8 Best Salesforce App for Advertising Agency Project Management

No matter the nature of your business, running effective advertising campaigns is key to its success. This holds especially true in the media sales and advertising sector, where your role involves ensuring the success of your clients' advertising efforts.

Therefore, it's crucial to find applications that streamline the management of quotes, clients, payments, and all your content. Doing so is vital for business growth, maintaining popularity, and achieving high customer satisfaction levels.

Prioritizing the maximization of your business assets is essential. These assets could be your media content, client data, top sales representatives, or analytics reports. Effectively leveraging these resources is necessary for the overall success and efficiency of your business.

What are salesforce apps?

Salesforce apps are specialized applications designed to extend the functionality of Salesforce's Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. These apps, available on Salesforce's AppExchange, offer a range of tools and solutions tailored to various business needs. 

They are designed to seamlessly integrate with your existing Salesforce system, enhancing its capabilities and allowing you to customize your CRM experience according to your specific requirements.

For instance, if you're looking to improve customer service, there are apps for advanced case management or AI-driven insights into customer behavior. If your focus is sales, you can find apps that provide enhanced analytics, lead generation tools, lead qualification, or sales forecasting capabilities.

Why do advertising agencies need a salesforce app for project management?

Advertising agencies operate in a fast-paced, ever-evolving environment where managing multiple projects efficiently is crucial to success. Salesforce apps for project management are increasingly vital for these agencies for several reasons:

1. Centralized Client Management: Salesforce apps offer centralized platforms where all client information, communication, and project details are stored. This ensures that every team member has access to the latest data, leading to consistent client interactions and a deeper understanding of client needs.

2. Enhanced Collaboration: Salesforce apps facilitate seamless collaboration, allowing for real-time updates, shared calendars, and integrated communication tools. This ensures that everyone is on the same page, reducing misunderstandings and delays.

3. Project Tracking and Visibility: Salesforce apps provide comprehensive dashboards and reporting tools, giving managers clear visibility into each project's status, resource allocation, and deadlines, enabling timely interventions when necessary.

4. Efficient Resource Management: Salesforce apps offer sophisticated resource management features, enabling agencies to allocate resources effectively, anticipate shortages, and manage workloads to prevent burnout.

5. Data-Driven Decision Making: Salesforce apps offer robust analytics and data visualization tools, helping agencies make informed decisions based on real-time data, optimizing campaign strategies, and improving ROI.

6. Scalability and Customization: Salesforce apps are scalable and customizable, ensuring that the platform grows with the agency, accommodating new clients, more extensive projects, and additional features as needed.

7. Enhanced Creativity and Innovation: By streamlining administrative tasks and project management processes, creative teams can focus more on what they do best – creating compelling advertising content. 

8. Improved Client Satisfaction: Salesforce apps help in maintaining a high level of professionalism and reliability, which is crucial for client retention and reputation.

Read More: Top 10 Best Advertising Agency Project Management Tools of all time

Essential Features of a Salesforce Project Management App

1. Resource Allocation: Seek an app that enables efficient management and oversight of your resources, allowing for effective task and workforce allocation. A tool with visual insights is key to fully utilizing your organization's personnel and boosting productivity.

2. GANTT Charts: Opt for an app that includes Gantt Charts, as they are crucial for visualizing tasks, timelines, and dependencies in a project. Though Salesforce doesn’t offer this feature natively, several apps integrate it.

3. Time Tracking: Ensure the app has robust time tracking capabilities to facilitate easier forecasting of project timelines. It should allow for comparisons between actual and estimated timeframes.

4. Templates: For repetitive project processes, a feature that offers project templates is invaluable. It saves time by eliminating the need to recreate the same steps repeatedly.

5. Team Collaboration Tools: Effective communication is vital for project success. Choose an app that supports seamless team collaboration, ensuring clear communication and effortless file sharing among project members.

List of Best salesforce app for advertising agency project management

1. ClientVenue

ClientVenue is an effective tool tailored for small to medium-sized businesses and agencies, streamlining the management of client relationships.

This platform is built to ease your workload, providing extensive assistance with project management, scheduling, billing, invoicing, and monitoring revenue. Its all-encompassing support covers everything from the first interaction with a client to the final transaction.

Features

• Billing and invoicing
• Project management
• Reporting
• Resource management
• Scheduling
• Client Portal
• Onboarding and project intake form
• Proposal Templates
• Customizable Webpage

2. Milestone PM

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Milestone PM serves as another independent project management platform, boasting excellent integration with Salesforce. This straightforward task management system is sufficiently adaptable for small businesses, yet it can be tailored to suit intricate business projects.

Although Milestone PM might be the least comprehensive project management platform mentioned here, its integration with Salesforce significantly boosts its capabilities. 

The collaboration between Salesforce and Milestone PM brings numerous extra benefits, including Activity Sync for synchronizing project tasks, improved Gantt Chart features, resource allocation, task interlinking, and the ability to create custom templates and fields.

Features of Milestone PM

• Salesforce Activity Sync enables the synchronization of project tasks with Salesforce Tasks and Events, consolidating everything in one location. This provides users with complete visibility of all their project-related activities.
• Enhancements to the Gantt Chart include features like email integration and user-friendly drag-and-drop functionality.
• Resource assignment is also made flexible, allowing the assignment of any contacts as resources, regardless of whether they are licensed Salesforce users.
• The platform offers the ability to create custom fields in project templates, adding a layer of customization.
• Furthermore, Email Workflows are in place to notify users about new project task assignments or updates to existing projects.

3. Precursive

Precursive is a Salesforce native app that provides comprehensive, visual oversight of your business's assets, staff availability, and project management, enhancing customer time-to-value. 

It allows you to allocate resources for projects well in advance – be it days, weeks, or months – while keeping an eye on budgets, costs, and profits. 

Project managers can streamline their workload and foster a workflow that interlinks departments smoothly, constantly updates customers, adapts efficiently to changes, and minimizes revenue loss.

Features

• Accelerate customer onboarding with a dedicated app.
• Thoroughly manage resources, encompassing everything from capacity planning and utilization tracking to straightforward scheduling.
• Utilize a drag-and-drop interface for allocating resources.
• Flexible planning tools to accommodate availability shifts.
• Gantt charts, skill search, and workforce profiles ensure optimal job-person matching.
• Easily access the availability and skills of even remote workers with a simple click.
• Swiftly overview project finances, including budgets, costs, margins, profits, and milestones.
• Forecast revenue with analytic reporting and visualize both current and future trends.
• Precisely track timesheets, including detailed productivity annotations, billing, and expenses, to curb revenue loss.

4. Mission Control

This Salesforce project management application is designed to adapt seamlessly to your organization's changes, particularly in updating systems and implementing new access control systems for enhanced security. 

The application records these updates, significantly saving time that would otherwise be spent manually tracking these changes.

A standout feature of this application is its 'roles' functionality. It helps maintain an organized structure for Salesforce professionals within your organization.

 For example, consider a Salesforce professional from team A who takes medical leave in the middle of a project. The roles feature tracks when this team member departs from group A, their period of unavailability, and the last task they completed on the project.

Features

• Adaptive System Integration: Keeps up with organizational changes, especially in system updates and security enhancements.
• Time-Saving Record Keeping: Automatically documents updates, reducing manual effort and saving valuable time.
• Roles Management: Manages and tracks positions and responsibilities of Salesforce professionals within your organization.
• Leave and Absence Tracking: Monitors team members' absences, including start and end dates, and the impact on ongoing projects.
• Activity Log: Maintains a detailed record of the last actions performed by professionals on any given project.

5. Taskray

This Salesforce project management application features robust customer onboarding capabilities. It includes a unique function known as "plan, work, report, and repeat." TaskRay's scheduling system enables the assignment and reassignment of project tasks across the team as needed, along with the creation of basic task dependencies.

Features

• The application provides users with enhanced control over their Project Templates, facilitating the easy copying, cloning, and management of tasks, checklists, and related files. 
• It fully integrates Chatter, allowing team members to collaborate efficiently using this native Salesforce feature.
• Kanban enthusiasts will appreciate TaskRay's inclusion of a Kanban Board. 
• Additionally, the weekly Agenda tool offers a clear view of upcoming tasks. 
• For daily organization, the Daily Planner feature sends email reminders about upcoming activities, ensuring users stay on top of their tasks.

6. Operative One

Operative One stands out as the sole application seamlessly integrating all aspects of digital advertising innovation into your Salesforce framework. It enables media companies to efficiently engage with prospects who have a higher likelihood of conversion, pairing them with tailored content and products. 

This comprehensive solution empowers media and advertising firms to handle every stage of their clients' advertising journey, from initial sales engagement to monthly invoicing.

Features

• Precisely target your products to specific demographics, aligned with relevant marketing content.
• Consolidate individual advertisements into ready-to-deploy packages.
• Unify the sales, advertisement operations, and finance processes into a cohesive end-to-end system.
• Tailor sales approval processes based on your selected criteria.
• Track and evaluate the revenue contributions of individual sales representatives and teams.
• Efficiently create detailed business proposals.
• Strategically manage advertising budgets by date to maximize all available opportunities.

7. Inspire Planner

TGS, a renowned Salesforce development company, has acclaimed this application as highly effective for Salesforce-related activities. Users have observed that while the latest version of Salesforce software is feature-rich, it can be challenging to navigate specific project tasks.

Features

• An interactive Gantt chart that effortlessly supports complex task dependencies like Finish-to-Start, Start-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish, and Start-to-Finish, including handling multiple predecessors.
• Visual Kanban boards providing a streamlined approach for task management.
• Resource allocation views that display both available and overallocated resources, with filtering options based on resource attributes.
• Time Tracking feature enabling comparison between Planned Project Effort and Actual Effort, enhancing accuracy in project forecasting.
• Unlimited access to Project Templates, which can be linked to any Salesforce object, such as Opportunities and Accounts.
• Advanced project management automation, including automatic project creation when Opportunities reach the Closed/Won stage.
• An External Project Portal to share projects with customers or partners.
• Simplified project file sharing complemented with complete integration of Chatter for enhanced communication.

8. Accelo

Accelo is a cloud-based CRM tailored for professional service firms. Its automation capabilities enhance both productivity and profitability in various service industries. 

The sales automation feature keeps the CRM updated with every client engagement, streamlining the process and issuing alerts for potential deviations. 

Features

• Cloud-Based CRM: Specifically designed for professional service firms.
• Sales Automation: Automatically updates the CRM with every client interaction and sends alerts for deviations in the process.
• Team Scheduling: Efficiently organizes and manages team schedules.
• Client Records Management: Maintains comprehensive records of client interactions and history.
• Team Inbox: A unified inbox that consolidates team communications.
• Automatic Tracking and Sharing: Streamlines the tracking of project progress and facilitates information sharing among team members.
• One-Click Quote to Project Conversion: Simplifies the process of turning quotes into actionable projects.
• Drag-and-Drop Gantt Charts: Provides a visual and interactive way to manage project timelines and tasks.

Why is ClientVenue the best Salesforce tool for Advertising Agency Project Management?

ClientVenue as software is designed with powerful automation capabilities, making it the perfect solution for many businesses. Its customizable workflows, templates, and triggers enable users to easily automate tasks like sending invoices, contracts and questionnaires.

ClientVenue has a user-friendly interface, enabling its users to navigate it easily. For added convenience, video tutorials and customer support are also available to help users get started and maximize its features.

ClientVenue helps to keep everything organized and on track with features like task lists, time tracking, and calendar integration.

Whatever the size of your business, ClientVenue has everything you need to automate your processes, manage your projects, and ultimately achieve your goals.

Top Features offered of ClientVenue

1. Client Onboarding Workflow

ClientVenue specializes in streamlined client onboarding workflows, essential for ad agencies to swiftly and accurately meet client requirements and ensure project success.

Read more: 6 Step Client Onboarding Checklist for New Agency

2. Billing and Invoicing Management

Tailored for ad agencies, ClientVenue centralizes all invoicing and billing processes, enabling seamless tracking of payments and efficient project financial closure.

3. Scheduling Efficiency

With its drag-and-drop scheduling, ClientVenue is perfect for ad agencies to assign tasks, set deadlines, and monitor campaign progress, optimizing team productivity and campaign timelines.

4. Resource Management for Creative Projects

ClientVenue offers a comprehensive view of resources crucial for ad campaigns, including creative personnel, contractors, and materials, ensuring smooth project flow and deadline adherence.

5. Project Management for Ad Campaigns

Designed for ad agencies, ClientVenue facilitates end-to-end project management, from campaign planning to execution, with real-time tracking for every stage of the advertising project.

Read more:

6. Advanced Reporting for Campaign Performance

ClientVenue's reporting tools are ideal for ad agencies, offering customized reports on campaign progress and effectiveness, ensuring data-driven campaign optimization.

7. Client Portal for Collaborative Communication

The Client Portal feature in ClientVenue enhances communication between agency teams and clients, ensuring organized and secure exchanges of campaign updates and feedback.

8. Daily Standup Meetings for Agency Teams

ClientVenue's daily standup feature helps ad agency teams synchronize quickly, align on daily tasks, and plan effectively, ensuring continuous campaign momentum.

9. Customized Agency-Focused Domain Setup

Ad agencies can customize their ClientVenue dashboard to reflect their unique domain structure, enhancing project organization and brand consistency.

10. Time Tracking for Creative Tasks

The time tracking feature in ClientVenue is particularly beneficial for ad agencies, providing insights into time spent on creative tasks and projects, aiding in efficient time management.

11. Personalized Dashboard for Creative Projects

ClientVenue allows ad agencies to customize their dashboard, tailoring it to their specific needs with personalized colors, notifications, and layouts, enhancing the user experience in creative projects.

12. Seamless Integrations for Agency Workflows

With extensive integrations including Google Suite, Zapier, Slack, and more, ClientVenue seamlessly fits into the tech ecosystem of modern ad agencies, enhancing workflow and productivity.

Pricing

ClientVenue offers two distinct pricing options:

Professional Plan:

• Target Audience: Ideal for small to medium-sized businesses seeking fundamental project management tools.
• Price: $25 per user, per month.
• Features: Unlimited projects, 10 GB storage, timesheets, resource management, client invoicing and payments, a branded white-label portal, people performance reports, integrations, and priority support.

Enterprise Plan:

• Target Audience: Suited for larger organizations in need of advanced functionalities.
• Price: $40 per user, per month.
• Features: Everything included in the Professional plan, plus client accounts, 100 GB storage, a dedicated services selling page, a dedicated account manager, custom development options, personalized onboarding and coaching, and daily standup meetings.

Conclusion

ClientVenue positions itself as a highly effective and adaptable project management platform, specifically tailored for the dynamic needs of advertising agencies. With its two distinct pricing plans, the platform caters to a broad spectrum of agency sizes and requirements. 

ClientVenue excels in streamlining complex ad campaigns, client interactions, and creative processes. Its capabilities in project tracking, client invoicing, and resource management, coupled with specialized features like a white-label portal and custom development options, make it an indispensable tool for advertising agencies. 

These attributes, along with the platform's adaptability and scalability, ensure that ClientVenue is a strategic asset for any advertising agency looking to enhance efficiency and drive success in a competitive industry.

If you're searching for the best advertising agency project software that will help you simplify your salesforce workflow and boost your productivity, ClientVenue is an ideal choice.