Why agency productivity matters more than you think
Marketing agencies live or die by their ability to coordinate chaos. You're managing 8 clients who all think they're your only client, creative teams working on 15 campaigns simultaneously, and deadlines that somehow all land on the same Thursday.
The agencies that thrive aren't necessarily the ones with the best creatives or the biggest clients. They're the ones with systems that prevent work from falling through cracks, keep clients informed without constant status meetings, and let teams focus on creative work instead of admin overhead. If you're looking for tools, check out productivity apps for agencies.
What makes agency productivity tools different from regular business software? They need to handle client-facing work and internal operations simultaneously. Project visibility matters because clients ask questions constantly. Creative workflows need flexibility that rigid templates can't accommodate. Team coordination across account managers, designers, copywriters, and strategists requires tools that adapt to how agencies actually work.
We talked to agency founders and operations leads managing teams from 5 to 50 people. Looked at what tools keep appearing in successful agency stacks. Tested the ones that claim to be built for agency workflows versus generic project management tools with agency templates slapped on.
This list focuses on the core stack: client project management, team communication, creative coordination, content creation, and knowledge management. Not comprehensive, but these solve the highest-leverage problems agencies face daily.
What Makes a Tool Work for Agencies?
Our evaluation framework
Marketing agencies have unique needs that standard productivity tools often miss. You're not just managing internal work - you're coordinating with clients who have opinions about everything, creative deliverables that require iteration, and campaigns with hard deadlines that can't slip.
We evaluated tools against these agency-specific criteria:
Client visibility options: Can you show clients project status without giving them access to your entire workspace? Agencies need selective transparency - clients should see their work, not everyone's internal discussions or profitability calculations.
Creative workflow support: Does the tool handle iterative review processes? Agencies don't just complete tasks, they create work that needs feedback cycles. Tools that treat everything like a checkbox don't work for campaign development.
Capacity planning: Can you see if your team is overloaded before they burn out? Agency profitability depends on resource allocation - knowing who has bandwidth and who's buried in client work matters every single day.
Template flexibility: Can you standardize processes without losing flexibility? Every client project has common elements but unique requirements. Tools that force rigid workflows break down fast in agency environments.
Time tracking integration: Can you tie work to client billing? Whether you bill hourly or not, understanding time spent per client affects profitability. Tools that make time tracking invisible work better than ones that require manual logging.
Collaboration features: Can multiple people work on the same thing without version control nightmares? Agencies coordinate across roles - account managers briefing designers, copywriters working with strategists, everyone needing to stay aligned.
monday.com
Best Visual Project Management: monday.com
Here's the thing about agency work: clients want visibility into their projects, but you can't show them your full workspace where you're also discussing their budget overruns and difficult account manager.
monday.com solves this with boards that can be shared selectively. Create a client-facing board showing campaign progress, creative deliverables, and timeline. Keep your internal board with profitability tracking, team capacity, and honest status updates. Clients get transparency without seeing your entire operation. Compare it with monday.com vs Asana or monday.com vs ClickUp.
The visual workflow makes it obvious what stage every deliverable is in. Color-coded statuses show what's in creative development, what's awaiting client feedback, what's approved and ready to launch. Your team and your clients know status at a glance without status update meetings.
For agencies specifically, monday.com handles the complexity of multiple concurrent client projects without making you choose between visibility and organization. You can view all work for one client, all work assigned to one person, or all deliverables due this week. The flexibility adapts to however your agency needs to slice the information.
Why this works for agency operations:
Client portals give selective visibility. Share specific boards with clients so they see their project status without accessing your full workspace. Prevents the awkwardness of clients seeing internal discussions or other clients' work.
Timeline views show campaign schedules visually. See the entire campaign from brief to launch, identify dependencies, spot conflicts before they become emergencies. Essential for agencies juggling 6+ active campaigns.
Automations handle repetitive handoffs. When design completes, notify the copywriter. When creative is ready, alert the account manager to schedule client review. These small automations eliminate dozens of manual coordination steps daily.
Workload view prevents team burnout. See who's buried in work and who has capacity before assigning the next project. Agencies that ignore resource allocation end up with half the team overloaded while others sit idle.
Custom fields track agency-specific data: client budgets, billing status, hours estimated vs actual, creative concept versions. Build the structure your agency needs instead of forcing your workflow into generic templates.
Integrations connect to your creative tools. Link Figma designs, embed Google Drive files, attach Adobe files. Keeps all project context in one place instead of scattered across 8 different tools.
The pricing starts at $27/month for 3 users, scaling based on team size. For a 10-person agency, you're looking at $120-180 monthly depending on the plan. That sounds steep until you realize it replaces 3-4 other tools and saves hours in coordination overhead.
The learning curve is real. monday.com's flexibility means there's no single right way to set it up. Plan to spend a few days designing your board structure, or hire someone who knows agency workflows to configure it properly. Bad setup makes it worse than not having it.
Best for: Agencies managing 5+ concurrent client projects who need both internal coordination and client visibility. The visual approach makes status obvious, which reduces the "where are we at?" questions that consume agency bandwidth.
Superhuman
Best Email Client: Superhuman
Agency life means drowning in client emails. Questions about campaign performance. Requests for revisions. Approvals that need to happen before you can move forward. If you're spending 3+ hours daily in email, you're wasting time you could bill.
Superhuman makes email faster - genuinely, noticeably faster. Emails load instantly, search happens as you type, actions execute without lag. After using it for a week, regular Gmail feels broken. See how it compares in Superhuman vs Gmail.
For agencies, the AI writing assistance matters more than the speed. You're sending similar emails constantly: campaign status updates, meeting recaps, creative rationale explanations. Superhuman learns your writing style and suggests completions that sound like you. When you're writing 40+ client emails weekly, this compounds into serious time savings.
The split inbox automatically separates client emails from internal team communication from vendor outreach. You process client stuff first thing, handle team coordination later, ignore vendor spam. This prioritization prevents important client messages from getting buried in noise.
Why this works for agency client communication:
Read receipts show when clients open your emails. Useful for knowing when to follow up on approvals or whether that proposal actually got read. Agencies often wait days for client responses only to discover the email never got opened.
Scheduled sends let you write emails at 10pm but send them at 9am. Maintains professional boundaries while using creative thinking time whenever it strikes. Prevents training clients to expect instant responses at midnight.
Snippets store your common responses. ;status expands into your standard campaign update format. ;revision expands into your revision process explanation. ;timeline explains typical project timelines. Write it once, use it forever.
Reminders surface emails that need follow-up. That approval you need by Friday? Set a reminder for Thursday to nudge the client if they haven't responded. Prevents projects from stalling on client feedback.
Keyboard shortcuts translate to mobile gestures. Swipe to archive, snooze, or mark important. Process email fast even when you're out of the office at client meetings.
The pricing is $30/month per user. For agency principals and account managers living in email, that's easily justified. For junior staff who send 5 emails daily, probably not worth it. Consider equipping the people who actually spend hours in client communication.
Limitations: Gmail and Google Workspace only. If your agency uses Outlook or another provider, Superhuman won't work. Also, it's expensive to roll out to the full team - pick the roles where email speed actually matters.
Best for: Agency principals, account directors, and anyone spending 2+ hours daily in client email. The speed and AI assistance pay for themselves quickly at that usage level.
Notion
Best Agency Knowledge Base: Notion
Agencies accumulate institutional knowledge constantly. Creative briefs. Campaign strategies. Client preferences. Process docs. That one time you figured out how to handle a specific client situation. If this knowledge lives in people's heads or scattered across Google Docs, you're recreating work unnecessarily.
Notion becomes your agency's central knowledge repository. Everything from client onboarding checklists to campaign post-mortem templates to that pricing calculator you built lives in one searchable workspace.
The flexibility matters for agencies because your information doesn't fit rigid structures. A client page might contain their brand guidelines, past campaign performance, meeting notes, active projects, and billing history. Notion lets you organize this however makes sense instead of forcing information into predetermined categories.
For agency-specific use, Notion shines at documentation and process standardization. Build your campaign planning template once, use it for every new project. Document your client onboarding process so new account managers don't have to figure it out from scratch. Create your creative brief format so every project starts with clear direction.
Why this works for agency operations:
Databases track clients, campaigns, content calendars, and whatever else needs organizing. Build custom views showing your active campaigns, upcoming deliverables, or clients needing check-ins. The flexibility adapts to your agency's specific tracking needs.
Templates ensure consistency. Campaign brief template, meeting notes template, monthly report template - standardize your processes so quality doesn't depend on who's working the account. New team members follow established patterns instead of inventing their own approach.
Collaboration features let multiple people edit simultaneously. Account managers update client notes, strategists add campaign ideas, creative directors leave feedback. Everyone stays aligned in one place instead of version control chaos across email attachments.
Knowledge bases scale your expertise. That clever solution you developed for one client's problem? Document it so the team can apply it to similar situations. Agencies that document tribal knowledge outperform ones where everything lives in senior people's heads.
Client wikis organize everything about each client. Brand voice guidelines, approval processes, key contacts, past campaign performance. New team members ramp up faster when client context is documented rather than scattered or unwritten.
Integrations embed other tools. Link monday.com boards, embed Figma designs, pull in Google Analytics dashboards. Notion becomes the hub that connects to your other systems.
Notion's free plan works for tiny agencies. Once you hit 10+ people or need advanced features, Plus is $10/user/month. For a 15-person agency, that's $150 monthly. Sounds expensive until you calculate the hours saved in "where is that document?" questions and "how do we handle this?" discussions.
The gotcha is maintenance. Notion requires ongoing organization or it becomes a dumping ground where nothing's findable. Designate someone (usually operations or project management) to maintain structure. Without this, it degrades into chaos.
Best for: Agencies that want to scale their processes and institutional knowledge instead of keeping everything in people's heads. Requires discipline to maintain but pays off in consistency and team ramp-up speed.
ClickUp
Best All-in-One Option: ClickUp
ClickUp tries to be everything: tasks, docs, wikis, goals, time tracking, chat. For some agencies, this consolidation makes sense. One tool subscription instead of five. One place to check instead of context-switching constantly.
The power comes from customization. ClickUp adapts to however your agency works instead of forcing you into rigid workflows. Want Kanban boards for creative projects? Done. Gantt charts for campaign timelines? Built-in. List views for simple task management? Easy.
For agencies specifically, ClickUp's time tracking integration matters. Whether you bill hourly or just track profitability, knowing time spent per client affects your business. ClickUp tracks time at the task level, rolls it up to projects and clients, and shows you where hours are actually going.
Why agencies use ClickUp:
Custom statuses match your workflow. Not every task is just "to do" or "done." Agencies need: awaiting brief, in creative development, awaiting feedback, in revision, approved, delivered. ClickUp lets you define exactly the stages your work moves through.
Multiple views show information different ways. Account managers want list views of client deliverables. Creative directors want board views of design work. Project managers want timeline views of campaign schedules. Everyone sees the same data in their preferred format.
Automations handle repetitive coordination. When a task hits "ready for review," automatically notify the account manager and move it to their review queue. When approval comes in, trigger the next phase. These workflows eliminate manual handoff coordination.
Goals track campaign objectives and agency metrics. Set quarterly revenue targets, client retention goals, or team utilization rates. Connect work to outcomes instead of just tracking tasks.
Docs and wikis live in the same tool as tasks. Client brief? Write it in ClickUp and link directly to the campaign tasks. Process documentation? Lives right next to the work it describes. Reduces tool switching and keeps context together.
The free tier is surprisingly functional. Unlimited tasks, unlimited members, 100MB storage. Covers tiny agencies or teams testing ClickUp before committing. Paid plans start at $7/user/month and unlock time tracking, custom fields, and advanced automations that agencies need.
The overwhelming nature of ClickUp is both strength and weakness. So many features and customization options that setup feels paralyzing. You can build anything, which means you have to decide what to build. Plan significant setup time or it becomes a chaotic mess.
Best for: Agencies that want to consolidate tools and are willing to invest setup time for long-term efficiency. Works well if you have an operations person who can configure and maintain it properly.
Loom
Best Client Communication: Loom
How many times have you typed a 6-paragraph email trying to explain a design concept, knowing the client will misunderstand it anyway? Loom lets you record a 2-minute video showing exactly what you mean.
For agencies, Loom eliminates the communication overhead that consumes billable time. Instead of scheduling a 30-minute call to walk through campaign results, record a 5-minute Loom walking through the dashboard. Client watches on their time, leaves questions in comments, you respond asynchronously. Turns 30 minutes of synchronous time into 10 total minutes of combined async time.
The screen + face recording combo works perfectly for client presentations. Show the campaign performance data on screen while explaining the strategy decisions that drove results. Clients get the expressiveness of a video call with the flexibility of watching whenever.
Why Loom matters for agency client work:
Creative presentations let you walk through design concepts with context. Instead of sending static mockups that clients judge in isolation, record yourself explaining the strategy behind the creative. Show how the design addresses their business objectives. Clients understand your thinking, not just the output.
Campaign reports explain performance without scheduling meetings. Record yourself walking through analytics, explaining what worked and what didn't, proposing next steps. Clients get comprehensive updates without consuming your calendar.
Revision feedback gives specific direction. Instead of writing "the hero section feels off," record yourself explaining exactly what you mean while showing the page. Designers get precise feedback instead of interpreting vague text comments.
Client onboarding materials welcome new clients and set expectations. Record your process explanation once, send it to every new client. Explains how you work, when they'll hear from you, what you need from them. Standardizes onboarding without repeating yourself constantly.
Team training documents internal processes permanently. How to handle difficult client feedback. How to run a creative review. How to manage a campaign launch. Record these once, reference forever.
Loom's free tier includes 25 videos with 5-minute limits. Starter is $12.50/month for unlimited videos. Business is $20/user/month for advanced features like custom branding (white-labeling your Looms to look professional).
For agencies, Business plan makes sense. Custom branding means Looms look like they're from your agency, not a random tool. Analytics show if clients actually watched your presentation. Matters for client-facing communication.
The adoption challenge is getting clients to actually watch Looms instead of asking you to explain synchronously anyway. Set the expectation upfront that you communicate via video. Most clients appreciate the flexibility once they try it.
Best for: Agencies that want to reduce communication overhead and give clients better updates without consuming more calendar time. The async nature lets you scale client communication efficiently.
Slack
Best Team Communication: Slack
Slack is where agency work actually happens. Creative feedback gets shared. Client questions get answered. Urgent approvals get secured. Campaigns get coordinated in real-time when deadlines approach.
For agencies, Slack's channel structure matters. Organize by client, by project, by discipline. #client-acme for all Acme Corp work. #project-rebrand for the cross-client brand refresh. #creative-review for design feedback. Keeps conversations organized instead of everything in one chaotic group chat.
The integration ecosystem brings other tools into Slack. Share Figma designs, preview Notion docs, pull in monday.com updates. Reduces context switching by surfacing information where the conversation happens.
Why agencies need Slack (with proper management):
Client channels enable direct communication. Invite clients to dedicated channels for their projects. They see progress, ask questions, provide feedback. Gives transparency without forwarding 47 emails or scheduling status calls. Some agencies love this, others find it increases client interruptions.
Project channels coordinate cross-functional work. Account managers, creatives, strategists, and freelancers collaborate in one place. Prevents the coordination overhead of separate email threads per person.
Discipline channels let specialists coordinate. Designers share inspiration and feedback. Copywriters workshop headlines. Account managers discuss client management strategies. Enables knowledge sharing across client projects.
Huddles provide quick sync options. That question that needs 2 minutes of discussion but doesn't warrant a scheduled meeting? Start a huddle, hash it out, move on. More efficient than async for time-sensitive coordination.
Search finds past decisions quickly. That pricing discussion from last quarter? Searchable. How you handled a similar client request? Findable. This institutional memory matters as the agency grows.
Integrations automate notifications. New client email? Notify the relevant Slack channel. Campaign launched? Alert the team. Time-sensitive work needs visibility, Slack provides it.
Slack's free plan has severe limitations (90-day message history) that don't work for agencies. You need that conversation from 4 months ago about why you made a specific client decision. Pro plan is $7.25/user/month and removes the history limit. For a 10-person agency, that's $72 monthly. Worth it for your institutional knowledge.
The danger is Slack becoming a productivity sink. Agencies that expect instant responses train teams to context-switch constantly. Set norms: responses in hours, not minutes. Use threads to keep conversations organized. Designate focus time with Do Not Disturb active.
Best for: Every agency with a team. Slack is basically mandatory at this point. The challenge is managing it well so it enhances productivity instead of destroying focus.
Airtable
Best Content Calendar: Airtable
Airtable is where agencies build custom systems for problems that don't fit standard tools. The power comes from being a database that doesn't feel like a database - it's a spreadsheet that can do way more than Excel.
For agencies, Airtable shines at content calendar management. Build a base with all your content pieces: blogs, social posts, email campaigns, ads. Track status, publication dates, assigned creators, connected campaigns. View it as a calendar, a Kanban board, a gallery of visuals, or a simple list. Different team members see the same data in their preferred format.
The linking between tables creates relationships that spreadsheets can't handle. Connect content pieces to campaigns, campaigns to clients, clients to account managers. See all content for a specific campaign, all work assigned to one writer, or all deliverables due next week. The relational structure handles agency complexity.
Why agencies use Airtable:
Custom workflows match your exact process. Every agency handles creative development differently. Airtable adapts to your workflow instead of forcing you into someone else's template. Build exactly what you need.
Content calendars show what's publishing when. View all content across all clients in one calendar. Spot conflicts before you accidentally schedule 3 client launches on the same day. Essential for agencies managing content for multiple clients.
Asset libraries organize creative work. Store design concepts, copy variations, campaign assets. Link them to projects, tag them by type, filter by client. Prevents the "where did we save that file?" questions that waste billable time.
Client databases track everything about each client: contacts, contracts, billing, project history, campaign performance. Build custom views showing clients needing check-ins, contracts expiring soon, or accounts at risk. The flexibility lets you track what matters to your agency.
Integrations connect to creative tools. Sync Figma designs, pull in Google Drive files, connect to social scheduling platforms. Airtable becomes the coordination layer between your specialist tools.
Forms collect information from clients or team. Creative brief form that populates your project database. Content idea submission form that feeds your editorial calendar. Reduces the back-and-forth of email-based information gathering.
Airtable's free plan includes 1,000 records per base, enough for testing. Plus is $20/user/month with 5,000 records per base and advanced features. For agencies, you're likely looking at Pro ($45/user/month) once you hit scale. Expensive, but potentially replaces 2-3 specialized tools.
The setup investment is significant. Airtable's flexibility means you're building your own system from scratch. Plan days, not hours, for proper setup. Or hire someone who knows Airtable to build your bases properly.
Best for: Agencies that need custom systems for content calendars, asset management, or client tracking that standard tools don't handle well. Worth the investment if you have complex workflows that don't fit rigid software.
Which Tools Should Your Agency Actually Use?
Building your agency stack
You don't need all seven tools simultaneously. Start with the core workflow problems and expand as needed.
If client project visibility is chaotic (constant status update requests), monday.com gives you sharable boards that answer client questions before they ask them. The visual approach reduces coordination overhead significantly.
If email is consuming your billable hours (3+ hours daily per person), Superhuman pays for itself by making client communication 25%+ faster. Equip your account team, not necessarily everyone.
If institutional knowledge lives in people's heads (new hires take forever to ramp up), Notion documents your processes and client information. Requires maintenance but scales your team's effectiveness.
If you're using 6 different tools (each costing money and requiring context switches), ClickUp consolidates project management, docs, time tracking, and more. The all-in-one approach reduces tool sprawl.
If client communication takes forever (scheduling meetings to explain things), Loom lets you record presentations and walkthroughs clients watch on their time. Scales your communication asymmetrically.
For team coordination, Slack is basically mandatory. The question is managing it well so it doesn't become an interruption machine. Set boundaries, use threads, embrace async norms.
If content calendar management is chaos (publishing conflicts, lost assets, unclear status), Airtable gives you custom systems that adapt to your workflow. Higher setup cost but solves problems standard tools can't.
Most successful agencies use some combination of: monday.com or ClickUp (project management) + Slack (communication) + Notion (knowledge base) + Loom (client presentations) + Airtable (content calendars).
The specific tools matter less than having systems that prevent work from falling through cracks, keep clients informed without constant meetings, and let your team focus on creative work instead of coordination overhead.
Marketing Agency Productivity Apps FAQ
Common questions about agency tools
What's the most important tool for a new marketing agency?
Starts with project management - either monday.com or ClickUp. You need visibility into what work is happening, who's doing it, and what stage it's in. Everything else (fancy email clients, knowledge bases, automation) matters less than basic project coordination. Get that right first.
How much should agencies spend on productivity tools?
Budget $50-100 per team member monthly for core tools. Sounds expensive but calculate the alternative: an account manager wastes 10 hours monthly on coordination overhead, that's potentially $1,000+ in lost billable time at agency rates. Tools that save time pay for themselves.
Should we give clients access to our project management tools?
Depends on your clients and agency culture. Some agencies love client transparency and build it into their positioning. Others find it creates more questions than it answers. Test with one client before rolling it out broadly. Always use separate boards/views for client-facing versus internal information.
What about time tracking tools?
Both monday.com and ClickUp include time tracking. If you need more sophisticated tracking and profitability analysis, dedicated tools like Harvest or Toggl integrate with most project management platforms. Start with built-in tracking before adding specialized tools.
Can we use free tiers for any of these?
ClickUp and Notion have usable free tiers for very small agencies (under 5 people). Slack's free tier is limiting with 90-day message history. monday.com's free tier is mostly for testing. Airtable's free tier works for basic use. Plan to upgrade as you grow - the paid features matter for agency work.
How do we get the team to actually use new tools?
Lead by example and make it required, not optional. If project status lives in monday.com but half the team still uses email, it won't work. Pick one tool, migrate fully, train everyone, and enforce usage. Partial adoption is worse than no adoption.
Final Thoughts
Tools should enable great work, not become the work
The best agency tool stack is the one your team will actually use consistently. Don't copy another agency's setup just because it works for them. Your clients, your services, your team size - these all affect what tools make sense.
Start with your single biggest productivity drain. Is it project coordination chaos? Client communication overhead? Lost institutional knowledge? Pick one problem, implement the tool that solves it, master it before adding more.
Most agencies we talked to said their breakthrough came from actually paying for proper tools instead of trying to make free alternatives work. The time savings from professional-grade tools compound daily. A $100/month tool that saves each team member 2 hours weekly is worth thousands monthly at agency billing rates.
The tools listed here represent what's actually working for agencies in 2026. They've proven themselves across agencies from 5 to 50+ people managing everything from social media to full-stack campaign work.
Your tool stack should make delivering great client work easier, not harder. If you're spending more time managing tools than managing campaigns, simplify. The goal is leverage, not complexity.
Test these tools in your actual workflow for at least 2 weeks before judging them. What looks good in demos might feel wrong in practice, and vice versa. Most offer trials - take advantage of them.