Losing leads because client details are buried in spreadsheets? Scrambling to track campaign follow-ups? A solid agency CRM software can fix that.
Why? A great customer relationship management system acts as your command center—automating follow-ups, streamlining workflows, and giving you a 360-degree view of client interactions.
The good news? You don’t have to sift through countless CRM options when choosing one for your agency. This guide breaks down the top CRM solutions for marketing agencies so you can find the perfect tool to boost growth, simplify processes, and focus on what you do best—delivering results.
👀 Did You Know? One of the most famous precursors to the modern CRM was ‘The Farley File,’ meticulously kept by James Farley, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s campaign manager. It contained detailed personal facts and political affiliations of the people that FDR met.
Top CRM for Marketing Agencies to Boost Growth
Top CRM for Marketing Agencies at a Glance
| CRM | Best for | Key features | Pricing* |
| Agencies of all sizes needing project management and workflow automation built-in | All-in-one platform that unifies project management, CRM, and collaboration | Free plan available; Customizations available for enterprises | |
| HubSpot CRM | Small to large marketing agencies focused on generating and nurturing leads through content, email, and social media | Workflow automation builder that allows you to automate tasks without coding | Free plan available; Paid plans start at $20/user/month |
| Salesforce Marketing Cloud | Large digital marketing agencies requiring advanced marketing automation and analytics | AI-powered personalization and cross-channel campaign orchestration | Free trial available; Paid plans start at $1,250/month |
| Zoho CRM | Multichannel automation within an integrated ecosystem for medium to large agencies | Strong native integrations + advanced lead scoring at a competitive price | Free plan available; Paid plans start at $14/user/month |
| ActiveCampaign | AI-driven personalization and advanced email marketing automation for agencies | Powerful email workflows with conditional logic and behavior tracking | Free trial available; Paid plans start at $29/month |
| Creatio | Agencies needing a customizable CRM with strong process automation | No-code platform with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface | Free trial available; Paid plans start at $25/user/month |
| Apptivo | Modular CRM with project management for small agencies | Supports the pay-as-you-grow feature | Free plan available; Paid plans start at $10/user/month |
| Salesmate | Pipeline automation on the go for medium to large agencies | Smart sales sequences and voice/text automation | Free trial available; Paid plans start at $12/user/month |
| Pipedrive | Visual sales pipeline management for agencies of all sizes | Sales pipelines with activity reminders and forecasting | Free trial available; Paid plans start at $14/user/month |
| Freshsales | AI-driven lead prioritization for large agencies | Simplified deal tracking and client engagement | Free plan available; Paid plans start at $15/user/month |
What Should You Look for in CRM for Marketing Agencies?
Picking the right CRM for your marketing agency comes down to what you’re trying to fix or improve—whether that’s staying on top of client interactions, managing projects more smoothly, or just getting your team better organized.
Ideally, your CRM should make things easier, not more complicated. Look for something that helps you work smarter, keeps your clients happy, and gives your team more time to focus on what they do best.
Here’s what to prioritize:
- Lead management: Capture, nurture, and track leads through your sales funnel with automated follow-ups and scoring
- Centralized client communication: Keep emails, calls, and messages in one place to avoid lost conversations and missed opportunities
- Project and campaign management: Assign tasks, monitor progress, and collaborate seamlessly on marketing campaigns
- Customizable workflows: Adapt the CRM to match your agency’s unique processes and client needs
- Marketing automation: Automate email sequences, follow-ups, and lead nurturing to save time and increase conversions
- Seamless integrations: Connect with email platforms, social media schedulers, analytics tools, and ad managers for a unified workflow
- Scalability: Ensure the CRM can grow with your agency, handling more clients, users, and data without slowing down
- Detailed reporting and analytics: Track CRM campaign performance, measure ROI, and prove your agency’s impact with real-time insights.
- Collaboration features: Keep your team aligned with shared calendars, file storage, and real-time updates
- Client portals and self-service options: Give clients access to project updates, reports, and approvals for smoother collaboration
The 10 Best CRM for Marketing Agencies
How we review software at
Our editorial team follows a transparent, research-backed, and vendor-neutral process, so you can trust that our recommendations are based on real product value.
Here’s a detailed rundown of how we review software at .
The fundamental components of a CRM include lead management, pipeline management, marketing workflow automation, customer support, marketing campaigns, business reporting, and integration capabilities.
Let’s explore the top CRM for agencies that excel in these critical areas.
🧠 Fun Fact: The average spend per employee in the customer relationship management software market is projected to be $26.36. This indicates organizations’ willingness to invest in CRM software.
1. (Best for agencies that need a CRM with project management and workflow automation built in)
, the everything app for work, is a project management powerhouse, designed to help you juggle clients and campaigns minus the chaos, in one place. It’s your go-to platform for managing and maintaining client relationships, pushing campaigns forward, and making sure your agency runs smoothly.
Let’s walk through some practical workflows for marketing to elevate your agency’s performance:
Seamless client onboarding & project kickoff workflow
Imagine a world where bringing on new clients is a breeze, not a bottleneck. Here’s how optimizes your CRM process:
📌 Workflow: New lead intake → Capture details → Automate onboarding → Scoping→ Proposal
- Lead to deal in a flash: With Forms, you can create branded intake forms to capture new leads or client requests. These automatically populate into a dedicated list, moving through custom statuses like ‘Lead,’ ‘Qualified,’ ‘Proposal Sent,’ and ‘Signed’
- Know your clients inside out: Use Custom Fields to track all the vital client details—budget, industry, primary contact, retainer type—ensuring everyone on your team has the full client picture at their fingertips
- Automate the welcome wagon: Once a client moves to ‘Signed,’ Automations can automatically assign onboarding tasks to your team, notify the account manager, and even send a personalized welcome email via integrations with Gmail or Outlook. No more missed steps or manual follow-ups!
- Proposals & onboarding made easy: Leverage Docs to draft professional proposals, detailed scope of work, and comprehensive onboarding packets. You can even reuse your best-performing proposal templates to save time and maintain consistency
Agile SEO & content optimization workflow
SEO is never ‘done’—it’s a continuous cycle of research, creation, and optimization. Here’s how helps you stay ahead of the curve:
📌 Workflow: Keyword data → Structured brief → Assign tasks → Refine content → Content proofing
- Keyword to content brief in minutes: Simply paste your keyword data into a Doc and then ask Brain to ‘Generate a content brief for this keyword set, including target audience, key topics, competitors, and suggested headings.’ The AI assistant gets to work and instantly creates a structured brief
- Automated content assignments & deadlines: Once the content brief is approved, a Automation can trigger. When the Doc’s status changes to ‘Brief Approved,’ automatically create a new Task for the content writer, assign it to them, set a due date, and link it back to the original Doc
- AI-powered content refinement: Writers can leverage Brain to enhance their writing. If you need to quickly rephrase something for a different tone, use Brain to ‘Rewrite this sentence with a more persuasive tone’
- Feedback loop with built-in proofing: Clients or internal stakeholders can provide precise feedback directly on images, PDFs, or even video files uploaded to Tasks using the Proofing tool. No more vague email comments—you get timestamped, visual annotations
Simple client reporting & retainer management workflow
Stay on top of your retainers and demonstrate your value with transparent, data-driven reporting.
📌 Workflow: Build dashboards → Track billable hours → Create reports → Check retainer status
- Dashboards that deliver: Build custom, client-specific Dashboards that provide a real-time overview of tasks completed, time tracked, and key campaign metrics pulled directly from integrations like Google Analytics or Google Sheets
- Accurate time tracking: Log time directly within tasks using ’s native Time Tracking to accurately bill clients for hours spent on specific deliverables or projects
- Dynamic reporting docs: Create stunning reports using Docs that embed your live dashboards, graphs, and campaign recaps. You can share these with clients in real-time or export them as professional PDFs
- Never miss a beat: Use ’s 15+Views to visualize data by client, deliverable type, or priority, ensuring you always know the status of your retainer scope and can proactively manage expectations.
If you’re ready to streamline client work from day one, check out ’s free CRM templates built for marketing professionals.
The CRM Template helps you track leads, manage sales stages, and centralize client info—from contact details to campaign files. Visual pipelines and linked Docs make it easy to stay organized and forecast deals with confidence.
Use your CRM to:
- Track leads and sales opportunities with customizable pipelines and clear status updates like ‘Qualified’ or ‘Closed’
- Keep all your customer info in one place—from contact details to job titles—so your team never has to dig through spreadsheets again
- Prioritize and manage tasks by sales stage using custom views and fields tailored to your team’s workflow
- Automate busywork and uncover insights with built-in reminders, automations, and data analysis tools to help you focus on what moves the needle
By centralizing and unifying project and customer relationship management within a single platform, marketing teams can focus on what truly matters—building relationships and driving results.
best features
- Keep all client data and campaigns in one place—no more bouncing between tools
- Visualize progress with List, Board, or Gantt Views in to spot what’s moving or stuck
- Customize pipelines with fields and statuses that match your agency’s workflow
- Collaborate on assets with built-in Proofing and Docs to streamline feedback
- Use templates for campaigns, content calendars, and lead tracking to get to launch faster
- Integrate with the tools you already use to keep everything in sync with 1000+ Integrations
limitations
- The number of features and customization options might feel overwhelming for new users
- Mastering more advanced features requires a steep learning curve
pricing
free forever
Best for personal use
Free Free
Key Features:
unlimited
Best for small teams
$7 $10
Everything in Free Forever plus:
business
Best for mid-sized teams
$12 $19
Everything in Unlimited, plus:
enterprise
Best for many large teams
Get a custom demo and see how aligns with your goals.
Everything in Business, plus:
* Prices when billed annually
The world’s most complete work AI, starting at $9 per month
Brain is a no Brainer. One AI to manage your work, at a fraction of the cost.
Try for free
ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (10,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (4,400+ reviews)
What are real-life users saying about ?
A G2 review says:
💡 Pro Tip: For faster creative revisions, use Clips to record and narrate on-screen feedback. This makes communication unambiguous and reduces endless back-and-forth.
Watch how helps combine CRM and project management into one powerful tool:
2. HubSpot CRM (Best for marketing agencies focused on generating and nurturing leads through content, email, and social media)
HubSpot CRM helps agencies manage complex client relationships with a clear, real-time view of every touchpoint—emails, calls, deals, and support—all organized in a single timeline.
What sets it apart is its workflow automation builder, which allows teams to automate actions like follow-ups, task assignments, lead nurturing, and deal stage transitions—without writing a line of code.
In addition, HubSpot’s Predictive Lead Scoring uses AI to analyze past conversion data to rank leads based on their likelihood to close, helping agencies prioritize the most promising prospects. The result: fewer missed opportunities, faster response times, and a shared understanding across marketing, sales, and support.
HubSpot CRM best features
- Personalize customer interactions with rich contact insights and history
- Resolve issues faster using built-in ticketing and support systems
- See charts showing who’s ready to buy and where they are in the process
- Use templates to quickly create polished emails and documents
- Get task reminders so you never forget to follow up with a customer
- Scale from free core tools to advanced capabilities, without disrupting workflows or retraining teams
HubSpot CRM limitations
- Easy-to-use interface, but automation has a learning curve
- Premium tools like advanced automation and reporting can be costly
HubSpot CRM pricing
- Starter: $20/month per user
- Professional: $100/month per user
- Enterprise: $150/month per user
HubSpot CRM ratings and reviews
- G2: Not available
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (4,300+ reviews)
What are real-life users saying about HubSpot CRM?
A Capterra review says:
3. Salesforce Marketing Cloud (Best for AI-driven personalization at Enterprise scale)
Salesforce Marketing Cloud uses Einstein AI to help large agencies and enterprises personalize campaigns based on real-time customer behavior.
For example, its Einstein Content Selection tool analyzes each customer’s past interactions and preferences to automatically select the best-performing image, subject line, or offer, without manual testing. Thus, a retail campaign can dynamically show Product A to high spenders and Product B to discount seekers, all from the same email template.
Other AI capabilities include Einstein Engagement Scoring, which predicts which contacts are most likely to open, click, or unsubscribe. It also chooses the best time for each individual recipient, increasing open rates.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud best features
- Monitor and analyze social conversations to understand customers and competitors
- Reach customers via SMS, MMS, push, and group messaging at key moments
- Scale 1:1 personalization across millions of users, reducing guesswork and improving multi-channel campaign performance
- Connect insights across email, social, web, and mobile for optimized campaign timings
Salesforce Marketing Cloud limitations
- New users may find the learning curve steep
- While powerful, the cost structure can challenge smaller agencies or startups
Salesforce Marketing Cloud pricing
- Starter Suite: $25/month per user
- Professional: $1,500/month per organization (billed annually)
- Corporate: $3,250/month per organization (billed annually)
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Salesforce Marketing Cloud ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.0/5 (4,600+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.2/5 (523+ reviews)
What are real-life users saying about Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
A Capterra review shares:
4. Zoho CRM (Best for multichannel automation within an integrated ecosystem)
Zoho CRM excels at automating customer engagement across channels—email, live chat, social media, and more—within a tightly integrated business suite.
Let’s say a lead downloads an eBook from your agency’s website. Zoho CRM automatically creates a new contact record, sends a personalized email via Zoho Campaigns, schedules a live chat prompt if the lead revisits the site, and logs all interactions and scores the lead based on engagement.
This kind of end-to-end automation helps agencies streamline their marketing and sales workflows without jumping between tools. As part of Zoho’s broader ecosystem—including Zoho Campaigns, Desk, and Projects—the CRM offers native connections that simplify complex workflows at a cost that’s competitive for growing teams.
Zoho CRM best features
- Personalize your dashboard to highlight key metrics and reports
- Get alerts when customers take specific actions like form submissions or email opens
- Monitor sales progress with visual charts and graphs
Zoho CRM limitations
- A significant amount of customization is required to get started
- The user interface may feel less modern than newer, sleeker CRM systems
Zoho CRM pricing
- Free
- Standard: $20/month per user
- Professional: $35/month per user
- Enterprise: $50/month per user
- Ultimate: $65/month per user
Zoho CRM ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.1/5 (2,700+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.3/5 (6,900+ reviews)
What are real-life users saying about Zoho CRM?
A Capterra review says:
5. ActiveCampaign (Best for AI-driven personalization and advanced email marketing automation)
ActiveCampaign stands out for its ability to automatically adjust when emails are sent based on each contact’s behavior. It uses AI to identify the time slots when individual users are most likely to engage.
This level of timing precision helps small and mid-sized businesses improve open rates and click-throughs without relying on static drip schedules. It also reduces the guesswork in campaign execution, making each message more likely to reach its audience at the right moment.
Whether you’re running drip campaigns, scoring leads, or automating follow-ups, this platform ensures your messages land precisely when they should.
ActiveCampaign best features
- Build complex automation workflows and email campaigns using a visual drag-and-drop builder
- Monitor and adjust campaigns in real time with detailed analytics
- Send personalized SMS messages as part of automated customer journeys
- Manage sales opportunities and tasks with an integrated CRM pipeline
ActiveCampaign limitations
- Costs rise as your subscriber list grows
- Limited tools for managing a full sales pipeline
ActiveCampaign pricing
- Starter: Starting from $15/month per user
- Plus: Starting from $49/month per user
- Pro: Starting from $79/month per user
- Enterprise: Starting from $145/month per user
ActiveCampaign ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.5/5 (14,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (2,500+ reviews)
What are real-life users saying about ActiveCampaign?
Here’s a Capterra user’s review of the tool:
6. Creatio (Best for agencies needing a customizable CRM with strong process automation)
As a marketing agency, you need a CRM that keeps pace with your ideas, not one that slows you down with complex tech. That’s where Creatio comes in.
It’s a low-code, no-code platform that lets you design and automate your agency’s unique processes and customize workflows using a drag-and-drop builder.
Let’s say you’re launching a new lead generation campaign and need a custom pipeline to qualify prospects. With Creatio, your marketing strategists can set up automated triggers to move leads from ‘new inquiry’ to ‘qualified’ as soon as certain criteria are met. This allows your team to launch multichannel marketing campaigns incredibly fast, setting up email sequences, event triggers, and client journeys without writing a single line of code. You can go from concept to live in hours, not weeks.
Creatio best features
- Consolidate customer data into a 360-degree view by aggregating interactions, purchase history, and social media engagement into a unified profile
- Visualize real-time analytics through customizable dashboards, enabling immediate insights into campaign performance and team productivity
- Segment customers dynamically using advanced criteria like engagement levels and predicted behaviors to enhance targeting
- Use AI analytics to understand customers and guide decisions
- Manage leads, segment contacts, and analyze campaign performance all from one central workspace
Creatio limitations
- Customization flexibility means a longer learning curve, particularly for the initial setup
- Advanced features come at a premium, making it less ideal for startups
- Creatio has limited third-party integrations compared to competitors
Creatio pricing
- Growth: $25/month per user
- Enterprise: $55/month per user
- Unlimited: $85/month per user
Creatio ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (280+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (120+ reviews)
What are real-life users saying about Creatio?
A G2 review reads:
📮 Insight: Only 7% of professionals depend on AI primarily for task management and organization. This could be because the tools are restricted to specific apps like calendars, to-do lists, or email apps. With , the same AI powers your email or other communication workflows, calendar, tasks, and documentation. Simply ask, “What are my priorities today?”.
Brain will search across your workspace and tell you exactly what’s on your plate based on urgency and importance. Just like that, consolidates 5+ apps for you within a single, super app!
7. Apptivo (Best for modular CRM with project management for small agencies)
Apptivo stands out for its modular design that lets agencies pick and combine exactly the tools they need, such as CRM, invoicing, help desk, and project management, into one interface.
For example, a creative agency can manage sales leads using the CRM app, track client deliverables in the Projects app, and generate invoices from the same platform, without needing to switch tools or integrate third-party software.
This structure allows small teams to stay lean, reduce software costs, and scale gradually by adding apps only as new functions are needed. It’s a flexible, all-in-one system tailored to growing operational needs.
Apptivo best features
- Assign tasks, share updates, and collaborate with your team in real time
- Keep customer info centralized to avoid scattered data and confusion
- Customize the CRM to your workflows without requiring technical expertise
- Automatically route leads to the right sales reps
- Use built-in tools for estimates, invoicing, and financial tracking
Apptivo limitations
- While functional, it lacks the sleek design of newer CRMs
- Customizations often require the help of a coder
- Apptivo doesn’t have a free plan
Apptivo pricing
- Lite: $20/month per user
- Premium: $30/month per user
- Ultimate: $50/month per user
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Apptivo ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.4/5 (200+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.4/5 (700+ reviews)
What are real-life users saying about Apptivo?
A G2 review says:
8. Salesmate (Best for pipeline automation on the go)
Salesmate streamlines deal management for small sales teams with an intuitive pipeline that tracks progress and automates follow-ups without compromising usability.
From logging calls to scheduling reminders, the system keeps workflows moving, without distracting from active selling.
The mobile app extends that simplicity to fieldwork, letting reps update deals, send emails, and access client data between meetings.
Salesmate best features
- Reduce manual data entry by automating workflows, sales sequences, and lead capture
- Make calls directly from the CRM with built-in calling features
- Track leads with a visual, drag-and-drop sales pipeline
- Create personalized sales sequences to automate outreach campaigns
- Generate insightful reports on sales performance and pipeline health
- Sync with tools like email, calendars, and marketing apps
Salesmate limitations
- The mobile app functionality does not offer the full range of features available on the desktop version
- Doesn’t provide a free plan
Salesmate pricing
- Basic: $29/month per user
- Pro: $49/month per user
- Business: $79/month per user
Salesmate ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.6/5 (90+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (90+ reviews)
What are real-life users saying about Salesmate?
A G2 review says:
9. Pipedrive (Best for visual sales pipeline management)
Pipedrive is built around a clear, visual sales pipeline that helps teams manage deals without getting lost in complexity. Each stage is customizable, making it easy to align the pipeline with your agency’s sales process.
Everything is organized in one view, from tracking progress to setting reminders for follow-ups, so your team can focus on moving deals forward rather than juggling systems.
Combined with light-touch automation and helpful AI suggestions, Pipedrive reduces friction in the sales workflow. It’s especially effective for agencies that want structure without the overhead of a heavyweight CRM.
Pipedrive best features
- Visualize and manage deals with a simple drag-and-drop pipeline
- Customize workflows and reports to fit your agency’s process
- Engage leads via integrated email and communication tools
- Automate follow-ups to keep deals moving
- Connect with tools like email, chat, and accounting apps
- Prioritize deals in one view so nothing slips through
Pipedrive limitations
- Does not offer a free-tier option
- Customization options are limited for businesses with complex needs or workflows
- Advanced analytics and AI-driven insights are only available in higher-tier subscriptions
Pipedrive pricing
- Essential: $19/month per user
- Advanced: $34/month per user
- Professional: $64/month per user
- Power: $74/month per user
- Enterprise: $99/month per user
Pipedrive ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.3/5 (2,500+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (3,000+ reviews)
What are real-life users saying about Pipedrive?
Here’s a G2 user’s opinion:
10. Freshsales (Best for AI-driven lead prioritization)
Freshsales focuses on what sales teams need most: a clear view of which leads are worth pursuing. Its AI-powered lead scoring system analyzes engagement signals and historical data to surface high-potential prospects, helping reps focus their time where it counts.
Instead of manually tracking interactions or guessing interest levels, users can rely on the system’s predictive insights to guide follow-ups and allocate effort more effectively. The result is a more efficient sales process that minimizes wasted outreach and improves conversion rates.
Freshsales best features
- Use the mobile app to access your CRM on the go
- Automate routine tasks like follow-ups and reminders
- Engage leads across multiple channels, including phone, email, chat, and SMS
- Monitor all client interactions—emails, calls, chats—in one place
- Use AI insights to tailor messaging and boost engagement
- Track sales performance with real-time reports and dashboards
Freshsales limitations
- Setting up complex workflows may involve a learning curve
- While it connects with popular apps, it doesn’t have an extensive marketplace
- Freshsales may not offer as much deep customization as some other CRMs
Freshsales pricing
- Free
- Growth: $9/month per user
- Pro: $39/month per user
- Enterprise: $59/month per user
Freshsales ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.5/5 (1200+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (600+ reviews)
What are real-life users saying about Freshsales?
A G2 review reads:
Don’t Just Manage Your Client Base. Retain and Grow It with
Plenty of great CRMs are out there—some packed with automation, others big on analytics—but they all aim to make your work smoother and your client relationships stronger.
If you’re looking for one that pulls its weight across the board, deserves a serious look. It’s your all-in-one command center for client communication, campaign tracking, and team collaboration. You can keep everything (and everyone) aligned without bouncing between a dozen tabs.
Custom dashboards? Check. Automations? You bet. Whether you’re managing leads or launching a campaign, keeps it all in sync. Ditch the clunky systems. Try for free and see how a unified workspace can help your agency run smarter.
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
