When I started working as a marketing executive some 4 years back, my desk was full of post it notes with deadlines, a color-coded notebook with to-do lists, and my emails and Microsoft Teams open to keep track of my tasks. And I, was just an executive. My boss had to juggle multiple client campaigns, prepare quarterly reports and keep track of our quarterly goals. Imagine the chaos!
If any of this sounds familiar in your workplace, where your team is missing important details and you have to constantly fight fires, you might need the best agency project management tool.
A project management software for marketing agencies will organize everything from planning campaigns and overseeing execution to analyzing campaigns and creating improvement strategies. It also handles important things like smooth inter-department handoff, time tracking for billing and detailed workflows.
Let’s compare the top tools available today to see which one is the best tool for you.
Best project management software for agencies in marketing
When you think about a marketing agency project management tool, you should essentially be thinking about your savior when it comes to overlooking tens of projects at once.
Features like automation, time tracking, analytics, and recurrence should be on your checklist as they make daily tasks much quicker and more accurate. We will discuss more about this in the upcoming section.
But before that, let’s see what kind of impact a project management tool has on marketing teams.
Here is Binit Kiran, our SME for Growth and Marketing talking about the same:
“Managing a marketing agency’s projects can feel like trying to solve a complex puzzle while the pieces keep shifting. Without a dedicated tool, you’re always reacting instead of proactively planning. With a tool, in our case 5day.io, it’s effortless to get our workflows in order and minimize the chaos—allowing us to focus on strategic growth. With everything in one place, we can focus on more than just tracking tasks; we accelerate outcomes.”
Given the benefits Binit has highlighted, let’s now look at some of the best project management software for marketing agencies that can bring similar advantages to your agency.
5day.io - Best for startups and mid-sized marketing agencies
Now I know from first-hand experience how chaotic being in a marketing team can be, especially if you work in a startup. EVERYTHING needs to be done, and it needs to be done NOW.
And doing it all on Excel, emails and Teams can be messy.
5day.io is project management software for agencies that want:
- Customization
- Minimal learning curve
- Flat pricing with premium features
- Collaboration with cross-functional teams
Key 5day.io Features
- Custom roles and permissions
- Time tracking with bulk and auto timer
- Task recurrence for repetitive work
- Detailed analytics for every project
- No-code automation with scheduled commands to tackle menial work
Pricing
Free forever plan
$8 per user/month plan with all premium features
Wrike – Best for teams that need resource allocation
Wrike is an agency project management tool ideal for teams that need to plan and oversee extensive resource allocation. It makes assigning team members to relevant tasks based on workload easy and can be handy for agencies working with a big team.
Key Wrike features:
- Detailed reports dashboard for overseeing projects
- Budget management
- Time tracking and submission
- Kanban board for visualizing project
Pricing
Budget management
$10 per user/month for small teams
$24.80 per user/month for business teams
Custom enterprise and pinnacle plans
Trello – Best for simple Kanban workflows
Trello is a very popular Kanban style board that helps you oversee and organize all the tasks within your project. It is an ideal project management software for agencies that simply need a card style menu to overlook their team’s tasks.
Key Trello features:
- Automation tool called Butler
- Easy and quick project set up
- Customizable tags and labels for organized cards
- Power-ups for more customization
Pricing
Free forever plan
$6 per user/month standard plan
$12.50 per user/month premium plan
17.50 per user/month enterprise plan
Asana – Best for task planning and management
Asana is a project management software for advertising agencies that have a heavy focus on task management. It is a simple tool that focuses on day-to-day task management in a single space.
Key Asana features:
- Team file storage for quick doc access
- List, Kanban, Gantt, and Calendar view
- IOS and Android mobile apps
- Integrations with other tools
Pricing
Free plan
$8.50 per user/month starter plan
$19.21 per user/month advanced plan
Basecamp: Best for teams with remote collaboration needs
Basecamp is a simple tool that focuses on limited features. If you are looking for a creative agency project management software that helps you manage basic project requirements and communication in one place, Basecamp is a good option.
Top Basecamp features:
- To-dos
- Docs and files
- Move the needle
- Announcements/messages
- Timesheets
Pricing
Flat $56 per user/month plan
How to choose the best marketing agency project management tool for your team
Finding out which project management software is best for your team requires some assessment of your marketing team’s needs and how they work. Additionally, figure out which features the tool provides that can be useful to you.
Here are the 10 questions you should ask to figure it out.
Team assessment questions:
- What are your team’s core needs? Do you simply want to manage your tasks or want more?
- How do you manage your tasks currently? Would a software that helps make checklists of tasks and assign them suffice or is your operation more complex?
- Would the team frequently use advanced features like task automation? Is that a feature, if introduced, make their work life efficient?
- Do you need easy to set up, user-friendly tool or will the team handle a learning curve?
- Is complete customization with every single feature something you need or is your main focus to streamline the current process?
Tool related questions
- Does the tool provide an in-depth view into the project’s progress with analytics to track your KPIs?
- Can you track your team’s timesheets accurately for client billings?
- Are there customizable roles and permission available for your team members?
- What are the customer support options available to help you migrate, and support post migration?
- Does the tool have documentation and collaboration feature for remote employees and clients?
Is 5day.io the right fit for your marketing team’s needs?
5day.io can be an ideal tool for your team if you want a tool that:
- Is built for fast moving teams: 5day.io is built for quick-turnaround teams like marketing, where you can recur repeating tasks, see all the work assigned to you without thinking about what next and create reminders for every small activity.
- Provides clear visibility: With views like List and Kanban, get a detailed look into every project from every angle. Customize and save widgets to see data relevant to you to mitigate the risk of delay.
- Acts as a central hub for media storage and discussions: Bring all of your documents, PPTs, and other media to your project and discuss important updates right away with files and discussions. Plus speak to relevant members on task level and close the review loop quickly.
- Supports your workflow: Choose a template or build your own template. Once you save it, reuse it for every request like new client onboarding, documentation, change request process, social media campaign and more. Also create custom task, fields, and status workflows to fit your everyday work.
Do you want to explore how 5day.io may fit your marketing agency’s needs? Then try it for yourself now (completely free for 3 months + no credit card needed)
