Which AI Stack is Right for Marketing Agencies?

Which AI Stack is Right for Marketing Agencies?

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You’re drowning in AI tools right now.

Someone pitches a new content generator every week, your inbox has 17 ‘game-changing’ analytics platforms, and your team can’t agree on which campaign automation tool actually delivers.

Lately, figuring out which AI stack is right for marketing agencies feels like playing Jenga with your budget.

You need tools that work together for content, campaigns, analytics, and client delivery. Bonus points if you don’t need a flowchart to explain it to your team.

In this blog post, we’ll break down what works and how ClickUp fits into the puzzle.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ 🧩

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Core Components of an Agency AI Stack

Think of an AI stack as your agency’s nervous system. Each component needs to talk to the others, or you’re just creating a bigger mess.

Here’s a closer look. 👀

Data ingestion and enrichment

Information flows into your agency from dozens of sources every day. CRM entries, website clicks, email opens, social media engagement—all of it tells a story if you know how to listen.

The right AI infrastructure pulls these scattered data points together and transforms them into something useful. This may include:

  • Lead scoring that ranks prospects based on their actual behavior
  • Client profiles that automatically update when someone engages with your content or visits your pricing page
  • Behavioral triggers that alert you when a client shows signs of expansion opportunity or potential churn
  • Data enrichment that appends firmographic and demographic details to basic contact records

🔍 Did You Know? The agency Papert Koenig Lois (PKL), launched in 1960 in Manhattan, became the first U.S. advertising agency to go public when it listed on the stock market.

Content and creative generation

Your team needs to produce content at volume, but the initial creation process eats up valuable time. AI marketing tools in this category handle the heavy lifting of first drafts and variations.

What you can do with these tools:

  • Generate multiple ad copy variations for testing across platforms
  • Build visual concepts and design variations for client presentations
  • Create email sequences tailored to different audience segments
  • Produce social media captions and post variations at scale
  • Draft video scripts and storyboards for campaign content

Campaign automation and orchestration

Running marketing campaigns across email, social, paid ads, and your website requires constant coordination. AI orchestration tools manage the logic and timing across all these channels.

The system handles tasks like:

  • Triggering email sequences when someone downloads a lead magnet from your paid ad
  • Adjusting ad spend across platforms based on real-time performance data
  • Personalizing landing page content based on the traffic source and audience segment
  • Moving prospects through nurture sequences based on their engagement level
  • Coordinating retargeting across multiple platforms without manual setup

Analytics, reporting, and insights

Client reporting typically means pulling data from multiple platforms, building spreadsheets, and creating presentations. AI analytics tools automate this entire process and add intelligence on top.

Key capabilities include:

  • Automated report generation that pulls data from your tools and formats it for clients
  • Cross-channel attribution that shows which touchpoints contribute to conversions
  • Performance insights that highlight what’s working and what needs adjustment
  • Real-time marketing dashboards that offer constant visibility without manual updates
  • Predictive analytics that forecast campaign outcomes based on current trends

Collaboration and workflow management

Internal chaos can kill agency efficiency. These tools create structure around how work moves through your team and out to clients.

Look for systems that handle:

  • Automated task assignment based on project stages and team capacity
  • Approval workflows that route deliverables to the right stakeholders in sequence
  • Client portals where deliverables, feedback, and communication live in one place
  • Project templates that standardize how you execute recurring campaign types
  • Notification systems that keep everyone informed without cluttering inboxes

Integration and scalability

This is the foundation that holds everything together. Your AI tools need to talk to each other and scale as you grow your client roster.

Critical elements include:

  • Robust API connections that let data flow between tools automatically
  • Multi-client architecture that keeps each client’s data and campaigns separate but manageable from one interface
  • Automation workflows that handle repetitive tasks across all your accounts
  • Custom integrations that connect your specific tools and workflows

The right foundation means adding new clients doesn’t require proportional increases in team size or manual effort.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

💡 Pro Tip: Separate creative AI from operational AI. Creative AI assists brainstorming and campaign iteration. Operational AI handles internal workflows like time tracking, billing summaries, or resource forecasting. Keeping them separate prevents creative tools from being bogged down by logistics noise.

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How to Select the Right Tools for Each Layer

Here’s how to approach your marketing agency AI stack strategically. 📊

Step #1: Define your agency’s ‘value zone’

Start by identifying where your AI marketing agency consistently creates the most measurable impact. This ‘value zone’ could be high-converting creative, data-driven performance insights, or full-funnel campaign execution. Clarify this early; it anchors every decision that follows.

To make this tangible:

  • List your top-performing services and client outcomes
  • Match those outcomes to the processes and roles behind them
  • Identify which tasks need the most improvement or automation support

For instance, if your agency wins on delivering fast-turnaround campaigns, prioritize AI-driven content ideation and review workflows.

🚀 ClickUp Advantage: In ClickUp, you can build Spaces around each core service, like ‘Campaign Strategy’ or ‘Content Production.’ Inside these Spaces, create templates for creative briefs, assign approvals, and track deliverables through ClickUp Tasks.

Customize Tasks in ClickUp for your marketing initiatives

This setup ensures your strongest delivery area is backed by structured, repeatable workflows.

Step #2: Audit your existing stack and identify gaps

Before adding anything new, take inventory of what you already have. List every tool your team currently uses, who uses it, what it costs, and which layer of your stack it occupies. Include those ‘shadow tools’ individual team members have adopted without official approval as well.

Next comes the critical part: gather feedback from the people who use these platforms daily. Schedule 15-minute conversations with team members across different roles. Ask specific questions:

  • Where are you manually copying data between platforms?
  • Which tool frustrates you most on a weekly basis?
  • What task takes twice as long as it should?
  • Which client deliverable requires toggling between multiple systems?

These friction points reveal your true gaps.

For example, you might discover that your content team spends five hours weekly reformatting blog posts because your CMS doesn’t integrate with your AI writing tool. Or your paid media specialists are rebuilding reports manually because your ad platforms and analytics dashboard don’t communicate. These are the gaps worth solving.

📮ClickUp Insight: While 34% of users operate with complete confidence in AI systems, a slightly larger group (38%) maintains a “trust but verify” approach. A standalone tool that is unfamiliar with your work context often carries a higher risk of generating inaccurate or unsatisfactory responses.

This is why we built ClickUp Brain, the AI that connects your project management, knowledge management, and collaboration across your workspace and integrates third-party tools. Get contextual responses without the toggle tax and experience a 2-3x increase in work efficiency.

Step #3: Prioritize tools that integrate across functions

Strong integrations are what turn individual tools into a stack. When evaluating options, look for those that naturally connect to your CRM, ad platforms, and content automation tools.

For instance, if you manage campaigns in ClickUp, integrating it with Google Ads lets your team view campaign status, spend, and performance data without leaving the workspace. This reduces handoffs between marketing, analytics, and client service teams.

To check integration strength, test these:

  • Native connectors: Does the tool sync with your top three platforms?
  • API support: Can you connect custom workflows without heavy coding?
  • Two-way data flow: Can updates move both ways?

ClickUp serves as the connective tissue for your entire AI stack. Rather than forcing your team to jump between creative generation tools, analytics platforms, and client communication channels, ClickUp creates a converged AI workspace where everything lives together. Your content briefs, performance dashboards, tasks, and client feedback all stay in one place.

ClickUp Converged AI Workspace
Experience a converged AI workspace in ClickUp

Step #4: Consider cost, learning curve, and client-scaling needs

Total cost of ownership extends beyond subscription fees. Factor in implementation time, training requirements, and ongoing maintenance.

A sophisticated marketing intelligence platform might cost $500 monthly, but if your team needs 20 hours of training and still only uses 30% of its features, you’re overpaying for complexity you don’t need.

Think ahead to client growth scenarios with specific numbers. Will this tool’s pricing model work when you add 10 more clients? Some platforms charge per user (manageable), while others charge per client account (gets expensive fast) or per data volume (unpredictable).

Run the calculation: if you’re at eight clients today and targeting 20 within 18 months, price out the tool at both volumes. Then stress-test operational capacity by asking current users whether the platform slows down with larger data sets or more complex workflows.

💡 Pro Tip: Treat your AI stack like a client. Give it quarterly reviews, KPIs, and retros. Audit which AI features actually save time or improve campaign ROI, and cut the ones that don’t. If it’s not pulling its weight, it’s scope creep in disguise.

Step #5: Create a phased rollout plan

Resist the urge to overhaul your entire stack simultaneously. Instead, implement a structured rollout that minimizes disruption and allows for course correction. This might look like:

Pilot phase (30-45 days)

Start small by running the new tool with one willing team or client account. Ideally, this group should be curious enough to experiment, yet honest enough to flag real problems.

Narrow the scope to one defined use case, say, using an AI content platform purely for blog outlines for a single client.

Throughout the test period, the focus should stay on capturing what’s effective, where time is saved, and what friction points appear.

💡 Pro Tip: Give your pilot group a shared space to log what’s working and what feels clunky with ClickUp Docs. Writers can leave notes on content quality, while editors highlight recurring issues like tone mismatches. Since everything lives in one place, insights are easier to connect for data-backed calls on what’s worth scaling. Plus, docs can be linked within tasks, so everybody involved in the pilot task will have full context.

Adoption phase (60-90 days)

Once your pilot team proves the tool’s value, bring more teams on board while keeping the original group as your internal champions.

The goal is to make learning feel guided rather than forced. A quick-start guide built from your pilot’s lessons works far better than vendor documentation, especially when it speaks your team’s language. You’ll also want to keep an eye on engagement patterns to catch drop-offs early.

Optimization phase (ongoing)

Once the tool is fully deployed, shift focus to extracting maximum value. Analyze usage patterns to identify underutilized features that could solve existing problems.

For instance, if your team uses an AI content creation platform only for first drafts, but it offers brand voice training, invest time customizing that feature. Integration opportunities you skipped during initial rollout become priorities here.

🚀 ClickUp Advantage: For real data on how teams are adjusting, try ClickUp Analytics. You can see who’s engaging with ClickUp’s PM tool daily, which departments explore advanced features, and where logins start to taper off. Those patterns show confidence levels.

For example, a spike in daily activity might mean strong early enthusiasm, while a quick drop could signal confusion or fatigue. When you catch that dip early, you can intervene before disengagement spreads.

ClickUp Analyics: Which AI stack is right for marketing agencies
Track Analytics in ClickUp to understand your team’s usage of the app
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Sample AI Stack for a Marketing Agency

Executing AI marketing campaigns is faster when your tools work together. Here’s a sample AI stack that helps marketing teams manage leads, create content, and track results efficiently.

Before we look into each tool in detail, here’s a quick overview of each:

ToolBest forKey featuresPricing*
ClearbitReal-time company data enrichment for B2B marketing teamsIdentify anonymous website visitors, intent signals, native CRM integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo)Custom pricing
ClayMulti-source data aggregation and enrichment for lead management at large agencies50+ data sources, waterfall enrichment, conditional logic, CRM integrationsFree; Paid plans from $149/month
Apollo.ioSales intelligence and engagement for outbound teams270M+ contact database, email sequencing, built-in dialer, CRM syncFree; Paid plans from $59/month/user
AdCreative.aiAd variation testing and creative generation for performance marketersAI ad and copy generation, video ads, engagement prediction, audience insightsFree trial; Paid plans from $39/month
CanvaVersatile AI-powered design for small marketing teamsMagic Studio AI tools, Beat Sync, Magic Eraser/Edit, 100+ language supportFree; Paid plans from $15/month/user
Jasper AIBrand voice customization and content consistency for brand marketing teamsAI content generation, brand style guide, 29 languages, Surfer SEO/Copyscape integrationFree trial; Paid plans from $69/month/user
Surfer SEOContent optimization and SEO for marketers and agenciesReal-time Content Score, SERP Analyzer, content outlines, optimization auditsPaid plans from $99/month
ClaudeResearch synthesis and long-form content creation for freelancers and agencies200k token context, file uploads, persistent conversation history, response stylesFree; Paid plans from $20/month
ZapierNo-code AI automation across 6,000+ apps for agenciesMulti-step Zaps, AI workflow tools, error monitoring, workflow templatesFree; Paid plans from $29.99/month
MakeVisual automation and workflow orchestration for agency project managersDrag-and-drop builder, API connections, scenario scheduling, AI agent supportFree; Paid plans from $10.59/month
Looker StudioAnalytics and reporting in the Google ecosystem for agencies with multiple clientsMulti-source data blending, code interpreter, interactive dashboards, sharing controlsCustom pricing
SupermetricsData pipeline automation for marketing analytics professionals150+ data sources, automated refresh, normalization, Supermetrics AgentsPaid plans from $37/month
Funnel.ioMarketing data warehousing and reporting for large agencies600+ connectors, auto backfill, currency conversion, Data Chat AI insightsCustom pricing
ClickUpEnd-to-end management of client delivery workflows for agenciesProject/task management, AI-powered docs, dashboards, automations, chat, time trackingFree Forever; Customization for enterprises
Stack AIAI deployment and workflow automation for enterprises and large agenciesVisual AI workflow builder, RAG support, role-based chatbots, compliance toolsCustom pricing
HighLevelWhite-label marketing platforms for agenciesWhite-label CRM, SMS/email/funnel builder, SaaS Mode, AI copy/workflow toolsFree trial; Paid plans from $97/month

📌 Lead and database enrichment

1. Clearbit (Best for real-time company data)

Clearbit (now a part of the HubSpot ecosystem) turns anonymous website visitors into identifiable leads without making you jump through hoops. The platform pulls in over 100 data points about companies and contacts the moment someone lands on your site.

You no longer have to manually research prospects or import stale spreadsheets; Clearbit automatically appends firmographic and technographic data to your CRM database.

Clearbit best features

  • Identify anonymous website visitors and reveal company information in real time using Clearbit Reveal
  • Access intent signals that show which prospects are actively researching solutions like yours
  • Integrate enrichment data directly into Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, and other platforms through native connections

Clearbit limitations

  • Data refresh frequency isn’t always consistent
  • Data accuracy varies for companies outside North America and Europe
  • The platform focuses primarily on B2B data, making it less useful for B2C campaigns

Clearbit pricing

  • Custom pricing

Clearbit ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.4/5 (140+ reviews)
  • Capterra: Not enough reviews

🚀 ClickUp Advantage: When new inquiries come in, your team usually doesn’t have time to piece together where they came from or what’s already been done. ClickUp Forms takes care of the intake for you; someone fills out your Work With Us form, and it instantly becomes a task.

ClickUp Custom Fields in Tasks: Organize customer data and show client relationships properly
Keep your pipeline moving with ClickUp Custom Fields in Tasks

The (relevant) answers drop right into ClickUp Custom Fields like lead source, enrichment status, and outreach stage. So your team opens the task and instantly knows: Instagram lead, enriched, follow-up pending.

2. Clay (Best for multi-source data aggregation)

Clay: Which AI stack is right for marketing agencies - AI-powered tool with integration capabilities
via Clay

Clay uses waterfall enrichment, which means it automatically tries cheaper data sources first before moving to premium providers.

What’s more, Clay connects to LinkedIn, Apollo, Clearbit, and dozens of other APIs, then lets you build custom workflows using AI to score leads, draft personalized messages, or trigger automations.

Clay best features

  • Access 50+ data sources, including LinkedIn, Apollo, Clearbit, and PeopleDataLabs, from one interface
  • Create conditional logic that triggers different enrichment paths based on data quality or lead characteristics
  • Export enriched data directly to your CRM or outreach tools through native integrations

Clay limitations

  • Credit costs add up quickly when running large enrichment operations across multiple data sources
  • Some integrations feel less stable than SaaS-native ones

Clay pricing

  • Free
  • Starter: $149/month
  • Explorer: $349/month
  • Pro: $800/month
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

Clay ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.8/5 (170+ reviews)
  • Capterra: Not enough reviews

3. Apollo.io (Best for sales intelligence)

Apollo.io: AI systems for reactive marketing and operational efficiency
 via Apollo.io

Apollo.io combines a database of 270+ million contacts with built-in email sequencing and dialing capabilities. You can filter prospects using 65+ criteria, including job title, company size, technology stack, and hiring intent.

The platform scores each lead based on engagement signals, which helps your team prioritize whom to contact first. Apollo also tracks email opens, clicks, and replies in real-time, giving you visibility into which messages resonate and which fall flat.

Apollo.io best features

  • Launch email sequences directly from the platform and track opens, clicks, and replies in real-time
  • Access built-in dialing functionality that lets you call prospects without switching to a separate phone system
  • Sync enriched contact data and engagement history to ClickUp, HubSpot, or your preferred CRM

Apollo.io limitations

  • Email deliverability can suffer if you don’t properly warm up sending domains
  • High bounce rates are reported in user tests when used for cold outreach

Apollo.io pricing

  • Free
  • Basic: $59/month per user
  • Professional: $99/month per user
  • Organization: $149/month per user (billed annually)
  • Inbound Add-on: $149/month per team

Apollo.io ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.7/5 (9,210+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.5/5 (375+ reviews)

🚀 ClickUp Advantage: Keep momentum moving as leads progress. When enrichment is done, ClickUp Automations updates the linked client or campaign tasks right away.

ClickUp Automations: Automate with AI capabilities inside the everything app for work
Keep your teams on the same page with ClickUp Automations 

Sales and delivery teams see the latest context the moment it changes, so follow-ups don’t stall, and handoffs stay smooth.

📌 Creative generation

4. AdCreative.ai (Best for ad variation testing)

AdCreative.ai generates hundreds of ad variations in minutes based on your campaign goals and brand guidelines. The platform analyzes millions of high-performing ads across industries to understand what design elements drive conversions.

Beyond static images, AdCreative.ai generates ad copy variations and can create video ads from your existing visual assets.

AdCreative.ai best features

  • View predicted engagement scores for each creative before launching campaigns
  • Create video ads automatically from static images and product assets
  • Access audience insights that show which demographics respond best to specific creative styles

AdCreative.ai limitations

  • The AI-generated designs sometimes lack the polish of professionally crafted ads
  • Customization options feel limited when trying to match highly specific brand guidelines
  • Video generation quality doesn’t match dedicated video editing software

AdCreative.ai pricing

  • Free trial
  • Starter plans: Starts at $39/month
  • Professional plans: Starts at $249/month
  • Ultimate plans: Starts at $599/month

AdCreative.ai ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.3/5 (790+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 3.4/5 (160+ reviews)

5. Canva (Best for versatile design)

Canva: Generative AI solutions to support your marketing strategy with banner ads
via Canva

Canva’s Magic Studio brings AI directly into the design workflow most marketers already use daily.

Magic Design generates complete presentation decks, social media posts, or marketing materials from a simple text prompt. Magic Eraser removes unwanted objects from photos without leaving obvious editing marks, while Magic Edit lets you add or replace elements in images through text descriptions.

Canva best features

  • Sync video cuts automatically to music beats using Beat Sync
  • Translate designs into 100+ languages while maintaining layout and visual hierarchy
  • Create voiceovers from text with AI text-to-speech tools

Canva limitations

  • Advanced designers find the template-based approach restrictive for complex projects
  • File organization becomes messy when managing designs for multiple clients
  • Export options are limited compared to professional design software like Adobe Creative Suite

Canva pricing

  • Free (limited AI access)
  • Pro: $15/month for one user
  • Business: $20/month per user
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

Canva ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.7/5 (6,055+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.7/5 (12,935+ reviews)

🚀 ClickUp Advantage: Keep your ad concepts aligned from the first brainstorm.

ClickUp Brain in Whiteboards: Best AI tools with machine learning for your marketing tasks
Keep your creative direction clear and collaborative with ClickUp Brain in Whiteboards

Whiteboards in ClickUp let your creative team map ideas and collect visual references in one place that your account team already checks. And if you need new directions mid-discussion, use ClickUp Brain, your integrated AI assistant, to generate images directly on the board.

Everyone sees the same direction, and your team moves faster from idea to draft.

📌 Content generation and SEO

6. Jasper AI (Best for brand voice customization and consistency)

Jasper AI generates marketing content that sounds like your brand. The tool learns your brand voice through a custom style guide where you define tone, vocabulary preferences, and messaging pillars. It then applies those guidelines across blog posts, social media captions, email campaigns, and ad copy.

Plus, it integrates with Surfer SEO and Copyscape to ensure content is original and ranks well.

Jasper AI best features

  • Command Jasper through natural language instructions like ‘expand this section’ or ‘write a compelling intro’
  • Generate content in 29 languages while maintaining brand voice and style
  • Collaborate with team members through shared workspaces and approval workflows

Jasper AI limitations

  • The content often requires substantial editing to sound natural and avoid repetitive phrasing
  • Pricing is high compared to many Jasper AI alternatives and may not suit smaller budgets

Jasper AI pricing

  • Free trial
  • Pro: $69/month per user
  • Business: Custom pricing

Jasper AI ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.7/5 (1,260+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.8/5 (1,850+ reviews)

🚀 ClickUp Advantage: You shouldn’t need four open tabs just to get one piece of copy out the door. When writers draft in ClickUp Docs, everything from brainstorming notes to final copy stays tied to the client task it belongs to.

ClickUp Brain: Write AI-generated content that ranks on search engines
Ask ClickUp Brain to review existing drafts and generate additional content

And with ClickUp Brain built in, writers can develop first-pass copy, tighten tone, or spin a long idea into short campaign snippets without losing flow. It keeps your creative workflow moving and cuts down on the work sprawl that slows teams down.

Try these prompts:

  • Write a first draft of a landing page hero section for [brand]. Tone: confident but simple. Include three headline options and one supporting subline
  • Condense the copy in this Doc into eight short social captions. Keep them scroll-stopping without sounding promotional
  • Create six angle variations for the same campaign message. Each angle should shift the emotional frame: bold, playful, expert-led, empathetic, challenger, and minimalist
  • Rework this messaging into a nurture email. Keep paragraphs short, transitions natural, and value upfront
  • Adapt this copy for Top-of-Funnel, Mid-Funnel, and Bottom-of-Funnel audiences. Adjust tone, detail level, and CTA priority

7. Surfer SEO (Best for content optimization)

Surfer SEO analyzes top-ranking pages for your target keyword and tells you exactly what to include in your content. Instead of guessing which topics to cover, Surfer shows you relevant terms and questions that high-ranking competitors discuss.

The platform also audits existing content and identifies optimization opportunities that could boost rankings in alignment with your marketing plan.

Surfer SEO best features

  • Optimize content in real time with a Content Score that updates as you write
  • Generate detailed content outlines based on what currently ranks for your target keywords
  • Access SERP Analyzer to understand why competitors rank and what content gaps you can exploit

Surfer SEO limitations

  • The tool focuses heavily on keyword metrics, sometimes at the expense of content quality and readability
  • Guidelines can feel rigid and discourage creative approaches to topics
  • Pricing becomes expensive when optimizing content for multiple clients or large websites

Surfer SEO pricing

  • Essential: $99/month
  • Scale: $219/month
  • Enterprise: Starts at $999/month (billed annually)

Surfer SEO ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.8/5 (530+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.9/5 (420+ reviews)

Watch this video to see how you can create a marketing plan in ClickUp

8. Claude (Best for research synthesis)

Claude: Tool for high-converting ad creatives and strategic thinking
via Claude

Claude handles context differently from most conversational AI assistants. The platform processes up to 200,000 tokens in a single conversation, which translates to roughly 150,000 words or an entire book.

Marketing teams upload research reports, competitor analyses, and customer interview transcripts, then ask Claude to identify patterns, extract quotes, or draft content informed by all those sources simultaneously.

The AI tool is ideal for drafting long-form content, analyzing datasets, and creating documentation that needs to reference multiple source materials.

Claude best features

  • Upload PDFs, spreadsheets, and images for Claude to analyze and answer questions about their contents
  • Maintain conversation history across extended dialogues without forgetting earlier context or instructions
  • Switch between different response styles using the Styles feature to match brand voice requirements

Claude limitations

  • The free tier limits message volume, requiring a Pro subscription for heavy usage
  • Sometimes produces overly verbose responses that need trimming for concise marketing copy

Claude pricing

  • Free
  • Pro: $20/month
  • Max: Starts at $100/month per user

Claude ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.4/5 (65+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.6/5 (20+ reviews)

🚀 ClickUp Advantage: When your team is jumping between AI tools, tabs, and shared drives just to move one campaign forward, the work slows down. ClickUp BrainGPT gives you one dedicated space to think, search, and create with Contextual AI that already understands your client context, campaign history, and brand voice.

ClickUp Brain MAX
Keep your team moving like one brain with ClickUp BrainGPT

It brings ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini together in a single desktop app, allowing you to switch based on your needs in the moment. So instead of re-explaining context again and again, your AI already gets it.

This is how you solve AI sprawl while reducing cognitive load, speeding up decision-making, and keeping everyone moving in the same direction.

📌 Automation and orchestration

9. Zapier (Best for no-code AI automation)

 via Zapier

Zapier connects over 6,000 apps without requiring any coding skills or technical knowledge.

The workflow orchestration platform uses ‘Zaps’ that trigger actions in one app based on events in another. When a lead fills out a Facebook Lead Ad, Zapier can add them to your CRM, send a welcome email, create a task for your sales team, and log the activity in a Google Sheet automatically.

Agencies can save hours daily by eliminating manual data entry and ensuring information flows seamlessly between client tools.

Zapier best features

  • Create multi-step Zaps that include filters, delays, and conditional logic based on your data
  • Use AI to summarize emails, draft responses, or extract information from documents within your workflows
  • Set up automatic error notifications and workflow monitoring to catch failures quickly
  • Access pre-built Zap templates for common marketing workflows like lead capture and email follow-ups

Zapier limitations

  • Zaps can be slow to execute, sometimes taking several minutes between trigger and action
  • Costs escalate quickly as your automation volume increases across client accounts
  • Troubleshooting failed Zaps can be frustrating due to limited error details

Zapier pricing

  • Free
  • Professional: Starts at $29.99/month
  • Team: Starts at $103.50/month
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

Zapier ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.5/5 (1,465+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.7/5 (3,010+ reviews)

10. Make (Best for visual automation)

Make workflows
via Make

Make approaches workflow automation like a flowchart. The visual interface shows exactly how data moves between apps, which helps teams understand and troubleshoot workflows faster than text-based alternatives.

You drag modules onto a canvas, connect them, and watch data flow through branches, loops, and conditional paths in real time. Teams managing complex, logic-heavy workflows appreciate how Make reveals the entire automation structure at a glance instead of hiding it behind tabs and dropdowns.

Make best features

  • Combine information from multiple sources using aggregators before sending to the next step
  • Connect to any API using HTTP modules, even platforms without official Make integrations
  • Schedule scenarios to run at specific intervals or trigger them via webhook for real-time automation
  • Build, customize, and manage intelligent AI agents that automate your business processes

Make limitations

  • The visual interface can become cluttered when workflows grow beyond 20-30 modules
  • Operation-based pricing makes costs unpredictable for workflows that process large data volumes

Make pricing

  • Free
  • Core: $10.59/month
  • Pro: $18.82/month
  • Teams: $34.12/month
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

Make ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.6/5 (260+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.8/5 (405+ reviews)

🚀 ClickUp Advantage: Think of all the small follow-ups your team does every day: checking status, chasing updates, reminding someone to review a draft, gathering files for a kickoff.

ClickUp Ambient Agents: Save valuable billable hours with AI agents
Run context-aware AI automations based on what object they watch with ClickUp Ambient Agents 

ClickUp Ambient Agents handle those pieces automatically. They watch your tasks, docs, and workflows, and step in when something needs to move.

Let’s suppose a copy draft is marked Ready for Review. An Ambient Agent:

  • Assigns the copy lead
  • Notifies them to review
  • Waits for approval
  • Moves the task to Client Approval
  • Pings the account manager
  • Then generates production tasks for design + media, all automatically

The work moves on its own.

📌 Analytics and reporting

11. Looker Studio (Best for Google ecosystem)

Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) pulls data from Google Analytics, Google Ads, Search Console, and YouTube without paid connectors or technical setup.

The drag-and-drop interface lets you build interactive dashboards in minutes using pre-configured charts, tables, and scorecards. Reports update automatically as new data arrives, which means stakeholders always see current numbers without manual refreshes.

Looker Studio best features

  • Blend data from multiple sources to create calculated fields and cross-platform metrics (e.g., cost per acquisition across channels)
  • Generate Python code automatically using Code Interpreter for advanced statistical analysis and forecasting
  • Share reports with customizable permissions similar to Google Docs for easy stakeholder access

Looker Studio limitations

  • Many third-party connectors require separate purchases, adding costs for non-Google data sources
  • The platform can experience lag and slow loading times when pulling data
  • Customization options are limited compared to dedicated BI tools like Tableau or Power BI

Looker Studio pricing

  • Custom pricing

Looker Studio ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.3/5 (440+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.5/5 (275+ reviews)

📮 ClickUp Insight: 43% of people say repetitive tasks provide helpful structure to their workday, but 48% find them draining and a distraction from meaningful work.

While routine can offer a sense of productivity, it often limits creativity and holds you back from making meaningful progress.

ClickUp helps you break free from this cycle by automating routine tasks via intelligent AI Agents, so you can focus on deep work. Automate reminders, updates, and task assignments, and let features like Automated Time Blocking and Task Priorities protect your power hours.

💫 Real Results: Lulu Press saves 1 hour per day, per employee using ClickUp Automations—leading to a 12% increase in work efficiency.

12. Supermetrics (Best for data pipeline automation)

Supermetrics moves marketing data from advertising platforms to wherever your team works. So instead of manually downloading CSV files from Facebook Ads, Google Analytics, and LinkedIn, Supermetrics automatically transfers that data into Google Sheets, Looker Studio, Power BI, or your data warehouse.

Furthermore, the platform supports 150+ data sources and processes over 15% of global marketing data.

Supermetrics best features

  • Schedule automated data refreshes at custom intervals so reports stay current without manual updates
  • Normalize field names and metrics across different platforms for consistent reporting
  • Upload offline data using Custom Data Import to blend with digital marketing metrics
  • Build Supermetrics Agents to generate reports, flag anomalies, and more

Supermetrics limitations

  • Pricing escalates quickly as you connect more data sources and destinations
  • Learning curve exists for setting up complex data transformations and blending

Supermetrics pricing

  • Starter: $37/month for one user
  • Growth: $199/month for two users
  • Pro: $499/month for three users
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

Supermetrics ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.4/5 (795+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.4/5 (105+ reviews)

13. Funnel.io (Best for marketing data warehousing)

Funnel.io connects to 600+ data sources and automatically backfills historical data, so you never lose access to past performance even if an API changes. Its data model understands marketing concepts; it knows what impressions, clicks, and conversions mean across different platforms and normalizes them automatically.

The system decodes campaign naming conventions, splitting ‘Q1_2025_Facebook_Retargeting’ into separate fields for quarter, year, platform, and campaign type. Funnel AI works to speed up your workflows.

Funnel.io best features

  • Convert currencies automatically using historical exchange rates that match your reporting period
  • Store transformed data while preserving original values for audit trails and troubleshooting
  • Build interactive dashboards inside Funnel or export clean data to Looker Studio, Tableau, or warehouses
  • Ask questions in natural language and get insights from your data using the built-in AI feature, Data Chat

Funnel.io limitations

  • Not all connectors/destinations are included on every plan (some only on Business or Enterprise)
  • The platform requires an understanding of data modeling concepts for advanced customization
  • Setup takes longer than plug-and-play tools, especially for agencies with complex data structures

Funnel.io pricing

  • Free
  • Starter: Custom pricing
  • Business: Custom pricing
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

Funnel.io ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.5/5 (155+ reviews)
  • Capterra: Not enough reviews

📌 Workflow and client-delivery stack

14. ClickUp (Best for managing client delivery workflows end-to-end)

ClickUp Tasks: Create a central nervous system for your content strategy
Maintain campaign execution flow using ClickUp Tasks

ClickUp is the everything app for work that combines project management, knowledge management, and chat, all powered through AI that helps you work faster and smarter.

What’s more, ClickUp’s Creative Agency Project Management Software becomes the base for your entire client workflow. Here’s how it supports your marketing strategies. 👇

Run deliverables through a clear pipeline

Let’s say you’re producing a social campaign for a retainer client. You create a ClickUp Task for the entire weekly campaign set. Inside that task, you:

  • Add subtasks for scripting, copywriting, visuals, and proofreading
  • Use ClickUp Dependencies, so work happens in the right order, and your designer works on visuals once the copy is ready
  • Create a ClickUp Task Checklist for QA, such as brand voice consistency and CTA placement
  • Apply ClickUp Task Priorities to highlight assets tied to shorter client deadlines

Give clients clarity without more meetings

ClickUp Dashboards: Scale content production while keeping your clients in the loop
Offer project visibility using a client portal Dashboard in ClickUp

ClickUp Dashboards help you present work status, timelines, and progress through a client-facing dashboard. Your client dashboard can display:

  • Current project phase progress
  • Deliverables ready for client review
  • Deadlines for the upcoming week
  • Bandwidth across relevant team members
  • AI Cards summarizing weekly progress (and more!)

Suppose a client runs a weekly video series. Your dashboard shows scripts drafted, recordings completed, edits in progress, and episodes ready to publish. They instantly understand where the work stands.

You can also create internal dashboards for your team to track workload distribution and bottlenecks.

Drive action with contextual conversations 

Project discussions stay where the work lives with ClickUp Chat.

ClickUp Chat
Keep context attached to execution using ClickUp Chat

Let’s say your strategist refines messaging for a performance marketing campaign during a feedback call. They drop notes directly into the project Chat channel. Then, the designer responds inside the same thread and attaches the updated visual. The agreed direction converts into a task in one click.

Finally, everyone continues working without switching platforms or re-explaining the rationale.

Let AI keep your projects aligned

Your team does great work. The slowdown usually occurs around work: the updates, the follow-ups, the alignment checks, and the ‘Wait, where are we on this?’ moments.

ClickUp Brain removes that load so your team keeps moving without you having to manage every micro-handoff.

Think about your weekly client updates.

You open tasks, scroll through chats, try to remember what changed, pull highlights, rewrite everything in clean language, and double-check that nothing’s missing. It’s not hard work, but it’s time-consuming, and it repeats every single week.

ClickUp Brain: Predictive analytics tools for AI implementation and alignment of business goals
Stay focused on the work that matters with ClickUp Brain

Now imagine this instead: You ask ClickUp Brain for the update.

It reads the actual task progress, decisions, comments, approvals, and pending items, and generates a clear, structured status summary you can send immediately.

Teams that adopt ClickUp finish work 3x faster, free up 1.1 workdays every week, and reduce operational overhead by 88%.

Learn more about using AI in project management:

ClickUp best features

  • Stay informed without checking dashboards: Set up ClickUp Scheduled Reports to deliver campaign performance snapshots to clients at set intervals (e.g., every other Friday)
  • See where effort really goes: Log hours across campaigns, creative development, revisions, and client calls with ClickUp Project Time Tracking so you can price retainers and SOWs accurately
  • Share work fast: Record short walkthroughs or creative rationale using ClickUp Clips so clients understand direction without scheduling another meeting
  • Talk through ideas on the go: Capture brainstorm notes, voiceovers, or client feedback using ClickUp Talk to Text in Brain MAX so nothing slips when the team moves fast
  • Find assets instantly: Locate past campaign files, pitch decks, brand guidelines, or content calendars across your workspace using natural language search with ClickUp Enterprise Search
  • Keep client communication tied to work: Send and receive emails directly in your workspace using ClickUp Email Project Management so feedback threads connect to the right deliverables
  • Never lose meeting insights: Let ClickUp AI Notetaker document client calls, summarize decisions, extract action items, and attach them to the campaign task automatically

ClickUp limitations

  • The extensive feature set can overwhelm new users at first

ClickUp pricing

free forever
Best for individual users
Free Free
Key Features:
60MB Storage
Unlimited Tasks
Unlimited Free Plan Members
unlimited
Best for small teams
$7 $10
per user per month
Everything in Free +
Unlimited Storage
Unlimited Folders and Spaces
Unlimited Integrations
business
Best for mid-sized teams
$12 $19
per user per month
Everything in Unlimited +
Google SSO
Unlimited Message History
Unlimited Mind Maps
enterprise
Best for many large teams
Get a custom demo and see how ClickUp aligns with your goals.
Everything in Business +
White Labeling
Conditional Logic in Forms
Subtasks in Multiple Lists
* Prices when billed annually
The world's most complete work AI, starting at $9 per month
ClickUp Brain is a no Brainer. One AI to manage your work, at a fraction of the cost.
Try for free

ClickUp ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.7/5 (10,600+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.6/5 (4,500+ reviews)

A marketing agency owner shares their experience using ClickUp on Reddit:

We’ve been running our agency on ClickUp for about half a year now, and honestly, it’s changed how we work in ways I didn’t expect. […] Their Docs system has quietly replaced most of our Google Docs work. Everything just flows better when our documentation lives in the same place as our projects. The team adapted to it faster than I thought they would.

I was on the fence about ClickUp Brain at first, just seemed like another AI gimmick. But it’s saved me from some tedious writing tasks, especially when I need to summarize lengthy client emails or get a draft started. […]

The AI notetaker feature was the real surprise. We used to lose so many action items after meetings, but now it catches everything and assigns tasks automatically. Follow-through has gotten noticeably better.

Reddit user

📌 Multi-client scale and white-labelling

15. Stack AI (Best for enterprise AI deployment)

Stack AI lets teams build production-ready AI assistants and workflows without writing code. The visual builder connects components to handle tasks like support triage, document analysis, or proposal generation.

You select from large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, based on the specific task, then deploy the AI assistant as an internal app or expose it via API for broader integration.

Stack AI best features

  • Build AI workflows visually by connecting language models, data sources, and logic without coding
  • Implement RAG to ground AI responses in company-specific documents and knowledge bases
  • Design and deploy role-specific chatbots in minutes
  • Manage deployments using environments, role-based permissions, and audit logs for compliance

Stack AI limitations

  • Template depth varies depending on use case, requiring customization for specialized workflows
  • Integration options are more limited compared to general automation platforms
  • Monitoring and observability tools may need supplementation for complex production deployments

Stack AI pricing

  • Free
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

Stack AI ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.7/5 (30+ reviews)
  • Capterra: Not enough reviews

🔍 Did You Know? Most smaller/specialist agencies are still quite lean and client-centred. In a benchmark report covering 251 agencies, the majority reported having just 11-20 clients, and often ranked ‘SEO & website maintenance’ as their top services (77% of agencies).

16. HighLevel (Best for agency resellers)

HighLevel combines CRM, email marketing, SMS, and funnel building into a solution that agencies can white-label and resell. You brand the entire system, from login URLs to mobile apps, so clients see your logo instead of HighLevel’s.

The platform includes two-way SMS, call tracking, voicemail drops, and Facebook Messenger integration to centralize client comms.

Even better, HighLevel’s AI tools generate funnel copy, create review responses, and build workflows through conversational prompts.

HighLevel best features

  • White-label the entire platform, including mobile apps, login URLs, and branding for resale to clients
  • Clone complete marketing systems using Snapshots that package funnels, workflows, and automations
  • Enable SaaS Mode to create subscription plans, charge clients, and handle billing automatically

HighLevel limitations

  • Some users report occasional bugs and performance issues with newer features
  • Advanced AI features require separate usage-based pricing on top of the base subscription

HighLevel pricing

  • Free trial
  • Starter: $97/month
  • Unlimited: $297/month

HighLevel ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.6/5 (545+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.1/5 (80+ reviews)

💡 Pro Tip: Train AI in marketing to flag underperforming channels in real time. For example, if TikTok ads are converting poorly mid-week, your AI can alert the team to reallocate budget or tweak creatives immediately.

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Benefits of a Well-Built AI Stack for Agencies

A robust AI stack enables agencies to cut through AI sprawl and build systems that drive performance. Here’s how a well-built stack adds real value:

  • Accelerates campaign delivery: Speeds up creative production, approval cycles, and client reporting through connected automation
  • Enhances creative output: Uses AI to brainstorm concepts, test variations, and refine messaging at scale
  • Improves client retention: Provides faster turnarounds and deeper insights that translate into measurable results
  • Future-proofs operations: Keeps your tech stack adaptable to new tools and market shifts without increasing complexity
  • Strengthens decision-making: Brings together marketing analytics, CRM, and ad data to reveal trends and guide smarter spending

🧠 Fun Fact: For about a century (roughly from the late 19th century well into the 20th century), many advertising agencies were paid a standard ~15% commission on the cost of the media they bought for clients. Even after agencies shifted toward executing creative campaigns for advertisers (rather than for publishers), they managed to retain that commission model.

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Common Mistakes Agencies Make When Assembling an AI Stack

Here’s where most agencies go wrong when building their AI stack and how to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

MistakeWhy it hurtsWhat to do instead
Treating tools as a strategyTeams expect tech to fix process issues, leading to clutter and confusionMap your workflow first, then use tools to strengthen what’s already working
Using AI without contextAI outputs lack relevance when teams don’t provide clear data or directionFeed tools high-quality prompts, client insights, and campaign data for accurate results
Skipping cross-team alignmentDisconnected creative, analytics, and strategy teams cause duplication and delaysSet up shared dashboards or centralized workspaces to keep everyone aligned
Relying only on AI featuresShiny AI add-ons often distract from missing core capabilitiesEvaluate whether the tool enhances strategy, collaboration, or measurable outcomes

🧠 Fun Fact: Some agencies were pioneers in media types: for example, one early U.S. agency leveraged the first TV-commercial environment in 1941 (for a watch), and billboard growth exploded once automobiles became common on U.S. roads.

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Consolidate Your AI Stack With ClickUp

Building an AI-driven marketing agency shouldn’t mean wrestling with disconnected systems. The smartest teams streamline, connect, and scale their workflows to make every project run like a well-oiled campaign machine.

ClickUp brings all your agency workflows together in one powerful workspace, so strategy, creativity, execution, and reporting all live under one roof.

Plan campaigns in ClickUp Tasks, track performance with Dashboards, centralize your playbooks in Docs, and brainstorm fresh ideas with ClickUp Brain. What’s more, ClickUp BrainGPT unifies your entire workflow. This means you’ll spend less time switching between platforms and more time building campaigns that actually move the needle.

Ready to connect your agency’s entire AI ecosystem? Sign up for ClickUp today! ✅

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What are the must-have AI tools for marketing agencies now?

Agencies need tools that help with content creation, campaign management, analytics, and client reporting. ClickUp brings these together by offering AI-powered writing, task tracking, and performance dashboards in one platform, so teams can manage campaigns and generate content without switching between tools.

How much budget should an agency allocate for AI tools and stack upgrades?

Most agencies spend around 10-20% of their total tech budget on AI marketing tools. The exact amount depends on team size, clients served, and the complexity of campaigns.

Can small agencies adopt an AI stack, or is it only for enterprise?

Small agencies can absolutely adopt artificial intelligence (AI) stacks. Many AI platforms now offer affordable plans, free tiers, or pay-per-use models, allowing small teams to automate routine work and compete effectively without heavy investment.

How do you measure ROI from an AI marketing stack?

Track metrics like time saved on repetitive tasks, campaign performance improvements, lead conversion rates, and cost per acquisition. Comparing pre- and post-AI performance for activities like ad targeting helps quantify value and justify further investment.

How often should an agency review and update its tech stack?

Agencies should review their stack every 6-12 months. This ensures they stay current with new features, security updates, and evolving client needs while removing redundant or underused tools.

Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
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