7 Best Ads Management Tools for eCommerce & DTC Brands in 2025

Managing ads today demands more than hitting the “boost” button. Between tracking sales, building creatives, syncing your product catalog, and keeping up with platform changes, we can’t fault you for always feeling like you’re one step behind.

This guide was made to help you fix that. It’s for marketers, eCommerce teams, and founders who need tools that reduce the busywork that accompanies ad management.

We’ve picked the best ads management tools that can handle processes such as creative automation, media buying, campaign automation, and catalog syncing. 

Some of the tools are better for creative scaling, while others excel at media buying and placement optimization. 

Either way, you are bound to find a fitting ad management software for your workflow in this list. 

But first…

What are ads management tools?

Ads management software can be described in #3 words: automation, optimization, and streamlining. 

These tools help you manage different parts of the advertising process. 

Some help with the creative side, like building and updating ad creatives. Others focus on where and how your ads are placed, and encompass targeting, optimization, and media buying.

As you can imagine, there’s a wide range of tools because the functionality can fluctuate quite a lot across the board.

To keep things simple, we will zero in on ads management tools that will have the most impact on eCommerce businesses, retailers, and DTC brands. 

If that’s you, the next section will help you find the right tool to support your campaigns, simplify your process, and get better results without burning out your team.

Best ads management tools at a glance

1. Cropink [ad campaign management tool for catalog creatives]

Cropink is built for eCommerce teams or any business with a large product catalog that needs to run ads across multiple platforms.

It’s not an ads management tool in the traditional sense. 

You won’t find audience targeting or bidding controls here. Instead, you’ll find a smoother and faster way to handle the creative side of catalog ads, especially if you’re creating hundreds of variations and don’t want to keep rebuilding campaigns from scratch.

In short, Cropink turns your raw product feeds into enriched dynamic product ads (DPAs), complete with pricing, reviews, and branded overlays. 

Cropink also lets you update your catalog campaigns automatically, with live data updates, and keep everything consistent without having to touch each ad manually.

We also appreciate how it integrates with Figma, so your design team can have greater design customization control and still keep product data consistent. 

Key features

• Set campaign start/end times and schedule updates
• Rules-based catalog filtering to apply logic (e.g., “in‑stock,” “discount > 20%,” or specific product tags)
• Dynamically generate enriched creatives (images, carousels, static ads) using product data and templates
• Hourly sync with your product feed to ensure price, availability, and promotions are immediately reflected in live creatives
• Brand kit to enforce brand consistency by locking fonts, colors, logos, and reusable design styles, even across hundreds of variations

Pricing

• Free plan, all features included for your first 100 products
• Paid plans start at $39 per month for up to 500 products

2. Smartly [multi-platform ads management for large teams] 

Smartly.io is a full-suite ads management platform built for large brands running high-volume campaigns across multiple channels. 

It allows you to manage the entire ad lifecycle, from creative production to media buying, testing, and reporting.

If you're managing campaigns across Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Google, Smartly gives you one place to do it all. 

The platform uses automation and AI to simplify day-to-day tasks like creative updates, audience targeting, and budget adjustments.

That said, it's a better fit for teams with big budgets, complex workflows, and multiple markets. 

The setup and onboarding process can be long, but once you're in, you get the kind of control and visibility that makes cross-channel scaling easier.

Key features

• Centralized campaign management across Meta, Google, TikTok, Pinterest, and Snapchat
• Real-time performance data to optimize creatives and targeting
• AI-assisted creative tools (image, video, and text editing)
• Dynamic templates that scale across multiple ad platforms
• Unified catalog and audience management
• Automated A/B testing
• Brand governance and collaboration controls for large teams

Pricing

• No free plan
• 2% to 4% of your ad spend

3. AdRoll [retargeting and programmatic ads for eCommerce]

AdRoll targets eCommerce brands that want to run ads across the web, social, and email from one platform. 

This ad management tool focuses heavily on retargeting, programmatic display, and cross-channel attribution. 

As such, it’s useful if you want to bring back site visitors who didn’t convert the first time.

Once you connect your store, AdRoll places a pixel across your site to help create audience segments, pull in your product feed, and run dynamic ads that update based on customer behavior. 

You also get reporting that ties ad performance back to revenue.

AdRoll is not as flexible for creative automation or advanced testing, but for eCommerce teams focused on retargeting and product-based display ads, it checks a lot of boxes.

Key features

• Retargeting across web, social, and email
• Product feed integration for dynamic ads
• Behavioral and interest-based audience targeting
• Cross-channel attribution and revenue tracking
• Pre-built automations for abandoned cart, browse recovery, and re-engagement
• Campaign performance insights with consolidated reporting

Pricing

• No free plans
• Dynamic pricing based on CPM for display and native ads
• $36 per month for social ads and email ads

4. Celtra [creative automation and ad delivery at scale]

Celtra helps large teams automate creative production and deliver high-quality display, video, and rich media ads across channels. 

It’s best suited for brands and publishers that need to produce lots of on-brand variations for different markets, formats, or audiences.

You can build ads using a drag-and-drop editor, connect dynamic elements like product feeds or location data, and generate ad versions automatically. 

Celtra also gives you asset-level insights, so you can track which creatives are performing and make quick updates without starting over.

It doesn’t handle media buying, but it connects to all major DSPs and ad servers, so it's a good fit for teams with existing programmatic setups.

If the above features don’t do it for you, these Celtra alternatives might be a better fit. 

Key features

• Drag-and-drop ad builder with 40+ creative components
• Support for display, video, HTML5, CTV, and rich media formats
• Dynamic creative optimization with data like feeds, time, or location
• Creative versioning and localization at scale
• Pre-flight creative scoring and asset-level analytics
• Integrations with Figma, Cloudinary, AEM, and major ad servers

Pricing

• No free plan
• Pricing is custom, based on business size and required features

5. Hubspot [ad management with built-in CRM and lead tracking]

HubSpot is best known for its CRM and marketing automation tools, but it also offers basic ad management features. 

It’s a good fit for businesses that run lead-based campaigns and want their ads, CRM, and email workflows all in one place.

You can create and manage ad campaigns across Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads, and LinkedIn from a single dashboard. 

HubSpot also syncs with Shopify and WooCommerce, so you can set up retargeting campaigns across Meta.

If your workflow involves email signups or lead magnets, HubSpot makes it easy to track those leads from first click to purchase. 

That said, know that it’s not built for performance-heavy eCommerce ads like Facebook catalog ads or advanced media buying.

Key features

• Manage ads across Facebook, Google, Instagram, and LinkedIn
• Automated audience targeting based on CRM data
• Sync leads directly into your CRM and email workflows
• Attribution and ROI tracking tied to contacts
• Retargeting with Shopify and WooCommerce integrations
• Integration with landing pages, forms, and automation workflows

Pricing

• Limited free plan
• Paid plans start at $800 per month
• One-time professional onboarding fee of $3,000

6. Hunch [creative automation and campaign management for Meta ads]

Hunch works best for eCommerce teams that run a lot of catalog-based campaigns on Meta. It combines creative automation with campaign management, so you can produce ad variations in bulk and launch them directly from the same dashboard.

The platform connects to your product feed, lets you apply filtering rules, and turns those products into dynamic ads with personalized visuals. 

You can also schedule campaigns, push them live, and make updates as your inventory or pricing changes.

While Hunch is great for scaling product ads, it’s mostly limited to Meta. You won’t get the same flexibility across other platforms like TikTok or Google.

Key features

• Build creative variations using templates and product feeds
• Create DPAs with custom rules for filtering
• Drag-and-drop creative editor with brand lock settings
• Campaign scheduling and direct publishing to Meta
• Feed syncing for real-time updates on price, stock, or promos
• Supports carousels, Stories, Reels, and product-level videos

Pricing

• No free trial
• Paid plans start at €2,500 per month. If that’s a steep price for your team, there are other affordable Hunch alternatives to consider.

7. Madgicx [AI-powered media buying for performance-focused teams]

Madgicx combines media buying, creative optimization, and automation into one platform. 

It’s designed for performance marketers and DTC brands that want to improve results on Meta while keeping things simple and data-focused.

The platform audits your ad account, highlights what’s working (and what’s not), then recommends what to fix. 

You can create audiences, launch campaigns, test creatives, and adjust budgets with Madgicx’s AI-backed suggestions and one-click actions.

Madgicx also pulls in data from Google Ads, TikTok, Shopify, and Google Analytics, so you can view performance in one place. 

However, note that most of its advanced features are still tied closely to Meta.

Key features

• AI-powered audience creation and targeting
• Cross-channel reporting for Meta, Google, TikTok, and YouTube
• Creative insights dashboard with asset-level analysis
• Autonomous budget and bid optimization
• One-click campaign launcher
• Shopify integration

Pricing

• 7-day free trial
• $39 per month if ad spend is below $1,000, but plans start at $65 per month for higher ad spend
• AI ad generator is available as an add-on for $21 per month. If you want the one-click reporting, it’ll be an extra $29 per month.

Tips for choosing the best ads management tools

Ads management tools cover everything from creative production to campaign delivery, testing, and media buying. 

However, there’s no single tool that does all of these perfectly. 

Instead of chasing features, we recommend identifying one process that’s slowing your team, then choosing a tool that does that task best.

Below are a few things to think through:

1. How complex is your workflow?

If you’re a small team running ads in just one market, a full-suite platform like Smartly is more than you need. However, if you manage campaigns across several platforms and markets, a tool with robust workflow management, team permissions, and cross-channel reporting can save you hours.

2. How important is creative speed and control?

When you’re testing multiple creative angles or want to personalize ads at scale, choose a tool that makes that easy. Cropink, for example, is great for high-volume creative teams.

3. What’s your budget, and how fast do you need results?

Some tools are priced for enterprise teams and require heavy onboarding. If you're on a tighter budget or want to move fast, tools with simpler pricing and no required training (like Cropink or AdRoll) can help you stay agile without being locked into long processes or contracts.

Summary and recommendation

The best ads management tool is the one that solves your biggest bottleneck.

If you run a large product catalog and want more control over your creatives without restarting campaigns every time prices or stock change, Cropink is an excellent fit. 

It’s built for teams that care about product-level ads, brand consistency, and working fast.

On the other hand, if you’re after something more full-service, such as managing creative, media buying, and reporting across platforms, Smartly.io or Madgicx are better suited for that.

For teams focused on retargeting and cross-channel attribution, AdRoll can get the job done.

What about Celtra? It will work well if you need a high volume of differently formatted ad creatives. 

HubSpot only makes sense if your ad strategy revolves around lead generation or if you already use that platform. 

And lastly, Hunch is great if your campaigns are mostly on Meta and you require multi-location ads.

If you're still weighing your options, try Cropink’s free plan. It’s an easy way to figure out which features you need (and don’t need) in an ads management tool. 

FAQs

What are ad management tools?

Ad management tools help you plan, create, launch, and track digital ad campaigns across platforms. They’re used to simplify tasks like creative production, audience targeting, performance tracking, and budget management.

Do I need a different ads management software for every platform?

Not necessarily. Some tools, such as Smartly.io and Madgicx, let you manage campaigns across multiple platforms from one dashboard. Others, like Hunch and Cropink, focus on specific areas like Meta catalog ads or creative automation.

What’s the difference between media buying tools and creative automation tools?

Media buying tools help you set budgets, bids, audiences, and placements. On the other hand, creative automation tools help you generate and manage ad visuals and variations, often using templates and product feeds. Some platforms combine both, but many lean more in one direction.

Sources

1. Cropink. Cropink vs. Hunch Ads [Why Marketers Are Switching to Cropink]
2. Cropink. 7 Best Creative Automation Tools Making Life Easier for Ecom Brands
3. Cropink. 6 Affordable Hunch Ads Alternatives for eCommerce Teams
4. Cropink. How to Create Profitable Facebook Catalog Ads
5. Cropink. 9 Best Celtra Alternatives & Competitors