requires a specific learning curve. You should opt for a tool with ongoing support, training documentation, and setup tutorials. 

Since you can’t afford any downtime or human errors, consider solutions that offer 24/7 support and training for your staff. In addition, check what forms of support the company offers, such as chatbot, live chat, phone, email, etc.

• Mobility limitations – if you’re managing a remote workforce, look for a project management tool to support your efforts with remote working features. It’s vital to stay connected with your team members regardless of their location or time zone. Ideally, look for a solution with an iOS or Android app.

• Project templates – ready-made project templates for advertising empower your team to streamline new campaign launches and save time preparing new marketing materials. In a fast-paced advertising landscape, the ability to quickly launch new initiatives can make or break your creative business.

• Campaign management tools – your marketing team can benefit greatly from intuitive advertising management features. They can improve their management efforts with custom workflow management for agencies to streamline everyday task management, content creation, and marketing strategies and improve overall efficiency.

• Time tracking – since time management plays a critical role for your marketing agency, search for a project management tool that enables you to accurately track time to help you improve budget management by capturing every billable hour as well as tapping into smart project scheduling, and resource allocation to ensure you deliver projects on time.

• Team collaboration – boost team productivity and efficiency with a top-grade team collaboration tool with diverse content calendar views, an intuitive email notification system, document management, customizable workflows, messaging, direct chat, etc.

Now, let’s discuss the cost of software solutions with a project management feature for advertising agencies.

The cost of advertising agency project management software

When selecting a project management software for your ad agency, your focus should be on functionality. Why? Because the tool’s scope of features will directly impact your team’s productivity, timeliness, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency. 

Though project management software pricing can get confusing since there isn’t a one-price-fits-all solution here, consider your budget and the range of features you need to find an ideally priced solution for your company. 

Here are some factors to keep in mind when thinking about the tool’s price:

• The volume of features you get to test for free – most software providers offer basic functionalities you can test via a free trial. However, free plans and trials only give you access to limited features.

• The average software cost – most trusted project management solutions come with an affordable average cost, ranging from $5-$30, depending on the software provider.

• Pricing plans for individual users – if you’re running a small team of up to five users, you can tap into individual pricing plans to get the functionality you need without breaking your budget.

• Customizable enterprise plans – leading software providers like Ayanza allow you to tailor enterprise plans according to your specific needs to get the most value for your money.

Though you can manage most tasks on a free plan, freemium software versions are almost always limited in terms of the features they provide. Consider all these factors to make the best and most affordable investment decision.

12 Best advertising agency project management software

1. Ayanza

Best for collaborative advertising project management.

Ayanza is an excellent choice for teams looking for a software solution that unifies project management, streamlined workspaces, team collaboration, task orchestration, and time management to empower creative agencies of all sizes to accomplish their goals. With Ayanza, you get a centralized overview of the entire project lifecycle so that you can manage multiple projects from a single location, regardless of your team size.

Ayanza provides an AI-driven project and team management platform with an intuitive interface your project manager can rely on to track project progress, communicate with clients, collaborate with team members, monitor business processes, etc.

Use Ayanza’s Newsfeed to turn project-related tasks into shareable and downloadable notes and share OKRs, budget assessments, and project progress with your team. Make all project processes visible and accessible with real-time updates. 

Assign tasks with priority tags and due dates and tap into streamlined team communication with Ayanza’s Rhythms. Ayanza provides everything your team needs to stay on track with multiple clients and projects across all available communication channels.

✨ Features

• Performance reports;

• AI-powered brainstorming;

• Task prioritization;

• Task organizer;

• Team journal;

• Task tracking;

• Planner and scheduler;

• To-do list;

• Scheduling;

• Gantt chart;

• Kanban board;

• Meetings management;

• Calendar;

• Task properties (linked tasks, OKRs, lifecycle, due date, priority, status, etc.);

• Publishing;

• Quick search;

• Advanced note-taking.

💸 Pricing

• Free – for up to 5 users or the first 200 documents/tasks created;

• Pricing starts at $6 per user per month.

2. Asana

Best for agile project management.

Asana is one of the leading project management systems for creative agencies, professional advertisers, and marketing companies. The software provider empowers clients to easily meet their deadlines through intuitive task prioritization, work assignments, and project planning features.

Asana provides an automated collaboration platform for ad teams to help them streamline communication, task management, and project scheduling.

With the Asana project management tool, your team can centralize all their project-related work to ensure they complete projects on time. Your team gets a 360-degree view of all projects, from start to finish, to ensure full-time team alignment on all current goals.

✨ Features

• Task tracking;

• Kanban boards;

• Gantt charts;

• Real-time updates;

• Multiple workspaces;

• Custom project calendar views;

• Mobile app (iOS);

• Intuitive reminders;

• Email and phone notifications;

• Reporting;

• Timelines;

• Dashboards;

• Custom templates;

• Team collaboration;

• Project and task management.

💸 Pricing

• Free – Free forever for up to 15 users and unlimited tasks and projects;

• Pricing starts at $10.99 per user per month.

Learn more about Asana alternatives.

3. Scoro

Best for web design and digital marketing.

Scoro is a user-friendly software solution for ad agencies that helps teams of all sizes and shapes manage collaboration, tasks, and projects using a single software platform. The Scoro software integrates with Xero, Slack, and Salesforce to help users create a streamlined workspace to manage complex projects and keep clients up-to-date with the latest events.

Scoro is the perfect solution if your team needs a comprehensive project management tool for increasing efficiency, streamlining processes, meeting deadlines, etc. Aside from project management, Scoro also encompasses media planning, client billing, and CRM features.

✨ Features

• Project management dashboard with customization options;

• Task management tool with planning and scheduling features;

• Team collaboration;

• Client portal;

• Client invoicing;

• Deadline management;

• Performance metric insights;

• Project budget management;

• Task lists;

• Pre-built template options for quoting and billing;

• Sales pipeline management;

• CRM for creative teams;

• Advanced reporting.

💸 Pricing

• Free – 14-day free trial;

• Pricing starts at $28 per month per user.

4. Productive

Best for creative agency project management.

Productive is an all-encompassing project management software for agency businesses and marketing professionals that empowers advertisement teams to tap into automated workflows to manage unlimited project-related tasks from a single platform.

Productive empowers your creative agency to centralize client billing, reporting, time tracking, tasks, resource planning, project planning, and sales processes through every stage of project management.

✨ Features

• Recurring tasks;

• Time tracking;

• Project management;

• Resource planning and allocation;

• Insights module with detailed reports and advanced analytics;

• Top integration options (Jira, Slack, Zapier, HubSpot, etc.);

• Invoicing with automated administrative tasks;

• Real-time reporting;

• Budgeting;

• Sales pipeline.

💸 Pricing

• Free – 14-day free trial;

• Pricing starts at $11 per user per month.

5. Planable

Best for social media team collaboration.

Planable is one of the most robust creative project management solutions an ad agency could wish for. The company provides a centralized hub for unifying everything your team needs to handle projects, meet deadlines, and keep clients satisfied. That includes project management, task scheduling, assignments, planning, resource management, team collaboration, and time orchestration.

What your creative team thinks about, Planable turns into reality. With Planable, your team can harness the full power of automated project management with marketing campaigns, collaboration, time tracking, etc.

✨ Features

• Content management with content planning, editing, and scheduling tools;

• Team collaboration;

• Internal notes;

• Commenting;

• In-context feedback;

• Custom approval workflows;

• Project management roles and permissions;

• Content calendar;

• Post planner and scheduler;

• Content visualization;

• Real-time updates and content approvals. 

💸 Pricing

• Free – $0 per month per user for 50 total posts;

• Pricing starts at $11 per user per month.

6. Monday

Best for combining CRM and advertising project management.

Monday is a fantastic creative project management solution for bringing team collaboration, task management, client communication, and time orchestration under one roof. The Monday collaborative project management platform allows you to quickly share project-related updates, add or remove files, create new tasks on demand, share data, and gather all client-related information into detailed reports.

Harness the power of Monday’s user-friendly software navigation to distribute data among clients and teammates and increase transparency into ongoing tasks and current projects for your team members and target audience.

✨ Features

• Multiple task views (Gantt, Kanban, timeline);

• Workflow dashboards for project and task management;

• Time tracking;

• Task planner;

• Project analysis;

• Automated task dependencies;

• User permission modes with data privacy measures;

• File sharing (Outlook, Slack, etc.);

• Cost tracking and budget management.

💸 Pricing

• Free – free forever for up to two users;

• Pricing starts at $8 per user per month.

7. Workamajig

Best for creative teams tracking and reporting.

Workamajig is a project management and team collaboration platform catering to creative agencies, advertising companies, and digital marketing organizations. It’s an excellent tool for creative teams seeking a user-friendly project management solution with advanced reporting, top customization options, and task management features.

With Workamajig, creative teams can track time across multiple project-related tasks on various desktop and mobile devices, manage project schedules, tap into automated budgeting, and gather project-related data to turn it into actionable insights.

✨ Features

• Project management with task proofing, resource management, etc.;

• Agency management with team collaboration, business intelligence, and real-time dashboards;

• Client communication portal;

• Financial reports;

• Task scheduling;

• Marketing-tailored resourcing and traffic tracking;

• CRM marketing;

• Task and time tracking;

• Agency-specific insights.

💸 Pricing

• Free – no free version or free trial;

• Pricing starts at $39 per user per month.

8. ClickUp

Best for streamlining data management.

ClickUp is an all-in-one project management solution that empowers creative teams to manage collaboration, communication, tasks, projects, and clients from a single software platform. The ClickUp platform is highly customizable, flexible, scalable, and collaborative, making it ideal for creative agencies of all sizes.

With ClickUp in your creative tech stack, you can tap into advanced project tracking with comprehensive task timelines and enhance data management and distribution across departments. You can also save time on complex projects, maximize resource management, and optimize every aspect of your project management needs.

✨ Features

• Project management with visualization elements;

• Team collaboration with real-time dashboards;

• Visual whiteboards;

• Campaign data multi-view visualization (Kanban, Gantt, calendars, notes, timelines);

• Task management and scheduling;

• Time tracking;

• Live chat;

• Real-time reporting;

• Customizable workflows;

• AI-enabled workflow alignment;

• Agency management templates.

💸 Pricing

• Free – Free forever for individual use and unlimited tasks;

• Pricing starts at $7 per user per month.

Learn more about ClickUp alternatives.

9. Workzone

Best for creative project management at scale.

Workzone is a top-grade solution for creative agencies looking for an agency management tool to help them improve project planning and client collaboration visibility. With Workzone, creative teams can break complex projects into smaller, easier-to-manage tasks to bring more transparency into their everyday tasks. That’s why Workzone is an excellent solution for PR agencies, digital advertisers, and promotion companies with a team of five or more members.

Workzone streamlines reporting, project delivery, task updating, data sharing, etc.

✨ Features

• Team collaboration;

• Team allocation (assign members to multiple tasks);

• Kanban and Gantt-based project status tracking;

• Permission-based access to data, tasks, and projects;

• Task workflow dependencies with subtasks;

• Customizable to-do lists;

• Project delivery monitoring;

• Personalized project templates;

• Recurring projects;

• Advertising management and data privacy compliance.

💸 Pricing

• Free – no free version or trial;

• Pricing starts at $24 per user per month for five or more team members.

10. Wrike

Best for cloud-based creative advertisement.

Wrike is a feature-rich project management solution for creative agencies that empowers advertising teams to manage projects, organize and assign tasks, plan resources, allocate assets, and take every step necessary to ensure successful real-time client collaboration and daily task management.

As a cloud-based project management solution, Wrike can cater to businesses of all sizes and help them manage teams, tasks, projects, and clients. 

✨ Features

• Project management;

• Task orchestration;

• Real-time dashboards;

• Reporting;

• Team collaboration;

• Cross-tagging for tracking workflows across larger projects;

• Resource management;

• Performance analytics and insights;

• Workflow intake automation;

• Advanced time tracking.

💸 Pricing

• Free – $0 per user per month;

• Pricing starts at $9.80 per user per month.

11. ProofHub

Best for automating advertising project management workflows.

ProofHub encompasses team collaboration and creative agency project management in one software solution. The ProofHub collaboration platform can scale with your team to help your teammates handle complex projects and everyday tasks efficiently.

ProofHub is ideal for getting a real-time 360-degree overview of all project-related phases and delivering the expected results on time through productive communication and collaboration.

✨ Features

• Project calendars;

• Kanban boards and Gantt charts;

• Customizable workflows;

• Real-time messaging;

• Live chat;

• Multiview project options;

• Manual and automatic time tracking;

• Productivity insights;

• Project reports;

• Document management;

• Note-taking and sharing;

• Streamlined project reviews;

• Scheduling calendar.

💸 Pricing

• Free – 14-day free trial;

• Pricing starts at $45 per user per month.

12. Trello

Best for visualizing advertising project management tasks.

Trello provides a streamlined project and task management platform to help creative teams manage daily tasks and handle projects through efficient collaboration and communication. Thanks to Trello’s intuitive, flexible, and straightforward platform navigation, users can tap into top-grade collaborative and management features to handle projects of all sizes.

Trello empowers your agency never to skip a beat while cooperating with your clients and team members. Because of that, Trello is ideal for advertising companies searching for real-time collaboration and project management support.

✨ Features

• Rule-based project and task management automation;

• Trello multiview board;

• Atlassian tool suite;

• Customizable Trello project cards and task lists;

• Team collaboration;

• Detailed reporting;

• Jira, Google Drive, and Slack integrations;

• Workflow templates for brainstorming, task management, meetings, etc.

💸 Pricing

• Free – $0 per user per month for your entire team;

• Pricing starts at $5 per user per month.

Top 5 advertising agency project management software compared

Other top advertising agency project management software worth exploring

In addition to the tools we mentioned in our list, here are alternative options for your consideration.

13.  Nifty

Best for creative agency management.

Nifty is a collaborative project management workspace creative teams can use to centralize client communication, document management, project orchestration, and reporting. Nifty helps ad agencies track performance, meet deadlines, improve collaboration, and manage projects in real-time. If you want to test Nifty, tap into their free version to see what the software can do.

Free – free forever for unlimited users;

Pricing starts at $5 per user per month.

14.  Workfront

Best for integrated agency project management.

Workfront helps your creative team turn their workspace into an agile task management and project execution powerhouse. Though Workfront is a complex tool, the software successfully unifies customizable dashboards, multi-project views, automated workflows, task management, and team collaboration under a single hub. Contact Workfront to receive pricing information.

No free plan or free trial;

Contact Workfront to get a quote.

15.  RodeoDrive

Best for centralizing client billing and ad project management.

Rodeo Drive empowers your creative team to capture every billable hour while delivering high-end project results beyond clients’ expectations. The platform combines project planning, time tracking, budgeting, and task management to give creative agencies the ultimate all-in-one project management solution for turning projects into profit.

Free – $0 for up to 10 users and up to 3 active projects;

Pricing starts at $14.99 per user per month.

16.  Teamwork

Best for combining agency project management and client collaboration.

Teamwork is an intuitive, fully automated project management platform with agency task management, client collaboration, team organization, and time orchestration features. Creative teams can also rely on Teamwork to automate repetitive tasks, tap into effective resource management, generate detailed financial reports, maximize asset allocation, plan projects, etc.

Free – $0 for up to 3 users;

Pricing starts at $5.99 per user per month (3 users min).

17.  Jira

Best for agency project tracking and task assignment.

Though you can use Jira as a creative agency project management solution, the software can do much more than that. With Jira, your creative team can tap into software development and resource planning to build websites and applications according to your needs. Test Jira using a freemium version.

Free – $0 for up to 10 users;

Pricing starts at $8.15 per user per month.

Learn more about Jira alternatives.

18.  Podio

Best for unifying projects, conversations, and content management.

Aside from empowering your creative team with content, task, and project management features, Podio also helps you centralize your collaboration, communication, and reporting needs. You get a single hub with automated workflows, CRM, integrated chat, unlimited data storage, and social collaboration features. Tap into Podio’s free version to give it a try.

Free – $0 for up to 5 users;

Pricing starts at $11.20 per user per month.

19.  PageProof

Best for review and approval of creative projects.

PageProof is an all-encompassing online proofing and creative collaboration platform for streamlining client communication, task management, project planning, and time orchestration with a top-grade selection of automated workflows. In addition to project management and communication tools, PageProof also provides cloud-based data storage options to enhance your data security.

Free – $0 for reviewers;

Pricing starts at $249 per month for unlimited users.

20.  LiquidPlanner

Best for creative task management with predictive analytics and dynamic scheduling.

LiquidPlanner empowers creative agencies to better manage client projects with advanced reporting, time tracking, team collaboration, resource planning, automated scheduling, and real-time project transparency. The software’s ease of use, customization options, intuitiveness, and top-grade project management capabilities make LiquidPlanner an excellent choice for ad agencies.

Free – 14-day free trial;

Pricing starts at $15 per user per month.

21.  Notion

Best for connecting dedicated project management and task planning.

Notion is an excellent tool for creative teams looking for a centralized solution with AI-enabled task automation, copywriting, team-based project views, streamlined document management, and enhanced team collaboration. With Notion, your agency can easily manage multiple projects, maintain client communication, schedule social media posts, manage daily tasks, plan projects, etc.

Free – $0 for limited blocks with teams up to 10 users;

Pricing starts at $8 per user per month (up to 100 users).

Learn more about Notion alternatives.

22.  Zoho

Best for integrating creative agency management with CRM.

Zoho provides a comprehensive, fully automated, and all-encompassing system for managing all your creative projects, clients, customer relationships, and team collaboration needs. The Zoho cloud-based creative agency management tool suite simplifies project planning, scheduling, and execution with multiple project views, milestones, task lists, and effective collaboration tools.

Free – $0 for up to 3 users;

Pricing starts at $14 per user per month.

23.  Smartsheet

Best for web-based creative agency management and project planning.

Smartsheet is an excellent ad project management tool for creative teams looking for a centralized software solution with automated workflows, file sharing, collaborative time orchestration, and wide accessibility across multiple devices and platforms. Use Smartsheet to adjust project timelines, view project status in real-time, generate visual reports, share project data with clients, etc.

Free – $0 for one user and up to two editors;

Pricing starts at $6 per user per month (up to 10 users).

24.  Parallax

Best for connecting budgeting, team collaboration, and project management.

If your creative agency needs a single solution for budgeting, team collaboration, task orchestration, time tracking, and creative project management, Parallax is an ideal tool for you. The intuitive Parallax platform tackles all project management challenges, including project visibility, resource allocation, data management, client communication, team collaboration, etc.

Contact Parallax to get a pricing quote.

25.  Basecamp

Best for sharing project updates and team collaboration.

Basecamp empowers creative agencies, PR companies, social media marketers, and digital promoters to upgrade team and client communication with streamlined creative collaboration workflows, automated task scheduling, direct messaging, intuitive document management, and real-time task assignments. Because of that, Basecamp is perfect for expanding ad agencies and advertising businesses.

Free – 30-day free trial;

Pricing starts at $15 per user per month.

26.  ProWorkflow

Best for project tracking and time orchestration.

ProWorkflow provides a web-based platform for centralizing team collaboration, time tracking, task management, project planning, and real-time team collaboration. If your creative team needs advanced project and task management and tracking features, ProWorkflow should be on your radar. However, the tool may not be suitable for businesses searching for a streamlined financial management solution.

Free – free trial available;

Pricing starts at $18 per user per month.

27.  Freedcamp

Best for streamlining time tracking and project management workflows.

Freedcamp allows creative agencies to split larger projects into smaller tasks, stay on top of daily workflows, adjust plans according to ongoing tasks, and turn project progress into actionable and shareable insights. Track projects with multiple calendar views, centralize team conversations, group tasks according to your needs, and document your progress in an internal, always accessible knowledge base.

Free – $0 per user per month;

Pricing starts at $1.49 per user per month.

28.  Float

Best for project planning, task scheduling, and resource management.

Float helps creative agencies and advertising firms centralize teams, clients, and projects under one solution to streamline project tracking, management, and monitoring. Teams get a unified view of all work on their schedules to plan their activities accordingly and ensure they never miss a deadline. In addition, agencies also get a 360-degree view of all their resources.

Free – 30-day free trial;

Pricing starts at $6 per user per month (up to 30 users).

29.  Screendragon

Best for cloud-based content, process, team, and project management.

Screendragon provides a unique cloud-based software platform for managing content, projects, teams, clients, and tasks. Creative teams can count on Screendragon to simplify work management, scale tasks according to their needs, save time on task completion, and launch ad campaigns when it matters most. 

Contact Screendragon to request pricing.

30.  Function Point

Best for project planning and budget management.

Function Point reshapes how creative agencies manage daily operations by replacing sheer organizational chaos with a perfect balance between efficiency, productivity, and affordability. Whether you need the ultimate collaboration tool, resource management platform, or project management solution, Function Point unifies all three and brings something extra.

Free – no free version or free trial;

Pricing starts at $50 per user per month (5-9 users).

What to ask the provider on a demo call about advertising agency project management software

Scheduling a demo call about an ad project management tool can be challenging, especially if you aren’t sure what questions to ask the sales agent. Since you risk losing time and resources, think twice before agreeing to anything. 

Though all the tools we mentioned here can help you accomplish your business goals, each solution is unique, with a specific range of features and pricing structure. You’ll want to ensure you don’t opt for a tool with features you won’t use.

Approach your demo call by considering your creative agency needs and shape your software expectations around those needs. Use these insights to come up with realistic advertising project management requirements. 

Then, discuss your needs with the software provider to determine how their solution can help you address your everyday challenges without breaking your budget. In addition, ask your provider to name a few real-life examples of companies that benefited from their project management solutions. 

Determine the budget you can afford to spend on an ad project management solution and work with your provider to find the best solution that fits your specific needs and available assets. Once everything is ready, request a demo call to ascertain how the selected provider can contribute to your creative team’s productivity and efficiency.

Streamline client's success within the ad agency project management software

To conclude, ad project management software is a critical tool for advertisers and creative agencies looking to automate workflows, align clients and team members, streamline project management, and stay competitive.

The best ad project management solutions, like Ayanza, provide a centralized workspace where your creative team can get ahead of daily tasks, client conversations, projects, deadlines, etc. These tools simplify the process of managing multiple projects, clients, and team members by bringing all functionalities under one roof.

Aside from improving your project management skills, creative project management tools also take your billing, workflow management, and CRM needs to the next level.

FAQ

How can advertising agency project management software streamline workflow processes?

Creative project management tools streamline workflow by addressing common challenges ad agencies face when managing clients and projects. 

These challenges include:

• Tracking project status from start to finish;

• Streamlining daily project-related task management;

• Keeping teammates and clients up-to-date with the latest events and comprehensive briefs;

• Allocating tools and resources on demand;

• Reviewing and approving projects;

• Storing all financial assets, client data, and project information in a secure storage location.

Top-grade ad project management solutions like Ayanza can help your creative tackle all these challenges while saving time, effort, and resources.

How customizable is advertising agency project management software to fit specific project needs?

The best ad project management tools, like Ayanza, come with a wide range of customization options to help creative teams turn their workspaces into highly collaborative environments with real-time updates.

Are there any integrations available with other tools for project management software for advertising agencies?

Industry-standard solutions like Ayanza, Asana, Scoro, Productive, and Planable offer various integration options to help creative teams streamline daily project management operations. These integration options include Jira, Slack, Trello, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Docs, etc.

What kind of reporting and analytics capabilities does ad agency project management software offer?

The best ad agency project management software provides real-time reporting and advanced analytics to empower creative teams to communicate project statuses and updates effectively with their target audiences. 

These capabilities are critical to keeping stakeholders up to speed with the latest project events, plans, and schedules. Some of the project management reports include project performance summarization, risk monitoring, team availability reports, project status, project health, etc.

Are training and support available for using project management software for ad agencies effectively?

Yes, enterprise-grade ad project management solutions like Ayanza and Productive provide extensive documentation, training tutorials, and user guides to help us master the learning curve and learn to use all features as soon as possible.

💡 Get inspired on how to secure proper project management software for teams other than just advertising agencies