15 Best Advertising Agency Software For Management In 2023

monday.com is a great advertising agency software because of the way the tool has done away with a lot of the trimmings of typical management tools and focused on simple, visually intuitive layouts that help clarify the sequence of work.

Why I Picked monday: monday.com offers features for managing advertising projects include resource and project management modules with some great collaboration tools. For example, users can upload and attach files to cards, make comments, mention teammates, and more. It also offers a great project reporting dashboard that can collect data from multiple boards, allowing better tracking abilities of progress. And while monday.com doesn’t offer a complete set of tools for project accounting and invoicing solution as other tools, you can use monday.com to track hours, timelines, and invoices.

Overall, it’s a highly customizable tool that lets you work in whatever methodology—kanban or otherwise—that fits your project and team. You’ll also find some useful workflow tools for automating parts of your process.

monday Standout Features & Integrations

Features include project management, task scheduling/tracking, resource management, scheduling, budgeting, API, calendar management, Gantt charts, file sharing, time management, email integration, third party plugins, and notifications.

Integrations include project management apps like Slack, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, Jira, GitHub, Trello, Dropbox, Typeform and many more, accessible through a paid plan with Zapier.

Kantata is a project management software that helps agencies and other organizations manage their projects effectively and efficiently. It provides a centralized platform for teams to collaborate and organize tasks, track progress, and communicate with each other.

Why I Picked Kantata: Kantata has tools for resource management, project management, team collaboration, project accounting, and business intelligence. As far as advertising agency software goes, this tool is one of the most robust. Kantata also features file sharing, email integration, custom branding, time and expense tracking, project/job costing, invoicing and online payments, personnel planning, and more. Product plans include access to 24/7 customer support and a resource library.

Kantata Standout Features & Integrations

Features include task management, resource management, time tracking, communication & collaboration, project dashboards, reporting, file sharing, a mobile app, and third-party integrations.

Integrations include Netsuite, Quickbooks, Salesforce, Google Workspace, Jira, Expensify, Xero, Concur, Sage Intacct, Slack, Hubspot, Microsoft platforms, and more.

ClickUp is a powerful tool that will keep your agency projects running smoothly. It is customizable in almost every way and can help with project and resource management. I want to highlight its proofing and tracking features.

Why I Picked ClickUp: Proofing is a space for your team to collaborate on a digital asset and add comments, tag members, and attach screen-sharing videos to show people exactly what you want to convey. Now, let's talk about tracking. Tracking can happen directly in your list, as seen in the screenshot above. All of these tasks have a table created within them and feed the information you see. This way, you can see your conversion rate, clicks, etcetera in one quick glance.

ClickUp Standout Features & Integrations

Features include task scheduling/tracking, project management, resource management, budgeting, contact management, data visualizations, employee database, expense tracking, file sharing, third-party plugins, collaboration support, timesheets, roadmapping, chat, customer management, email integration, feedback management, and process reporting.

Integrations include native integrations with Slack, Google Workspace, Dropbox, and many more tools, as well as over 1,000+ integrations through Zapier (may incur additional costs).

Wrike is an advertising agency software that is best for teams of five up to an unlimited number of team members. Wrike enables managers and teams to visualize projects on Kanban boards and drag-and-drop Gantt charts, as well as customize workflows, dashboards, reports, and request forms.

Why I Picked Wrike: Wrike allows teams and individuals to arrange their dashboard and task list in a view that suits their working style, as well as offers automations for admin tasks. Wrike also features employee capacity monitoring, resource management, and onboarding templates.

Wrike also offers a dedicated help center with interactive training, videos, a ‘Getting Started’ guide, and a thriving community. The tool includes a variety of specific solutions for every type of team or organization, including marketing teams and professional service teams. Users also have access to a variety of templates for common organizational processes.

Wrike Standout Features & Integrations

Features include project management, task scheduling/tracking, resource management, expense tracking, API, budgeting, Gantt charts, marketing automations, collaboration support, and reporting.

Integrations include over 400 pre-built integrations with the most popular file management software from Microsoft, Slack, Google, and Dropbox, along with sales and marketing software like Salesforce and Marketo.

VOGSY automates and streamlines business operations, and integrates natively with Google Workspace to provide advertising agencies with real-time data and collaboration. The tool includes project management, resource planning, a CRM, time and expense tracking, reporting, finance management, and billing, and it’s built on Google Cloud.

Why I Picked VOGSY: Users can track the status and progress of opportunities and projects in attractive dashboards. Everything is organized in one spot: files in an automated Drive structure, tasks, estimated vs. actual budgets and margins, emails, automated invoices in Docs, communications, and notes. Planning and forecasting are easy with automated resource suggestions, resource availability heat maps, and placeholder resources.

Tasks can be assigned to anyone at any point in the service cycle, even from Gmail. Users can complete workflows directly from Gmail, perform approvals, and quickly follow up with prospects and customers with the Gmail Add-on, which pulls relevant information into emails.

VOGSY’s visual charts show real-time metrics like employee billability, sales pipeline, revenue forecast, and customer profitability. For more in-depth data, VOGSY provides out-of-the-box Google Sheets reports that are highly configurable and exportable.

VOGSY Standout Features & Integrations

Features include resource and project management, collaboration, reporting dashboards, budgeting, professional services automation, Gantt charts, notifications & alerts.

Integrations include Google Workspace, Jira, Microsoft Excel, Xero, Intuit Quickbooks Online, Copper, Hubspot, Salesforce, and Zoho.

Mosaic is a modern resource management software built for advertising and creative agencies. They offer resource planning, project management, workload forecasting, hiring insights via role demand, capacity planning, profit and loss analysis, budget and time tracking, and performance dashboards.

Why I Picked Mosaic: Mosaic offers a range of project management features including task management, time tracking, resource management, budgeting, and reporting. With its visual interface, Mosaic makes it simple to track project progress, allocate resources, and ensure that projects are delivered on time and within budget.

What Mosaic does best is providing a simple and streamlined project management solution that can be used by teams of all sizes and across various industries. It offers an affordable alternative to more complex and expensive project management tools, making it accessible to a wider range of organizations. Additionally, Mosaic's mobile app allows teams to access their projects from anywhere, making it ideal for remote or distributed teams.

Mosaic Standout Features & Integrations

Features include task management, collaboration, time tracking, resource management, Gantt charts, project budgeting, reporting & analytics, mobile app, customizations, and third-party integrations.

Integrations include Quickbooks, Unanet, Deltek, Asana, Salesforce, Jira, Workday, SAP, Oracle, and many other software applications.

Forecast is a platform for advertising agencies to manage resources and projects used in 40+ countries worldwide. The tool includes capabilities for managing the project life cycle from quote to invoice, as well as intelligent automation for predicting project delivery dates and forecasting capacity needs.

Why I Picked Forecast: Users can create project plans with Forecast’s auto-schedule. The powerful AI automatically estimates tasks, assigns and optimizes workload across resources, and sets a project delivery date. The tool also provides dashboards with overviews of the organization to allow for informed adjustments to time and resource allocation.

Forecast also introduced a unique feature for managing projects in a retainer setup. A dashboard with retainer periods and totals lets you track the financials of ongoing projects in addition to staff workloads and time spent on delivery.

Forecast Standout Features & Integrations

Features include resource planning, task management, time tracking, budget tracking, project portfolio management, collaboration, Gantt charts, reporting & analytics, mobile app, customization, and third-party integrations.

Integrations include Slack, Microsoft Teams, iCloud Calendar, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Outlook, Harvest, Trello, Asana, GitLab, Github, and dozens more using a paid plan through Zapier. Higher-tier subscriptions include native integrations with Timelog, Xero, QuickBooks Online, JIRA, Azure DevOps, Salesforce, Okta, OneLogin, and Azure Active Directory.

Paymo helps advertising agencies streamline the process of managing projects from start to finish, reduce the administrative work as much as possible while offering a frictionless experience along the way. This means that both project managers and team members will know exactly what they need to do, when, and also collaborate better and transparently.

Why I Picked Paymo: The features cover all of the processes, from creating the initial project estimate to adding and assigning tasks, setting up budgets, tracking work time, generating reports, adding expenses and invoicing the clients.

To keep everyone up-to-date and on the same page, Paymo allows commenting at the task and project level, along with real-time in-app and email notifications. The interface is modern, a bit crowded with features and options, but easy to navigate through. You can hide the modules you don’t plan to use.

Paymo Features & Integrations

Features include time tracking, task management, budget tracking, resource management, collaboration, Gantt charts, reporting & analytics, invoicing, mobile app, customizations, and third-party integrations.

Integrations include Slack, Adobe Creative Cloud, Google Drive, QuickBooks Online, Xero, JotForm, Shift, to name a few. Other integrations are available through Zapier or by syncing with their fully-documented API.

Copper is an easy-to-use CRM for small businesses that assist users in managing sales leads and growing customer relationships.

Why I Picked Copper: Copper integrates with Gmail and other Google Apps and automatically logs all emails and contact interactions to reduce data entry and repetitive admin tasks. Users can also see sales and relationship essentials from email threads, past interactions, and tasks in one place.

The tool also includes project management features such as Kanban boards, workflow management capabilities, revenue tracking, and more. Copper also has strong reporting features for sales data and processes. Users can view metrics for measuring quality of lead sources, top-performing sales team members, sales forecasts, and more.

Copper Features & Integrations

Features include task management, time tracking, collaboration, Gantt charts, resource management, budget tracking, reporting & analytics, mobile app, customer relationship management, and third-party integrations. 

Integrations include Google Workspace, Trello, Zoom, QuickBooks, HubSpot, Slack, Box, Microsoft Teams, Mailchimp, Asana, and others.

Hubstaff is a full-featured, free time tracking software tool for agencies (with freemium upgrades) that’s best for remote or distributed teams. It’s a lightweight, native time tracking tool that includes screenshots, time tracking, and project management. Its simple interface and design make it really easy for your team to enter their time and for you to track their progress.

Why I Picked Hubstaff: Budget management is straightforward—using Hubstaff you can easily set time limits and budgets for your team to bill against with a maximum number of hours you want a member to be able to work in a week and the app will automatically prevent them from exceeding the limit.

When you’re working with a distributed team it can be hard to verify exactly what people are doing and how they’re spending their time. Hubstaff has some pretty handy tools to give you insight into what your team is doing in the time they’re logging to your project with screenshots and activity levels. You can also see which applications your team members are using and what URLs they are browsing while they’re tracking time.

Hubstaff Standout Features & Integrations

Features include task management, time tracking, collaboration, Gantt charts, resource management, budget tracking, reporting & analytics, mobile app, invoicing, screen capture & activity tracking, GPS tracking, and third-party integrations. 

Integrations are well supported across stacks of different tools including project management tools Asana, Jira, and Basecamp, payments, accounting, and invoicing integrations including QuickBooks, Paypal, Wise as well as Salesforce and Zendesk among others.

Hive is a creative project management and collaboration platform that powers companies like Starbucks, Uber, WeWork, and IBM. With AI-based analytics, thousands of integrations, flexible project views, and more, Hive streamlines your work in one centralized platform. Used by teams of varying sizes, from 10 people to 1,000, Hive is a great option for a diverse range of companies and work styles including creative teams.

Why I picked Hive: Hive’s time-tracking, analytics, and flexible view capabilities allow for transparent understanding of other team member's work and upcoming projects. You can organize your projects in a Gantt chart, Kanban board, calendar and easily switch between each layout. Custom designed automated workflows are also possible, along with resource tracking and team communication and collaboration.

Hive has a proofing and approval feature which simplifies feedback loops and approval cycles with the ability to assign approvals, share proofs and provide feedback. Forms can also be sent outside your organization to gather information about clients and customers.

Hive also has one of the first full email integrations in any project management tool, which allows you to send and receive Gmail and Outlook messages from the app.

Hive Standout Features & Integrations

Features include customizable dashboards, task management, collaboration, resource management, time tracking, mobile app, Agile methodologies, reporting & analytics, file sharing, and third-party integrations.

Integrations include over a thousand third-party apps but requires a paid plan through Zapier to do so.

FunctionFox offers three different plans with features that range from basic time tracking and estimating, to project scheduling and gantt charts, to customized project intake forms. FunctionFox can support teams with five or five hundred members.

Why I Picked FunctionFox: FunctionFox is entirely web-based and compatible with all up to date browsers, so users on both Mac and PC can work together seamlessly. FunctionFox allows for team collaboration through project scheduling, allows allocation of specific tasks through action assignments and to-do lists, and facilitates communication through the project blog. Another great feature is the availability tool, which project managers can use to monitor team capacity and utilize everyone’s time effectively.

FunctionFox is easy to use and made even easier with the tutorials and support provided. They offer dedicated onboarding and all customer support is unlimited, ongoing, and included in the subscription cost. Their website also includes a help center, and there are detailed help files included within the software itself.

FunctionFox Standout Features & Integrations

Features include time tracking, task management, budget tracking, resource management, collaboration, reporting, invoicing, mobile access, customization, client management, and third-party integrations.

Integration with Quickbooks is possible.

Basecamp includes the tools advertising teams need to work together: message boards, to-dos, schedules, docs, file storage, real-time group chat, and automatic check-in questions. You can rename prompts, turn off the ones you don’t need, or integrate with third-party tools.

Why I Picked Basecamp: Ad agency teams will find that Basecamp’s communication features, both internal and client-centric, are top-notch. Agency teams can use the “campfire” chat feature to keep up-to-date and the commenting features for external clients are extremely simple to use, making onboarding easier.

Basecamp Standout Features & Integrations

Features include task scheduling/tracking, project management, data import, email integration, calendar management, API, notifications, chat, time management, and data import/export.

Integration options include Unito.io, Automate.io, Zapier, TaskClone, Project Buddy, Pleexy, Field Trip, CData Software, RSSBus, Retool, To-Do Helpers, TImeshift Messenger, Zoho Flow, Mr.ToDo, Clockify, Toggl, Ganttify, and more.

Advertising agency teams and specialists can use ProWorkflow to manage their wide variety of projects by allowing their designers, developers, project managers, and freelancers to collaborate in a central hub where progress can be easily monitored and reported on.

Why I Picked ProWorkflow: ProWorkflow is uniquely positioned to excel in both project and resource management, particularly because of the sheer amount of projects teams can add as well as easy logging of all current and past jobs. One of the key strengths of ProWorkflow is its ease of use. The platform is designed to be user-friendly and intuitive, making it accessible to teams of all sizes and skill levels. ProWorkflow is also highly customizable, allowing users to tailor the platform to meet their specific needs and workflows.

In addition to its ease of use, ProWorkflow also offers robust project management capabilities. Teams can create and assign tasks, track project progress, and collaborate with team members in real-time. The platform also generates reports and analytics to provide insights into project performance, resource utilization, and overall project success.

ProWorkflow Standout Features & Integrations

Features include project management, task scheduling/tracking, customer management, scheduling, third-party plugins, contact management, dashboards, data visualizations, Gantt charts, notifications, budgeting, and expense tracking.

Integrations include Xero, QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, FreshBooks, MYOB AccountRight, MYOB Essentials, Kashflow, Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Workspace, Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Sharepoint, and thousands of more with a paid plan through Zapier. Plus, the ProWorkflow API lets you build your own reports, apps and integrations.

Intervals is a great tool for agencies that need to manage work, track its value, and quickly prepare invoices for clients to get paid for their time. It’s used by advertising agencies as well as digital strategy agencies, web design and development shops, QA teams in larger IT companies, and other use cases.

Why I Picked Intervals: Agencies using Intervals will find a trove of useful features including project management (detailed task management, scheduling, file sharing, time tracking), as well as resource allocation, client management tools like invoicing and client reports. Overall, while it doesn’t have live chat and its document sharing features are on the basic side, Intervals is a well-rounded tool for making agencies run more smoothly.

Perhaps the best part of this tool is the reporting features. Because the tool includes time and expense management tools, you can also generate a variety of meaningful internal reports to find out exactly where your team’s time and efforts are going. You can also get a higher-level view of your agency, providing answers to questions like, “Which client have we done the most work for this year?” or “Who is our most billable employee?” The idea behind intervals is that you can keep track of every detail on every job so you’ll never again lose money on a project.

Intervals Standout Features & Integrations

Features include time tracking, reporting, invoicing, customization, mobile app, job tracking, dashboards, flexible workflows, and third-party integrations.

Integrations include QuickBooks online for invoicing, QuickBooks desktop for time data, Xero, FreshBooks, Slack, and Google Drive.