Last month, I set aside $400 and a healthy dose of skepticism to test seven of the most popular AI marketing tools on the market. My goal was simple: find out which ones actually help small business owners and marketers get better results — and which ones are just riding the AI hype wave.
I tested each tool on my own business for 30 days. Real campaigns, real budgets, real results. No cherry-picked data, no sponsored nonsense. Here’s what happened.
The Testing Setup
To keep things fair, I tested all seven tools against the same marketing channels: email campaigns (list of about 2,400 subscribers), social media posts (Instagram and LinkedIn), and Google Ads copy. I tracked three metrics: engagement rate, conversion rate, and time saved compared to manual work.
The seven tools I tested were: HubSpot AI, Jasper Marketing Suite, Phrasee, Copy.ai, Persado, AdCreative.ai, and Buffer AI Assistant.
Now let me save you 30 days of testing and $400.
The Winners: 3 Tools That Actually Delivered
1. Jasper Marketing Suite — Best All-Around Marketing AI
I’ve been using Jasper for writing for a while, but their marketing-specific features surprised me. The campaign brief generator alone saved me roughly 4 hours in the first week.
Here’s what impressed me: I gave Jasper a brief for a product launch email sequence. Five emails, targeting different stages of the customer journey. It produced drafts that needed maybe 30% editing. For context, when I hired a freelance copywriter for a similar sequence last year, the copy needed about the same amount of editing — and cost me $800.
Real results from my test:
- Email open rates: 24% (vs. my usual 19% with manual copy)
- Click-through rate: 4.2% (vs. my usual 3.1%)
- Time to create 5-email sequence: 2 hours (vs. typical 8 hours)
The subject line suggestions were particularly strong. Jasper generated 20 variations, I A/B tested the top 5, and the winner outperformed my best manually-written subject line by 26%.
Price: $49/month (Creator) or $125/month (Teams). For the marketing features, the Teams plan is worth it if you run campaigns regularly.
2. AdCreative.ai — Best for Ad Copy and Creative
This one caught me off guard. AdCreative.ai specializes in generating ad creatives — both the copy and visual elements. I was skeptical because “AI-designed ads” usually means ugly templates with generic stock photos.
But AdCreative.ai actually analyzes your brand assets and produces ads that look like your brand. I uploaded my logo, brand colors, and a few product photos. Within minutes, I had 50 ad variations for Facebook and Google.
I ran 10 of their generated ads against 10 of my manually-created ads on Google Ads for two weeks. The results were genuinely surprising:
- AI-generated ads had 18% higher click-through rate
- Cost per click was 12% lower on AI ads
- Three of my top 5 performing ads during the test period were AI-generated
Is every AI-generated ad a winner? Absolutely not. About 60% of what it produces is mediocre. But generating 50 variations and picking the best 5 is still faster than creating 10 ads from scratch.
Price: Starts at $29/month for 10 downloads. The $59/month plan gives you unlimited generations — that’s the sweet spot for most marketers.
3. Buffer AI Assistant — Best for Social Media Content
I’ve been a Buffer user for years, so when they added AI features, I was cautiously optimistic. And honestly? Their AI assistant is the most practical social media tool I’ve used.
Here’s what makes it work: it doesn’t try to generate posts from nothing. Instead, you feed it a blog post, a product page, or even just a rough idea, and it generates platform-specific posts. A LinkedIn post sounds like LinkedIn. An Instagram caption sounds like Instagram. That platform awareness is something most AI tools completely miss.
During my 30-day test, I used Buffer AI to generate all my social media content. Previously, I spent about 5 hours per week on social media. With Buffer AI, that dropped to about 1.5 hours per week — mostly just reviewing and tweaking the AI suggestions.
My engagement didn’t drop at all. In fact, LinkedIn impressions went up 15%, probably because I was posting more consistently. That’s the real superpower of AI social media tools: consistency. When creating content is easy, you actually do it regularly.
Price: AI features are included in the Essentials plan at $6/month per channel. Ridiculously affordable.
The Losers: 4 Tools That Weren’t Worth It
Phrasee — Too Enterprise, Too Expensive
Phrasee is powerful, but it’s built for enterprise companies with massive email lists and dedicated marketing teams. Their pricing starts at $500+/month with annual contracts. For small to mid-size businesses, the ROI just isn’t there. The AI is sophisticated, but Jasper does 80% of what Phrasee does at a fraction of the cost.
Persado — Same Problem as Phrasee
Another enterprise-focused tool with enterprise-level pricing. If you’re spending $50K+ monthly on marketing, Persado’s AI optimization might move the needle enough to justify the cost. For the rest of us? Pass.
HubSpot AI — Decent But Not Worth the Upsell
HubSpot’s AI features are fine, but they’re clearly designed to lock you deeper into the HubSpot ecosystem. If you’re already paying for HubSpot’s marketing hub ($800+/month), the AI features are a nice bonus. But subscribing to HubSpot just for AI? That’s like buying a car because you like the cup holders.
Copy.ai — Good for Writing, Weak for Marketing Strategy
Copy.ai is actually a solid writing tool (I still use it for product descriptions), but their marketing workflow features felt half-baked. The social media templates were generic, the campaign planning tools were basic, and the integrations were limited. It’s trying to compete with Jasper in the marketing space but isn’t quite there yet.
What I Learned About AI Marketing Tools in General
They’re time-savers, not magic wands
No AI tool will fix a bad marketing strategy. If your messaging doesn’t resonate, faster production of that messaging just means you’ll fail faster. Fix your strategy first, then use AI to execute it more efficiently.
The best tools are specific, not general
Tools that try to do everything (writing, ads, social, email, SEO) usually do everything poorly. The three winners I identified each excel in their specific domain. Use the right tool for the right job.
You still need a human in the loop
Every AI-generated marketing asset I published went through human review. The ones I didn’t review carefully were the ones that performed worst. AI gives you a strong starting point, but marketing is ultimately about understanding humans — and that still requires a human touch.
My Final Recommendation
If I could only pick one tool, it would be Jasper. It handles the widest range of marketing tasks competently. But if your budget allows, the combination of Jasper (campaign copy) + AdCreative.ai (visual ads) + Buffer AI (social media) covers about 90% of what most small business marketers need.
Total monthly cost for all three: roughly $135-240 depending on plans. Compare that to hiring a marketing assistant at $3,000+/month, and the value is obvious.
The AI marketing revolution isn’t coming — it’s already here. The question isn’t whether you should adopt these tools, but how quickly you can integrate them into your workflow before your competitors do.
