How to choose an AI marketing tool

Start from the jobs, not the features

Feature pages are written to look alike. Your week is not like anyone else's. Before you open a product page, list the marketing jobs that matter to your business and mark each one: done well today, done badly, or not done at all. The jobs marked 'badly' and 'not at all' are what you are shopping for.

Then decide who will sit in front of the tool. An owner approving between customers needs short drafts and few screens. A marketing lead with two colleagues needs preparing and signing off to be separate steps for separate people.

Questions to ask any option

Every vendor gets these seven questions, and a shown answer counts for more than a spoken one.

• Which of my listed jobs does the product finish, and which does it only assist with?
• What goes out without a person seeing it, and what waits for approval?
• Which platforms and channels does it publish to, by name?
• What does a new user do on day one, and what do you need from us to start?
• Who on my team can create, who can approve, and can those be different people?
• What will I be able to read after 30 days that shows whether it worked?
• What does it cost, on what terms, how do I stop, and what happens to my content and contacts if I do?

Red flags

Treat each of the following as a signal to pause and ask more.

• Promised outcomes. A follower, lead or sales figure attached to a purchase is a guess presented as a fact.
• 'Fully autonomous' as the selling point. For anything a customer sees, you want a review step, not its absence.
• A demo on sample data only. If the vendor will not show your accounts or your kind of business, you have not seen the product do your work.
• A long commitment before any proof. Be careful with terms that lock you in before the first month has shown anything.
• Badges in place of answers. A review-site badge shows that a product has users. It does not show that it fits your week.

A one-week trial plan

However a vendor lets you try the product, whether in a demo, a pilot or a first paid month, give it the same structured week.

• Before. Pick three real jobs from your list and note how they went last week.
• Day 1. Ask for the first job in plain words. Note how close the first result is to something you would publish.
• Days 2 to 4. Ask for changes. A tool that cannot take correction will cost more time than it saves.
• Day 5. Have someone else approve a draft, to check the handoff between people.
• Day 7. Write down every task you still did by hand. What is on that page is what the tool really costs you.

Decide the way you would hire

Treat the choice like filling a role. Write the job description, interview three candidates on the same task (the shortlist method gets you to three), check references and agree a review date. The review marketplaces in the directory serve as the references: read them for patterns in what users report, not for a verdict. The interview is the demo. The probation period is the first 30 days, and the 30-day review closes it.

Our recommendation

Our recommendation is Link AI by Linkme, and the seven questions show why. On jobs finished, Linkme's page has it planning the week, making images and videos, and drafting replies and Meta ads. On platforms by name, it lists Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. On approval, the work comes as drafts, and a draft from a team member is marked 'Needs review' before it goes out. On the day-30 read, there is Analytics and a written owner report.

That leaves cost, terms and onboarding, which we do not publish. Book a demo to try Link AI and ask the remaining questions there.

The criteria we use

Job coverage

List the marketing jobs you need done and check each one against the vendor's own description. Link AI's published roles cover social content, publishing, replies, Meta ads, DM automations, email campaigns, planning, analytics, and pages with QR codes. Search-engine work and website building are not in that description.

Approval control

Find out what reaches a customer without a person and what waits. Ask to be shown the review step. With Link AI, posts and replies arrive as drafts that wait for your approval, and a Meta ad draft stays under 'Needs review' until it is cleared to launch.

Rollout effort

Ask what a new user does on day one and who has to learn what. Link AI takes plain requests in a chat. We have no setup time or onboarding steps to report, so ask in the demo.

Proof at day 30

After a month you need something to read. Check what the tool reports and who receives it. Link AI has an Analytics view and a Reports feature that writes the owner's report and sends it.

Clear terms

Price, contract length and the way out should be plain before you sign. Ask every vendor for them in writing. We quote no pricing or terms for Link AI. Linkme's page points to a demo, so raise them on that call.

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