"Must-Have" Advertising Tools Recommended by Marketers
Discover the essential advertising tools that are revolutionizing the marketing landscape. This comprehensive guide draws on insights from industry experts to showcase the most impactful solutions available today. From data analytics to creative inspiration, these tools are designed to enhance your marketing strategies and drive measurable results.
- Notion Adapts to Your Marketing Brain
- Really Good Emails Inspires Creative Campaigns
- GA4 Provides Real-Time Insights for Optimization
- CallRail Proves Advertising ROI with Clarity
- Looker Studio Unifies Data for Quick Decisions
- Google Ads Experiments Enables Smart Testing
- Keyword Planner Shapes Targeted Ad Strategies
- Search Console Reveals Valuable Keyword Opportunities
- Facebook Ads Library Informs Competitive Strategy
- Meta Ads Manager Offers Precise Audience Targeting
- Listings Engine Boosts Local Ad Performance
- Sparktoro Uncovers Niche Audience Insights
- PNGtoWebPHero Speeds Up Landing Pages
- ChatGPT Accelerates Ad Copy Ideation
Notion Adapts to Your Marketing Brain
If I had to pick one tool that holds my entire marketing world together, it's Notion, hands down.
And I don't mean in some perfectly templated, "aesthetic productivity guru" way. I mean in the real, slightly messy, "I just had this idea in the shower and need to brain-dump it before I forget" kind of way.
Notion's free version is seriously underrated. I've used it to build everything from sales pages and client dashboards to full-blown courses, content calendars, and ad funnels. I've even run internal launches out of it. It's like a choose-your-own-adventure for your brain, and the best part is, you're not locked into a specific format. I can drop in a half-written headline, a list of audience pain points, swipe 10 hooks I like, and build a launch checklist all in the same document. It gives me structure when I need it, but never gets in the way when I don't.
I've had clients say, "Wait... you built this whole dashboard in Notion?!" and the answer is always yes. I didn't need a paid CRM or 17 different tools. I just needed one that could adapt to how my brain works. Notion is the reason I don't have a thousand sticky notes taped to my desk anymore.
The second tool I swear by, especially when I'm building processes or working with team members or clients, is Tango.
Tango automatically creates step-by-step guides just by recording your screen. You click through a task like setting up an ad campaign, updating a client portal, or even onboarding someone to a new funnel, and it instantly turns it into a clean, visual walkthrough with screenshots and instructions.
It's honestly life-changing. I used to dread writing SOPs or training docs, but with Tango, I just do the task once, and bam, it's documented. It saves so much time and makes you look way more put-together than you probably feel in the moment. I've used it for everything from handing off tasks to a VA to walking a client through how to update their own lead magnet.
Between Notion and Tango, I can build, organize, and teach just about anything in my business without bouncing between a dozen tools.
They're both simple, powerful, and flexible which, honestly, is exactly what most small business owners and marketers need... tools that actually make your life easier.
And at the end of the day, that's what matters most because there's already enough chaos in marketing. Your tools shouldn't add to it.
Really Good Emails Inspires Creative Campaigns
One resource I consistently rely on is Really Good Emails. I use it to study tone, CTA placement, and how brands guide the reader's eye.
I remember working on a campaign for a B2B SaaS product that felt flat. I browsed the B2B category on Really Good Emails and found a few gems from unexpected brands—ones that weren't the usual "feature-benefit-feature" rhythm.
What I love is that it keeps me creatively sharp. Even if I'm not working on email that day, I'll peek at what's new. It reminds me that marketing can feel delightful instead of robotic. And when you're trying to stand out in someone's cluttered inbox, that mindset makes all the difference.
GA4 Provides Real-Time Insights for Optimization
One tool I couldn't live without is definitely GA4.
When working with multiple clients, each with different strategies and priorities, tracking everything correctly becomes critical.
GA4 lets me get detailed, real-time insights on user behavior, providing a solid foundation to optimize campaigns based on up-to-date data.
Whether it's custom event tracking or enhanced eCommerce reporting, GA4's flexibility makes it easier to refine strategies and ensure every decision is data-driven.
It's indispensable for staying on top of the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing.
CallRail Proves Advertising ROI with Clarity
CallRail is our advertising lie detector. It shows us which calls are actually turning into clients, not just clicks and impressions. When you're spending thousands a month, you need more than hope and high CTRs—you need proof. It helps us cut waste fast, double down on what's working, and give our clients something rare in marketing: clarity.
Looker Studio Unifies Data for Quick Decisions
I believe people often underestimate the clarity that a simple tool like Google Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio) can bring to advertising efforts. We use it to pull live data from Google Ads, Meta, and even LinkedIn campaigns into one unified dashboard. This eliminates the need to jump across platforms or waste time manually building reports.
One of our best-performing ad campaigns resulted from spotting an anomaly in a Looker dashboard. Our CTR was solid, but the bounce rate on the landing page was off the charts. That single insight helped us rework the copy and design, which increased the conversion rate by 41% in two weeks.
It makes my life easier because it provides answers, not just data. Everything I need to assess performance, tweak campaigns, and communicate results is visible in real-time and easy to share with clients or team members.
Google Ads Experiments Enables Smart Testing
I'm Cody Jensen, CEO of Searchbloom, where we help SMEs grow with SEO and PPC. Honestly, Google Ads Experiments is our secret weapon. It's like a safety net for bold ideas. You get to swing for the fences without risking the whole campaign. We use it to test everything from bidding strategies to landing page angles, and it gives us clean, no-drama data to back decisions. It's the difference between guessing and knowing, and in this business, that's everything. Without it, we'd be flying blind or moving too slowly. With it, we can pivot fast, fail smart, and scale what works before the competition even notices.
Keyword Planner Shapes Targeted Ad Strategies
Google's Keyword Planner is still my go-to tool. It's not flashy, but it provides a real insight into what people are actually searching for—and how competitive it is. We use it to shape ad copy, build targeting strategies, and uncover long-tail keywords that bigger players overlook. It eliminates guesswork and keeps our campaigns grounded in real demand. Bottom line: if you don't know what your audience is typing into the search bar, you're just making shots in the dark.
Search Console Reveals Valuable Keyword Opportunities
Google Search Console: This tool is the unsung hero of the SEO world, and arguably (in my opinion) marketing in general.
The reason is that GSC provides first-party keyword data from what is often a brand's largest channel, Google organic search.
I pull query reports every Monday, filter for terms that generate impressions but fewer than, say, ten clicks a week, then sort by commercial intent. Those gems usually become the seed set for new exact-match ad groups.
Because the wording comes directly from how people already find us, the copy writes itself, quality scores start higher, and I waste less time on guesswork.
The flip side is equally useful. Any paid keyword that suddenly appears in GSC with declining organic clicks may indicate keyword cannibalization.
In short, Search Console keeps my ads, and the ads of teams I work with, tethered to real demand and prevents anyone from paying for traffic we could have earned for free.
Facebook Ads Library Informs Competitive Strategy
For me, it's Facebook Ads Library. It lets you peek behind the curtain and see what your competitors are running, what creatives they're using, and how long the ads have been live. I treat it like a live swipe file. It saves hours of brainstorming and helps shape better hooks, offers, and angles before even launching a campaign.
Meta Ads Manager Offers Precise Audience Targeting
One tool I find absolutely indispensable for advertising is Meta Ads Manager (formerly Facebook Ads Manager). It's not just the reach across platforms like Facebook and Instagram that makes it valuable - it's the level of control and insight it offers into audience targeting, creative testing, and performance tracking.
What makes it so helpful is the ability to create highly specific audience segments based on behavior, interests, and demographics and then test different versions of ads quickly. You can see in real-time what's working and what's not, which takes a lot of guesswork out of the process. The built-in analytics also make reporting straightforward, so it's easier to optimize campaigns without needing to juggle multiple platforms or tools.
Listings Engine Boosts Local Ad Performance
One tool that has become absolutely indispensable for our advertising and local visibility efforts is our own platform: Listings Engine by Simply Be Found.
Listings Engine automates the process of distributing and managing business information across dozens of directories, maps, and search engines. From an advertising perspective, it ensures our clients' business data—such as name, address, phone number, categories, and hours—is accurate and consistent everywhere online.
Why does this matter for ads? Because inconsistent listings can negatively impact your local trust signals and reduce the effectiveness of paid campaigns. With Listings Engine, we know that when someone sees an ad and searches for the business, the correct information appears—on Google, Bing, Apple Maps, Yelp, and more.
It saves me and my team hours of manual updates, eliminates guesswork, and improves ad performance by reinforcing local authority. It's not just a listing tool—it's a trust and conversion engine.
Sparktoro Uncovers Niche Audience Insights
Sparktoro is a tool I use when brainstorming ad creative or planning targeting strategies, especially for niche B2B segments. Instead of starting with vague personas, I input a keyword and immediately see what my audience reads and discusses online. It has eliminated those "where are they hanging out?" moments.
I recall using it for a fintech campaign where our client couldn't define their audience beyond "small business owners." With Sparktoro, I discovered they were passionate about a few specific YouTube channels and niche blogs. This led to a completely different ad buy! Engagement nearly doubled simply by meeting people where they already were, with content they naturally gravitated towards.
What I appreciate most is how it saves me from making guesses. It gives me confidence in the strategy, which allows me to focus on the fun part—crafting the story that CONNECTS.
PNGtoWebPHero Speeds Up Landing Pages
In advertising, how fast your landing page loads is very important. Using pngtowebphero.com helps by converting large PNG images into smaller WebP files. Smaller images load much faster, so people don't leave before seeing your offer. When your page loads quickly, ad platforms like Google Ads give your ads better scores. Higher scores mean you pay less money for each click and get more visitors.
Many advertisers only focus on ad text or keywords. But images can slow down a page a lot if they are too big. This tool makes images smaller without losing quality, which helps pages load faster. Faster pages keep visitors longer and make your ads work better. It's an easy way to save money and get more results from your advertising budget.
ChatGPT Accelerates Ad Copy Ideation
One tool we now consider indispensable for ad work? ChatGPT, but not as a copy-paste ad writer. Instead, we use it as a creative iteration machine.
We use it to pressure test angles, brainstorm hooks, rewrite tired copy, and even simulate how different personas might react to a headline. It's like having a hyper-fast junior copywriter in the room who never gets offended when you say, "Eh, try again."
Here's one move that's saved us hours:
We'll input the target persona, the product value proposition, and past ad performance data, then ask ChatGPT to generate 10 variations of a single headline, each tuned to a different emotion or motivation. These aren't meant to be used as-is, but to spot gaps and inspire better direction.
It helps us get to "what's worth testing" much faster. No more blank Google Docs. No more staring at a blinking cursor, wondering if "streamline" or "optimize" sounds more exciting.
Bottom line:
We don't use ChatGPT to replace strategy. We use it to accelerate getting to the good stuff. For ad teams juggling 20 ideas and tight deadlines, that's gold.
