Traffic Think Tank

Tools

31 Best Campaign Management Tools Tested & Compared

Dmitry Dragilev
Dmitry Dragilev
Published: Mar. 28, 2024

There was a time, not too long ago, when managing a marketing campaign involved a lot of guesswork. Hard data about customers and target audiences was hard to come by, A/B testing might involve sinking thousands of dollars into postage for a direct mail campaign, and–worst of all–the effectiveness of a campaign could only be evaluated in hindsight.

Luckily, those days are long gone. Campaign management in 2024 is a bit like flying a plane on autopilot: Yes, you still need to know what you’re doing, but there are advanced systems in place to help you stay on track. Marketing automation is how most a marketer gets things done these days. Modern campaign managers can enlist the help of powerful tools that automate and streamline their processes.

The purpose of this article (which was just updated for 2024) is to provide a comprehensive guide to our favorite all-in-one campaign management tools for marketing and help you run a successful campaign, even if it’s your first one. Let’s get started.

Top Campaign Management Tools for 2024

We’re about to get into a deep dive covering all things campaign management, but before we do, here’s a quick rundown of the top marketing platforms in the key areas of campaign management:

Best CRM / Marketing Automation Tools

Best Project Management Tools 

Best Email & Social Media Tools

Best Analytics Tools

What is Marketing Campaign Management?

Marketing campaign management is a catch-all term for the work that goes into planning and executing a marketing campaign. 

This includes coordinating the following: inbound and outbound marketing, lead management, customer segmentation, relationship management, customer engagement via email marketing, campaign creation, campaign performance, campaign execution, your content creation strategy, market analysis, and the project management required to organize all these efforts. 

Campaign management also includes analyzing and measuring the effectiveness of your marketing strategy once the campaign is over.

Before you start picking a campaign management tool, make sure to answer the following questions:

  • Who is your target audience? what does their customer journey look like?
  • Do you have a campaign manager dedicated solely to running successful marketing campaigns?
  • Ddo you have an existing marketing team already executing a marketing effort? how can this software help your team members be more efficient?
  • What is your campaign budget?
  • Do you have a marketing calendar detailing specific campaigns you want to run?
  • Do you have an existing marketing channel and marketing software you are using currently? How Will it work with the new software you purchase?
  • Is your main marketing channel ad campaigns, Bing ads, or maybe a Google ad with different ad groups? If this is your primary user acquisition channel, make sure to find software that improves it and makes it better. Do not go after other acquisition channels just because the software allows you to do so.

What are Campaign Management Tools?

Technically, anything can be a campaign management tool if it helps you manage a campaign in real-time. To avoid getting into an endless list of campaign planning, let’s focus on the tools a marketer will find most useful.

CRM platforms are the first place most people turn to for campaign management solutions. Other kinds of campaign management tools we’ll explore in this article are:

  • social media management tools to run targeted marketing campaigns and segment subscribers
  • project management tools to keep your team on the same page
  • analytics tools to evaluate your campaign’s success

We’ll also look at how to choose your campaign management software and which features are must-haves.

Best CRM/Marketing Automation Tools 

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools offer a one-stop solution for most, if not all, of your marketing campaign management needs. Over the past few years, CRM software has become the nerve center of marketing in the digital age. Not only does it help marketers track leads generated from their campaigns, but your sales team will also use it to track deals and monitor pipeline performance.

Even though your toolkit will likely include other dedicated solutions for things like project management and search engine analytics, your CRM will be where you bring it all together and connect your behind-the-scenes work with client-facing marketing activities. 

Image: ZenDesk

HubSpot

A CRM solution designed for small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs). HubSpot is highly customizable, and so is the price. 

Price: Free to get started. Pricing plans scales with you as your business grows.

Pros:

  • The free version is pretty great. 
  • Built for inbound marketers by the folks who put inbound on the map.  

Cons:

  • Add-ons add up. You may end up paying a lot to unlock the features you want. 

ZOHO

Zoho’s omnichannel support is a major selling point. 

Price: $14-52 per user/month, depending on your pricing tier.

Pros:

  • Well-thought-out mobile integrations.
  • Good analytics. 
  • One of PC Mag’s top picks for CRM platforms.

Cons:

  • You have to pay a premium to access workflows. 

Salesforce

Salesforce is the expensive, tons-of-features option which may be a bit much for those who are just getting started. That said, when a cloud-based CRM has its name on a skyscraper, you can’t exactly leave it off the list. 

Price: Salesforce’s marketing campaign management platform offers plans ranging from $1,000-$3,000/month to $100,000/year for large organizations. It’s best to ask a sales rep which pricing tier makes sense for your business stage.

Pros:

  • Salesforce built a name for itself with outstanding workflows and best-in-class integrations.

Cons:

  • Expensive
  • More features than the average small business would ever need.

ZenDesk Sell 

ZenDesk Sell is a CRM in the ZenDesk family of products with an emphasis on the sales funnel. 

Price: Free trial. Then, it’s $19-$115 per seat/month based on your pricing tier.

Pros:

  • Plenty of integrations. 
  • A good choice for ZenDesk users. 
  • The mobile app gets good reviews.  

Cons:

  • Feature-heavy for most SME users. 

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is an email marketing and CRM platform with campaign automation and reporting capabilities.

Price: 

Pros:

  • Powerful email marketing and automation tools
  • Built-in CRM with sales pipeline view and tasks
  • Flexible segmentation options for campaigns
  • 800+ app integrations via Zapier

Cons:

  • Steeper learning curve than some CRM platforms
  • Reporting can be complex for beginners
  • Lacks some advanced marketing options like A/B testing

Agile CRM

Agile CRM is a cloud-based CRM platform that competes on value and offers discounts to users coming over from the competition. 

Price: Free for up to ten users. Then it’s $9-$48/month based on your pricing plan.

Pros:

  • Affordable compared to leading competitors.
  • A good fit for very small businesses, freelancers, and solopreneurs. 

Cons:

  • Lacks some of the customer support and tutorial features other CRMs have. 

Less Annoying CRM 

A clear winner in the naming department, Less Annoying CRM was built in response to some of the hype surrounding its competitors. A good option for small businesses looking for a few key features without a lot of fuss.

Price: Free trial. Then, it starts at $15/user/month.

Pros:

  • Affordable.
  • Mobile-friendly

Cons:

  • Reporting features are nothing special.

Best Project Management Tools

The human element is one of the pillars of campaign execution and campaign management. With the future of work going remote, keeping your team organized and in sync is more important than ever. Project management tools are the perfect way to coordinate your people and processes. 

Hive 

Hive is an online project management hub that’s well organized, so you can be too.

Price: Freemium plan. Then, it’s $5-$12/user/month based on your pricing tier. Hive also offers custom enterprise plans for larger businesses.

Pros:

  • Offers an array of organizational tools, including Gantt charts and Kanban boards.
  • Plenty of integrations.
  • Gets generally good reviews.

Cons:

  • Some users report issues with reporting features and complain about a lack of customization. 

Basecamp

Basecamp is a simple, purpose-built project management app built by a fully remote company.

Price: Free trial. Then, Basecamp offers two plans: $15/user per month and $299/month, depending on the size of your team.

Pros:

  • Focuses on features you actually need. Helps you digitally declutter.

Cons:

  • Lacks tracking features and integration with tracking software. Basecamp refuses to help companies spy on their employees (which could be a pro if you feel the same way).

Asana 

Asana is an easy-to-use project management hub with features that allow you to set deadlines and sales targets. 

Price: Free–$24.99/user/month.

Pros:

  •  The Free version is excellent.

Cons:

  • Has a lot of features you probably don’t need and is lacking a big one: you can’t assign a task to more than one person. 

Trello

Trello uses Kanban boards as the basis for a straightforward platform with a user experience that’s hard to beat. 

Price: Free for small teams. Then, it’s $5-$10user/month based on your pricing plan. There’s also an enterprise plan with flexible pricing based on your number of users.

Pros:

  • Easy to use and learn. 
  • Well designed. 
  • Trello’s user-friendly drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to use.

Cons:

  • Too basic for some users.
  • No billing integrations.

Monday

Monday is a visual project management with both board and timeline views to coordinate your marketing campaigns and projects.

Price: Free-$19/user/month

Pros:

  • Visual boards to map out entire workflows
  • Timelines allow for clear scheduling/tracking of deadlines
  • Integrates with Zapier and 100+ other apps

Cons:

  • Can get costly for larger teams and projects
  • Steep learning curve for some users

Airtable

Airtable is a flexible database and spreadsheet database hybrid that allows for custom tracking of your campaign details.

Price: Free-$54/user/month

Pros:

  • Flexible data organization for anything from leads to ad performance
  • Customizable fields and views
  • Simple pricing tiers

Cons:

  • Not as specialized for complex project management
  • Reporting and visibility more limited compared to dedicated tools

Best Email & Social Media Tools

CRM and project management tools help you plan and organize your campaign. Email and social media tools are all about getting your marketing content out in the world where it can have an impact. 

While you do not need to have campaign software to be on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Clubhouse, or any other social media network, they do help you get the most out of it. (Quick tip: Clubhouse does not yet have a third-party management tool for the app, you can read about how to use Clubhouse for business and top clubs to follow on our blog).

Similarly, while you may not need email marketing tools to send updates to your customers and prospects, they make the process much easier. Without a dedicated email tool, you’ll have no way to generate complex email marketing campaigns and report the results to any relevant stakeholders.

Without these capabilities, business leaders will continue to look at marketing as a cost center rather than the strategic revenue driver it is. With that in mind, here are the email and social media tools we recommend.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media management platform that helps you schedule posts, organize hashtags, and learn from analytics. 

Price: $29-$250/month. Hootsuite also offers custom enterprise pricing based on your business’s needs.

Pros:

  • Hashtag insights help you curate rather than just schedule your content. 
  • Big time savings over posting things manually.

Cons:

  • Buffer has much better timing features.

 Buffer 

Buffer does one thing really well: it allows users to schedule a queue of posts in advance. Analytics features help you post at the best times for your audience. Browser integrations make it possible to add a page directly to your queue when you find something you want to share.  

Price: Freemium plan. Then, it’s $6-$12/month based on your pricing tier.

Pros:

  • Affordable. 
  • Easy to use. 
  • Best post scheduler on the market. Period.

Cons:

  • Poor customer service ratings.

SocialPilot 

SocialPilot is a reasonably-priced social media management tool dashboard that’s worth checking out if collaboration is a priority and you’re on a budget. 

Price: Starts at $30/month and scales to $200/month based on your business needs.

Pros:

Cons:

  • No Instagram analytics

Sprout Social 

Look no further if you’re in the market for a social media management platform with advanced social listening features and tools like influencer identification. Sprout Social has it all.

Price: Free trial. Then, it’s $250-$500/month based on your pricing plan. There’s also custom enterprise pricing available for larger companies.

Pros:

  • CRM functionality.
  • Great analytics and integrations.

Cons:

  • High per-user cost. 
  • The basic tier is pretty basic compared to what you can get at the advanced price point.

Drip  

Email automation tool purpose-built for marketers. Drip includes exceptional reporting and analytics. 

Price: 14-day free trial. Then, monthly pricing scales upward based on the number of users you need.

Pros:

  • Features like lead scoring and categorized funnels you won’t find in more basic email automation tools.

Cons:

  • Expensive. Mailchimp, Drip’s main competitor, can do a lot of the same things at a fifth of the cost. 

GetResponse

GetResponse is an email marketing and automation tool with landing page and webinar capabilities.

Price: $19-$119/month. The cost of the paid plans scales up alongside the number of subscribers on your email list.

Pros:

  • Intuitive drag-and-drop editor to design emails
  • Automation features for complex workflows
  • Tools to build landing pages without coding

Cons:

  • Contacts are limited on lower-priced tiers
  • Light on advanced analytics compared to some platforms

ConvertKit 

ConvertKit is an email marketing platform focused specifically on creators and bloggers. Your marketing team can use it to engage with your prospects and promote your company’s products and services.

Price: Free-$29/month. The cost of the paid plans scales up alongside the number of subscribers on your email list.

Pros:

  • Specialized options for newsletter campaigns, course launches, etc.
  • Simple pricing structure
  • Excellent segmentation tools

Cons:

  • Much more limited Automation options
  • Lacks some marketing features of full CRM platforms

Kicksta  

Kicksta is an Instagram growth tool, which uses an automated “liking” method to target specific potential customer accounts to organically grow your Instagram following.

Price: Free trial. Then, it’s $99-$338/month based on your pricing plan.

Pros:

  • Quick and easy setup.
  • You start gaining followers on Instagram right away
  • Target by hashtag, account, or location

Cons:

  • They don’t offer a free trial, but they do have a 14-day money-back guarantee 
  • The dashboard shows the number of people who followed you, but it does not provide the usernames.

Grin

Grin is software to identify, manage, and track influencer campaigns in one system. Could be useful for running influencer marketing initiatives.

Price: Pricing depends on your specific needs such as the number of users, the number of influencers, and the varying functionality you will need for your specific program. You have to schedule a demo to learn more.

Pros:

  • Integration with leading social platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok to easily discover and vet influencers
  • In-depth influencer profiles provide detailed analytics on engagement rates, audience demographics, etc.
  • Tools for simplified influencer relationship management and campaign tracking

Cons:

  • More expensive than some competitor platforms
  • Analytics may not be as robust as standalone analytics platforms
  • Limited functionality for actually activating and managing influencer campaigns (still requires manual outreach)

Upfluence

Upfluence is an influencer marketplace and analytics platform. Enables brands to connect with influencers at scale.

Price: Similar to Grin, pricing depends on your specific needs. You have to schedule a demo to learn more.

Pros:

  • A large marketplace of pre-vetted influencers in one platform
  • Tools to manage influencer outreach and activations at scale
  • Analytics track performance and engagement of influencer content

Cons:

  • Commissions charged on influencer deals may increase costs
  • Not as many evaluation tools to dig into influencer profiles
  • More focused on activation than in-depth discovery and relationship-building

Best Analytics Tools 

Most of the tools we’ve already discussed in the CRM and social media marketing categories have advanced analytics. But there are times when you might need a dedicated analytics solution, especially when you’re focusing on SEO or trying to tap into hard-to-find customer data. Here are a few more stand-alone analytics tools you should know about.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free tracking tool that gives you comprehensive insights into your website’s traffic. Find out who’s visiting your website, how they’re finding you, what they’re clicking on, and more. 

Image: Google

Price: Free! Unless you have a large enterprise, then it’s expensive. The basic (free) version will do the trick for most small to medium enterprises.

Pros:

  • Designed as part of the G-suite (that you’re probably already using anyway). Google Analytics offers integration with Adwords. 

Cons:

  • Not a stand-alone tool. 
  • Limited insight into conversion, growth, and other important metrics. No campaign management features.
  • The Google Analytics GA4 update is not very user-friendly and has a steep learning curve.

Google Search Console 

Google Search Console is an inbound marketing must. It helps you discover what search terms people are using to find you. You can use these insights to build your content marketing and SEO strategies.

Price: Free!

Pros:

  •  Native to the most popular search engine on the planet. Find out how people are finding you directly from the source. 

Cons:

  • Again, not a stand-alone tool.

Moz Pro

When you’re ready to step into the SEO big leagues, take a look at Moz Pro. Moz delivers insights into search rankings for you and your competitors. 

Price: $199-$599/month

Pros:

  • Feature-rich. 
  • Suitable for SEO and marketing professionals as well as less experienced users. 

Cons:

  • A little pricey. 

Semrush

If you’re interested in playing offense with your SEO and outranking your competitors, Semrush might be the way to go. 

Pros:

  • Great for competitive SEO analysis. 
  • Reveals hidden and missed SEO opportunities. 

Cons:

  • Advanced features might be wasted on less experienced users. 

Price: $129-$499/month

KissMetrics

KissMetrics is a SaaS product for anyone serious about growth and conversion. Kiss focuses on customer insights and behavior tracking to give you the information you need to optimize for engagement. 

Pros:

  • A good way to pinpoint exactly what causes visitors to convert and what causes them to bounce. 

Cons:

  • If you’re not getting much traffic, understanding your visitors’ behavior is less important than generating traffic. (If that’s the issue you face, consider focusing on SEO with help from free tools like Google Search Console).

Price: $199-499/month. KissMetrics also offers custom enterprise pricing for large teams.

Price:

  • Free with signup.

How to Choose Campaign Management Tools

As you can see, there’s no shortage of tools for just about very use case. The challenge isn’t finding campaign management tools but finding the right campaign management tools for your business. If you want to know the right tools when you see them, it helps to have a system for evaluating your needs and goals. Here are a few things to keep in mind. 

Keep it simple

It’s possible to execute a robust campaign management strategy while using a bare-bones set of tools. Extra features can get pricey and often leave you using software that’s difficult to adopt. Avoid the temptation to invest in bells and whistles you don’t need. When assessing the pros and cons of CRM software and other tools, pay attention to any mention of business size. A platform that’s amazing for a large, mature organization might be overkill for a three-person startup. 

Campaign management must-haves

Ease of use 

This should be non-negotiable. If you have to go back to school to learn how to use a piece of software, it probably isn’t worth your time. Consider how easily a given solution can integrate with tools you already have. Exceptions might include advanced analytics and SEO tools.

Content marketing integration

Content marketing is where the rubber meets the road. Everything you do concerning project management and customer relationship management eventually touches content marketing. Therefore, your campaign management tools should include content marketing integrations. 

Multi-channel capabilities

If you’re going to be running your marketing campaign across multiple channels (Facebook, Twitter, email, etc.), you’ll want to make sure your campaign management software allows users to work across multiple channels and tailor their content accordingly. Without multi-channel features, you risk posts that seem out of tune (e.g. a Facebook post that contains someone’s Twitter handle). 

Automation

Your campaign tools should make it possible to automate virtually everything you do. Look for features that enable event-triggered actions so certain marketing assets, like email offers, are deployed automatically based on visitor and customer behavior. You should also ask your potential marketing vendor about their tool’s API or what different integrations they offer. Leveraging these features will enable you to cut down on repetitive tasks and focus on the optimization of your marketing campaigns.

Advanced analytics

All else being equal, base your software decision on analytics capabilities. Look for software that either has outstanding analytics built-in or is designed to integrate with leading analytics software like Google Analytics. 

AI capabilities

In 2024, most major software companies have integrated AI into their tech stack in some capacity. Leveraging AI-powered tools can help you streamline repetitive tasks like sorting email notifications, generating landing page templates, or performing cold email outreach and follow-ups to your prospects.

Best Practices for Marketing Campaign Management 

Sorting out all these tools can feel overwhelming. The many facets of marketing campaign management are way more than any manager or any team can keep track of independently. Digital marketing in 2024 requires advanced marketing tools and management systems and a mix of creative marketing, content strategy, and cold analytics. 

Measure what you manage 

Collect data every step of the way. Keep your customer databases up-to-date and accurate. Good campaign management relies on good data and good metrics. These tools give you the ability to measure almost everything, so it may help to narrow down and focus on a few key performance metrics that will indicate whether your strategy is working. OptimoRoute recently wrote a nice article diving deep into which specific small business metrics are essential for small businesses to pay attention to.

Assemble your toolkit

Figure out what tools you need based on what you need to do with them. The time to get familiar with your marketing tools is before you’re relying on them to run a major marketing campaign. Take them for a test drive, and address any snags so that everything works smoothly when it’s time to go live.  

Measure your results 

Whether you’re trying to figure out what went well or what went wrong, various metrics will give you different pieces of the puzzle. For example, a low email open rate could mean you’re getting flagged as spam, or your subject line needs work. A low click-through rate means you might need to work on your copy or your call to action. 

Rinse/Repeat

Once you’ve planned a marketing campaign, run it, and learned from how it went, your next task is to do another campaign. Use your tools to make any needed adjustments, and swap out tools if need be. Keep integrating and improving.

Bringing it All Together

There is no single marketing campaign management tool, just like there’s no “cabinet-making tool.” Like carpentry, campaign management relies on many separate, purpose-built tools for different pieces of the project. Successful campaign managers select the right tool combination, and that can vary for each project. We hope this guide will help you understand what to look for as you navigate the range of options on the market.