Hunch vs Smartly: the best alternative for creative enablement

Smartly.io  is a popular social advertising platform available in the market today. They promise that they can make your ads creative and perform better through the power of automation. 

Hunch is no. 1 among Smartly alternatives, which puts a bigger emphasis on service and creative excellence. It is a social advertising platform that also allows for scaling the production of Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok ad creatives, with a strong focus on creative service and workflow automation.

How can you make the best choice, and decide which platform to use for social media advertising? 

We did some digging around to see what Smartly offers, and current user reviews on G2 and pricing, to present a neutral and unbiased comparison of Smarty and Hunch.

Don’t have time to read the whole comparison? Download the PDF and check the comparison tables and choose the best platform that suits your business perfectly.

Comparison tables

Both Smartly and Hunch are Meta Business Partners, automated creative production, and media buying platforms.

Today Smartly’s main focus is on enterprise-level companies and brands with huge ad spend. While Hunch gives the same opportunity to SMBs, D2C brands and scale ups.

From a technology perspective, our offering is similar but different in approach to delivering a full solution. The edge is in the ease of use, our creative support, and service level for customers of any size.

Let’s break all the information into a comparison table to get the clearest result.

Social Media Platforms: Hunch is the best fit among Smartly alternatives when it comes to integrations

Unlike many other Smartly alternatives, from an integrations perspective Hunch and Smartly give you the same range of opportunities. That’s because both platforms are covering both creative production and campaign management. Thus for Smartly and Hunch, a full integration stands for asset production + campaign management.

Facebook & Instagram
Dynamic Ads
Catalog Management
Image Templates
Automated Ads
Feed Management
Video Templates

When comparing Smartly’s and Hunch’s integrations for Meta, both platforms are equally equipped for both Facebook and Instagram.

We enlisted the most important features to showcase vast opportunities that both platforms give. Bear in mind that Smartly is more than just a social ads automation platform, which means that the platform comes with a lot of extensive features, that you may or may not find useful for your business. Either way you will be charged for them.

It can be hard to rationalize the enormous investment if you’re only looking to get started with dynamic ads and don’t need all of the features.

Besides having all the essential features for producing creatives, Hunch develops a tailored solution for your business when needed.

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Snapchat
Dynamic Ads
Catalog Management
Image Templates
Automated Ads
Feed Management
Video Templates

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Smartly vs Hunch: Creative Studio features

Creative Studio Editor
Image Templates
Video Templates
PSD Import
Custom Fonts
Bulk Export
Brand Kit
Keyframe Animations
Custom-built templates included in your fee during 3 month trial period

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Both Smartly’s and Hunch’s Creative Studios do wonders when it comes to production of different video and image assets. These tools are primarily created for marketers, to overcome a lack of designer skills and be able to effortlessly build engaging creatives. But emphasizing the importance of creative collaboration, both Smartly’s and Hunch’s Creative Studios are great tools for designers too.

What differentiates Hunch as a  Smartly competitor, is a strong focus on building cutting-edge creative solutions, leading to additional features that enables such solution.

Monthly package in Hunch includes 3 image templates and 2 video template custom-built by our designers at no additional cost. If you are satisfied with the way our creative perform, you can always demand more.

Other platform integrations: Smartly and Hunch enable for effortless reporting and workflow automation

Google Analytics Integrations
Google Ads Integrations
Adjust Integration
Slack Integration
Scheduled Reports
Rules & Automations

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Both Hunch and Smartly have all the necessary integrations for collaboration, and monitoring important insights.

Service and Support: Hunch stands out from other Smartly competitors

Customer Success
Onboard & Training
Support Chat
Creative Production	Included in platform fee during 3 month trial period	Sold separately

A thing that differentiates Hunch the most from all the other Smartly alternatives is a service that Hunch provides. 

We give you the opportunity to choose what level of support you’ll take on. Our team is here to lead you through the whole process of understanding how our platform works, but also to help you execute and launch enhanced campaigns. 

Most importantly, Hunch is creative enabler, which means that you’ll get on-brand image and video dynamic templates to kick off your campaign, and the best part is that you can always get more, on demand.

Smartly Pricing vs Hunch Pricing

Starts at €2000 per month	Starts at $7500 per month
Based on Hunch-created campaigns	Based on total account spend

When it comes to Smartly’s pricing, there’s a critical difference between the two platforms. Smartly requires a 170k minimum ad spend, and the platform fee is charged as a percentage of it. Since the software is so robust, the cost required for maintenance and support reflects in its pricing.

Among all other Smarty competitors, Hunch has the best pricing and functionality ratio. Our pricing is based on ad spend that goes only through the Hunch platform, and it is flexible for all - you select the features you would like to use and receive a custom quote based on the feature set. This makes it perfect for brands looking to test the waters or scale rapidly.

Smartly Reviews vs Hunch Reviews: what do users have to say?

Smartly review from G2:

Positive:

Automation features, tools for collaboration and easy-to-use creative tools for image as well as video ads.

Negative:

It's a very glitchy program, there tend to be many errors without explanation and we consistently have to troubleshoot. When a feed reprocesses fails, sometimes the explanation is complete jargon and illegible. I also tend to find the UI rather clunky and I think it could be designed in a more user-friendly flow.

Hunch review from G2:

Positive:

Creating customized ads at scale and publishing them to Facebook works like a breeze. During an important season, we delivered over 700 ads to over 110 ad sets on Facebook in an instant. We were able to customize creatives and copies by including dynamic values such as local slang, area name, and target audiences. I also like that we can run ads directly from a Google Sheet and Google Drive (so we don't have to go into Ads Manager to create ads which is a tedious process). Hunch's customer support is top-notch. They have given us the support needed to bring our ideas into reality.

Negative:

Creating new campaigns can be overwhelming if you don't create them regularly (at least I tend to forget all the nitty gritty settings that need to be set for the campaign to work out properly). However, with Hunch's awesome customer support this hasn't been an issue as they have helped us set up new campaigns every time it has been needed.

Pros and cons comparison: does Hunch outperform other Smartly alternatives?

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After going through the main differences between the two platforms, let’s sum up using the pros and cons.

Smartly

Pros:

• It gives you the ability to fully automate your advertising for Paid Social
• Nifty technology
• It has all the essential features
• Has its creative studio for both image and video

Cons:

• Not flexible pricing
• Absence of project-based pricing
• Not enough support for small businesses
• Focused on enterprise-level companies
• Not enough time for each customer

Hunch

Pros:

• It gives you the ability to fully automate your advertising for Paid Social 
• On-brand video and image templates  included in onboarding
• Has its Creative Studio for both image and video 
• Flexible pricing 
• Pricing based on creative outputs
• Dedicated team

Cons:

• Puts more focus onto creative solutions
• It isn’t a hybrid marketing agency
• Multi-platfrom campaign managements (such as Pinterest etc)

Why choose Hunch?

If you’re wondering which Smartly alternatives to go for and whether Hunch is the right choice, here’s the perspective to consider. 

Smartly is the best choice for enterprise level companies, that want a full Paid Social automation, without worrying about staying on brand while executing omnichannel campaigns. 

If you have a lack of resources for creative production, and are always in a need for more creatives that will help you hit the revenue, Hunch is your ally. Our team of advertising experts is here to understand your products or service, alongside your business goals and transform it in beautiful on-brand creatives.

Reading the comparison is not the end of your research - try out the Hunch platform. Book a demo and discover how can we scale your business together!

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are Smartly.io top competitors?
   Hunch, ROI Hunter and Madgicx are great alternatives to Smartly. Choose the platform based on your ad spend, size of business, and feature set requirements
2. ‍How does Smartly pricing work?
   Smartly pricing is based on the customer’s advertising spend in the customer’s ad account, and they have two models: Self-Serve + Support and Managed Services.
   Smartly requires a $50k minimum ad spend, and the platform fee is charged as a percentage of it. That’s why enterprise companies are usually the only ones that can manage Smartly pricing with ease.‍
3. Which Smartly alternative is best for small businesses?
   Small and medium businesses with limited budgets can leverage Hunch and Madgicx.

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