Smartly vs Hunch: The Most Real Alternatives Comparison

Everyone in the AdTech industry is familiar with Smartly.io, a prominent company that helps enterprises to skyrocket their Paid Social success.

Hunch is no.1 among Smartly’s  alternatives, excelling in both creative automation and campaign management across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.

But how should you make the right choice?

You can’t go wrong with Smartly - they really have it all. However, the potential pitfall lies in the likelihood of not fully utilizing all available features, resulting in unnecessary expenses.

As a newer player, Hunch is more agile in turning your strategies into successful campaigns on Paid Social. We put big emphasis on helping partners to take the most out of the Hunch platform, with the help of advertising experts in our team.

If you’re carrying the burden of making the decision, we got you!

Let’s dive into a comprehensive Smartly vs. Hunch comparison (G2 reviews included) that will provide you with a broader perspective and help you in making the best decision for the performance of your team.

Meta integration: Hunch is the top choice among Smartly alternatives

Unlike many other Smartly alternatives, from the Meta integration perspective Hunch and Smartly give you the same range of opportunities. That’s because both platforms are covering both creative production and campaign management on Facebook & Instagram.

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

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 run dynamic ads and don’t need all of the features. 

Besides having all the essential features for producing creatives, as more agile company, Hunch develops a tailored solution for your business when needed. Best example of that is ad insertion for Meta: using Hunch platform you can inject fresh creatives into existing campaigns on Meta, while keeping all learning and campaigns' setups.

Full Snapchat integration

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

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 cater primarily to marketers, bridging the gap in design skills and facilitating the effortless creation of engaging creatives. But emphasizing the importance of creative collaboration, both studios  are great tools for designers too. 

Hunch’s Creative Studio is something that really differentiates Hunch as a Smartly competitor. Some of the Hunch’s partners that have switched from Smartly got amazed by the capabilities of Hunch’s Studio, such as multi artboard tool, video edition options and even AI powered background removal.

Hunch's AI-powered background removal is an enhancement that takes dynamic product ads to the next level. This features enables removing background from product catalog images, and it opens up endless possibilities for creating captivating templates for DPAs.

Other platform integrations: effortless reporting and workflow automation

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

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: save up to 60K EUR yearly with Hunch

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's pricing starts at $ 7.500, and they require a 170k minimum ad spend, and the platform fee is charged as a percentage of it. Since the software is so robust, you'll may pay for some features you're not even using.

Among all other Smarty competitors, Hunch has the best pricing and functionality ratio. Our pricing is more flexible, it starts from 2.000 EUR, and it is based on ad spend that goes only through the Hunch platform. 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.

Why choose Hunch?

Let’s be honest, vouching for the new tool is no fun at all.

But we’ll try to make it as easy as possible.

If you’re part of a mid-market company, or you work for a D2C brand, you’re main ad spend goes through Meta, and you’re looking for a reliable partner that will help you execute all the great strategy  you don’t have enough resources to do manually - we got you. 

With the power of  one of the best creative studio in our industry, and easy to use campaign management system, our team of advertising experts is here to understand your products or service 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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