The 15 Best A/B Testing Tools That Are Guaranteed to Boost Your Conversion Rates

What is your website’s conversion rate? What about your paid ads, forms, and landing pages?

No matter your conversion rate, there’s a good chance it could be better.

That’s because user preferences change over time. People get burned out by seeing the same ads and images, and styles change. Even the platforms where users hang out can shift.

There’s only one way to know if your ad, landing page, CTA, or entire website could convert better—and that’s to test it.

According to Invesp, 71 percent of companies run at least two A/B tests a month.

A B Testing Tools - 71 percent of businesses run at least two tests a month

However, only one in eight A/B tests drive significant change. That means a lot of companies are running A/B tests but not seeing results. A/B testing tools provide the framework and data you need to run better tests.

Why You Need A/B Testing Tools

A/B testing tools streamline the A/B testing process by making it easy to design, launch, and analyze tests. Is it worth the investment, though?

If you want to see real results with A/B testing, I strongly recommend using A/B testing tools. They can help by:

  • Tracking data: It can be hard to track clicks, conversions, and other significant KPIs. Many A/B testing tools track the data to ensure you have access to the information you need to make critical business decisions. They’ll even generate snazzy reports, so you look smart to your boss or clients.
  • Protecting your SEO: A/B testing won’t impact SEO—if you do it correctly. A/B testing tools help ensure your tests don’t run afoul of Google’s rules.
  • Automating testing: The more full-featured tools leverage automation to ensure testing is as efficient as possible. For example, automatically turning off ads that aren’t performing well, so you have more time to focus on running your business.
  • Streamlining the test creation process: Creating A/B tests can be time-consuming. It’s easy to get caught up in the details (Should this button be blue or green? Is this CTA good enough?). A good A/B testing tool makes building, launching, and tracking your tests easier.
  • Increasing your conversion rates: The most significant benefits of using A/B testing tools? They can help improve your conversion rates, lower bounce rates, and drive more sales. That’s because most offer recommendations based on AI or proprietary data.

If you’re still not sold, let’s look at how subscription-based mobile phone provider Ben used A/B testing to drive conversions.

Why You Need A/B Testing Tools - Example Ben

Ben began offering its customers access to the latest mobile devices in addition to affordable data and voice plans. They wanted to make sure customers knew they could choose the color of their phone, not just the model.

However, the company wasn’t sure how to share that news with customers. Using VWO, they ran two tests—one with the color palette under the phone image, and another with a menu option alongside the subscription choices.

After running the test for two weeks, they found that allowing users to choose the color option alongside their plan increased conversion rates by more than 17 percent and reduced customer calls to change device colors.

One simple test resulted in a large increase in conversion rates. Now, imagine if you continually ran tests like this. A/B testing tools make that possible.

The Best A/B Testing Tools

There are a ton of options when it comes to A/B testing tools. In fact, the A/B testing software market is expected to be worth $1,151 million by 2025, which means finding the right tool requires sifting through dozens of options.

No single A/B testing tool will work well for all businesses. An enterprise e-commerce site, for example, has far different needs than a local plumbing company.

To help you find the right one, we’ve analyzed the top A/B testing tools to compare features, pricing, and ease of use.

1. Google Optimize: Free A/B Testing Tool With Solid Features

Pricing: Free

Google Optimize is Google’s free A/B testing tool. The platform integrates with Google Analytics, making it easy to see how changes have impacted site performance.

With Optimize, you can create, launch, and track A/B testing performance all in one tool. If you’re already using Google Analytics or other Google tools, it’s simple to launch and set up your first test.

Main features include:

  • Ability to run several types of tests, including, A/B, multivariate, split URL, server-side experiments, and personalization.
  • Visual editor allows you to easily create tests.
  • SEO features to keep your tests from impacting your ranking.
  • Detailed reporting tools, including customizable reports and an experiment summary for a high-level or granular view of test results.
  • Built-in or customized objectives to set goals for your tests.
  • Experiment manager to see how tests perform over time and schedule experiments in the future.
  • Integration with all other Google tools including Analytics, AdSense, and Search Console.

Getting started is easy. Simply head to the Google Optimize page and click “Start for Free.” Once you accept the terms and conditions, you’ll be prompted to create your first experience.

Select the type of test you want to run, choose the URL, and then design your test.

best ab testing tools google optimize

There are a few drawbacks to Google Optimize. For starters, you can only run five experiments at a time. A few reviewers say the A/B testing preview tool is difficult to use and has a few bugs, which is another thing to consider.

For smaller sites that don’t need to run more than a few tests at a time, however, Google Optimize is a solid option.

2. Optimizely: Paid A/B Testing + CRO Tool for Fast-Growing or Enterprise Brands

Pricing: Call for a custom quote. According to Capterra, plans start at $50,000 a year but may be less for smaller sites.

When it comes to full-features A/B testing tools, Optimizely is one of the best on the market. This powerful tool offers a wide range of testing and tracking features, including:

  • Ability to run A/B and multivariate testing.
  • Advanced testing, including coding.
  • Exclusion groups enable you to run multiple tests on the same page without impacting SEO or UX.
  • Targeting and personalization dig deeper into the customer journey.
  • Powerful visual editor allows marketers to create tests—no dev needed.
  • Drag-and-drop templates to make creating tests easier.
  • Detailed reporting tools to highlight which experiments impact performance.

Optimizely is powerful—but it can also be intimidating for first-time testers. If you don’t have a large site and haven’t run A/B tests before, Optimizely may be challenging to use. However, if you have a large site and want to dig deep into your data and find out what customers really want, it’s worth a closer look.

To get started, reach out to their customer support team. They’ll ask for information about your website and traffic and then explain the full scope of features. Their team can also provide a customized demo so you can see the tools’ true potential.

3. AB Tasty: AI-Driven A/B Testing + Experimentation for Enterprise

Pricing: Call for a custom quote. TrustRadius reports pricing starts at $40 per month.

AB Tasty is an AI-powered A/B testing tool designed to help your business drive more conversions while providing world-class UX. They are trusted by more than 900 enterprise companies, including Sephora, Papa John’s, Walmart, and USA Today.

While it might not be ideal for smaller sites, it’s a good fit for enterprise companies looking to improve A/B testing and run more out-of-the-box tests.

Core features of the platform include:

  • The ability to run A/B and multivariate testing on mobile, app, or desktop platforms.
  • AI-powered targeting allows you to create incredibly granular segments based on user behavior.
  • Drag-and-drop text editor makes it easy to test any feature of your site, from the navigation bar to coding.
  • A broad range of goals including actions like demo requests, browsing behavior, and conversions.
  • Bayesian statistics engine doesn’t just track tests; it helps you understand the significance of tests by offering gain probability and media value.
The Best A/B Testing Tools - AB Tasty

There are a few drawbacks. AB Tasty doesn’t currently offer heat map tracking, while Optimizely does. Personalization features are in a separate tool, so it could cost more. Since they don’t list pricing on the site, it’s difficult to say for sure.

They also don’t support testing for paid ads, while Google Optimize does.

Is AB Tasty right for you? I don’t recommend it for smaller sites or those just getting started. It’s a full-featured tool with tons of options and ways to test, so it’s a great choice for enterprise companies, especially those in e-commerce.

4. Apptimize: Omni-Channel A/B Testing for Mobile-Focused Customer Journeys

Pricing: Contact for custom pricing. However, they do offer a 30-day free trial.

Having an app is good for business. A recent study found that 57 percent of shoppers prefer shopping in an app over other channels. However, A/B testing on apps is more challenging.

If you have an app or a buyer journey that crosses platforms, Apptimize might be a good solution for A/B testing. Apptimize provides A/B testing tools for web, mobile, OTT, and in-store. They specifically focus on testing for companies with frequent product rollouts, such as software companies.

Is it the right fit for your business? If your customer journey crosses platforms, it’s a solid option. Features include:

  • Robust A/B, multivariate, split testing, including in-person, in-app, website, and mobile sites.
  • Access controls and permissions limit who can make changes.
  • Funnel analysis to see how your test impacts conversions and other goals.
  • Activity dashboard to quickly see historical testing stats.

In addition to A/B testing tools, Apptimize offers features for workflow management to make the entire process smoother.

Overall, the Apptimize website is a little light on specific features, but they do focus on helping product teams test and personalize rollouts and manage new features.

If your goal is to figure out which color CTA button to use, this tool isn’t for you.

If you are constantly rolling out new features, want to better understand who your customers are, and want customers to enjoy a personalized experience across all devices, Apptimize is worth a try. Plus, they offer a free trial, so you can see if it’s a good fit.

5. Adobe’s Target Testing Tool: Full-Featured, Enterprise A/B Testing + Personalization Tool

Pricing: Contact for custom pricing. Plans vary based on product options, volume, and whether you need omnichannel testing. No free trial.

Adobe Target is a full-featured testing platform that allows businesses to test the entire customer experience, including images, copy, UI, apps, layout, background colors, and more. It can also test personalization’s impact, which is essential considering personalized CTAs convert 202 percent better than default CTAs.

Adobe Target includes:

  • Strong A/B testing features allow you to test just about every part of the user experience.
  • Visual composer makes it easy to create and run tests.
  • Multivariate and multiarm bandit testing to funnel traffic to the most successful experience earlier in the process.
  • Easy to set up, guided workflow enables you to quickly set up, test, and launch.
  • The ability to test on the client-side, server-side, or both.

Target also integrates with other Adobe products in Adobe Experience Cloud, so this is a great option if you’re using Adobe for analytics, insights, and content.

According to online reviews, Target is not beginner-friendly, so it’s probably not ideal for those just starting out. However, if you’ve used other A/B testing tools or are familiar with Adobe’s suite of tools, you likely won’t have any issues. Adobe also offers plenty of training modules to get you up to speed.

6. Intelligems: A/B Test Pricing for E-Commerce Stores

Pricing: Contact for pricing.

Most A/B testing tools focus on titles, headlines, and button colors. When it comes to driving e-commerce conversions, however, pricing can have a huge impact on conversion rates. Intelligems is an A/B testing tool designed for Shopify store owners to test pricing changes.

Does dropping your price a few cents impact conversions? What about raising prices? The only way to find the perfect price point is to test.

With Intelligems, you can easily test how pricing and features like Subscribe and Save impact LTV, checkouts, and long-term growth.

The Best A/B Testing Tools - Intelligems

Features include:

  • Easy-to-use test creator so you can test and launch tests faster.
  • Sophisticated data collection is turned into an easy-to-read data dashboard where you can see results at a glance.
  • A flexible testing structure allows you to see how shipping, discounts, and pricing (or any combination of the three!) impact a range of data points.
  • Expert recommendations ensure you develop a solid strategy based on expert insights.

This tool is relatively new but could be a game-changer for e-commerce stores. They are accepting suggestions for new features, so hopefully, they’ll expand testing options in the future.

7. VWO: Similar Features to Optimizely, but More Affordable

Pricing: Contact for full pricing, but Capterra reports pricing starts at $199.00 per month, which is far below Optimizely’s rate.

VWO is another full-featured testing tool similar to Optimizely and Google Optimize. If Optimize isn’t quite enough for your needs, but Optimizely is too pricey, VWO may be the perfect fit. It offers sophisticated testing funnels that are insanely customizable at more affordable rates.

VWO features include:

  • Create and launch tests for a range of tests, including A/B, split URL, multivariate, abandoned carts, and landing pages.
  • Targeting based on audience, behavior, campaign, and context.
  • Drag-and-drop test creator.
  • Engagement tracking and goal setting.
  • Customized visual reporting tools.
  • Mobile website testing.

VWO also tracks more than just traffic and conversions. It also leverages advanced tracking methods such as heatmaps, pageviews, screen activity, and user interactions.

The platform offers three plans, with higher plans offering additional features like campaign scheduling and custom JavaScript targeting.

One drawback is the lack of data storage. Heatmaps tests, for example, only store testing data for 60 to 90 days according to some reviews.

8. Unbounce: Landing Page Builder With A/B Testing Tool

Pricing: Paid plans start at $90 a month for up to 500 conversions and 20,000 visits. Unbounce offers a free 14-day trial.

Most of the tools we’ve covered so far are stand-alone A/B testing tools. You add a tracker to your website, then you can build, test, and launch A/B testing.

Unbounce is a little different. It’s actually a landing page tool with A/B testing baked into its software. Want to test your PPC landing pages? Test the impact of personalization? You can do all that—and a lot more.

A/B testing features from Unbounce include:

  • Unlimited A/B tests on all landing pages.
  • Easy-to-use test builder. Just duplicate your current page, change the elements you want to test, and launch.
  • Performance comparison tool to determine which page wins out.
  • A/B test sticky bars to determine which offers drive better results.
  • Smart builder that creates landing pages in just a few minutes.

Compared to full-featured A/B testing tools like Optimizely or VWO, Unbounce definitely lacks features. However, if you already use Unbounce or are considering it for landing pages and sticky bars, the A/B testing features are a strong selling point.

Unbounce is also more affordable than other testing tools, making it ideal for dipping your toe into A/B testing.

9. Facebook’s Experiments Tool: Free Tool to Test Social Ads

Pricing: Free to test, though you will pay for ads.

Social media ads can drive conversions, build brand awareness, and drive traffic to your website. However, it can also be challenging to tell which headline, offer, CTA, or image is responsible for driving clicks (and conversions).

When you consider the average conversion rate for Facebook ads is 9.21 percent, it’s clear there is plenty of room for improvement.

Recently, Facebook launched their Experiments Tool, designed to make it easier to A/B test paid ads on the platform. Brands can test campaign groups, campaigns, or ad sets against each other and easily see which performs better.

The Best A/B Testing Tools - Facebook Experiments

To get started, create your Facebook ads first in Meta Business Manager (aka Facebook business manager). Then, head over to Experiments Tool. Click Tests to get started and then select A/B test.

You’ll be prompted to select the ads you want to A/B test, schedule your campaigns, and name the test. You can also determine how Facebook should choose a winner based on key metrics like cost per result, cost per conversion, cost per 1,000 people reached, and cost per purchase.

When you’re done, it will ask you to review your testing parameters before launching your test.

This tool is important for two reasons: First, it’s straightforward to use, which isn’t the case for some of the more full-featured A/B testing tools. It’s also one of the few tools that allow you to A/B test social ads to optimize performance.

Currently, the tool doesn’t appear to work on Instagram, but hopefully, they’ll add that feature.

10. Ominconvert’s Explore: CRO + A/B Testing for E-Commerce

Pricing: Plans start at $167 per month.

For e-commerce, A/B testing is about more than testing CTA button copy or seeing if a top sticky bar converts better than a bottom sticky bar. It’s about pricing, product pages, images, mobile vs desktop, and so much more.

While most tools on this list work in any industry, Ominconvert was built with e-commerce sites in mind. Features to check out include:

  • Ability to test more than one website at a time.
  • Fast, professional support with a four-hour response time.
  • Advanced segmentation using JavaScript, cookies, UTM parameters, data layer attributes, and more.
  • Exit-intent and triggered overlay testing.
  • A/B and personalization testing dig deep into the customer journey.
  • CDN cache bypass using a dedicated browser extension.

You can also set and track as many goals as you want and gain insights into why specific tests aren’t working.

It’s worth noting this is not a tool for beginners; it can be code-heavy at times and requires a pretty decent understanding of your site’s backend. However, it’s also affordable at $167 per month. Ominconvert is used by several powerful brands, including Samsung and ING, so they definitely know their stuff.

11. Nelio A/B Testing: Powerful A/B Testing Plugin for WordPress

Pricing: Plans start at $24 per month for up to 5,000 views.

More than 455 million websites use WordPress—and you might be one of them. If you’re looking for an A/B testing tool that plays nice with the most popular CMS on the market, you’re in luck.

Nelio AB offers powerful A/B testing tools right in your WordPress dashboard. No more switching tools, integrating a dozen platforms, or getting lost trying to figure out how to set up a split test. Instead, you can click and install Nelio AB in just a few minutes.

Here are a few features Nelio AB provides:

  • Unlimited experiments to test pages, headlines, menus, themes, CTAs, widgets, and more. Pretty much any part of your WordPress site can be tested and improved.
  • No technical knowledge is needed. You don’t need to know how to code, how to read Java, or even what makes a test statistically significant.
  • Easy-to-read reporting tool provides insights and results with the click of a button.
  • Test finer details of your site using CSS testing (if you’re into that kind of thing).
  • Track how users navigate your website using heatmaps, scroll maps, and confetti.
  • Define goals and conversions to track what actually matters on your site.
  • Integrate with most of your other plugins, including JetPack, W3 Total, and WooCommerce.

While it’s missing some advanced features (like detailed segmentation), it still offers plenty. The fact that it lives in WordPress makes it convenient to use.

12. Freshworks: A/B Testing for Multichannel Engagement + Automation

Pricing: Free for up to 100 contacts; paid plans start at $19 per month.

Want to improve conversion rates? Personalization should be part of your marketing strategy. According to Salesforce, 66 percent of customers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations.

Freshworks can help you provide the custom experience your customers crave. It’s not an A/B testing tool; rather, it’s a CRM with built-in automation features, including A/B testing, split testing, and segmentation.

In addition to running tests, Freshworks also provides:

  • email marketing campaigns
  • landing pages
  • event tracking
  • marketing reports
  • chat campaigns
  • CRO testing

Freshworks also offers A/B testing features such as split URL testing, landing page optimization, segmentation, and detailed reporting. While the tool lacks more advanced features like heatmaps, its built-in A/B testing features make it worth a look, particularly if personalization is important to you.

13. A/B Testing Significance Calculator: See How Much Different Tests Impact Sales

Pricing: Free.

A/B testing tools offer a ton of data. Unfortunately, understanding the data can be a challenge. Is Test A actually better or did it just get more traffic? Do you even have enough traffic to make a decision?

That’s where my A/B testing calculator comes to the rescue. Plugin your test results, and see exactly which landing page, CTA, headline, or website drives better results.

The Best A/B Testing Tools - AB testing Significance Tool NeilPatel

With the click of a button, you can see how much impact your recent test had on sales. Want to check the result of a multivariate test? Click the “Add Another Variation” button to see how three, four, or more tests stack up.

14. Title-Generator.com: Title Generator to Find New Titles or Headings to Test

Pricing: Free.

Testing titles and headlines is a sure-fire way to increase conversions and make sure blogs, landing pages, email, and web pages perform well. Coming up with snappy new titles, however, can be a challenge.

That’s where a title generator tool comes in handy. Simply input your main keywords and the tool will generate a list of 700 headlines.

The Best A/B Testing Tools - Headline Generator

Review the list, decide which fits your content or ad the best, and add it to your A/B testing workflow.

As you can see from the image above, many are adjustable based on the content, so use these as inspiration, not set headlines you have to use.

15. Ad Headline Idea Generator: Free Tool to Generate Paid Ad Headlines to A/B Test

Pricing: Free.

When it comes to paid ads, there are several areas to test—the headline, image, ad copy, and landing page. If you have trouble coming up with different ad headline options, this tool can help.

Inkforall’s Ad Headline Idea Generator uses AI to generate ad headlines and copy. Simply enter your current ad, log in via Facebook, Google, or Microsoft, and the tool will generate a new ad using the information you’ve provided.

The Best A B Testing Tools - Inkforalls Ad Headline Idea Generator

While the AI isn’t perfect, it’s an easy way to find new ad formats to test. I do recommend reading and editing the AI generation—they definitely aren’t perfect. If you’re struggling to develop different ad versions to test, this tool is good for inspiration.

A/B Testing Tools Frequently Asked Questions

How do A/B testing tools work?

A/B testing tools generally offer a visual interface and tracking features to help businesses set up, run, and track the performance of tests. Most tools require you to add a tracking pixel to your website to track test performance.

Can you do A/B testing on social media?

Yes, but it requires a different setup than A/B testing on your website. Most social platforms support A/B testing on ads in their business center where you can test ad creatives, copy, or images.

You cannot A/B test post engagement or conversion directly. However, you can test social traffic impact by using A/B testing on your landing pages.

How do you get started with A/B testing?

The first step of A/B testing is goal setting. What do you hope to improve? Do you want more traffic, higher conversions, more social engagement, or something else? Then, make a hypothesis to test.

What elements should you A/B test?

Simply put, any elements! Do you think changing the CTA will improve conversions? Do you want to see if a different landing page image will increase demo sign-ups? Once you know what you want to test, choose one of the A/B testing tools from the list above and launch your test.

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Conclusion: A/B Testing Tools

A/B testing is the cornerstone of building an effective digital marketing strategy. These 15 A/B testing tools will help you build, launch, test, and record the results. If you’re just getting started with A/B testing, you can’t go wrong with Google Optimize. It’s easy to use, works with other Google tools, and allows you to run up to five tests at a time.

If you need more features or want a tool that does more than just run A/B tests, one of the other tools on this list might fit your needs.

Did your favorite A/B testing tool make the list? If not, share it in the comments.

Keyword Research: How to Do It, Tips, Tools & Examples

Keyword Research: How to Do It, Tips, Tools & Examples

68 percent of online activity begins with queries in search engines like Google or Bing.

That’s why keyword research should be the basis of any online marketing campaign.

The goal of keyword research is to find out what your target audience is searching for online and determine what it will take to actually rank in search engines for those keywords.

Without knowing what keywords you should be targeting, how will you effectively optimize your website, target phrases for link building, or know what content to develop for your audience?

In this first section, we’ll go through setting up a spreadsheet for your keyword research and discover the best keywords for both your main website’s search engine optimization and topics for content development.

In the next section, we’ll discuss what data will help you choose the best keywords to target.

The final section will be a compilation of the top posts on keyword research.

What Is Keyword Research?

Keyword research refers to the process of discovering what search terms your target audience is entering in search engines to find businesses and websites like yours and optimizing your content so you appear in the search engine results.

For example, my target audience for this blog is primarily marketers and small businesses looking for help with their SEO and digital marketing strategies. This means I want pages from my website to appear in the SERPs when my audience searches for terms related to SEO and digital marketing.

Let’s say someone in my target audience is searching for “what is SEO?” I want to make sure I have content on my website that comes up early in the results for that search term. Luckily, I do! Here are some of the top results for the phrase:

keyword research - seo search

Why Is Keyword Research Important?

If you want your audience to find your website–whether’s it to your blog, e-commerce website, or for local services like lawn care–you must develop a strategy to help them find you. That’s where keyword research comes in.

The top result in the Google search results for a given search query (aka “keyword”) gets the most traffic 49 percent of the time. The second results get the most traffic 22 percent of the time. By the time you get to the second page of Google, users click on each result less than one percent of the time.

In order to drive your audience to the website, you must identify the keywords they are searching for, and create content that matches their search intent.

How to Do Keyword Research

There are many methods and tools you can use for keyword research. We’ll outline some of those methods and tools below, so you can pick and choose what works best for you.

Prework: Spreadsheet Set Up

The first thing you will want to do is set up a spreadsheet to record your data.

I’ve set up a basic spreadsheet that you can access. This document has columns for data using all tools mentioned in the first two parts of this blog post.

You can add or delete columns as you wish in order to match your keyword research needs. The columns included are as follows.

  • Keyword
  • GAKT – Competition (Google Ads Keyword Planner)
  • GAKT – Global Monthly Searches (Google Ads Keyword Planner)
  • GAKT – Local Monthly Searches (Google Ads Keyword Planner)
  • GAKT – Approximate CPC (Google Ads Keyword Planner)
  • SEOmoz KA – Difficulty (Moz Keyword Explorer)
  • SEOmoz KA – Competitor 1 (Moz Keyword Explorer)
  • SEOmoz KA – Competitor 1 DA (Moz Keyword Explorer)
  • SEOmoz KA – Competitor 1 RDLRD (Moz Keyword Explorer)
  • SEOmoz KA – Competitor 2 (Moz Keyword Explorer)
  • SEOmoz KA – Competitor 2 DA (Moz Keyword Explorer)
  • SEOmoz KA – Competitor 2 RDLRD (Moz Keyword Explorer)
  • SEOmoz KA – Competitor 3 (Moz Keyword Explorer)
  • SEOmoz KA – Competitor 3 DA (Moz Keyword Explorer)
  • SEOmoz KA – Competitor 3 RDLRD (Moz Keyword Explorer)

In this section, we’ll cover filling up the columns with keyword and Google Ads Keyword Tool data.

In the following section, we’ll look at how to narrow down those keywords using the Moz Keyword Analysis tool (or some alternative methods if you are not a Pro member).

Saving the Google Docs Version

If you are signed into your Google account, simply use the File > Save option to save the spreadsheet to your documents and start filling it in with your information.

Downloading Excel and Open Office Versions

If you don’t have Google Docs, or would prefer to save it on your local machine, go to the Google Docs version and use the File > Download As to save it as your desired file type. I’d suggest Excel for best possible functionality.

Step 1: Keyword Discovery

The first phase of keyword research involves coming up with new keyword ideas.

Sometimes this is the most difficult part of the process as many people unfamiliar with keyword competition will select very broad target words such as pizza, hotel, or Los Angeles.

Others will pick obscure phrases that no one will likely search such as SEO/Link Building/Social Media (yes, I’ve seen people trying to similarly over-punctuated phrases).

So the first thing you will need to do is find suitable, related phrases for their business.

You can always start with some simple brainstorming. Look at the main topics on your website and jot down keywords associated with those topics.

I would suggest doing so in Microsoft Excel or another spreadsheet application.

Then, whenever you’re ready to expand on those ideas, continue to some great keyword tools.

Keyword Discovery Tools

The following are a great collection of free and premium tools that will help you discover new keywords related to your website or business.

Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is great for helping you discover new keywords.

To get started, simply enter the keyword or phrase in the tool.

Let’s say we’re researching Social Media Marketing.

Input the phrase and click Search.

keyword research - ubersuggest

You’ll get a breakdown that looks like this:

keyword breakdown in ubersuggest for keyword research
  • Search volume – number of searches the keyword has during a month
  • SEO difficulty – estimated competition in organic search
  • Paid difficulty – estimated competition in paid search
  • Cost per click – average cost per click for a Google Ad

You’re also provided an overview of what it takes, on average, in terms of backlinks and domain score, to reach the first page of Google for the keyword. This is located above a chart displaying the keyword search volume, both for desktop and mobile, over the past 12 months.

You’ll also be able to scroll down and see different variations of your keyword phrase.

keywords ideas in ubersuggest for keyword research

This gives you a wider view of what you can strive to rank for.

For low budgets, you may want to optimize a low competition, low cost per click option that still gets good results. For example, “jobs with social media marketing” fits the mold.

Or, you can pick multiple and A/B test them for the best results.

However you use it, this is a great tool to start with.

Ubersuggest Search Suggestions

Once you have some basic ideas, you can expand upon them by using the five keyword idea variables in Ubersuggest:

  • Suggestions
  • Related
  • Questions
  • Prepositions
  • Comparisons

In the screenshot above, “suggestions” is highlighted by default. But if you’re searching for the largest list of keywords that contain your phrase, click “Related.”

"related" in ubersuggest for keyword research

Every keyword on the list now includes your seed keyword, “social media marketing.”

From there, you can experiment with the other search types. Here are some examples of the keyword phrases you’ll uncover for each one:

  • Questions
    • is social media marketing dead?
    • is social media marketing worth it?
    • is social media marketing effective?
  • Prepositions
    • guide to social media marketing
    • help with social media marketing
    • problems with social media marketing
  • Comparisons
    • social media marketing vs digital marketing
    • social media marketing vs traditional marketing
    • social media marketing and SEO

Alternative Search Suggestions

Looking for alternative suggested search boxes?

The following search engines have similar suggested search options that appear below the search box when you start typing in keywords.

Depending on your keyword, each search engine will offer different suggestions.

Most people stick with Google as it is the most-visited web platform in the world, but it still doesn’t hurt to get additional keyword ideas from elsewhere.

Google Ads Keyword Tool

The next tool up is the commonly referenced Google Ads Keyword Planner.

If you have a Google account and, better yet, an Ads account, I would suggest signing in to those once you arrive on the Google Ads Keyword Tool to get better results.

To give you an idea, I searched for social media when I was not logged into my account and received 100 keyword ideas.

I searched for it again when logged in and received more than 600.

add all keywords to google ads keyword tool for keyword research

My suggestion is if you are looking for keywords just for your static website and not interested in the cost per click pricing (CPC), go with the results without logging into Google Ads.

If you are interested in the CPC pricing and also getting keyword ideas to help with content development, go with the results while logged into Google Ads.

Here is what each of the columns displayed in the Google Ads Keyword Tool will tell you about each of the keyword ideas displayed.

  • Competition – “The Competition column gives you a sense of how many advertisers are bidding for a particular keyword. This data can help you determine how competitive the ad placement is.”
  • Global Monthly Searches – “The approximate 12-month average of user queries for the keyword on Google search.”
  • Local Monthly Searches – “If you specified a country or language for your search, this is the approximate 12-month average number of user queries for the keyword for those countries and languages.”
  • Approximate CPC – “This is the approximate cost-per-click you might pay if you were to bid on the keyword. The CPC is averaged over all the ad positions.”

You can learn more about the search traffic statistics shown in this tool in Google Ads Help.

If you want a simple method to see a broader or narrower range of keywords, you can select this option in the filters on the left side of your screen.

keyword options

You can also select specific Match Types by clicking the “Modify search” tab and scrolling down to the “Plan your budget and get forecasts” option.

using google ads for keyword research - budget and forecasts

Inputting your search term with the added punctuation will change the traffic volume for Global and Local Monthly Searches based on the approximation of traffic that a keyword gets on Google.

  • Broad – The sum of the search volumes for the keyword idea, related grammatical forms, synonyms, and related words. If you were doing PPC and targeted the broad match for social media, ads would show with any searches including social or media. Organic results would include the same.
  • [Exact] The search volume for that keyword idea. If you were doing PPC and targeted the exact match for social media, ads would only show if someone typed in social media but not any other variation of that phrase.
  • “Phrase” – The sum of the search volumes for all terms that include that whole phrase. If you were doing PPC and targeted the phrase match for pizza dough, ads would show for anyone who typed in social media, with or without additional keywords such as social media marketing or about social media. Organic results would include only results including the exact phrase social media.

You can learn more about match types (and some additional ones not on this list) in Ads Help.

You can also see the difference in data based on the three match types using the phrase social media in order of broad, “phrase,” and [exact].

social media keyword planner for keyword research

And if you were to use these match types in a search, you would get 419 million results for a broad match search for social media and only 304 million results for a phrase match search for “social media.”

Going back to the generic term social media, you might want to remove certain words from the keyword ideas.

For example, you may not want to target anything about social media jobs, so you could add the word job under the Negative Keywords tab on the left side of the screen.

Now, you’ll need to export your data.

To do so, simply use the Download button under the Review Plan tab and export to your preferred format.

download your plan in google ads for keyword research

You can then copy the data from the exported spreadsheet to your keyword research spreadsheet.

You can also get this data for the keyword ideas you generated using SEMrush and suggested search by copying and pasting those keywords into the Word or phrase box and checking the box to only show ideas closely related to my search terms.

Then export the data for those keywords and phrases by checking the boxes next to them under the Search Terms section.

At this point, you probably have a lot of great keyword ideas.

In the next section, I will cover how to use the Moz Keyword Analysis Tool (or an alternative method to get the same information if you are not a Pro member) to get additional data and then narrow down your keywords to the ones that you should most likely focus upon for your online marketing strategy.

Step 2 – Analyzing and Choosing the Best Keywords

Now that you have a base spreadsheet to use for keyword data entry, let’s look at what’s next.

I want to show you some ways to get even more data about each keyword and further narrow down your results.

Please note that this data will take a bit of time to compile, so you might want to run through the keyword list and remove any obvious ones that you don’t want.

I usually go with no more than 100 keywords for this part of the process.

Keyword Analysis with Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is a great tool for analyzing which keywords to use and what websites to examine for ideas.

For example, when we search for social media marketing in Ubersuggest, you can see a list of “content ideas”:

ubersuggest content ideas for keyword research

As you can see, a list of pages that rank for the keyword “social media marketing” appears. You can also see how many visits the page gets from the keyword, how many backlinks the page has, and how many shares it has on Facebook, Pinterest, and Reddit.

You can poke around the most successful websites and use that as a jumping-off point for what to include on your own page to rank for the keyword.

Keyword Analysis with Moz

You can get other important data to help you narrow down your target keywords with Moz.

If you have a Pro membership with Moz (you can always get a 30-day free trial if you have just one keyword research project to do), then you have access to a very nice little tool called Keyword Difficulty & SERP Analysis.

This tool will show you the percentage of difficulty for each keyword, giving you an idea of how hard it will be to rank highly for it.

You will also see the top ten sites ranked for each keyword, each listed with its domain authority and the number of root domains linking to it.

The latter is really the information that will help you decide which keywords to target.

You can put in five words at a time, and you can now pick between keyword, root domain, subdomain, or page.

moz keyword explorer

Using our keyword phrase “social media management,” you can see the results of the difficulty assessment, search volume, organic click-through rates, and the balance of ranking ease and end results (Priority).

social media management keyword overview

While this information is helpful, it’s not really anything we don’t already know. We’ve already decided we like this keyword phrase.

If anything, this is just a double-check that confirms the basics you found in the Ads Keyword Tool.

Below this information, you’ll find more keyword suggestions and a SERP analysis of the keyword.

The suggestions are fine for more brainstorming, but we’ll come back to the SERP analysis. That’s the real goldmine.

keyword research serp analysis

You can also find a short list of mentions for your keyword at the bottom of the page.

This is useful in letting you know who is using the keyword and how recently they created content with it.

moz mentions for keyword research

While this information is nice, the real competitor information can be seen when you click on the SERP full analysis for each keyword, such as these results for a social media company.

I like to open them in new tabs for convenience.

moz data

This is the part where you can learn a few things.

First off, you can see who you will be trying to beat.

If your website comes up in this list of the top ten, then congratulations – you’re on the first page for a keyword phrase with a highly competitive keyword difficulty of 61%.

If you’re not in these results, you can compare your own website’s domain authority and linking root domains to the stats of the sites ranking in the top ten.

Domain authority is a score from 1 to 100. The higher a website’s domain authority, the more likely it is to rank for the keywords it is optimized for.

The linking root domains is the number of unique domains linking to a website.

You can see that the site with the highest authority and linking root domains doesn’t necessarily win the top spot.

But if you want to make #1, your site may need a domain authority of 28 or higher and hundreds of linking root domains to beat the competition.

Another thing you can learn from this is whether a keyword is drawing commercial or informational results.

This means that you will learn whether your keyword is being searched for commercial purposes (meaning that someone wants to find a product or service) or whether it is being searched for informational purposes (meaning that people are looking for information, not a product or service).

For social media company, the results include seven actual social media consulting companies and agencies.

lyfe marketing moz data for keyword research

Comparatively, if I do a full analysis of the keyword phrase “what is social media” you will see that the first page of results is purely informational. All of the results are from highly authoritative domains.

11 organic results

So if you are a social media company, you will probably want to target the phrase social media companies for your main business homepage.

You will also want to create some content based around the phrase what is social media and place it on highly authoritative domains such as YouTube and SlideShare to see if you can get it into the rankings for a phrase searched potentially by a million people monthly.

Alternative to the Moz Tool

If you’re not interested in a premium tool, then you can simply look up each keyword and look at websites ranking on the first page of the results.

If you’re interested in the domain authority stats, you can get some using another Moz tool called Open Site Explorer. You’ll get a limited amount of stats for free accounts though.

Or, you can use the free version of the SEOmoz toolbar – just use that and compare it to your own website’s domain authority.

At least with this information, you can still determine the commercial vs. informational usage of a keyword plus some basic stats to compare against your own website.

Step 3: Putting It Together in the Spreadsheet

The final part of the process is taking the spreadsheet and interpreting the data.

I like to use the Conditional Formatting in Excel to highlight cells a certain color based on the numerical value in the cell.

You simply highlight the cell range you want to compare, then go to Conditional Formatting > New Rule.

KISSmetrics Keyword Research

Select the 3-Color Scale Format Style, and change the Lowest Value / Highest Value color when applicable.

Certain fields in your spreadsheet will need to display the fact that a higher number is good whereas a lower number is bad.

For those fields (global & local monthly searches), you will want to leave the color settings as default, as shown below.

Keyword Research in MS Excel

Other fields in your spreadsheet will need to display the fact that a higher number is bad whereas a lower number is good.

For those fields (GAKT – Competition, GAKT – Approximate CPC, SEOmoz KA – Difficulty, SEOmoz KA – Competitor DA, SEOmoz KA – Competitor RDLRD), you will want to change the lowest value color setting to green and the highest value color setting to red, as shown below.

keyword research excel conditional formatting

Once you’re finished, you can highlight the top row and add a filter by applying the Sort & Filter > Filter option.

I like to start with selecting the filter for the SEOmoz KA – Difficulty column and sorting it from smallest to largest.

This way you get the following (click on the image below to see a larger view):

keyword research spreadsheet results

As you can imagine, having the highlighting and sorting options would be very valuable when looking at a spreadsheet with up to 100 keywords.

You could quickly see which keywords have the most searches and least competition or the least competition but most searches.

You could then move over and look at the actual competition for each keyword if you were shooting for #1 rankings.

Step 4: Making the Final Keyword Choices

My suggestion when making the final choice of keywords is as follows:

  • If your website is commercial (offering products or services), go with keywords that seem to have the most commercial intent based on the current ranking websites. If your website is informational (blogs come to mind), go with keywords that have the most informational intent.
  • Look for a “sweet spot” of high search volume in conjunction with low-difficulty/competition.
  • Look at keywords with high search volume with top competitors that have lower domain authority and backlinks.
  • If your website is already ranking on the first page, but not in the top 5 spots (or beneath other search result areas such as images, local results, etc.) and the keyword has good search volume, focus on getting those keywords and phrases to move up.

Sometimes, it’s not the actual decision that is the most difficult – it is actually compiling the data that takes the most time! Also, don’t forget to take the keywords that are more informational and use them for content topic ideas!

This concludes our method of discovering keyword ideas, analyzing them, and then choosing the best for your website.

We have noticed that there are many various ways to perform keyword research, and you have to try out different analysis methods to see which ones speak to you the best when deciding on keywords.

Keyword Research Resources

Keyword Research Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know what keywords to target for my website?

Think about the topics related to your industry or business that your audience is likely to search on the Internet. Use a tool like Ubersuggest to find and select the best keywords for those topics.

Are there free keyword research tools?

Tools like Ubersuggest and Moz have free versions of keyword tools you can use, though you will unlock additional data and features when you select a paid version.

Should you do keyword research for paid campaigns?

You should do keyword research for your organic and your paid marketing.

How does keyword research relate to SEO?

SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank in the search results for specific terms related to your business.

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Conclusion: Keyword Research

Completing thorough keyword research is crucial if you want to drive traffic to your website.

There are many keyword research methods to try in addition to those I outlined in this post. As you get more experienced with keyword research, you may want to try out some additional methods.

There are also a plethora of keyword research tools at your disposal. My favorite (biased though I may be) is Ubersuggest. Our team is continually rolling out new features to provide you with better data that other tools don’t provide.

If you don’t want to do your own keyword research, SEO, or digital marketing, you can reach out to my agency for help.

What is your favorite method of keyword research?

What are your favorite keyword research tools?

Marketing Automation: What is it, Examples & Tools [2022]

guide to marketing automation 2021

Marketing is important to your business.

Just call me Captain Obvious.

However, as customers evolve, so does the unpredictable marketing landscape.

This means you’re likely spending more and more time trying to keep up with the latest marketing tips and trends.

That’s wasting your precious time that you could use for other tasks.

What if there was a way to simplify? Or even automate those tasks altogether?

No, I’m not just talking about emails.

Keeping up with what you should be measuring or targeting can be exhausting, difficult, and time-consuming.

But marketing automation tools make your job a little more painless, so you and your team can focus your time and attention on other efforts that drive revenue.

Luckily for you, I’ve compiled a list of the best marketing automation tools with countless features and automated workflows that will make marketing less of a headache.

Here are 20+ tools (in no particular order) that you should try out if you’re looking for new, easy ways to streamline marketing functions.

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation is the act of using software and technology to create and implement applications to automate repetitive tasks, such as (yes) email marketing, ad campaigns, tracking, and much more.

For example, brands could create an automatic lead generation funnel that gathers an email address, sends a recorded demo, then invites the prospect to schedule a live demo.

Marketing automation is not a nice-to-have strategy you can ignore — the industry is expected to be worth more than 25 billion dollars by 2023.

If you want to compete, you need to be using marketing automation.

The good news? Using marketing automation can save you time, money, and improve your marketing efficiency. Here are a few ways to add it to your strategy.

1. Let Constant Contact Deliver Powerful Emails Simply and Easily

Constant Contact is an extremely useful email marketing automation tool that has powerful automation capabilities to take your marketing beyond just the basics.

marketing automation guide constant contact

Its autoresponder is wonderfully adaptable. You can build welcome sequences, drip campaigns, and any other sort of automated email campaign with fine-tuned customization.

That applies to everything: timing, volume, subject matter, targeting, triggering, and even the content in your emails.

Plus, Constant Contact allows you to quickly embed custom forms on your landing pages. So, you not only get names and email addresses, but any other information you want to ask for.

Thus, you can send one welcome sequence to new senior VP-level subscribers, another one for sales folks, another one for regular Joes, and on and on. And that’s just on the basis of job title. You could thin slice on anything from where they live to their favorite kind of beer.

Make it as granular and intricate as you’d like. Set long-tail, automated campaigns for each track and let Constant Contact do the hard work for you over weeks or months. All you have to do is look at the reports and keep a finger on the pulse.

You’ll need Constant Contact’s Plus plan to really reap the benefits of the platform’s email automation. That starts at $45/month for up to 500 contacts in your list, scaling upward at increments of $25-$30 for each additional 2,500 contacts you need to accommodate.

2. Gain Opportunities on Abandoned Carts and After Purchase with Sendinblue

Marketing automation is a massive tool for ecommerce. With Sendinblue, you can close the gaps that allow sales opportunities to slip through your grasp.

And it’s a piece of cake to set up. Sendinblue comes with powerful automation capabilities out of the box. You can build your own automation workflows, but the platform comes with eight helpful, prebuilt options for ecommerce.

The two I love best are triggered by either a completed purchase on your web store or an abandoned cart.

In either case, Sendinblue sets up the first and last actions in a three-step automation: the trigger event (either completed checkout or a visitor leaves with items in their cart) and the action (send them a message).

You’ll determine the delay between the trigger event and when you want the email to be sent out and build out the message in those follow-up emails. The latter can entail offering a promo code to complete their purchase or for their next one, personalized reminders about the product they’re interested in, or a satisfaction survey, to name a few examples.

In minutes, you can have automations set up to generate sales from situations you may not have been able to capitalize on before.

Sendinblue offers automations on every plan, including their free forever package, but the tiers below Premium will limit you to targeting up to 2,000 contacts.

Try out Sendinblue’s free plan and see how easy it is to gain ecommerce opportunities through automation.

3. Automatically Engage and Grow Your Following on Instagram with MobileMonkey

MobileMonkey is a powerful Instagram automation tool that lets you automate everything from replying to comments, stories, and even direct messaging.

This is a huge advantage for busy marketers looking to get back more time in their day through automation.

And don’t forget the power of automation to grow your audience, your brand affinity, and your conversions from hot engagement channels like Instagram.

MobileMonkey Instagram marketing tools let you automate:

  • Replies to DMs
  • DM replies to Story Mentions
  • DM replies to post comments

And if you really want to juice the Instagram marketing funnel, set up drip campaigns to send timed follow-up messages to anyone who starts a messaging convo with you.

The Instagram follow-ups feature, which is included in InstaChamp as well as the multi-channel MobileMonkey messaging automation suite (along with messaging tools for Facebook Messenger, SMS, and web chat) is a convenient way to send offers and promotions to anyone who DMs your Instagram.

Best of all, these Instagram DM automations are 100% Instagram-approved because MobileMonkey is one of the only official partners for Facebook and Instagram marketing automation.

4. Generate Leads, Close Seals, and Manage Your Pipeline on Auto-Pilot With HubSpot

marketing automation hubspot

HubSpot is an inbound marketing tool with the goal of turning outbound leads into inbound ones.

It’s perfect for content marketing.

Their Starter package is $45 a month for all the free tools plus simple automation, conversation routing, task queues, and email support.

Their Professional Plan starts at $450 per month, which provides everything in the Starter package, plus marketing automation, goal-based nurturing, and custom workflows.

You also get Salesforce integration, smart content, attribution reporting, user roles, A/B testing for CTAs, and A/B testing for emails.

Enterprise pricing is $1,200 and includes revenue reporting, custom-event reporting, custom-event automation triggers, predictive-lead scoring, contacts and company reporting, and event-based segmentation are included.

5. Use Customer.io to Automate Timely Emails

Customer.io lets you send targeted messages to your customers that you can craft based on how they interact with your business.

marketing automation guide customer.io graph

The best part about this tool is that it integrates with your mobile app or website so you can see data in real-time and triggers actions by adding in predefined rules.

Basically, it makes personalized messages simple.

Other features include A/B testing, conversion tracking, customer profiles, and in-context conversations.

Pricing starts at $150 per month for unlimited emails, SMS, tracking, and technical support. Their Premium plan costs $995 a month and includes all the basic features plus dedicated customer service rep, onboarding, HIPPPA compliance, and premium tech support.

6. Supercharge Your Marketing Analytics Automatically With Pardot

marketing automation perdot

Pardot, a Salesforce company, is a marketing automation suite perfect for boosting your revenue.

Amp up your engagement with CRM integration, email marketing, lead nurturing, lead scoring, and ROI reporting.

This tool is perfect for helping sales teams shorten sales cycles.

Their Growth plan pricing is $1,250 per month, and features include email marketing, in-depth prospect tracking, lead nurturing, and lead scoring and grading.

You also get ROI reporting, forms and landing pages, and standard CRM integration.

Their Plus plan is $2,500 per month and includes all standard features plus advanced email analytics, email-rendering preview, and spam analysis.

Email and landing page A/B testing, advanced dynamic content, and Google AdWords integration are all included.

You also get API access, multiple scoring categories, an integrated marketing calendar, and social profiles.

Advanced pricing is $4,000 per month and includes pro features as well as customer-user roles, custom-object integration, and API access for up to 100,000 calls per day.

It also includes a dedicated IP address and phone support.

7. Use AdRoll to Automate Ad Campaigns

automation guide adroll

AdRoll is helpful for retargeting customers through re-engagement on Facebook, Twitter, and the web.

With cross-device and cross-platform retargeting capabilities as well as flexible segmentation, you can provide customized experiences that dramatically improve marketing efficiency.

Key features include retargeting across devices and platforms, dynamic LiquidAds, flexible segmentation, transparent analytics, and expert optimization and conversion reporting.

AdRoll offers a free plan with limited features, or you can get their Growth plan for $19 a month.

9. Automatically Nurture Leads With Marketo

Marketing automation guide marketo

This marketing software lets you drive revenue with lead management, mobile marketing, and more.

Marketo, an Adobe company, is a cloud-based tool for companies large and small that not only helps build customer relationships but helps you sustain them.

There are no set-up fees, and the tool comes with a free trial, so you don’t have to commit until you’re sure it’s right for you.

Their first product was “Lead Management” in 2006, but the company has grown tremendously since then and now offers a larger variety of features.

9. Automate Inbound Call Analytics with Dialog Tech (Invoca)

marketing automation guide dialog tech

Dialog Tech (now called Invoca) is great for voice-based marketing automation so you can boost ROI with call automation and analytics.

You can optimize voice interactions with Dialog Tech’s tools by measuring your success and adjusting accordingly.

Features include keyword call-tracking, phone surveys, caller-profile data, reverse lookup, conversation analytics, in-call scoring, geolocation routing, voice broadcasts, SMS, and more.

Keyword call tracking is a game-changer for voice interactions.

Otherwise, you really have no way of tracking that kind of data over the phone yourself unless you’re manually recording calls and playing them back later.

Even then, you’d have to manually track how those customers reacted after hearing certain keywords.

Unfortunately, they don’t publish their pricing. So you’ll have to get in touch with them to get a quote.

10. Deliver Personalized Campaigns Across Multiple Channels With Oracle Eloqua

marketing automation guide oracle example

Oracle’s B2B cross-channel marketing solution Oracle Eloqua lets marketers plan automated campaigns while simultaneously personalizing them.

The company was launched in 1999 with the goal of boosting lead generation.

Now, the tool has grown into an effective personalization device across various channels like email, video, and mobile.

Oracle Eloqua will give you all of the lead-management tools you need and segment your audience in specific ways to get them to buy.

Plus, you can track reports and insights into a buyer’s journey with just a few clicks.

They no longer list their pricing online, but previous plans started around $2,000 a month.

11. Track Marketing Interactions Across All Channels With Bizible

marketing automation guide bizable example

Bizible closes the gap between sales and marketing.

You can maximize AdWords ROI and use multichannel tracking to get a full picture of both sales and marketing metrics.

Big features include keyword-level metrics for AdWords as well as metrics for campaigns and ad content, UTM parameters, detailed lead history, custom reports, and integrations.

Bizable was purchased by Adobe, and now exists as a product under Marketo. You’ll need to reach out for a quote and more information.

12. Let Act-On Seamlessly Nurture Inbound and Outbound Leads

marketing automation act-on

Act-On’s cloud-based platform lets you connect inbound and outbound leads to manage your nurturing programs. There are tons of other helpful features too, like landing page design.

With this tool, you can take your revenue to the next level.

The company was founded in 2008 and first sold software through Cisco exclusively.

The professional package starts out at $900 per month for 2,500 active contacts, 3 marketing users, and 50 users in sales. You’ll get 30,000 API calls-per-day.

Enterprise pricing is $2,000 per month for 2,500 active contacts, 6 marketing users, and 100 sales users. You’ll also get 30,000 API calls-per-day with this feature.

13. Automate the Customer Journey With LeadSquared

pasted image 0 1071

LeadSquared, founded in 2012, helps small and medium companies align their marketing and sales efforts.

Capture leads from inbound email, online campaigns, phone calls, your website, chat, and more with this tool.

LeadSquared offers a free trial, and pricing for automation plans starts out at $400 for the basic package (10,000 contacts).

The cost is $1200 for the standard one (20,000 contacts) and $2500 for the enterprise package (200,000 contacts).

14. Get CRM, Sales, and Marketing Tools Automated Together with Keap

marketing automation guide keap

Keap (formerly Infusion Soft) is for you if you want to get organized, increase sales, and save time.

Don’t we all?

If you’re a small business owner or blogger, this tool is perfect for you.

Keap makes it simple to create a new sales or marketing strategy and execute it so that you can capture and close sales more quickly.

Save time by automating repetitive tasks like follow-ups, billing, contact management, and payments.

Pricing starts at $79 for Lite plan, $159 for their Pro plan, and $199 for their Max plan. Each package covers 500 contacts, with additional costs for additional contacts or users.

15. Grow, Engage, and Acquire Customers with Genoo‘s WPMktgEngine

marketing automation guide kpmktg engine

WPMktgEngine is a WordPress plugin designed to help small businesses implement marketing automation.

Capture lead forms, profile customers, and create new landing pages to drive results fast.

Key features include a centralized lead database with unlimited leads, landing page design, CMS, lead activity tracking, SEO analysis, and more.

Their Conversion Pro package starts at $166 per month for up to 15,000 leads. The Engage Pro package starts at $83/month for 5,00 leads, and their Inbound Pro packages starts at $44 per month for up to 2,500 leads

16. Attract, Capture, and Streamline Leads With Sugar Market

marketing automatoin guide salesfusion

Salesfusion (now called Sugar Market) is another tool that helps B2B companies link sales and marketing more closely together.

The truth is, 70 percent of the buying cycle is complete before the customer ever contacts sales.

Sugar Market helps businesses build revenue funnels by creating custom digital conversations that marketing and sales representatives can use to convert customers.

The tools help your team say the right thing to the right leads at the right time and includes all the CRM features you could ever need.

Pricing depends on the number of contacts you want but begins at $1,000 per month for 10,000 contacts.

17. Segment and Automate Customer Experiences Using iContact

icontact marketing automation tool

iContact provides marketing-automation software, email marketing services, and more so that your team can drive successful results every time.

Integrate landing pages, email marketing, social media management, and analytics together to outsmart your competition and reach more contacts.

Plus, you’ll have access to strategic advisors who can help you “optimize your sending strategy and inbox delivery for maximum conversions.”

This is the tool for you if you’re looking to grow your business and become notable in your industry.

Pricing depends on your number of contacts, but you can easily select your list size.

icontact pricing marketing automation

iContact is a minimum of $15 per month for 1500 contacts for the basic Email Marketing package, and $30 per month for 500 contacts for the Pro package.

The Pro package includes features not available with the basic Email Marketing package, such as:

  • Email, automation, and landing page reporting
  • Unlimited landing page creation
  • Custom API
  • Smart sending
  • Automation followups
  • Welcome, birthday, and event eries
  • Segmentation
  • Behavioral targeting
  • Social monitoring

18. Get BuzzBuilder Pro to Automate Cold Email Campaigns

buzz builder marketing automation guide

BuzzBuilder Pro is useful for entrepreneurs, sales teams, and marketers. Find prospects, generate leads, and nurture them more easily.

Key features include advanced email marketing automation, a website form builder, tracking and analytics, lead nurturing, scoring and ranking, social media marketing, and hot-lead alerts.

You will need to call for detailed pricing information.

19. Create Automated Marketing Workflows With Net-Results

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Net-Results helps to automate almost every kind of marketing task imaginable.

Their goal is to help you save time while allowing you to better uncover and nurture leads so that your revenue will grow quickly.

Features include an email builder, form builder, landing-page builder, campaign builder, and A/B-test builder. Nurture leads, automate workflows, and more.

Pricing ranges start at $800 per month for 2,500 contacts and go up from there.

20. Streamline and Simplify Marketing Automation With GreenRope

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GreenRope is “the ultimate dashboard for your business.”

This tool is useful for completing marketing automation and CRM all in one place.

Manage operations, sales, and marketing all from one dashboard that will help you visualize your performance and make key business decisions.

Features include interaction tracking, event and project management, calendar booking, SMS marketing, surveys, video tracking, and predictive analysis.

You can also trigger automation, lead scoring, analysis, prediction, and engagement.

Pricing starts at $99 per month for 500 contacts and goes up to $799 per month for up to 50,00 contacts.

21. Deliver Automated Email Campaigns Using MailChimp

marketing automation mailchimp screenshot

With intelligent email marketing features, it’s hard not to love MailChimp.

This tool is perfect for contacting prospects or customers who are vital to your success. If you need an effective email tool, this is one you should definitely check out.

Features include email marketing automation, personalized emails, automated welcome emails, behavioral targeting, engagement monitoring, and more.

With this tool, you can trigger emails based on actions like sign-up date and website activity.

The cost is free for up to 2,000 contacts, and upwards of $425 or more per month depending on your total number of subscribers.

22. Automate Marketing Processes with Gliffy

marketing automation tool gliffy

Create organizational charts, high-quality flowcharts, UML diagrams, network diagrams, technical drawings, wireframes, and more with Gliffy.

It works in your web browser to help you visualize workflows and boost marketing productivity.

Key features include workflow organization, an intuitive interface, collaboration with anyone with access to a web browser, and more.

The best part? They have a free trial!

23. Use Inbound Marketing Automation with Jumplead

marketing automation jumpead

Jumplead turns website visitors into leads and then nurtures them until they become paying customers.

Jumplead is a go-to source for everything from lead tracking to CRM, analytics, and automation.

Features include lead tracking, CRM, behavior-triggered actions, email marketing, landing pages, and analytics.

The cost is free for 200 visitors and goes up from there. The pro package is $199 per month for 20,000 visitors.

Bonus: Add fresh data to your marketing campaign with DataForSEO

DataForSEO provides “comprehensive SEO data via API at a predictable price.”.

While they mostly work with SEO providers, you can use their data to juice up your marketing efforts.

Here’s a list of API’s DataForSEO provides:

  • Rank tracking API
  • SERP API
  • Keywords data API
  • Competitor API
  • OnPage API
  • Keyword finder API

Marketing Automation FAQ

What is marketing automation?

A strategy that uses software that creates “rules,” which allows brands to create an efficient, often hands-off marketing process.

What are the benefits of marketing automation?

Automation allows you to get more done in less time, improve effectiveness, and provides access to far more data. For small or streamlined teams, it is ideal.

Are there any free marketing automation tools?

Some tools offer a free trial or free plan, including MailChimp, HubSpot, and Zoho.

What can I do with marketing automation?

A ton! You can automate email campaigns, reporting, lead nurturing, lead scoring, and much more.

Marketing Automation Conclusion

Good marketing has the ability to set you apart from your competition.

However, it can be hard to keep up with what marketing strategies work and which ones don’t.

Even when you do, it’s hard to focus on all of them at once. You don’t always have the time or energy to do it. Neither do I.

Thankfully, marketing automation tools exist to make marketing easier for you and your team.

By automating, you can spend your time and attention focusing on other efforts that will increase your company’s success.

Try out some of these marketing automation tools based on your needs and budget.

Kick back as they streamline your processes for you.

Then, pick your favorites and stick with them.

What marketing automation tools are you using?