# Marketing automation and campaign management for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "marketing automation platform" and as "marketing automation and campaign management tool", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://gtm-ai-index.com/marketing/marketing-automation/smb/

**Standing:** ActiveCampaign leads with 51% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 55 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ActiveCampaign | 51% | 6% | 66 |
| 2 | HubSpot Marketing Hub | 25% | 31% | 64 |
| 3 | Brevo | 15% | 0% | 52 |
| 4 | MailerLite | 4% | 0% | 19 |
| 5 | Mailchimp | 2% | 44% | 43 |
| 6 | Klaviyo | 0% | 8% | 25 |
| 7 | Omnisend | 0% | 0% | 15 |
| 8 | Kit | 0% | 8% | 12 |
| 9 | Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | 0% | 67% | 12 |
| 10 | Adobe Marketo Engage | 0% | 100% | 15 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
- GPT-5.4 mini: ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives Brevo, GoHighLevel
- Perplexity Sonar: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub
- Grok 4.1 Fast: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub
- Mistral Small: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Ortto
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, Customer.io
- Llama 4 Maverick: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub
- Kimi K2: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives ActiveCampaign, Brevo
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives Brevo, GetResponse
- MiniMax M2.5: ActiveCampaign; alternatives HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp

## Sources the answers cite

21 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- ventureharbour.com: 7 answers, 8 citations
- drip.com: 6 answers, 6 citations
- bloomreach.com: 5 answers, 5 citations
- simular.ai: 5 answers, 5 citations
- toolradar.com: 4 answers, 8 citations
- hubspot.com: 4 answers, 6 citations
- insiderone.com: 4 answers, 5 citations
- activecampaign.com: 4 answers, 4 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://ventureharbour.com/marketing-automation-software (7 answers)
- https://drip.com/blog/best-marketing-automation-platforms (6 answers)
- https://bloomreach.com/en/blog/best-marketing-automation-software (5 answers)
- https://simular.ai/alternatives/top-best-ai-marketing-automation-alternatives-for-smbs (5 answers)
- https://insiderone.com/best-marketing-automation-tools-smbs-enterprises (4 answers)
- https://jotform.com/blog/small-business-marketing-automation (4 answers)
- https://toolradar.com/guides/best-marketing-automation-software (4 answers)
- https://emailtooltester.com/en/blog/best-b2b-marketing-automation-platform (3 answers)
- https://fitsmallbusiness.com/best-marketing-automation-software (3 answers)
- https://getresponse.com/blog/small-business-marketing-automation-software (3 answers)

## Warned against

- Mailchimp: 19 of 43 labels negative. "Mailchimp - The Biggest Red Flag ... Who should avoid: Small businesses needing real automation workflows beyond basic email blasts." (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- HubSpot Marketing Hub: 20 of 64 labels negative. "HubSpot - Overkill for Most Small Businesses ... Who should avoid: Small businesses without enterprise-level budgets and needs." (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- Adobe Marketo Engage: 15 of 15 labels negative. "too advanced, with a dated UI, poor usability for non-experts, and implementation needing consultants—unsuitable for small teams" (Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt)
- Salesforce Marketing Cloud: 9 of 9 labels negative. "Enterprise-focused with massive complexity, steep learning curve, and high implementation costs; ... call it "overkill" for non-enterprise" (Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://gtm-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://gtm-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, gtm-ai-index.com.