9 Best Agency Project Management Software (and How to Choose the Right One)

Looking for the perfect marketing agency project management software to streamline operations and maximize productivity? Look no further!

In this article, I’ve researched and compiled the top nine options to suit any budget, goal, and project complexity.

What is marketing agency project management software?

Marketing agency project management software is a specialized tool designed to streamline and optimize project planning, execution, and monitoring. It simplifies various aspects of project management, including task management, collaboration, resource management, scheduling, and progress tracking.

By leveraging this software, digital marketing companies gain access a centralized platform that facilitates task creation, assignment, and management for teams.

Why top marketing agencies use project management tools

Whether you’ve started a social media marketing agency, or are a part of one, you know the drill: it’s all hands on deck, come rain or shine.

Working on a creative team has its challenges, but these challenges are multiplied by the agency’s number of clients.

Project management tools help marketing agencies tame the chaos of managing creative efforts for multiple clients and deliver steadily. Here’s how a project management system can take the pressure off your team:

Improved project planning

Planning is the key to smooth marketing workflows. Whether you’re dealing with 10 or 100 brands, project management software helps you visualize tasks and distribute the entire project lifecycle on a timeline.

Everything’s easy with a solid visualized plan: you know who has to deliver, what, and when. It also makes resource allocation much more precise and efficient, as your whole process is laid out in front of you.

Better communication and organization

Efficient communication is the backbone of managing marketing projects. Many in-house creative teams struggle with building an efficient pipeline for brainstorming, timely feedback, and prompt approval.

Agency project management has the same issues but multiplied. A marketing project management tool organizes collaboration and improves communication between team members, departments, and clients.

Accurate tracking of deliverables

As an agency, you sometimes face clients who are on the clock: they have tight deadlines, a swift turnaround, and multiple creative assets. Being aware of the project’s progress is vital to meet the deadline.

Project management software offers solutions for project tracking and task management that helps marketing teams to track deliverables and ensure nothing’s missing.

How to choose the right project management software for your marketing agency

There are many project management software options on the market, from enterprise-sized solutions to startup options. The way you organize tasks, delegate responsibilities and collaborate in your marketing or advertising agency will guide your choice of project management tool.

I’ve gathered six key features that you should look for in a project management tool for marketing agency teams:

Project planning and organization

Managing multiple projects requires a great deal of organization and planning. When choosing marketing project management software, ensure it’s adapted to managing creative projects. The basic actions you need your marketing planning software to perform are: track projects, manage tasks, and track time (for budget management purposes).

Distinct workspaces for each client

As an agency, you handle multiple clients. Managing separated projects is easier with dedicated workspaces. This way, your clients don’t get mixed up, and there’s no additional stress of posting something to the wrong account or misplacing an asset.

Each workspace should have its content calendar, connected social media accounts, and file management systems. The ability to separate your clients into different workspaces allows you to create automated approval workflows that include only people who are supposed to be there.

Content creation functionalities

Creating content for marketing campaigns directly in the project management software is a huge advantage. Usually, marketing agencies handle the whole content cycle: from campaign planning to creation of copy and visuals.

Crafting various complex creatives for social media posts, articles, or ad videos goes much smoother when it’s combined with the project management software. So check your tool for built-in content creation features.

Direct collaboration and feedback options

Team collaboration is essential. In a marketing agency, communication happens on two levels: inside the team and with external stakeholders.

Your project management software should include collaboration tools to ease content creation and approval. For instance, Planable allows you to write comments and leave feedback next to the assets. You can even exchange private notes your client won’t see.

Review and approval options

Approval is one of the most time-consuming steps of client collaboration. Consider a project management tool with automated approval workflows and customization options to get the green light as quickly as possible.

Approval software with multi-level workflow can be handy for teams with multiple stakeholders. With a sound customized workflow, you can sweep the content down the pipeline, getting the ok from team leads, project managers, legal, and finally, clients — with zero emails.

Automated reminders

I’m a big fan of marketing automation. That’s why I like to have automatic reminders in marketing project management software.

Reminders significantly ease tracking project timelines. In the case of a marketing agency, when one person works several tracks, automated reminders on a due date approaching or an approval request hanging are among the most wanted project management features.

9 best project management software for marketing agencies

Project management software comes in all sizes and shapes, and the priority features depend greatly on your team size and the problems you’re solving. I gathered nine project management tools for you to choose from.

1. Planable

Planable is a collaboration tool for content creation that helps agencies streamline their workflows and make juggling multiple clients a breeze. With Planable, creative teams can work out any written content, leverage the media library, and schedule social media posts.

One of the most useful Planable features is workspaces. Creative agencies can put in place dedicated workspaces for each client, making each an ecosystem with its roles, approval workflows, social media logins, and content calendars.

Planable’s key features for agencies are:

• Collaborative content creation. Teams can create content together, leave comments, and receive feedback in context.
• Custom approval workflows. Multi-level approval workflows allow running the content by all stakeholders before going live.
• Roles and permissions. Set creators and approvers apart by assigning specific roles and access permissions.
• Content calendar. Manage projects and schedule all your posts in a highly visual calendar with four views.

You can put any piece of content in the calendar. However, Planable can only publish directly to social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Google Business Profile, TikTok, and Pinterest).

Planable offers 50 free posts and fully unlocked functionality for unlimited time. After that, you can upgrade for $11/month per user and customize your setup.

Takeaway

Planable is best for team collaboration and managing projects that require multiple approvals and ongoing communication between parties.

2. Notion

Notion is my second-best tool for project management. It’s very straightforward, modern, and clear when it comes to planning projects. Notion also integrates with tools like Google Drive, Trello, and Slack, easing data synchronization.

Its key features are:

• Task management. Create tasks, set task dependencies, mark deadlines, and assign responsibilities to your teammates for effective project tracking.
• Template library. Notion has a fantastic collection of project templates, from content calendars to Kanban boards to roadmaps.
• Collaboration features. Foster collaboration within teams through real-time commenting, @mentions, and shared workspaces.

Notion is great as long as everyone involved is a part of the workspace. To share a page externally with someone outside your workspace, you either a) make the page public or b) have to send invitations to each person manually.

Notion has a free version with basic functionality and two paid plans starting at $8/month per user.

Takeaway

Notion is best for smaller marketing teams with not-so-complex processes. Agencies can leverage it as an entry point to project management.

3. Asana

Asana is a project management tool for improved project visibility, collaboration, and task tracking. Its marketing project management software solution helps teams speed up creative reviews and automate routine tasks.

Key features of Asana for a marketing agency:

• Resource management. Asana helps track the workload to carefully approach resource planning and accurately assess the team’s capacity.
• Timeline. It helps track cross-team visibility and see how tasks and deadlines connect, to fix task dependencies before you begin.
• Statuses. Cuts time spent on status Zoom calls in half — Asana automatically shares project updates and statuses with the stakeholders and higher-ups.

Being a project management software, Asana has many third-party integrations, but none are publishing or scheduling content for social media and external platforms.

Asana has a free version for small teams and two paid plans starting at $10.99/month.

Takeaway

Asana caters to cross-functional marketing and creative agencies, small to medium-sized. It’s a steady option for profound project management.

4. Teamwork

Teamwork is explicitly made for agency management. This marketing software helps organize project tasks, enables easy time tracking, and provides project managers with all the tools they need for efficient agency project management.

Key features:

• Project health. You can track the progress of each project and assess whether any particular track needs help or additional resources. The workload is also right there.
• Time tracking. Export invoices to your accounting system using integrations to ensure you get paid for your agency’s work.
• Project templates. Teamwork has many pre-installed templates that allow you to easily set up new projects. You can also create an outline for recurring tasks.

Being a project management tool, Teamwork has no content-specific features like scheduling and publishing posts or gathering campaign analytics.

Teamwork has a free plan and three paid ones, starting at $5.99/month per user.

Takeaway

The Teamwork agency project management software is a full-cycle solution for creative agencies that includes task management and billing features.

5. Trello

Trello is a web-based project management tool from the Atlassian family — a simpler sibling to the massive Jira. It’s a Kanban board where columns are statuses (or dates), and cards are tasks. Create, assign, drag, drop, done. As simple as it gets.

Key features of Trello:

• Checklists. Teams can break down tasks into smaller subtasks or action steps. It helps track project progress within a card and ensure all necessary actions are completed.
• Workflow automation. Trello’s Butler allows users to automate repetitive tasks and create custom workflows.
• Sufficient free version. The free version includes up to 10 boards per workspace, unlimited cards, and power-ups — quite enough to get started as a small team.

The drawback of Trello is that it is too simple for some creative marketing agency teams. Despite many integrations, it doesn’t have content creation, scheduling, and publishing features.

Trello’s paid plans start at $5/month per user.

Takeaway

Trello is an excellent free option for essential project management and team productivity tracking. Try Trello if you want an ABC-easy tool with a sufficient free version.

6. ProofHub

ProofHub is a web-based tool designed for project management and collaboration, assisting teams in optimizing their workflows. ProofHub concentrates on project management features but also has basic approval workflows.

Key features:

• Task management. Create boards, assign tasks, and leverage ready-made templates to organize your tasks and ease team collaboration.
• Online proofing. Comment on files and assets, share feedback, and give the final green light — all in one place.
• Roles and permissions. Divide creators and approvers, or simply send the proofing link to external stakeholders.

ProofHub paid plans start at $45/month, although the cheapest plan includes minimal features.

Takeaway

ProofHub is one of the complex project management tools with basic approval workflows. It suits marketing teams who want-it-all in one mix.

7. Monday

Monday is a cloud-based project management tool that suits agency management well. Teams can streamline their processes by combining Monday’s task tracking with various creative integrations like Canva, Figma, Semrush, and more.

Key features of Monday:

• Collaboration features. Teams can easily communicate within the project management tool. Tag each other, attach files, and set statuses.
• Customizable dashboards and views. Create personalized workflows and visualize project data in a way that suits you: Kanban boards, Gantt charts, or timeline views.
• Reporting. Monday provides comprehensive reporting and analytics for time tracking, team workload assessment, and resource planning.

However, Monday might be overkill for simpler processes or smaller teams. I personally find it more complex than necessary for straightforward task management or basic project needs.

Monday has a free version (not a very robust one, though) and four paid plans starting at $24/month.

Takeaway

Monday is almost an enterprise-like solution that breaks down complex projects well. Consider Monday if you’re an established marketing agency with multiple clients and multithreading processes.

8. Wrike

Wrike is an advanced project management tool for established teams. With Wrike, teams can automate repetitive tasks, set dependencies between tasks, and optimize resource allocation.

Key features of Wrike:

• Productivity reports. Wrike’s analytics provide valuable insights into project performance for data-driven decisions on a team’s productivity.
• Project dashboards. Customizable dashboards improve visibility across teams and help evaluate a project’s health at a glance.
• Proofing and approvals. Side-by-side comparisons, comments, and real-time feedback for assets — plus an automation option.

Although Wrike allows exchanging comments and feedback, it lacks collaborative creation features: as a collaboration tool, it only provides progress tracking but no simultaneous doc creation, for instance.

Wrike offers a free plan and two paid plans starting at $9.80/month per user.

Takeaway

Whether you’re managing simple tasks or complex projects, Wrike offers the tools you need to streamline your workflow and drive productivity.

9. ClickUp

ClickUp is a project management app that claims to replace all others. With customizable task management, real-time communication, and integration capabilities, ClickUp empowers teams to stay organized, prioritize tasks, and achieve project goals.

Key features of ClickUp:

• Team collaboration. ClickUp has its own version of Docs, whiteboards, and dashboards to track the team’s progress, brainstorm together, and create written content.
• Marketing timeline. Laying out the marketing plans on a timeline helps avoid bottlenecks on the way.
• Native time tracking. It helps evaluate how much time one needs to finish the task and manage resources within the team.

ClickUp has automated notifications, but some say it sends way too many — although it’s a question of personal preferences. The platform has a free version and three paid plans starting at $5/month per user.

Takeaway

ClickUp is a marketing project management software that ticks all the boxes for a mid-sized agency.

Wrap up

Effective project management is achievable when you have the right project management tool. Grab those 50 free posts from Planable and give them a test drive today!