8 Best AI Tools for Marketing for Small Businesses [2025]

By now we all got it: AI tools for marketing are changing the game for small businesses. But here’s the thing: it’s true, and the tools are evolving faster than you can keep up. They are changing from big corporate B2B solutions to ones that are more for everyday business owners, moving from expensive and complicated to simple and affordable.

Some of these solutions can seriously save you time, money, and stress while letting you ditch expensive experts. They make running campaigns on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google so much easier. Plus, they give you the flexibility to adapt on the fly—perfect for those “uh-oh, the holiday season is next week!” moments.

In this guide, we’ll first briefly discuss how to use and leverage AI in marketing and then list the eight best AI tools for marketing in different marketing areas to help your small businesses grow with less effort and budget.

Using AI for small business marketing

Many businesses, like local stores and small service providers, often find online marketing hard. They face challenges like limited time, tight budgets, and little expertise.

Many businesses depend on expensive marketing agencies for help with their campaigns, but these agencies can be slow to adapt to the company’s ad hoc needs. And let’s be honest, these needs almost always come at the last minute.

This is where these tools shine, empowering the business (often the owner himself) to take control of the marketing steering wheel. Many great AI marketing tools can make the job much easier by actually delivering results at a fraction of the costs of an agency.

How to leverage AI in marketing?

There are more and more ways to leverage AI in marketing, including automating repetitive tasks, improving ad targeting, and generating personalized content. AI tools can analyze customer behavior, optimize real-time campaigns, and even craft marketing messages tailored to your audience—all without requiring advanced expertise.

For small businesses, this means saving time on complicated tasks and getting back to running their business—just like they were doing when they had the agency.

8 best AI tools for marketing for small businesses

To help you get started, here’s a look at the best AI tools for marketing for small businesses. When selecting these AI marketing tools, we focused on criteria that cover the unique needs of small businesses and align with tools that are specifically designed for them:

• Ease of Use: Small business owners need AI tools that are intuitive and require no advanced technical skills.
• Quick Setup: A fast and seamless setup process ensures businesses can start using the tool immediately.
• Beginner-Friendly Features: Tools designed for users with little marketing knowledge, offering step-by-step guidance.
• Budget-Friendly Options: Tools that fit small budgets while still being effective and easy to use.

In this analysis, we’ve used multiple sources, such as providers’ websites, peer review sites, and third-party reviews. We outline key features, pricing, as well as pros & cons to help you decide on the best AI tools for digital marketing your business.

With these criteria in mind, here’s our list of the 8 best AI tools for marketing for small businesses.

1. Balloonary (for ad automation)

Reviews: 4.8 out of 5 stars on G2

Best for: Small businesses, including local shops, service providers, and solopreneurs, looking to create and manage online ad campaigns on their own without requiring marketing expertise.

Overview: Balloonary is an AI-powered tool specifically designed for small businesses that need a quick and intuitive way to create and launch ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Google. The platform has ad accounts ready by default—no setup needed. It provides an easy experience for users with limited time, resources, or marketing knowledge.

Balloonary helps users with every step, from creating ads to improving them. This ensures professional results without the high costs of hiring an agency.

Top Features and Capabilities:

• AI-Powered Ad Creation: Automatically generates ad copy and designs using business details, like brand info, target audience, ad purpose, etc. The more business info you share, the more the AI generates relevant ads.
• Simplified Setup: Balloonary is unique in that it provides seamless access to Google and Meta ad accounts by default, removing the need for users to set up ad accounts. Alternatively, users can connect their existing accounts for added flexibility. This ensures a hassle-free setup process that gets campaigns running in no time.
• Loona - Balloonary's AI Marketing Assistant: Guides users step-by-step through ad creation and optimization, offering tailored recommendations. Loona is like having your own personal marketing expert, fully context-aware with knowledge of your active campaigns. You can ask it questions, seek advice, and receive expert guidance anytime, 24/7.
• Balloonary Autopilot: Automatically optimizes campaigns by adjusting targeting and ad content in real-time. It ensures effective budget use and saves time by handling performance tweaks without manual input.

Main Disadvantages, According to Users:

• Limited advanced features for experienced marketers seeking more granular control.
• No support for highly customized or niche campaign requirements.

Pricing: Offers a free 10 day trial, entry-level plans starting at $29/month

Words from Balloonary's Customers:

"Love The Simplicity! Balloonary simplifies the process of advertising our elearning courses. Its convenient to have all our campaigns, in one place making it easy for us to stay in control and monitor their effectiveness."

"Best automatic ad builder. Its helping me reduce the time of setup the ads, adding targeted audience."

2. Surfer SEO (for SEO optimization)

Reviews: 4.8 out of 5 stars on G2

Best for: Small businesses, content creators, and solopreneurs looking to improve their website's search engine rankings and optimize content for better visibility.

Overview: Surfer SEO is a powerful AI-driven tool designed to help businesses create SEO-friendly content that ranks higher on search engines. By analyzing competitor data and providing actionable recommendations, it simplifies the complexities of search engine optimization. Surfer SEO helps users with minimal SEO expertise optimize their content to perform.

Top Features and Capabilities:

• Content Editor: Provides real-time suggestions for keywords, structure, and readability while creating content.
• SERP Analysis: Analyzes top-performing competitors to help you understand what’s working in your niche.
• Keyword Research: Offers an automated way to identify the best keywords for your content strategy.
• Audit Tool: Reviews your existing content and suggests improvements to boost rankings.
• User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies SEO tasks with an intuitive and straightforward design.

Main Disadvantages, According to Users:

• Limited features in the lower-tier plans, which might not cover all business needs.
• Can feel overwhelming for users entirely new to SEO.

Pricing: Entry-level plans starting at $99/month with 7-days money back guarantee

Words from Surfer SEO’s Customers:

“The best Content writing assistant so far. It works. What more can I say? It serves its purpose perfectly and it is all you can expect from software. Knowing Surfer made me who I am and got me where I am now.”

“A great holistic SEO tool. Surfer is an excellent all-in-one SEO tool. Initially, I began using it mainly for entity optimization while using Ahrefs for content & topic research. But Surfer’s other features like topical map creation and page audits, are equally good. In fact, I’m now considering making a complete switch to Surfer.”

3. Hootsuite (for social posting)

Reviews: 4.2 out of 5 stars on G2

Best for: Small businesses, social media solo managers, and solopreneurs looking to streamline their social media content creation and maintain a consistent posting schedule.

Overview: Owly Writer AI, part of the Hootsuite platform, is an AI-powered tool designed to simplify social media content creation. It belongs to one of the best AI tools for social media marketing. It helps users generate posts tailored to their audience, platform, and goals, making social media management more efficient and less time-consuming. Whether you’re looking to draft captions, brainstorm ideas, or repurpose content, Owly Writer AI has you covered to create engaging content on various social media channel

Top Features and Capabilities:

• AI-Generated Content Ideas: Suggests engaging post ideas based on your industry and audience.
• Caption Writing: Creates optimized captions for various social platforms, saving time and effort.
• Content Repurposing: Helps transform existing blog posts or articles into social media-ready content.
• Platform-Specific Recommendations: Tailors content to fit the unique requirements of platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

Main Disadvantages, According to Users:

• Can be limited in customization options for advanced users looking for more control over content tone and style.
• Heavily reliant on the Hootsuite platform, which might not appeal to users preferring standalone tools.

Pricing: Offers a free 30 day trial, entry-level plans starting at $99/month

Words from Hootsuite’s Customers:

“A reliable product. .. We quickly realized what a time-saver Hootsuite would be for us. We were also excited to see the analytics reports that were so easy to read and customize.”

“A time saving product. Hootsuite is a very user-friendly platform that I've been using for nearly a decade. It has changed quite a bit over the years but has remained consistent at doing the best it can ..”

4. Jasper AI (for content writing)

Reviews: 4.7 out of 5 stars on G2

Best for: Small businesses, content marketers, and solopreneurs looking to create high-quality written content for blogs, ads, emails, and social media with minimal effort.

Overview: Jasper AI is a leading AI-powered writing tool that helps businesses generate professional content quickly and easily. Whether you need engaging blog posts, persuasive ad copy, or creative captions, Jasper is designed to cater to all your content creation needs. With templates for various use cases and an intuitive interface, Jasper empowers users to craft compelling messages, even without a writing background.

Top Features and Capabilities:

• Content Templates: Offers pre-built templates for blog posts, ad copy, emails, product descriptions, and more.
• Tone and Style Customization: Allows users to adjust the tone to match their brand’s voice.
• SEO Integration: Works seamlessly with tools like Surfer SEO to create optimized content.
• Multilingual Support: Generates content in over 25 languages, ideal for businesses with diverse audiences.
• Idea Generation: Helps users brainstorm creative ideas and structures for various content types.

Main Disadvantages, According to Users:

• Higher pricing tiers may be expensive for smaller businesses with tight budgets.
• Requires occasional editing to refine output and ensure it meets specific brand standards.

Pricing: Offers a free 30 day trial, entry-level plans starting at $99/month

Words from Jasper AI’s Customers:

“Used Jasper to generate AI content. Well there are so many AI tools available online and after trying few of those paid AI tools, I finally stick to the one and that is Jasper. The quality of content generation and also the capability of providing the custom content are the primary reason for choosing this platform..”

“Jasper Rocks! I use Jasper to augment my writing and it gives me ideas and keeps me from getting writer's block.”

5. Grammarly (for writing assistance)

Reviews: 4.7 out of 5 stars on G2

Best for: Small businesses, solopreneurs, and content creators who want to ensure their written communication is polished and professional.

Overview: Grammarly is an AI-powered spell checker and writing assistant that helps users enhance their writing quality across various platforms. Whether you’re drafting emails, writing blog posts, or creating ad copy, Grammarly ensures your content is clear, concise, and impactful. With its real-time suggestions, it’s an essential tool for anyone aiming to communicate effectively without hiring a professional editor.

Top Features and Capabilities:

• Grammar and Spelling Checks: Identifies and corrects errors in real time.
• Clarity and Conciseness Suggestions: Improves readability by refining sentence structure and word choice.
• Plagiarism Checker: Ensures originality by scanning for duplicate content.
• Platform Integration: Works seamlessly with email clients, social media platforms, and word processors.

Main Disadvantages, According to Users:

• Advanced features, like style and tone of voice suggestions, are only available in premium plans.
• AI suggestions can sometimes feel too strict or not flexible enough for creative writing.

Pricing: Offers a full free plan for new starters

Words from Grammarly’s Customers:

“Extremely Useful for Writing and Editing. Grammarly's suggestion edits are fantastic, especially when installed as an add-on for the PC and in-browser sites.”

“Grammarly is my favorite AI assistant. I love that Grammarly offers feedback that seamlessly appears across many websites and applications I use on multiple devices.“

6. VEED (for video editing)

Reviews: 4.6 out of 5 stars

Best for: Small businesses, solopreneurs, and content creators who want a quick and easy way to create, edit, and enhance video content without advanced technical skills.

Overview: VEED is an online video editing platform powered by AI, designed to make professional video production accessible to everyone. From promotional videos to social media clips, VEED offers an intuitive interface and powerful tools to help users create engaging video content with low effort. It’s ideal for businesses looking to enhance their marketing with high-quality visuals without investing in expensive software or hiring professionals.

Top Features and Capabilities:

• AI Video Editing Tools: Automates tasks like subtitling, trimming, and resizing for different platforms.
• Customizable Templates: Provides ready-made templates for various video styles, including ads and social media posts.
• Auto Subtitles & Translations: Automatically generates subtitles and translates them into multiple languages.
• Branding Features: Allows users to add logos, watermarks, and brand elements to videos.

Main Disadvantages, According to Users:

• Some advanced features may require a learning curve for new users.
• Rendering large or complex videos can be time-consuming

Pricing: Offers free AI tokens to test the platform, entry-level plans starting at $10/month

Words from VEED’s Customers:

“Veed.io is a Game-Changer for Video Creation! This platform is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to video making.”

“Seemless for Beginners. As a complete technophobe, I was amazed at how quickly I could create videos using Veed.”

7. Remove.bg (for removing image backgrounds)

Reviews: 4 out of 5 stars

Best for: Small businesses, solopreneurs, and content creators needing quick and precise background removal for images.

Overview: Remove.bg is an AI-powered tool that automatically removes backgrounds from images in seconds. It’s perfect for creating professional-looking visuals for ads, social media, or product catalogs without needing advanced design skills. The platform streamlines editing tasks, making it ideal for businesses that require high-quality images.

Top Features and Capabilities:

• Automatic Background Removal: Quickly removes image backgrounds with AI precision.
• Custom Backgrounds: Allows users to replace backgrounds with colors, patterns, or custom images.
• Batch Processing: Processes multiple images simultaneously, saving time for bulk tasks.

Main Disadvantages, According to Users:

• Free version only for images with lower resolutions and limited features.
• Works best with simple backgrounds; more complex designs might require manual adjustments.

Pricing: Offers free plan for lower resolution images, entry-level “pay as you go” plan starting at €0.90/image

Words from Remove.bg’s Customers:

“A cost-effective background removal tool! The most helpful feature is undoubtedly the tool's integration capabilities with Canva.”

“Best Background Remover. The best thing I love about remove.bg is it accurately eliminates the background in the way we want.”

8. Crisp (for customer communication)

Reviews: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Best for: Small businesses and solopreneurs seeking an all-in-one customer communication platform to enhance customer support and engagement.

Overview: Crisp is an AI-powered live chat and customer messaging platform designed to simplify communication between businesses and their customers. From live chat and email to social media and messaging apps, Crisp consolidates all channels into one interface, enabling efficient customer interactions. It’s perfect for businesses looking to deliver excellent support and build stronger relationships with their audience.

Top Features and Capabilities:

• Multi-Channel Messaging: Centralizes communication across live chat, email, WhatsApp, Messenger, and more.
• Knowledge Base Integration: Helps customers find answers quickly with a self-service help center.
• Automated Chatbots: Uses AI to handle common user requests and free up time for more complex issues.
• Customizable Widgets: Offers branded chat widgets to align with your website’s design.

Main Disadvantages, According to Users:

• Some advanced features, like chatbot customization, require technical knowledge.
• Pricing can be steep for businesses needing access to all premium tools.

Pricing: Offers a free plan

Words from Crisp’s Customers:

“I like the responsiveness of the support team, they are very nice and helpful. Like a tool, overall, it is very nice and convenient.”

“The AI chatbot is a lifesaver. It automatically handles many queries, letting us focus on more important tasks.”

AI-Powered Marketing Is Here to Stay

AI has changed marketing a lot and it will continue to do so. It gives businesses back the control to automate, improve, and grow their marketing efforts like never before. From creating content on social media and managing ads to analyzing customer behavior, AI simplifies complex tasks and delivers real results.

Best AI tools for marketing FAQs:

What is AI marketing?

AI marketing uses artificial intelligence to automate, optimize, and personalize marketing tasks, such as ad targeting, content creation, and customer insights. It helps businesses improve efficiency and deliver better results with less effort.

How to use AI in marketing?

AI can be used in marketing to automate tasks like ad creation, content generation, and automated campaign management.

How to use AI for small business marketing?

Small businesses can use AI for marketing by automating ad creation, making customer outreach more personal, and analyzing performance data. Tools like AI-driven chatbots, content creators, and ad managers help save time and maximize results at a lower budget.

What are the best AI marketing tools for a small business?

The best marketing tools for small businesses cover essential areas like content creation, social media management, and ad automation. Tools like Balloonary for ad automation, Surfer SEO for content optimization, and Hootsuite for social media management simplify and streamline these key tasks.