As an online marketer, you need the right tools to help improve your marketing campaigns. Picking the right tools can be extremely difficult as there are so many options available. So I put together this list of the best digital marketing tools. These funnels all come with a free trial!
Feedly
Many a marketer mourned the loss of Google Reader (RIP), but Feedly is just as good – if not better. Stay on top of the day’s news and must-read content with this awesome RSS app.
Cost: Free for personal use; pro plans start at $5.41/month
CoSchedule
Another scheduling/editorial calendar tool, CoSchedule also offers some nifty free content tools like its Headline Analyzer. Well worth a look for small teams.
Cost: Plans start at $15/month
After the Deadline
Not all content teams can afford the luxury of hiring a dedicated copyeditor, which is what makes After the Deadline so awesome. This free Chrome plugin checks your grammar, spelling, and everything else you need to keep an eye on before hitting “Publish.”
Cost: FREE
Polar
Adding interactive elements like online polls can be a great way to make your content more engaging. Polar makes adding polls to your content a snap, and it has a really intuitive interface, so you don’t need mad coding skills to get started.
Cost: FREE
SlideShare
For marketers who do a lot of conference presentations or webinars, SlideShare is the other social network. Create awesome slide decks, then share them on SlideShare with your audience – simple.
Cost: FREE
PlaceIt
Ever wanted to put screenshots of your product into stock imagery, but lack Photoshop skills? Now you can with PlaceIt, an easy way to customize images with your own branding and product stills. It also features video integration, which looks awesome.
Cost: FREE
Canva
Canva lets you create stylish, striking visuals for social media posts and content projects with an effortless drag-and-drop interface. You can upload your own assets to work with (for free), or pay a small fee to use Canva’s own library of visual materials.
Cost: Free for limited use; pro plans start at $12.95/month
Share As Image
A really nifty tool for content marketers, Share As Image lets you add text to any image on the web for fast, easy social sharing of visual content. Just be sure to get permission to use images you find online before including them in your campaigns.
Cost: Free for limited use; pro plans start at $8/month
Piktochart
Long gone are the days when you needed to hire an expensive graphic design specialist to create beautiful infographics. Piktochart is an awesome free tool that lets you start designing infographics, presentations and more in minutes. Well worth bookmarking.
Cost: FREE
Tableau Public
Incorporating data visualization into your content projects is a near-guaranteed way to make them stickier and really pop when it comes to illustrating complex topics. Tableau Public is an amazingly powerful, completely free data visualization tool that lets you create incredible interactive visualizations. Amazing.
Cost: FREE
The Readability Test Tool
Nailing the style and tone of your content is crucial. To check if your latest post is a little on the wordy side, check out The Readability Test Tool, which evaluates web pages according to the Flesch Kincaid Reading Scale.
Cost: FREE
Quora
It might not seem like a content marketing tool, but Quora can be invaluable for crowdsourcing answers to your questions. Many content marketers use Quora to find quotes, explain complex topics, and other ways to make their content more accessible.
Cost: FREE
OmmWriter
Hate drafting in Word? Need to eliminate distractions while you’re blogging? Then give OmmWriter a try. This minimalist writing environment strips away everything between you and that all-important first draft, giving you the time and space to get more done.
Cost: FREE
Evernote
Personally, I favor the hundreds-of-bookmarks-organized-into-folders approach to research, but if this sounds like too much hassle, give Evernote a try. This powerful free app lets you save virtually anything you find online to a personalized folder system synced across all your devices – awesome.
Cost: FREE
Google Ads Editor
If you work on large campaigns or multiple campaigns in Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords) on a regular basis, you’ll need Google Ads Editor.
The recently redesigned interface makes working in Google Ads Editor much easier, and the new suite of tools has almost everything a PPC marketer needs for bulk editing. Essential.
Cost: FREE
Keyword Planner
Google’s Keyword Planner is a similarly essential tool. Although you need a Google Ads account to use it, the Keyword Planner isn’t just for PPC; it can help identify a wide range of keywords and associated data for uses in your Google Ads campaigns as well as content marketing and SEO.
Cost: FREE
Bing Ads Editor
With Bing Ads becoming an increasingly popular PPC platform, the Bing Ads Editor is your all-in-one companion for managing your Bing Ads campaigns.
Cost: FREE
Google Ads Scripts
Many PPC marketers have discovered the power and flexibility of Google Ads Scripts to help them automate tasks that would otherwise eat into their precious time. If you haven’t checked them out, maybe it’s time to give them a try!
Cost: FREE
AdWords Performance Grader
WordStream’s AdWords Performance Grader (which we recently improved!) performs a thorough PPC audit of your Google Ads account in 60 seconds or less, completely free. See what you’re doing right, and where you could improve, and see a greater return on your Google Ads investment.
Cost: FREE
Bing Ads Intelligence
Although Bing Ads has intentionally made its experience as similar to Google Ads as possible to help advertisers make the transition or run complementary campaigns, one area Bing excels in is its reporting functionality. The Bing Ads Intelligence suite of tools offers some remarkable reporting, so if you’re serious about Bing Ads, be sure to explore Bing Ads Intelligence.
Cost: FREE
Bing Ads Grader
Like WordStream’s AdWords Performance Grader, but want to see how your Bing Ads account is doing? No problem. The WordStream Bing Ads Performance Grader will evaluate the strength of your Bing Ads account and provide step-by-step advice on how to improve.
Cost: FREE
PPC Keyword Wrapper
SEO Book’s Keyword Wrapper offers a great deal of value to PPC marketers. Simply enter one or more keywords, then “wrap” them into groups according to match types such as broad, phrase, and exact – or all three!
Cost: FREE
Google Trends
Search trend data can be incredibly valuable to PPC marketers – so you can adjust campaigns to match seasonal demand – and Google Trends is one of the best free sources of this information out there.
Cost: FREE
10. Phrase Builder
Need a ton of related keyword ideas in a hurry? Phrase Builder is a great tool for quickly generating related keyword lists based on your input criteria. Useful for building large lists of keywords.
Cost: FREE
Analysis Toolpak for Excel
Personally, I barely use Excel’s core functionality on any given day, but for power users, the Analysis Toolpak for Excel adds a whole bunch of additional features that are useful for PPC marketers hoping to wring even more out of their Excel workflow. Learn how to install it here, then check out what it can do here.
Cost: FREE
Soovle
Similar to Google Suggest – but with a lot more data – Soovle lets you see autocomplete suggestions instantly from not just Google, but several other sites including Wikipedia, Amazon, and YouTube. Very handy, but it’s worth noting that Google plans to cut off access to the autocomplete API in the near future, meaning Soovle will only be able to provide results for other search engines when this happens.
Cost: FREE
Convertable
One of the biggest challenges in lead generation campaigns is learning enough about your leads to qualify them. Convertable makes this easier, offering much more data than traditional forms allow, providing you with data on everything from the browser they used and their operating system to the traffic source and the keywords they entered, as you can see in the screenshot below:
Cost: FREE
UberSuggest
One of the most popular third-party tools for PPC marketers, UberSuggest works similarly to other suggestion-based tools, but also offers robust foreign language support and some other nifty functionality. Again, when Google sunsets access to the autocomplete API, this tool might disappear, but for now, it’s worth checking out.
Cost: FREE
SplitTester
Calculating the CTR of two different ads is easy – predicting how they’ll perform over the long term is much harder without running a lengthy A/B test. Perry Marshall’s SplitTester tool allows you to enter numerical CTR data to predict the ongoing performance of the two ads. Great for estimating statistical significance if you don’t have enough time for a full A/B test.
Cost: FREE
WordStream Landing Page Grader
Strong landing pages are essential to the success of any PPC campaign, and WordStream’s free Landing Page Grader will show you how you can improve your landing pages with a detailed, personalized report.
Cost: FREE
Keyword Competitor
Nothing like a little armchair industrial espionage to get your campaigns off on the right foot, eh? Keyword Competitor lets you check out what keywords your competitors are using, as well as how well they’re performing. Sly! UPDATE: Sorry, this one appears to have gone offline!
Cost: 30-day free trial; plans starting at $29/month
iSpionage
While we’re on the topic of espionage, give iSpionage a try (see what I did there?). This handy tool also lets you get the lowdown on what other businesses in your space are up to, allowing you to make informed decisions about your own campaigns.
Cost: Plans starting at $59/month
SEMrush
You can never have too much competitive analysis, and the SEMrush suite of tools is definitely one of the best out there. Search for detailed keyword data by domain or keyword, and see what everyone else is up to.
Cost: Plans starting at $69.95/month
SpyFu
SpyFu is another competitive analysis tool, but it offers some really cool features other tools lack, such as the ability to download CSV files of competitor keywords and reporting export functionality. It also has a really nice interface with plenty of important information easily available at a glance.
KeywordSpy
Another keyword research tool that can help you gain a valuable edge over the competition. KeywordSpy offers the data you’d expect from such a tool, as well as ad copy and keyword combination information, Google Ads spend data for entire sites, and other cool information that can help PPC marketers.
Cost: Plans starting at $79/month
WhatRunsWhere
WhatRunsWhere is a powerful tool that offers a wide range of data on display advertising campaigns. Covering 150,000 display advertisers across more than 90 ad networks in 15 countries, WhatRunsWhere is essential for companies hoping to get ahead in (display) advertising.
Cost: Plans starting at $175/month
The Search Monitor
Of all the competitive intelligence tools we’ve looked at so far, The Search Monitor is one of the most useful. PPC marketers can use The Search Monitor to examine data on sponsored listings and PLAs across nine ad networks and 1,200 industry verticals, and also offers a ton of geotargeting and custom audience functionality. Well worth checking out.
Cost: Plans starting at $249/month
AdGooroo
One thing we hear time and again about our own tools is how valuable the benchmark performance data is, and that’s one area where AdGooroo shines. As well as the usual ad spend estimate modeling and other tools, AdGooroo also lets you look at snapshots of specific brands in your vertical – very interesting if you’re looking to adjust your PPC strategy.
Cost: Call for a demo and pricing
Typo Generator
If you’re targeting exact match types in your campaigns, give Typo Generator a shot. Google does offer variation matching within Google Ads, but this tool is still useful for the hyper-control-freak PPCers out there.
Cost: FREE
Keyword Niche Finder
Our final PPC tool is a free Google Ads tool–WordStream’s own Keyword Niche Finder. This free tool lets you find keyword niches (as in, pre-organized keyword groups), which can be very useful when thinking about how to structure your campaigns. It’s pretty handy for SEO purposes, too.
Cost: FREE
Google Suggest
Google Suggest is invaluable when you need keyword and content ideas. You might not have given much thought to how Google’s autocomplete functionality can help you, but with powerful modifiers and other tricks, there’s more to it than meets the eye.
Cost: FREE
Ahrefs
For SEOs, Ahrefs is a must. This tool offers a wide range of functionality that every SEO will find useful, from link profile data to content referral information. Essential.
Cost: Freemium plan for newbies; pro plans start at $79/month
Majestic
With more backlink data than you can shake a proverbial stick at, Majestic remains the go-to for many SEOs. This robust tool (which offers its own API for working with your own data sets) is extraordinarily powerful.
Cost: Plans start at $49.99/month
Compete
Ever wanted to know how much traffic your favorite blogs really get? Well, now you can. Compete offers estimated traffic data based on a range of metrics, and you can plot your results against primary and secondary metrics to customize your reports. Very handy.
Cost: Offers some free tools; pro plans start at $249/month
DeepCrawl
Migrating to a new site is a worrisome time for any SEO. With DeepCrawl, you can test the impact of changes in a safe environment before pushing them to a live server, among many other awesome tools. DeepCrawl lets you check your redirects, ensure your hreflang tags are applied correctly, review canonicalized pages, and more.
Cost: Plans start at $80/month
32. Anchor Text Over Optimization Tool
Does exactly what it says on the tin. The Anchor Text Over Optimization Tool lets you search for and identify over-optimized anchor text links (which can look unnatural to Google) on external sites, and also allows you to submit change requests directly to site webmasters. If you’re worried about Google penalties, give it a try.
Cost: FREE
SEO Title Tag 3.0
Optimizing your title tags has never been easier. The SEO Title Tag 3.0 plugin lets you effortlessly optimize title tags in minutes.
Cost: FREE
Domain Hunter Plus
This free Chrome plugin lets you quickly check for broken links without leaving your browser. Domain Hunter Plus can crawl hundreds of links on a single page, provides error status codes for easy diagnosis, and lets you export results in .csv format. Very cool.
Cost: FREE
Keyword Map
Wordtracker’s Keyword Map is a handy tool for SEOs looking to build keyword maps for website architecture.
Cost: Plans start at $27/month
MozLocal
Moz is every SEO’s best friend, and having acquired GetListed in 2012, it’s no surprise that Moz is one of the best tools for local SEOs out there. MozLocal helps local businesses rank competitively in the search engines, making smaller sites as visible as possible.
Cost: $84/year
Google SERP Snippet Optimization Tool
It may not look pretty, but this Google SERP Snippet Optimization Tool is actually pretty handy. It lets you mock up SERP snippets and URLs quickly and easily so you can see ahead of time what your content will look like in the search results. It also offers several display options, such as bold text, dates, and rich snippets.
Cost: FREE
Internet Marketing Ninjas SEO Tools
Our friends at Internet Marketing Ninjas offer several free SEO tools that might help you with your technical SEO work. Tools available include a broken link checker, an image and link analyzer, an on-page optimization tool, and a Greasemonkey add-on that helps you find URLs from search results.
Cost: FREE
Linkstant
Wondering where your new links are coming from and just can’t wait for a search engine report or your Analytics logs to catch up? Then check out Linkstant (as in links + instant), a link checking tool that offers immediate results.
Cost: Plans start at $7/month
MozCast
Keeping up with changes to Google’s algorithms can be hard work, which is why MozCast makes it easy and fun. MozCast compares Google algorithm updates to the weather, providing at-a-glance updates of how much the algos have changed over the past day or week.
Cost: FREE
Rank Checker for Firefox
No surprises with this tool. Rank Checker for Firefox is a free, open source add-on for Mozilla’s browser that lets you quickly check your rankings without handing all your data over to a third party.
Cost: FREE
Schema Creator
Schema can be an excellent addition to your site, but to the uninitiated, it’s not exactly easy to get started. That’s what makes Raven’s Schema Creator such a powerful tool. Start generating schema microdata for your site in minutes.
Cost: FREE
Seer SEO Toolbox
If you’re new to SEO or just want a simpler suite of tools to help you with your technical SEO work, check out Seer Interactive’s SEO Toolbox. Made with marketers, not technologists, in mind, this “toolbox” allows you to pull SEO data from multiple sources into one place.
Cost: FREE and open source
SEO Tools for Excel
Just like their PPC counterparts, SEOs almost certainly use Excel as part of their workflow. Why not make it more useful by adding SEO Tools for Excel? This software adds a range of SEO-centric functionality to Excel, making it easier to get more done in Excel.
Cost: FREE with newsletter signup
SEOgadget Tools
Similar to SEO Tools for Excel, SEOgadget Tools extends the functionality of Excel to make it a more useful tool for SEOs.
Cost: FREE
Similar Page Checker
Having too much duplicate content on your site is a search engine no-no. Similar Page Checker is a free web-based tool that runs comparisons of your pages to a second page, highlighting areas of similarity that could get you in trouble with Google.
Cost: FREE
47. URI Valet
Need to check your server headers? Then use URI Valet, a free tool that allows you to check server headers according to a range of parameters, including by protocol and user agent.
Cost: FREE
Xenu’s Link Sleuth
This old-school tool Xenu’s Link Sleuth gets the job done and then some. Use this tool to find broken links on your site quickly and easily as well as to easily get a full list of all your indexed pages.
Cost: FREE
MozBar
Yet another awesome free tool from our pals at Moz. The MozBar browser extension lets you perform a range of SEO tasks from your browser, including keyword ranking data analysis, schema validation, and SEO metric reporting.
Cost: FREE
The Alexa Toolbar for Chrome
Alexa is one of the most trusted web metrics sites online, and with the Alexa Toolbar for Chrome, you can see at-a-glance information about the site you’re currently browsing, including traffic rankings, inbound links, and user reviews.
Cost: FREE
Open Site Explorer
Seriously, when it comes to SEO tools, nobody does it better than Moz. Open Site Explorer is invaluable not just to SEOs, but digital marketers of all stripes. If you haven’t used it yet, you’re missing out.
Cost: FREE
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Offering an in-depth SEO audit of more than 30 metrics, Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider tool is one of the most comprehensive technical SEO analysis tools out there.
Cost: FREE
Hootsuite
Few social media management tools are as well-known or widely used as Hootsuite. This fully featured platform offers all the social media management functionality you could ever need, which is probably why it’s so popular.
Cost: Free for limited use; pro plans start at $9.99/month
TweetDeck
If you only want to focus on Twitter, TweetDeck will soon become your new best friend. Don’t waste time wrestling with the Twitter.com interface – get all the functionality Twitter should have built in the first place with TweetDeck.
Cost: FREE
Buffer
Yes, other social media tools offer scheduling functionality, but Buffer is among the simplest and most elegant platforms for managing social media accounts. Bonus points to the Buffer team for running one of the best blogs in the business.
Cost: Free for limited use; pro plans start at $10/month
IFTTT
Although not a social media tool in the strictest sense, IFTTT (short for If This, Then That) lets you connect the apps you use on a regular basis and create logic-driven workflows for automating routine tasks. An interesting way to create social media updates and dozens of other nifty uses.
Cost: FREE
Save Publishing
A very nifty tool, Save Publishing lets you quickly identify passages of 140 characters on any web page, making it easy to find – and tweet – quotes and quick takeaways from your content and other sources.
Cost: FREE
SocialFlow
SocialFlow doesn’t manage your accounts or make it easier to handle everyday social media management, but it does analyze millions of data points to determine the precise moments when to publish on social to create maximum visibility and engagement with your content.
Cost: Plans start at $99/month
LikeAlyzer
Don’t let the awkward name fool you – LikeAlyzer is really cool. This tool evaluates the strength of your Facebook page to give you additional insight into areas you can improve when engaging with followers and fans on Facebook.
Cost: FREE
64. Sprout Social
Sprout Social makes it easy to keep on top of your social media management. Offers agency-specific tools as well as functionality to handle social customer service (very important).
Cost: Plans start at $59/month
Social Bro
I haven’t used this platform myself, but terrible name notwithstanding, SocialBro seems to offer some useful Twitter management features. Free plans are available if you fancy giving it a try for yourself.
Cost: Free for limited use; pro plans start at $13.95/month
Crowdbooster
Social media analytics platform Crowdbooster offers some nice-looking reporting features, export functionality, as well as the scheduling and general-purpose management functions you’d expect from a social media tool.
Cost: Plans start at $9/month
Cost: FREE
Mediatoolkit
Keeping track of what people are saying about you online is crucial for effective brand management, and Mediatoolkit makes it easy.
Cost: Plans start at $29/month
Everypost
Social management tool Everypost does, of course, offer scheduling and publishing functionality, but its greatest strength is its very cool content curation tools. Curate content from virtually anywhere, then publish across your social accounts. Very cool.
Cost: Free for limited use; pro plans start at $9.99/month
Discover.ly
Chrome extension Discover.ly lets you explore relationships with influential people on social media. It provides additional information about people, including previously unconnected accounts, such as a person’s Facebook or LinkedIn profiles from their Gmail account, and helps you form stronger relationships with industry power users.
Cost: FREE
Conclusion
This huge list of marketing tools includes (almost!) every tool you’ll ever need to master (almost!) every aspect of a digital marketing campaign, from PPC and SEO to social to content and email marketing. Some tools are very specific, whereas others offer robust, diverse functionality. Some are free, others are not.