Managing paid social campaigns across multiple platforms is time-consuming, detail-heavy, and often more complex than it needs to be, especially if you’re juggling different formats, audiences, and budgets.
This is precisely why, whether you’re a seasoned marketer or a novice, having the right tools in place is essential for scaling your efforts efficiently.
Thankfully, there’s a wide range of social media ad tools that cater to the needs of every type of agency or brand. In this guide, we’ll explore native ad management platforms as well as the top social media advertising tools available, their key features, and how they can help you manage campaigns and achieve your business goals.
By the end, you’ll know whether a third-party platform makes sense for you and which ones are worth considering.
How to choose the best social media ad management tool for your needs
There are so many diverse ad platforms to choose from today, but there are even more tools to help with ad optimization. Picking the right one can be challenging, but aligning your marketing goals with the capabilities that these platforms offer is the best way forward.
Find a tool that meets at least most, if not all, of these basic criteria:
- Ease of use — While every new tool has a learning curve, you shouldn’t spend more time figuring your way around it than you would creating your ad campaigns.
- Scalability — Make sure the tool can accommodate your business growth and subsequent needs.
- Customer support and training — Do your research about the initial training and ongoing support that the platform can provide, if and when you need it.
- Integration capabilities — Ensure the tool integrates seamlessly with other software and platforms you use, such as CRM systems and analytics tools.
- Customization options — Look for tools that offer customizable features to tailor the platform to your specific needs.
- Data security — Verify that the tool has robust data security measures to protect your business and customer information.
- Cost-effectiveness — Assess whether the tool provides good value for its price, considering both its features and your budget constraints.
Native social media ad platforms: Pros and cons
Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, X Ads Manager) are designed to serve their own social networks, providing features tailored to their specific channels.
While multi-platform social media advertising tools offer powerful features and capabilities, it’s important to recognize that not all businesses need these additional functions (and the costs that come with them). Native ad management platforms are effective for many users, especially if you’re only advertising on a single social channel, or Facebook and Instagram, as you can manage them both via Meta Ads.
LinkedIn Campaign Manager
LinkedIn Ads Manager, also known as Campaign Manager, is a platform for creating, managing, and optimizing advertising campaigns on LinkedIn. It offers features for setting up various ad formats, targeting specific professional audiences, and controlling budgets and schedules. You can track campaign performance with detailed analytics and reporting tools, helping you refine your marketing strategies to meet your business goals.
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For more information, visit LinkedIn Ads Manager.
Meta Ads Manager
Meta Ads Manager can serve as your central hub for running advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Audience Network. You can create ads, manage their scheduling and placement, and monitor the performance of your campaigns.
The platform offers detailed analytics and insights to help marketers optimize their ad strategies.
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For more detailed information, visit Meta Ads Manager.
X Ads Manager
Twitter Ads Manager (now X Ads Manager) is a comprehensive platform for creating, managing, and analyzing ad campaigns on Twitter. It offers detailed audience targeting with filters such as location, keywords, and behaviors.
The platform supports various ad formats to engage users effectively. Users can manage budgets and schedules for precise ad spend control and monitor campaign performance through customizable metrics and detailed analytics.
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For more detailed information, visit X Ads Manager.
Top 6 social media ad management tools compared (2025)
While there are numerous social media ad management tools out there, we’ve shortlisted the top six tools available now. Take a look at what each of these platforms offers and choose the one that best aligns with your social ad management requirements.
Name of tool | Top features | Pricing |
Optmyzr Social | Portfolio-based account grouping, cross-platform management (Meta + LinkedIn), performance alerts, custom automation, drag-and-drop reporting. | Starts at $99/month |
Madgicx | AI marketer suggestions, pixel-based attribution, creative ad library. | Starts at $58/month |
AdRoll | Cross-platform retargeting, ML-driven budget management, native ad creation. | Custom pricing |
AdEspresso | A/B testing, auto post promotion, campaign approval flows | Starts at $49/month |
Smartly.io | Dynamic creative optimization, AI campaign recommendations, creative/reporting suites. | Custom pricing |
Semrush Social Media Marketing | Influencer analytics, social scheduling, community management. | Starts at $20/month |
Before we take a deeper look at what each of these social tools offers, some features are common to all the tools mentioned above; these features include:
- Audience targeting
- Reporting and analytics
- Budget management
- Creative builders
- Custom conversion tracking
- A/B testing
All-in-one performance management platforms
Optmyzr Social
Venturing into social ad management software, Optmyzr has launched Optmyzr Social. The platform supports Meta and LinkedIn Ads management and is currently available for everyone under public beta.
What you need to know about Optmyzr Social
Suitable for: Agencies, B2B marketing teams, ecommerce brands, enterprise brands
Cost: $99/month with unlimited accounts and ad spend. Optmyzr users can add it to their subscription for $79/month (20% off).
Payment model: Flat pricing irrespective of ad spend and number of accounts
Unique features:
- Organize ad accounts into flexible portfolios based on brand, region, or budget focus, making it easy to monitor performance and optimize strategies across multiple platforms.
- Monitor key performance metrics like spend, ROAS, or cost per result, and compare results across any two time periods. View trends by campaign, portfolio, or account.
- Quickly identify which ads are underperforming or trending downward, whether due to creative fatigue or budget shifts, then take action directly from the platform. Knowing when and how to fix and scale your social ads is key to staying efficient.
- Automate actions such as pausing low-ROI campaigns, increasing budgets for strong performers, or syncing performance signals with external data like product inventory or CRM updates.
- Set custom alerts to notify you of issues like unexpected CPC spikes or underspent budgets, ensuring problems are caught before they affect performance.
- Build and share reports using drag-and-drop widgets that showcase KPIs, top-performing ads, trends, and even non-ad data from spreadsheets—all without needing to export data manually.
- Set up and manage Meta and LinkedIn campaigns in one streamlined view. No more tab hopping. Unified workflows simplify cross-platform ad management, especially when juggling multiple teams, goals, and timelines.
Here’s what Anna P., Junior Online Marketing Manager, Elephant Digital, had to say about the toolset:
“I think it’s pretty cool that you can see the demographics (like how many impressions are coming from men or women), because it’s not too easy to find out in the Business Manager. It’s also cool that you can set up alerts. I also liked the “Ad Analyzer”; it’s very helpful to see which ads are spending a lot of money, and decide which ads we want to pause.” |
Madgicx
Madgicx has made a name for itself with AI and automation-based features to optimize Meta and Google Ads campaigns.
What you need to know about Madgicx
Suitable for: Ecomm brands, agencies, solopreneurs
Cost: All-in-one suite starting at $58/month
Payment model: Seven-day free trial; monthly, quarterly, and annual plans
Unique features:
- The AI Marketer feature gives you actions to take to optimize your results based on your current account data.
- Pixel-based attribution reporting allows you to insert a code onto a webpage and get data about when users interact with your ad.
- Ad library to help with creative ideas and inspiration for your ad campaigns.
Creative and campaign optimization tools
Smartly
Smartly offers three different suites, one for creative development, one to optimize campaigns, and the third to analyze reports. It leverages AI to optimize ad performance on most social platforms, including Meta, Snapchat, Pinterest, TikTok, and Google Marketing Platform.
What you need to know about Smartly
Suitable for: Brand marketing, Creative teams, agencies, performance teams
Cost: Media spend percentage fee
Payment model: Demo request followed by paid subscription
Unique features:
- Dynamic creative optimization updates creative content and copy, utilizing real-time data.
- AI-powered creative and campaign recommendations to enhance creative at scale
AdEspresso
AdEspresso is designed to simplify the ad creation and management process for Facebook, Instagram, and Google. Known for its user-friendly interface, AdEspresso offers features like A/B testing and customizable templates.
What you need to know about AdEspresso
Suitable for: Agencies, ecomm brands, small- and medium-sized businesses
Cost: Starter pack starting at $49/month
Payment model: 14-day free trial; Starter ($1000/month spend limit), Plus, and Enterprise plans for unlimited ad spends
Unique features:
- Automatic post promotion tool to give you full control over what’s promoted and for how long.
- Campaign approval flow to ease communication with clients and managers.
Retargeting and cross-platform reach tools
AdRoll
AdRoll specializes in retargeting and machine learning-based ad analyses. It provides cross-channel analytics, dynamic ad creation, and audience targeting for most social platforms, including Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, and X (Twitter) Ads.
What you need to know about AdRoll
Suitable for: Ecommerce brands, financial institutions, hospitality businesses, agencies
Cost: Pay-as-you-go for display and native ads
Payment model: Pay-as-you-go; monthly subscription
Unique features:
- Machine learning-driven features to predict user behavior and ad performance, manage budgets, and target audiences.
- The native ad creation tool creates ads that are designed to feel like a part of the webpage they are on.
Semrush Social Media Marketing
Semrush offers a comprehensive social media marketing tool as part of its suite. It offers two different toolkits: Semrush Social and Influencer Analytics. While the platform does not have a creative building suite, users can manage and optimize campaigns across various social media platforms, providing features like content scheduling, analytics, and KPI tracking.
What you need to know about Semrush Social Media Marketing
Suitable for: Influencers, agencies, marketers, performance teams
Cost: Starting at $20/month
Payment model: Seven-day free trial, followed by plans based on company size
Unique features:
- Centralized community management to consolidate your messages, mentions, alerts, etc.
- Competitor influencer spend forecasts and tracking to help decide budget allocation for campaigns.
Level up your social media ad strategy, without the chaos
Choosing the right social media ad management tool isn’t just about features—it’s about finding a platform that supports the way you work. Whether you prioritize automation, cross-platform visibility, or deeper insights, the right tool can help you reclaim time, reduce errors, and get more from your ad spend.
By leveraging Optmyzr Social, you can focus more on the strategic planning and creative execution of your social ads. Explore Optmyzr Social with a free beta trial to elevate your paid social advertising strategy today.
People also ask
Q. What are social media ad management tools?
A. These tools help advertisers plan, run, and monitor paid campaigns across platforms like Meta and LinkedIn. They bring everything from setup to reporting into one place, making it easier to stay organized and efficient.
Q. How do these tools work?
A. They connect to ad platforms via APIs to let you:
- Manage budgets and campaigns from a single dashboard
- Automate repetitive actions (like pausing low-performers)
- Analyze results with cross-channel insights
- Bulk schedule ads
- Optimize creatives based on performance
Some tasks (like replying to comments or creative edits) may still need to happen on the native platforms.
Q. What are the best social media ad management tools for agencies in 2025
A. Some of the top tools are Optmyzr Social, Madgicx, AdRoll, AdEspresso, Smartly.io, and Semrush Social. Each one is good for different kinds of businesses.
Q. How do multi-platform social media ad tools help save time and improve results?
A. They let you manage everything in one place, automate common tasks, and help analyze data from different social platforms.
Q. What should I look for in a social media ad tool?
A. Focus on how easy it is to use, if it can grow with your business, how well it automates, reports, and connects with other tools you use.
Q. Are third-party tools better than using the platform’s own ad manager?
A. Third-party tools are a smart choice for managing ads across multiple platforms efficiently. They help you save time, scale your campaigns, and automate repetitive tasks even though a few advanced features might still need native platform access.
Q. How do advertisers choose the right tool for their specific goals (e.g., creative testing, automation, performance tracking)?
A. Start by identifying your biggest bottlenecks. If you’re spending too much time on manual tasks, prioritize tools with strong automation. For creative testing, look for platforms with dynamic creative features and clear A/B test reporting. If performance tracking is your focus, choose tools that offer customizable dashboards, real-time alerts, and integrations with your analytics stack.
Q. When should you choose a social media ad management tool?
A. When you’re managing campaigns across multiple platforms, need to automate tasks, or want faster, clearer insights. These tools help you stay ahead of algorithm changes, monitor performance in real time, and save time on manual work, making them ideal for advertisers looking to scale efficiently.
