7 Smartly Alternatives for Smarter Advertising Campaigns in 2025
Looking for smarter, faster, and more affordable ad automation tools? Explore 7 top Smartly.io alternatives for 2025—boost brand awareness by up to 80% with the right tool for your workflow and budget!
Smartly.io is a favorite for automating ads, but it's not one-size-fits-all. Whether it's pricing, features, or complexity—you might be searching for a better fit.
That’s where this list of Smartly alternatives comes in.
This guide is for marketers, eCommerce teams, and ad managers who want smarter, faster, and more affordable ways to run campaigns in 2025.
We’ve picked 7 top tools that help you launch, optimize, and scale ads—without the Smartly price tag or learning curve.
Remember, ads can increase brand awareness by up to 80%. But only if you’re using the right tool for your team and budget.
We’ll show you what each platform does best, where it shines (and doesn’t), and which one is right for your workflow.
Let’s get into it.
| Tool | Pricing | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Cropink | Free up to 100 SKUs, Paid from $39/mo | Small eCommerce teams & product-led marketers |
| Hunch | Starts at $2,000/mo (no free plan) | Agencies & brands managing multiple regions |
| Skai | Starts at $95,000/year | Enterprise teams with multimillion-dollar budgets |
| Sprinklr | $299/mo (billed annually) | Global brands handling CX, social, and ads |
| ROI Hunter | Custom pricing only | Performance marketers & merchandising teams |
| Marpipe | Free plan available, Paid from $399/mo | DTC brands & creatives who want full visual control |
| Flashtalking | Enterprise pricing (contact sales) | Ad agencies & enterprise teams doing cross-channel |
7 Best Smartly Alternatives for Ad Automation
We’ve done the hard work for you—testing, comparing, and narrowing down the top options.
Here are 7 of the best Smartly alternatives to help you automate ads, boost performance, and stay on budget in 2025.
1. Cropink
Cropink is a catalog ad builder designed to simplify and speed up the ad creation process—especially for product-based campaigns. It's made for teams that want performance-driven, data-powered creatives without relying on complex tools or big budgets.
Unlike Smartly.io, which combines media, creative, and analytics in a single enterprise-level suite, Cropink focuses on doing one thing exceptionally well: making dynamic product ads beautiful and effective.
Key Features
🛍️ Product feed-based ad creation
🎨 Dynamic ad templates ready to customize
🧰 Built-in design editor—no extra tools needed
📈 Performance-focused layout options
🧑🤝🧑 Team collaboration and project sharing
🧠 Smart product data integration with Figma plugin
🕒 Rules-based campaign scheduling and feed updates
Pricing
- Free plan: Yes — includes all features for up to 100 products\
- Paid plan starts at: $39/month (billed annually) for up to 500 products
- Easy setup—start building ads in minutes
- Includes all features even on the free plan
- Clean UI with powerful design options
- Seamless product feed connection and updates
- Integrates with Figma for deeper creative control
- Scales well for small to mid-sized catalogs
- Doesn’t handle media buying or ad placement
- Focused only on static and feed-based ad formats (no video or cross-channel execution)
Best for
Small brands, growing eCommerce stores, and agencies focused on catalog or product-based ads.
Review
“Cropink plays a vital role in our modern digital marketing strategy, serving as a cornerstone in optimizing Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs). The tool's unwavering commitment to a performance-centric approach has not only improved results but has been a significant asset for our agency.”
— Kamil Wiszowaty, Value Media (Serviceplan Group)
2. Hunch
Hunch is a creative automation platform built to help brands scale localized and personalized ads faster. It combines dynamic product ads, creative testing, and AI-powered templates to streamline campaign production and drive performance.
Unlike Smartly, which offers a full-suite AI ad platform, Hunch focuses specifically on creative scale and localization—making it a top pick for brands managing multiple markets or catalogs.
Key Features
🧠 AI-powered ad templates and creative automation
🗺️ Market localization at scale
🎯 Automated campaign launches
🔌 Feed-based ad management and auto-updates
🎥 Dynamic image and video catalog ads
Pricing
- Free plan: No (30-day free trial available)
- Paid plan starts at: $2,000/month
- Powerful automation for scaling creative across markets
- Built-in tools for localization and DPA testing
- Smooth onboarding with hands-on support
- Expensive for small businesses
- Limited pricing transparency without a demo
Best for
Enterprise brands, growing eCommerce companies, and agencies managing high-volume ad campaigns across multiple regions.
Review
“Attentive account managers, full support during onboarding, and a responsive technical team. The tool provides amazing versatility and can unleash advertising creativity on a level that’s incomparable to other techniques.”
— Luka, Mid-Market Reviewer on G2
3. Skai
Skai is an enterprise-level omnichannel marketing platform built for performance-driven brands. It brings together AI-powered media buying, strategic planning, measurement, and optimization in one unified platform.
While Smartly.io specializes in creative automation and dynamic ad production, Skai focuses on omnichannel investment decisions across search, social, and retail media—ideal for brands needing cross-channel visibility and scale.
Key Features
🔄 Unified platform for search, social, and retail media
🧠 Celeste AI assistant for marketing automation
📊 Cross-channel budget forecasting and planning
📈 Incrementality testing and custom attribution
🔌 Access to 100+ retail and publisher integrations
🧩 Advanced campaign audits and QA tools
🏷️ Competitive insights and search term analysis
Pricing
- Free plan: No
- Paid plan starts at: $95,000/year (for ad spend up to $4M)
- True omnichannel strategy and planning platform
- GenAI assistant (Celeste) reduces manual workload
- Full support and onboarding included
- Custom-built solutions for high-spend advertisers
- Pricing is out of reach for smaller businesses
- No creative production tools (unlike Smartly)
- Steep learning curve for non-technical users
- Requires high media spend to unlock full features
- Less focus on visual ad building or dynamic templates
Best for
Enterprise marketers, digital performance teams, and large agencies handling multi-million dollar budgets.
Review
“Skai’s pricing model provided the framework for scalable marketing initiatives, allowing us to allocate resources efficiently.”
— Nick Menicucci, Director of Amazon
4. Sprinklr
Sprinklr is an enterprise-grade customer experience platform that unifies social media management, advertising, analytics, and support into one ecosystem. It’s built for brands that operate globally and need to manage complex customer touchpoints at scale.
While Smartly.io is focused on intelligent ad creative and media execution, Sprinklr stands out for its unified CXM—merging social listening, engagement, and ad publishing with customer service and insights under one platform.
Key Features
🌐 Unified platform for marketing, service, and insights
📢 Social publishing and paid advertising in one workflow
🔍 Advanced listening tools for customer and market insights
🤖 AI-powered automation across support and marketing
🛠️ Custom workflows and content moderation
Pricing
- Free plan: No
- Paid plan starts at: $299/month (billed annually at $3,588/year)
- All-in-one platform across marketing and customer service
- Strong for global brands managing high-volume communication
- Excellent social listening and sentiment tracking tools
- Robust governance and compliance controls
- AI-powered workflows that reduce manual tasks
- No monthly payment option—annual billing only
- Expensive and overbuilt for small to mid-sized teams
- Can be overwhelming to onboard without dedicated training
- Creative production tools are basic compared to Smartly
- Requires a longer setup time due to its scale
Best for
Large enterprises, global social media teams, and brands needing a single source of truth across customer channels.
Expert Quote
“…engage with and serve our global customers, at scale, so that we have a singular brand voice…”
— John Marston, Global Head of Social Media Care, Sprinklr
5. ROI Hunter
ROI Hunter is a Product Performance Management (PPM) platform that helps eCommerce brands make smarter ad decisions by connecting marketing data with product-level performance. Instead of blindly relying on platform algorithms, it lets marketers promote the products that actually drive profit.
Unlike Smartly.io, which focuses on creative automation and ad delivery, ROI Hunter shines by offering deeper visibility into product ROI—making it ideal for performance-driven eCommerce teams who want more control over what gets promoted.
Key Features
📊 Product-level performance insights (profit, return rate, ad spend)
🧠 Advanced product segmentation for high-impact targeting
⚙️ Automated templates with dynamic creative layers
🔁 Cross-channel campaign integration with Google, Meta, Snapchat
🎥 CPV (Catalog Product Video) support
👥 Custom workflows for different roles (CMO, performance, design)
🧩 Built-in creative factory and template editor
Pricing
- Free plan: No
- Paid plan starts at: Not publicly listed (contact sales for quote)
- PPM approach helps focus spend on products that actually convert
- Strong insights into what products to promote or stop promoting
- Integrated creative tools for quick ad production
- Ideal for teams looking to unify marketing and merchandising
- Works well with Google and Meta feed-based campaigns
- No transparent pricing—must contact sales
- Not suitable for non-retail or non-product-based businesses
- More focused on product performance than creative automation
- No free trial or freemium option
- Requires time to onboard teams into the PPM model
Best for
Performance marketers, eCommerce leads, and merchandising teams who want to optimize ad spend based on product profitability.
Review
“ROI Hunter's experience and product insights tool has allowed us to take our Google Shopping campaigns to the next level, providing substantial short and long-term growth.”
— Harry Curtis, Performance Specialist at EQVVS
6. Marpipe
Marpipe turns bland catalog ads into high-performing branded creatives using automation, templates, and AI. It gives full design control over Dynamic Product Ads (DPA) without needing a designer or developer.
Unlike Smartly.io, which balances creative automation with campaign management, Marpipe focuses entirely on elevating the look and performance of catalog ads—helping brands boost CTR and ROAS by making every SKU ad-worthy.
Key Features
🎨 Full control over catalog ad design with branded templates
📹 Product-level video ads generated at scale
🤖 AI copy, colors, and backgrounds tailored to each SKU
🔍 Automatic performance filtering to cut underperformers
🧪 Built-in multivariate testing tools
Pricing
- Free plan: Yes (explore features with feed plug-in)
- Paid plan starts at: $399/month (Startup Plan, for brands under $25k monthly ad spend)
- Truly branded and customizable catalog ads
- Built-in tools to create and test ads without a designer
- AI-generated product videos and enriched catalogs
- Clear uplift in ROAS and CTR vs. standard DPAs
- Works with all major ad platforms and feed tools
- Pricing jumps fast for larger brands or higher SKU counts
- No media buying or audience management features
- Better suited for product-heavy eCommerce than service brands
- Learning curve for setting up high-volume multivariate tests
- Creative power limited without assets or brand guidelines in place
Best for
DTC brands, eCommerce marketers, and agencies who want full visual control of their catalog ads and high-performing creatives—without using a designer for every edit.
Review
“We’ve been using Marpipe for several months now and have been super impressed with the results from both a quality and quantity standpoint. It is clear to us that Marpipe is a game-changing platform.”
— Chipper Nicodemus
7. Flashtalking
Flashtalking, now part of Innovid, is an advanced ad server and creative personalization platform designed to deliver data-driven, dynamic creatives at scale. It helps large advertisers bridge the gap between creative, media, and analytics—bringing personalization, automation, and measurement into a unified workflow.
While Smartly.io focuses on AI-powered creative for paid social and performance marketing, Flashtalking stands out for enterprise-level ad serving, cross-platform activation, and deep creative intelligence across channels including display, CTV, and programmatic.
Key Features
🔄 Centralized ad serving and dynamic creative versioning
🎯 Audience-based creative personalization at scale
📊 Granular creative performance insights
🧠 AI-powered automation for testing and optimization
🧩 Integrations with major DSPs, SSPs, and identity partners
Pricing
- Free plan: No
- Paid plan starts at: Not publicly listed (enterprise custom pricing)
- Great for managing complex, multi-market campaigns
- Deep integration with programmatic and CTV platforms
- Excellent personalization and dynamic creative tools
- Enterprise-level support and infrastructure
- Combines ad serving with creative optimization in one stack
- No public pricing or trial options
- Overbuilt for smaller advertisers or single-channel marketers
- UI can be complex for teams without ad tech experience
- Lacks built-in design tools for new creatives (requires assets)
- Stronger in display/video than in direct social campaign creation
Best for
Large enterprises, media agencies, and global brands running omnichannel campaigns across web, video, and connected TV.
Review
No verified user quote available. Flashtalking is frequently recommended by ad tech professionals for its robust infrastructure and advanced personalization capabilities.
Tips to Choose the Best Smartly Alternative
Now that we’ve covered 7 top alternatives to Smartly.io, it’s time to find the one that actually fits your needs. Here are a few things to keep in mind before you decide:
1. Know Your Budget and Scale
Some tools—like Flashtalking or Skai—are built for enterprise teams with six-figure budgets. If you're running lean or just getting started, look for cost-transparent options like Cropink or Marpipe.
2. Match the Tool to Your Team
Are you a solo marketer? A small in-house team? Or a global agency? Tools like ROI Hunter or Hunch work best with marketing teams that have mixed roles (design, data, media), while others like Marpipe are great for lean creative teams who want quick wins.
3. Creative Control vs. Automation
If you want visual control over every asset, go for Marpipe or Cropink. If you're prioritizing automation, performance testing, and scale—Hunch or Smartly-style platforms might be better.
4. Look at Your Channels
Need to advertise on Meta only? Or planning omnichannel campaigns across retail media and video? Cropink, Marpipe, and ROI Hunter are perfect for Meta-focused campaigns. For broader reach, consider Skai or Sprinklr.
5. Check for Product Feed Features
If you’re running catalog or DPA ads, make sure your platform supports strong feed integration and editing. ROI Hunter and Cropink stand out here, offering advanced feed control and insights.
Summary and Recommendation
With so many Smartly alternatives on the market, choosing the right one comes down to your team size, budget, and campaign goals. Here’s a quick breakdown to help you decide:
- Cropink is the go-to choice if you want to build great-looking catalog ads without the complexity or cost. It’s fast, simple, and includes everything you need—no extras required.
- Marpipe is perfect for brands that care about ad aesthetics and want more visual control. You can turn standard catalog ads into branded creatives in minutes, with built-in testing tools.
- Hunch delivers serious automation power. It’s ideal for brands with multi-market campaigns, AI-driven templates, and large product catalogs needing daily creative updates.
- ROI Hunter stands out for its Product Performance Management features. If you're focused on ROI and need to know which SKUs are actually driving revenue, this is your platform.
- Skai and Sprinklr are best suited for large brands managing media across search, social, and retail. They offer advanced planning, forecasting, and full visibility across channels.
- Flashtalking (by Innovid) is for teams that need advanced ad serving, dynamic personalization, and full control over large, multi-format campaigns—especially beyond social.
Whatever your team size or strategy, there’s a Smartly alternative here that can meet your needs—without the platform lock-in or complexity.
Let your goals guide the decision—and scale smarter.
FAQs
The best Smartly alternatives for small businesses are Cropink and Marpipe. These platforms offer creative control, catalog ad tools, and affordable pricing—making them ideal Smartly alternatives for smaller teams with limited resources.
Yes, there are free Smartly alternatives available. Cropink offers a free plan for up to 100 products, and Marpipe allows users to test the platform for free. These are great starting points if you're exploring Smartly alternatives without a big upfront investment.
In terms of creative control, Smartly alternatives like Marpipe and Cropink give users far more flexibility. If your goal is to customize every visual element of your catalog ads, these Smartly alternatives offer full design freedom that Smartly.io doesn’t prioritize.
For multi-market or global campaigns, the best Smartly alternatives are Hunch and Skai. These platforms provide advanced localization, AI-driven automation, and omnichannel support—making them ideal Smartly alternatives for enterprise-level advertising strategies.
Ansherina helps brands create powerful digital marketing and performance marketing strategies. With a passion for ad design and audience engagement, she is dedicated to making brands more visible and impactful.
Leszek is the Digital Growth Manager at Feedink & Cropink, specializing in organic growth for eCommerce and SaaS companies. His background includes roles at Poland's largest accommodation portal and FT1000 companies, with his work featured in Forbes, Inc., Business Insider, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, BBC, and TechRepublic.
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