If you’re not using automation tools to take care of those pesky repetitive tasks, you’re already behind in the game. I’ve been there.
While I still have a long way to go in relying on AI for creative production, I would be lying if I said that AI and process automation tools haven’t made my life easier. They have helped me optimize my workflow and increase efficiency.
If you are also struggling to balance between AI and keeping your creativity intact, I’ve got you. In this blog post, I’ll discuss the top 10 creative automation solutions that can help you manage your workload better and boost creativity.
10 Best Creative Automation Tools to Boost Productivity
- What is a Creative Automation Tool?
- What Should You Look for in Creative Automation Tools?
- The 10 Best Creative Automation Tools to Use in 2024
- 1. ClickUp (Best for creative project management)
- 2. Celtra (Best for launching digital campaigns)
- 3. Adacado (Best to launch dynamic ad campaigns)
- 4. SundaySky (Best to create tailored video ads)
- 5. Hunch (Best for using product data for ads)
- 6. ChatGPT (Best to automate your brainstorming)
- 7. Canva (Best to design visual content)
- 8. Marpipe (Best to generate product ad catalogs)
- 9. Bannerflow (Best for automated campaign production)
- 10. Innervate (Best for high-velocity ad creation)
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat is a Creative Automation Tool?
Creative automation tools are software that uses AI to automate repetitive tasks in content and design production. Imagine it as a super-powered assistant that handles repetitive tasks.
Let’s say you need social media posts for different channels. A creative automation platform can generate variations of a single template based on your input, such as product details and images.
This reduces mental workload and helps you focus better on the creative aspects like concept and messaging.
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Should You Look for in Creative Automation Tools?
Creative automation software should help you simplify processes and enhance creativity. Here are the key capabilities you should consider to find the perfect fit for your workflow:
Content focus
- Targeted content: Creative automation software should be able to create personalized content for different purposes, such as for videos, images, social media posts, and presentations
- Template library: You should have access to a vast library of pre-designed design templates in different formats
Automation features
- Task automation: It should automate repetitive tasks, including image resizing, formatting, background removal, and text translation
- Data integration: A creative automation software should connect with your CRM, marketing automation platform, or other data sources to create personalize content
Distribution and testing
- Multi-channel publishing: You should be able to easily export or publish creations directly to different platforms (social media, email, etc.)
- A/B testing: Check whether the software supports testing different variations of your creatives
Usability and collaboration
- User interface: The tool should be easy to learn and use, especially for non-designers
- Collaboration tools: It should support real-time collaboration for creative teams
Additional factors
- Scalability: Check whether the tool is scalable and can handle your current and future creative needs
- Integrations: It should also integrate seamlessly with your existing design stack
Summarize this article for me pleaseThe 10 Best Creative Automation Tools to Use
Here are the best creative automation tools you can try to streamline your creative production process and enhance the quality of your projects:
1. ClickUp (Best for creative project management)
Balancing creativity and strategic thinking is tough. While I focus on innovative ideas and problem-solving, long-term goals take a backseat. ClickUp has helped me achieve a balance here by building an entire creative workflow management process.
It’s an all-in-one platform for project management, team collaboration, productivity, and customer management. The ClickUp Automations feature has streamlined my workflows, making it easier to strike off repetitive tasks from my to-do list.
ClickUp makes creative project management much easier with its collaborative features. You can automatically add assignees and watchers so priority tasks are continuously monitored and team members are notified of status updates.
You can browse 100+ automation templates to set automations for assigning tasks and changing task statuses, priorities, assignees, due dates, and locations.
What I have liked the most so far is ClickUp Brain, ClickUp’s AI assistant. You can simply direct it to create an automation (what should be done when a task is completed). ClickUp Brain also enables you to set triggers or conditions to automate actions.
You can also set email automation in ClickUp to send automatic project updates to vendors and customers, ensuring everyone stays in the loop.
While ClickUp Automations has sorted the management process, the tailored ClickUp Agency Project Management Software has helped in boosting my team’s creativity.
I also liked ClickUp Docs for creative collaboration. It can help create and store project roadmaps, build creative brief templates, and design execution plans. With rich formatting options, nested pages, and the option to embed assets, Docs can serve as a central repository for all the project-related information.
ClickUp Whiteboards has become our go-to tool for creative jam sessions. All team members can share their ideas and notes on the canvas. I like using it to connect ideas with the drag-and-drop editor, add images and links. It even lets me create project tasks directly from the whiteboards.
ClickUp best features
- Automate tasks: Break creative projects into manageable steps with ClickUp Tasks and automate them using ClickUp Automations, making them less overwhelming and easier to track. You can create task types, set priority levels, and link related tasks
- Create workflows: Use ClickUp Mind Maps to turn creative ideas into action plans. They help you build creative workflows for smooth project management
- Create personalized content: Automate personalized content generation for campaigns, customer surveys, or product descriptions with ClickUp Brain
- Get insights: Track campaign performance with ClickUp Dashboards to optimize creative techniques and processes
- Time tracking: Analyze how much time you are spending on manual tasks and creative processes with ClickUp’s Time Tracking feature to improve your workflow
You can easily set up a creative workflow with ClickUp’s Creative and Design Template. It helps you build a detailed project plan, add visual timelines, and organize ideas into actionable tasks.
ClickUp limitations
- ClickUp has a learning curve because of so many features
ClickUp pricing
- Free Forever
- Unlimited: $7/month per user
- Business: $12/month per user
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing
- ClickUp Brain: Add to any paid plan for $7 per member per month, billed annually
ClickUp reviews and ratings
- G2: 4.7/5 (2,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (4,000+ reviews)
Read also: 10 Best AI Automation Tools for Business Growth in 2024
2. Celtra (Best for launching digital campaigns)
Celtra is a creative automation tool, designed uniquely for creating and launching digital campaigns. You can use AI to create content, images, and videos in different formats and for different channels.
What I like the most about Celtra is that it enables seamless collaboration of design and content teams—by separating content and design creation. This allows creative teams to work on separate versions and reduces errors.
It also helps in ensuring brand consistency via customized toolkits and template-locking features. From campaign production to review, approval, and distribution, everything is available on one platform.
Celtra best features
- Scale your work efficiently by automating repetitive tasks like resizing, cropping, and text formatting
- Use AI to add visual elements like animation and product galleries to make engaging digital campaigns
- Create a central hub for all creative assets
- Scale campaign creation and distribution and improve transparency with centralized templates
Celtra limitations
- The interface has a steep learning curve and can be complex for non-designers
Celtra pricing
- Pricing not available
Celtra reviews and ratings
- G2: 4.4 /5 (350+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.4 /5 (250+ reviews)
3. Adacado (Best to launch dynamic ad campaigns)
Adacado is a do-it-yourself advertising platform that helps you run display ads. Setting up a campaign on it is incredibly easy. I just plugged in my advertiser details, picked a campaign solution, uploaded my logo and images, and boom—I was live!
Best of all, it helps professionals like me cut down on vendor costs significantly.
It provides customized ad solutions for different industries. Whether I need a tailored ad for my specific industry or want to start from scratch, their creative editor has me covered.
The most interesting feature of Adacado is that it allows the quick creation of dynamic product ads by syncing product feed updates.
Adacado best features
- Scale your advertisement campaigns by using pre-designed templates and a creative editor
- Select where and to whom your Google ads are displayed by selecting various factors, including demographics, interests, age, and device type
- Connect products available on Shopify directly and use shoppable ads with the in-and checkout widget
Adacado limitations
- It doesn’t support collaboration with clients or team members
- Adacado excels at automating simpler campaigns but might not be suitable for highly customized visuals
Adacado pricing
- Media purchased: Impression Count x CPM (Cost per 1000 impressions)
- Ads served: Based on dynamic and static rates (Dynamic rate starts at $0.99. Static rate starts at $0.25)
- Product: Starts at $0.15
Adacado reviews and ratings
- Gartner: 4.3/ 5 (3 ratings)
- TrustPilot: 3/ 5 (19 reviews)
4. SundaySky (Best to create tailored video ads)
SundaySky works great for teams that create a lot of videos for social media marketing, personalized sales campaigns, and brand promotions. Its Enterprise Video Platform uses AI to create engaging videos.
SundaySky’s AI helps me easily create video scripts, embed musical elements in the videos, and add natural voiceovers to the clips. That’s a lot of manual work automated in no time.
The AI integration also adds personalized video narrations and texts to enhance viewer engagement.
SundaySky best features
- Create interactive videos in minutes with pre-designed templates, themes, and music tracks
- Add personalized texts, narrations, and CTAs to capture viewers’ attention and improve conversion rate
- Automate video distribution by integrating videos into any CMS, website, portal, or application
- Create different versions of the same video to target specific audio segments with messages that resonate with them
SundaySky limitations
- With limited template options, video content creation can be repetitive
- Exported videos have reduced quality
SundaySky pricing
- Custom pricing
SundaySky reviews and ratings
- G2: 4.4 /5 (31 reviews)
- Cuspera: 4.4 /5 (150+ reviews)
5. Hunch (Best for using product data for ads)
If you are looking for a holistic platform to design creatives and run campaigns, try Hunch. It uses AI to create multi-format ads. Simply upload your brand kit, and the AI feature automatically optimizes images and adjusts layouts.
Hunch also offers product-led creativity. For instance, I can add my product feed to the platform to enhance product images, videos, and ads based on the input. What I like the most about Hunch is that it helps convert data into creatives for all the items in a catalog.
Hunch best features
- Create customized image and video templates to scale creative production
- Upload your brand kit and get ad templates automatically resized for different channels
- Run automated campaigns on social media channels and streamline campaign workflows
- Automatically created multiple on-brand templates in different formats with Hunch’s Multi Artboard Template
Hunch limitations
- You need some technical design and ad experience to run and manage campaigns on Hunch
Hunch pricing
- Custom pricing
Hunch reviews and ratings
- G2: 4.6/ 5 (33 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/ 5 (13 reviews)
6. ChatGPT (Best to automate your brainstorming)
ChatGPT is an all-in-one AI-powered creative assistant I can turn to for everything from social media content and ad copies to personalized emails. All I need to do is enter the right prompt.
I love bouncing ideas off it and seeing where the conversation takes me.
It can even help with the design process by suggesting ideas and workflows for the user interface. If you want to create advanced designs using technical software, ChatGPT can provide design codes.
ChatGPT best features
- Give text prompts and get quality content articles, social media, or marketing copy
- Brainstorm and unique suggestions for ad campaigns
- Create personalized content based for your target audience
- Use its advanced version to generate infographics with text queries
ChatGPT limitations
- It only helps in content ideation and production and cannot manage design tasks or ad campaigns
- It does not automatically track campaign performance
ChatGPT pricing
- Free: Forever free plan
- Plus: $20 per month, billed annually
- Team: $25 per user per month, billed annually
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
ChatGPT reviews and ratings
- G2: 4.7/ 5 (500+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/ 5 (49 reviews)
7. Canva (Best to design visual content)
Canva is my go-to tool to create stunning designs for campaigns, social media ads, brochures, presentations, reels, videos, and other visuals. It has many templates for different design formats, channels, and industries and a vast library of millions of images, icons, and graphics.
I can easily upload and edit images, create designs from scratch or using templates, or draw, sketch, and collaborate in real time with the Draw feature in Canva.
Do you have a blurred image with awkward framing? Use the Magic edit option to improve all images in just one click. Canva’s engagement tracking feature is also helpful for assessing your designs and user engagement.
Canva best features
- Visualize your designs by giving text prompts to Magic Design tool
- Automatically add popular music or tunes to your videos
- Combine images quickly into videos using AI
- Auto-translate your designs for different audiences with AI
- Simplify your social media workflow by planning, scheduling, and publishing social media posts to different channels using the content planner
Canva limitations
- It lacks ad and campaign management capabilities
- Canva lacks advanced design features for advertisements
Canva pricing
- Canva free: Forever free
- Canva Pro: $15 per user per month, billed annually
- Canva Teams: $10 per user per month (minimum three users), billed annually
- Canva Enterprise: Custom pricing
Canva reviews and ratings
- G2: 4.7/ 5 (4500+ reviews)
- GetApp: 4.7/ 5 (11,000+ reviews)
8. Marpipe (Best to generate product ad catalogs)
Marpipe is another creative automation tool that creates product catalog ads with AI. It integrates with your existing product feed from Shopify and other platforms and optimizes ad designs.
I liked the AI feature that auto removes the background image, scales the image to fit the design, and generates ad copy from product page copy.
Marpipe best features
- Test multiple product design variations at once with Marpipe’s A/B testing capability
- Build creative product design templates with the drag-and-drop builder
- Create engaging product designs by connecting design layers with columns in the product feed
- Add ad catalogs directly on ad platforms to increase engagement
Marpipe limitations
- Marpipe has a complex interface and integration setup
Marpipe pricing
- Explore: $0 forever
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Marpipe reviews and ratings
- G2: 5/5 (4 reviews)
- Capterra: 4/ 5 (1 review)
9. Bannerflow (Best for automated campaign production)
Bannerflow automates production, management, and optimization of digital ads. One thing that stood out for me is Bannerflow’s advanced brand animations that make digital ads more engaging. The option to automatically add data feeds to campaign creatives also boost engagement.
You can build a brand ad library and repurpose advanced creatives for campaign and ad production. Bannerflow also supports using custom widgets to create unique designs. Its translation management feature works great for companies with a global audience.
With this tool, I just need to make design and copy changes in the master brief, and the changes are automatically reflected in all campaigns.
Bannerflow best features
- Enable quick production, publishing, and launching of dynamic ad campaigns across multiple channels
- Create multiple variations for campaigns with a single master creative
- Share live previews of campaigns to get approvals
- Make live changes to adds to increase ROI
Bannerflow limitations
- Some users mention issues like slow loading speed and unresponsive clicks
Bannerflow pricing
- Custom pricing
Bannerflow reviews and ratings
- G2: 4.6/ 5 (100+ reviews)
- TrustRadius: 6.3/ 10 (7 reviews)
10. Innervate (Best for high-velocity ad creation)
Innervate (formerly RevJet) is another creative automation software that automates marketing and advertising campaigns. It helps users create personalized digital ads and campaigns for their target audience.
With Innervate, I was able to try A/B testing to measure the impact of my campaigns and optimize the campaigns for different channels, including social media and email.
Innervate best features
- Create personalize ads with dynamic creative optimization (DCO) capabilities
- Get tips on how to create personalized campaigns for regional audiences
- Get detailed performance analytics and measure the ROI of campaigns
Innervate limitations
- Innervate focuses more on customer experience and may not be suitable for automating creative tasks
Innervate pricing
- Custom pricing
Innervate reviews and ratings
- Capterra: 4.4/ 5 (200+ reviews)
Summarize this article for me pleaseAutomate your Creative Tasks with ClickUp
Creativity requires focus and a calm mind. If your team is buried in administrative tasks, managing creative tasks such as campaign planning or designing can become challenging.
This is where leading creative automation tools like ClickUp can help.
They automate repetitive tasks with AI, streamlining your workflow and making designing and executing creative ideas easier. ClickUp offers powerful automation, intuitive task management, and AI-driven insights to enable smooth creative processes and boost productivity.
Sign up on ClickUp for free to transform the way you manage your creative projects!
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
