15 Best Advertising Agency Project Management Software
Advertising agency project management software helps agencies organize their work, boost team performance, and deliver quality projects on time and within budget. To illustrate, consider you’re working on an important client project with a tight deadline. Everything is going well until you realize a severe gap in your deliverables, a productized service your team has never created. You sigh of relief when you discover your agency management software has a detailed template to help you get started.
It outlines the tasks needed to complete the project and has a prebuilt structure for organizing your client’s files and automating communications to keep everyone on the same page. This guide will explore how advertising agency project management can help your firm, including our top recommendations for reaching your goals.
Orchestra's solution to growing your productized service is among the best advertising agency project management software tools. This easy-to-use tool will help you organize, create consistency, and streamline your next client project so you can deliver quality work on time.
Importance of Project Management for Advertising Agencies
Project management tools have come a long way in recent years. Today’s advertising agency project management software offers various customizable functionalities to help agencies improve operations and workflows. Teams are often diverse, consisting of freelancers and other specialists, like financial or administrative experts. These multifaceted teams require better management software to help navigate the complexities of modern creative projects and deliver on client expectations.
Artificial Intelligence: The Future of Project Management
Administrative tasks are tedious and energy-draining, consuming hours that should be dedicated to creative projects. Automation is a one-way project management solution that simplifies and reduces the scope of administrative tasks. This reduces human error on spreadsheets and time tracking and increases the profit gained out of the team’s working hours by saving valuable time that can be better spent on creative deliverables.
Optimizing Margins
With the help of agency project management software augmented by artificial intelligence, there’s a chance of gaining insight into the inner workflow of the agency and its services. With a clear idea of how much each project makes in profit and how much revenue each different type of service brings to the company, the C-level personnel are in the right spot to make business decisions that can grow the company. It allows for better pricing and accurate invoicing.
Solutions in Real Time
With Gantt charts, time tracking, task management, and real-time scheduling functionalities, an agency can develop better systems and increase the overall efficiency of each billable hour. Thus, they can produce better and faster deliverables and maximize the value they bring to each brand and customer. Proper project management software isn’t a glorified timesheet.
It aids economic and business growth for better income, innovative workflow, and quality deliverables. With the help of functional creative project management, the distance between estimated and actual delivery times can be bridged. It’s possible to measure the exact value of projects and to assign correct pricing to the services offered by the advertising and marketing agency.
Digital Traceability and Collaboration
Another essential item for project management software in this industry is enormous collaboration for creative projects. In mid to big businesses, a lot of important information is reduced to area silos, eventually reaching a point of missed creative and financial calls. This is why clear communication is critical, the channeling of information should be streamlined, and the collaboration tool must be managed to support an operation that counts all types of documents and cross-platform requirements.
Inviting the Client
This type of communication tool can even be utilized as a way for giving and receiving feedback from customers, efficiently communicating with freelancers and external talent, and, most importantly, it must work as a place to keep track of the overwhelming amount of files shared to and for communicating between team members in each step of a creative project. This is also a great way to proof and approve deliverables with clients.
Automated Time Estimation
Considering the data gathered by time tracking functionalities, estimation, and resource planning appear to be essential aspects of professional business services. By using the number of billable hours and how much that service costs, one can determine the revenue the agency gains from it. Thus, a forecasting tool is critical for negotiating fees and for correctly invoicing clients.
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15 Best Advertising Agency Project Management Software
1. Orchestra
Launch your productized service effortlessly with Orchestra's all-in-one growth toolkit. Designed for creatives ready to scale, Orchestra provides a branded, white-labeled client portal, task management, and real-time analytics, with no coding needed, just your Stripe account.
Whether you’re a designer, developer, or copywriter, Orchestra streamlines your workflow, letting you collaborate with clients seamlessly while maintaining a private workspace with your team. Add integrations like Slack and webhooks to customize your setup and deliver a branded experience. Enhance your service with a platform built to grow alongside you. Try Orchestra for free to develop your productized service today.
2. Clickup
I tested ClickUp’s Free plan to explore its features and capabilities. This marketing project management software provides a centralized hub for handling sprints and adjusting to evolving project requirements. Whether it’s campaign tasks, resources, or deadlines, everything’s in one place for easy access.
The freedom to set goals weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Tracking progress became significantly easier with different project views, including Kanban boards that enhance task visibility. I could schedule daily tasks and reminders to stay on top of project deadlines. Custom widgets also made it possible to measure ROI efficiently.
3. Asana
Asana can be a perfect solution for cross-functional teams that work with agile methodologies, such as website project development companies. However, agencies with more robust needs might find that certain features, especially those related to budgeting and financial performance, could be more developed.
4. Wrike
Wrike is a powerful work management platform built for teams and organizations looking to collaborate, create, and exceed daily. Wrike's solution for agencies creates a central hub that allows teams to monitor all client projects and resources in one place, improve workflow, and track progress. Key features include real-time collaboration, time tracking, cross-tagging for full visibility, proofing and approvals, resource management, insights, and analytics. Wrike is where agencies unite to delight their clients by completing more projects in less time.
5. Kantata
Kantata is an agency management system that can manage everything from client relationships to workflows and project tracking. This highly customizable tool allows agencies of all sizes to streamline operations and increase profits. This guide will explain how you can use Kantata for successful agency management. Kantata has various features designed specifically for agencies, including tools for client onboarding, project planning, time and resource tracking, invoicing, contracts, communication management, and more.
With these features in place, you can easily monitor your team’s progress against deadlines or budgets and track the status of clients or projects at any given time. You’ll also have access to critical performance data such as team utilization rates or revenue forecasts. Kantata's core function is to provide users with comprehensive data management solutions.
It allows you to store customer information, generate reports, manage tasks and projects, track expenses, collaborate with colleagues or partners remotely, and share information organizationally. Additionally, it offers real-time insights into customer trends and market conditions so that you can make informed decisions quickly. This makes Kantata an excellent solution for businesses that need to stay ahead of the competition by utilizing data-driven insights.
6. Base Camp
For remote teams seeking improved campaign tracking, Basecamp has you covered. It offers a platform to align goals and manage projects seamlessly, regardless of team members’ locations across different cities or countries. You can set project schedules, assign tasks, and monitor progress effortlessly.
Plus, real-time messaging and chat features enable instant communication to overcome any obstacles. Easy access to files ensures you can find what you need when needed. To-do lists help you stay organized and focused, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks. Also, with data backup, you can work confidently, knowing your project information is safe and sound.
7. Jira
Jira is a flexible tool that fits well with marketing teams. It supports agile methods like Scrum and Kanban, which help manage marketing campaigns effectively. Its Sprints dashboard offered me a structured way to plan and execute marketing iterations for my company’s campaigns. I also used epics and stories to organize my marketing projects into manageable tasks.
Another benefit is customization. Jira can be adapted to your marketing team’s needs with custom fields, workflows, and issue types. Whether you’re a small team or a large enterprise, it scales easily to meet your unique marketing project and campaign requirements.
8. Bonsai Agency Software
Bonsai Agency Software is an all-in-one agency management tool that simplifies agencies' lives. It handles everything from project management to client collaboration so that you can focus more on the creative side and less on admin headaches. This integrated approach makes it easy to organize tasks, track progress, collaborate with your team and clients, and clearly understand how your agency is performing.
Bonsai also includes time tracking, client onboarding, resource management, and automated workflows to keep your operations running smoothly and ensure projects stay on schedule and within budget. It offers various visual tools like Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and list views to help you stay organized and see everything at a glance. Real-time reporting gives insights into profitability, resource utilization, and your agency’s overall health.
Additionally, Bonsai simplifies the process of managing agency finances. You can track expenses, send invoices, and handle budgeting in one place. Bonsai is a solid pick if you’re looking for a tool to streamline your agency’s operations and boost productivity.
9. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a CRM system designed to help sales teams increase productivity and close more deals. It offers an array of features that help streamline the sales process, including contact management, email tracking, call logging, lead scoring, sales forecasting, and automated workflows. With Pipedrive, a sales team can quickly organize their leads, contacts, and deals to stay focused on the tasks that matter. The client management app allows users to easily create custom pipelines and automated emails to help nurture leads and increase conversions.
10. Accelo
Thanks to its CRM and management features, Accelo can be a good choice for agencies interested in supporting their entire project lifecycle, from client acquisition to project delivery. Something to consider is that Accelo’s price of entry is less affordable than comparative solutions on the market, such as Productive, which similarly offers integrated sales and management features. Additionally, some users have noted that the tool can be somewhat inflexible.
11. Zapier
Zapier isn’t a regular AMS but is great for automating tasks between apps. It connects software for you, so you don't need coding skills. For example, you can create a “Zap” to add new leads to your CRM from your website or get a Slack alert when an invoice gets paid.
12. Teamwork
Teamwork is a project management platform built to help agencies manage the entire lifecycle of their client work in one place. Teamwork provides all of the features you’d expect, including integrated time tracking, financial management, robust reporting, and free client access, to ensure your projects are delivered on time and on budget. Forget crossed wires, unread Slacks, and endless emails. Collaborate in real-time with your team and clients to get your questions answered. Keep clients, teammates, and leadership on the same page.
Centralize your work, communicate easily with your team, and reduce the complexity of collaboration so your team is free to focus on what they do best. With Teamwork, keep your team members and clients in the loop. Communicate with colleagues and clients without having to switch platforms. Update the team, ask for input, and get feedback in context. Working as a team has always been challenging.
13. Zoho CRM
One of the areas where Zoho CRM stands out as a client management tool is its omnichannel approach. This allows firms to engage with clients via whichever medium they prefer, whether email, telephone or something else. Zoho CRM has made a great effort to become an all-in-one platform. It allows businesses to monitor lead activity and customer buyer preferences and view price lists or documents without changing applications - everything your company needs for client management is right here.
Given that AI is such a hot topic right now, it should come as little surprise to hear that Zoho offers users its assistance. You won’t find ChatGPT levels of intelligence here, but personal assistant Zia Voice can retrieve information, update accounts, and generate performance reports. It’s certainly a handy addition that improves Zoho’s ease of use.
Although there is no free tier with Zoho CRM, a free trial is available. Given that the platform is currently used by more than 150,000 businesses across 180 countries, a free trial may be all you need before you’re convinced this is the right client management software for you.
14. Productive
Productive is a well-rounded agency management software with powerful functionality that gives you the tools and data to keep an agency running smoothly. The tool was built by a team with a decade of experience in founding, managing, and scaling a software development shop, so it's especially well-suited to digital agencies. The tool's features fully satisfy my criteria for agency management tools. You'll find client and prospect management in the Sales Pipeline (manage deal flow, get sales organized).
The Resource Planning feature, time tracker, and task collaboration tools fit the resource and project management criteria I look for in an agency tool or platform. Billing and invoicing can also be managed straight from the tool, along with valuable reports on profitability and costs to help with finance management.
The reporting feature goes beyond that, with real-time reports on margins, utilization, and much more, including reports on individual employees' or contractors' history with the company, salary reports, etc. Productive's integrations include Zapier and Jira, Open API, QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Exact.
15. Scoro
Scoro project management offers a range of features to help you manage your projects and resources. It’s a good option for service-providing businesses looking for a single platform to manage their day-to-day operations, but it can be difficult to onboard. Users like Scoro because it’s good business management software with many features to help teams collaborate and manage tasks. Since it focuses on project management, time tracking, and invoicing, it can be a good choice for businesses looking to automate daily processes.
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Types of Project Management Software for Advertising Agency
1. Collaboration: Uniting Teams in the Digital Workspace
Collaborative project management software enables teams to work together seamlessly, offering feedback on one another’s tasks and even cooperating on duplicate files simultaneously. The primary features of this type of software include:
Collaborative docs
These are wiki-style documents where your team can co-create documentation and teamwork-related activities.
Real-time messaging
Unlike Slack, a tool that lives outside your projects, this messaging occurs within the software. Therefore, your team can discuss a specific task, deliverables, or work item.
Proofing
This feature is handy for teams that use cloud-based software to review collateral and ask for client feedback. This feedback can be in the form of comments and approvals.
2. Reporting: Getting the Data You Need
You need a reporting tool if you’re looking for software to compile, analyze, and report on project data. The main features of reporting software include:
Data Visualization
You should be able to create graphs, charts, and dashboards to present the data and metrics visually and better interpret them.
Real-time Updates
Your data should be updated in real-time or frequently (e.g., every 15 or 30 minutes) to ensure the most up-to-date information when making decisions.
Analysis of Historical Data
You should be able to analyze data from previous projects and identify trends and areas for improvement. This might include budgets, incidences of errors, or how often projects were under or over budget.
3. Time Tracking: Managing How the Clock Impacts Your Projects
Keep track of what your team is spending their time on. Time tracking is helpful for small teams, freelancers, and any organization that needs to report time spent on tasks in their invoicing. The main features of time-tracking software include the following:
Real-time Tracking or Manual Logging
Team members should be able to track their time as they complete work and edit or add time after the fact, according to their preferences.
Rates and Invoicing
The tool should be able to store employee rates and automatically generate invoices with amounts calculated based on those rates.
Shift and Attendance Tracking
If your business uses shift work, look for features that can generate shift assignments and track team member attendance.
4. Client Management: Communicating With Your Clients
If you’re working with clients, you likely need software for managing and communicating with those clients (also known as customer relationship management software, or CRM). This set of features might be included within project management tools, or it might be a standalone tool. Main features include:
Contact and lead management
You should store, manage, and edit existing and potential client information. You should also be able to record and access communication history and notes for existing and potential clients.
Client portals
Client portals give external access to your projects and allow different stakeholders to view your project and interact with the team according to predefined permissions.
Client reporting and analytics
Build custom dashboards and reports tailored to your clients and internal reports. You should also be able to create custom report templates, schedule regular report updates, and integrate with multiple data sources.
5. Document Management: Organizing Your Project Files
Projects result in many documents, which need to be stored, accessed, and updated throughout a project (and even after the project as templates for future projects). The main features of document management systems include:
Secure Storage and Backup
Documents should be regularly and automatically backed up in case of technical issues. The system should also be secure enough to keep out hackers and prevent potential data breaches (this is especially important for industries that store sensitive data, such as healthcare or financial services).
Search Capabilities
The team should be able to quickly and easily find what they are looking for through a search function or by navigating a user-friendly interface.
Version Control
You should be able to track changes, clearly find and access the latest version of a document, and ensure everyone is working from the latest version.
6. Resource Management: Keeping Your Team on Track
Resource management is focused on assisting project scheduling and planning from a human resource perspective. Rather than focusing on teamwork, they focus on the team’s work. The main features in this type of software include:
Resource Allocation
This feature shows you the tasks and subtasks assigned to your team and whether they can take on more work. Resource allocation is usually a percentage out of 100, allowing you to balance work throughout the project team.
Utilization Tracking
You should be able to track the amount of work team members have on their plates and create reports to indicate how and where project resources are being used, whether there are any conflicts, and what upcoming resource demand looks like.
Mobile App
This is common in tools that provide time tracking features and is useful for teams with on-the-go members. These apps usually have an easy and user-friendly interface in which recording time requires only a few taps, reducing the difficulty of using project management software.
7. Risk Management: Avoiding Project Pitfalls
Risk management software is a good solution if you’re struggling to identify, track, and mitigate risks on your projects. Here are the key features of this type of project management software:
Incident Management
You should be able to log, plan for, and assess the likelihood of each risk and incident.
Compliance Management
The software should be able to understand and incorporate specific regulations or standards for your industry.
Prediction and Estimation
The software should help predict and prevent risk incidents before they occur and provide insights that can help you decide how to mitigate or proceed with a risk.
Try Orchestra for Free to Grow Your Productized Service Today
Launch your productized service effortlessly with Orchestra's all-in-one growth toolkit. Designed for creatives ready to scale, Orchestra provides a branded, white-labeled client portal, task management, and real-time analytics, with no coding needed, just your Stripe account.
Whether you’re a designer, developer, or copywriter, Orchestra streamlines your workflow, letting you collaborate with clients seamlessly while maintaining a private workspace with your team. Add integrations like Slack and webhooks to customize your setup and deliver a branded experience. Enhance your service with a platform built to grow alongside you. Try Orchestra for free and develop your productized service today!
Benefits of Using Advertising Agency Project Management Software
1. Enjoy Greater Clarity on Projects
Agency project management software creates greater transparency on projects. All briefs, files, and communications are saved in one location, which any internal or external stakeholder can access at any time. A user-friendly interface outlining a summary of all work in progress means that stakeholders can instantly log on and see the status of projects.
2. Manage Resources More Effectively
An advertising agency project management tool can improve resource management capabilities. A resource management feature allows users to allocate and manage resources across all projects so that each has the available resources to meet deadlines. Any conflict in resources will be highlighted instantly. This feature also enables stakeholders outside the creative team to see an overview of resources and know what resources are available when requesting new tasks or projects.
3. Eliminate Tedious Spreadsheet Updates
Project management software eliminates the need for manual project tracking and administration. No more tedious administration and manually updating spreadsheets to keep track of your projects. Software provides an online central location where all project files are stored, so stakeholders know where projects are 24/7. It can also generate reports at the click of a button for ad hoc meetings and reviews.
4. Simplify Project Planning and Scheduling
The beauty of project management software is that it enables users to brief projects, set reminders, allocate resources, and track work in progress with absolute ease. The user-friendly interface and project tools take the hard work out of project management.
5. Generate Reports Instantly
Need a WIP report for a meeting you’re about to walk into? Simply utilize the reporting feature, and your report will be ready. Users can generate many other reports, such as artwork revision counts, resource availability, and more.
6. Highlights Creative Value
Agency project management software enables management and external stakeholders, such as clients, to ascertain the quality of work the ad agency produces and how work is tracked regarding budget and deadlines.
7. Capitalize on Speed to Market
Agency project management software provides an organized framework to manage projects so that deadlines can be met and campaigns can go to market on time or turn around faster than usual.
8. Digital Asset Management
Digital asset management means you always know where to find your digital assets. This feature ensures you’ll never lose sight of your assets, as they can be saved in the software’s digital library. This secure feature enables nominated stakeholders to locate previous campaigns easily and quickly.
9. Promote Increased Accountability
Project Management software for advertising agencies records all briefs, feedback, and change requests so stakeholders can be fully accountable for their work.
10. Avoid High-Pressure Workloads
Creative teams can keep workloads in check as the resource management feature will show any glaring shortfalls or clashes in resources immediately. Eliminating conflicting workloads means that your creative team can work on dedicated projects in an organized manner, which means they’re less likely to make mistakes or burn out.
Try Orchestra for Free to Grow Your Productized Service Today
Orchestra is an all-in-one growth toolkit designed to help creative business owners launch their productized service. With Orchestra, you get a branded, white-label client portal to organize your service and help clients navigate it, task management to keep your team on track, and real-time analytics to monitor performance.
Best of all, you don’t need to know how to code to use Orchestra. Just connect your Stripe account, and you’re ready to go. If you’re a designer, developer, or copywriter looking to streamline your workflow for your next productized service, Orchestra can help. The software lets you collaborate with clients seamlessly while maintaining a private workspace with your team. You can add integrations like Slack and webhooks to customize your setup and deliver a branded experience.
Try Orchestra for free to develop your productized service today.
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