Best Marketing Automation for Agencies Managing Multiple Clients

Admin
Feb 8
4 min read

Updated: 4 hours ago

If you run a marketing agency, you're managing email campaigns, automations, and subscriber lists for multiple clients at once. You need a platform that keeps client data separate, makes it easy to switch between accounts, and doesn't charge you separately for each client.

Most marketing automation platforms aren't built for agencies. They're built for single businesses. Managing multiple clients means juggling multiple logins, multiple billing accounts, and no centralized view of what's happening across your portfolio.

The tool that actually works for agencies is ActiveCampaign. Here's why.

What Agencies Actually Need

Agency workflows are different from in-house marketing. Here's what matters when you're managing multiple clients:

Sub-accounts or client separation. Each client's data needs to be completely separate. Contacts, campaigns, automations, and reporting can't mix. You need clean boundaries between Client A and Client B.

Easy account switching. You're working on multiple client accounts every day. Switching between them should take one click, not logging out and logging back in.

White-label capabilities. Some clients want to log in and see their campaigns. When they do, they shouldn't see your agency branding or other client data. The interface should look like their tool, not yours.

Flexible pricing. You shouldn't pay full price for every client account. Agency pricing should bundle multiple accounts or charge based on total contacts across all clients, not per account.

Reporting across clients. You need to see performance at both the client level and the portfolio level. Which clients are hitting their goals? Which campaigns are working? You can't get this if each client is a separate, disconnected account.

ActiveCampaign for Agencies

ActiveCampaign is the best platform for agencies managing multiple clients. It's designed for this use case and includes features that make multi-client management straightforward.

Here's what makes it work:

Agency accounts with client sub-accounts. ActiveCampaign offers an agency tier that lets you create separate accounts for each client under one master account. Each client has their own contact database, campaigns, and automations. Data never mixes.

One-click account switching. From your main dashboard, you can switch between client accounts instantly. No logging out. No separate passwords. You stay in the same interface and toggle between clients.

White-label options. Clients can log into their account without seeing ActiveCampaign branding (or your agency name if you don't want them to). They see a clean interface with their own campaigns and data.

Bundled pricing for multiple accounts. Instead of paying full price per client, ActiveCampaign's agency pricing bundles accounts at a discount. You pay based on total contacts across all clients, not per account. This saves hundreds of dollars per month once you're managing 5+ clients.

Portfolio-level reporting. You can see performance across all client accounts from one dashboard. Which clients have the highest open rates? Which automations are driving the most conversions? You get the big picture without manually checking each account.

Full automation capabilities. ActiveCampaign's automation builder is one of the most powerful in the space. Multi-step sequences, behavioral triggers, conditional logic. You can build complex workflows for clients without running into platform limitations.

Pricing: Agency plans start around $150-300/month depending on total contacts across all clients. This covers multiple client accounts. The exact pricing depends on your client portfolio, but it's significantly cheaper than paying separately for each client.

Best for:

Marketing agencies managing email campaigns and automation for multiple clients. If you're running campaigns for 3+ clients and need to keep data separate while managing everything from one login, ActiveCampaign is built for this.

→ Go to ActiveCampaign

Why Not MailerLite or HubSpot?

MailerLite and HubSpot both offer great email marketing platforms, but neither is built for agencies managing multiple clients.

MailerLite doesn't have true multi-client account management. You'd need to create separate MailerLite accounts for each client, manage separate logins, and pay separately for each one. There's no bundled agency pricing. Once you're managing 5+ clients, this becomes expensive and inefficient.

HubSpot has a partner program, but it's designed for agencies selling and implementing HubSpot, not agencies running ongoing campaigns for clients. The pricing structure doesn't make sense if you're just managing email marketing. And switching between client accounts isn't as seamless as ActiveCampaign.

Both tools work fine if you're managing one or two clients. But once you scale past three clients, ActiveCampaign's agency-specific features become essential.

Best Practices for Agencies

A few things to keep in mind when setting up marketing automation for agency clients:

Set clear boundaries upfront. Decide early whether clients get login access to their account or if you handle everything. If they have access, make sure they understand what they can and can't change.

Use naming conventions. When you're managing campaigns for 10 clients, clear naming helps. Tag campaigns with client names. Use consistent naming for automations. This keeps things organized as you scale.

Build templates once, reuse across clients. Welcome sequences, re-engagement campaigns, and standard automations can be templated. Build them once, duplicate across clients, customize as needed. This saves hours of setup time.

The Bottom Line

If you're managing email marketing for multiple clients, use ActiveCampaign. The agency tier gives you separate accounts for each client, easy switching, white-label options, and bundled pricing that saves money as you scale.

Other platforms work for managing one or two clients, but they're not built for agencies. ActiveCampaign is. And the time you save switching between accounts and managing campaigns from one dashboard pays for itself immediately.