5 free tools for designing ad creatives

Digital environment is an ever-increasing, fast-paced world where ad creatives have become an essential skill to have. Your ads really need to stand out visually, emotionally and contextually to grab online users’ attention. Whether you are running a Facebook campaign or promoting an Instagram reel, your visual will likely determine if the audience will stop scrolling or not. But the good news is, you don’t have to spend a lot on professional designers to create eye-catching visuals. There is a wide range of free online design tools that let you create stunning visuals quickly and effectively. These platforms offer various features like drag-and-drop editors, free templates and a wide array of images, fonts and icons so you can create high quality graphics, videos and animations. In this guide, we’ll dive into five of the best free tools for creating ad creatives.

1.  Canva

Canva is a household name in the design space. It is a versatile platform that has something for everyone, whether you are designing ads, infographics, presentations or short videos. Its easy drag-and-drop interface makes it a popular choice, especially for users with little to no design experience. You can choose from built-in stock photos, icons and fonts to design the perfect ad.

To get the best out of Canva, you will need to subscribe to Canva Pro which starts at $12.99/month. This lets you access 100+ million premium stock photos, videos, audio and graphics. It also comes with a bigger range of templates, unlimited folders, 1TB cloud storage as well as Brand Kit for maintaining consistent colors, fonts, and logos. The paid version also comes with magic resize, background remover and advanced animation tools. You can also subscribe to Canva Teams or Enterprise plans.

Based on user reviews, Canva excels with intuitive editing and brand consistency. It is especially helpful for users who are on a clock. One user quoted, “Overall, Canva has dramatically improved my productivity. What used to take me 30 minutes in an Adobe program can be done in 10 minutes using Canva.” However, some users find it too simplistic for professional-level marketing. Some advanced features like gradients and layers panel are also not up to the mark.

2.  VistaCreate

VistaCreate is an excellent platform tailored for social media marketers. It’s a hidden gem that lets you create ads with motion and animation. Its templates are optimized specifically for social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and more. VistaCreate has a vast library with thousands of ad templates and social media-specific design presets for various platforms. Other notable resources include stock images, illustrations and video clips as well as stickers for more engaging ads. With this free tool, you can also enjoy features like customizable video lengths and aspect ratios.

While the free version of Vistacreate gives you access to 100,000+ templates, the Pro version unlocks 70 million creative assets, with unlimited downloads and storage. Other key features include brand kit, resize tool, priority support and more, thus making it an excellent tool for platform-specific ad creatives.

User reviews tell us that Vistacreate is praised for its animated templates and social media-focused formats. Its animated and video templates add life to ad creatives, allowing you to create magic through motion. However, some users have found the interface too cluttered and less intuitive compared to other tools.

3.  Adobe Express

Adobe Express is a tool offered by Adobe that combines the credibility and design expertise of the Adobe brand into a simplified, web-based platform. It delivers professionally designed templates, ideal for creating clean, modern ads. It’s popular with marketers due to its seamless integration with Adobe Stock to get access to high-quality images. Moreover, its ‘Design Suggestions’ feature gives you fresh creative ideas to deliver professional-quality visuals. You can create both static and video content without the intimidating learning curve of Photoshop or Illustrator. Adobe Express also has AI integration, making ad creation faster and more efficient.

The premium version of Adobe Express gives you full access to Adobe Stock, with over 160+ million assets. It unlocks all premium templates, 100GB cloud storage and other advanced features like advanced cutout, branded templates and video-to-GIF converter.

Users say Adobe Express is intuitive and beginner friendly, blending logo design, graphic, and video editing to make professional visuals. However, some users noted that it occasionally freezes or crashes. One user commented, ‘Some tools feel a bit clunky … and a few options are too basic, like not enough when you want a bit more control.’

4.  Piktochart

Piktochart is the perfect tool for you if your ads involve statistics, numbers or comparisons. It’s a design tool built for infographics, data visualizations and reports, but it’s equally useful for creating regular ads. The drag-and-drop design tools allow you to create ads that simplify complex information. It has a wide range of templates for various purposes including business reports and marketing summaries. It also offers customizable colors, fonts and layouts. Piktochart is an excellent tool to create ‘stat snapshot’ ads e.g., ‘We have helped 5000 businesses grow online’, making it a powerful persuasion tool by combining stats and bold designs.

The free version of Piktochart allows limited access to templates and icons, with export in PNG only. The paid version, starting at $14/month, unlocks access to unlimited active visuals and high resolution exports in PNG as well as PDF. It gives features like team collaboration, custom color schemes and branding with your own fonts and logos.

While Piktochart is a great tool for data visuals, it is slightly niche for general ad creatives. It is designed for analytic-focused ads, which limits its use as an allround platform. One user reviewed, “Lack of possibility of adding some animations … Missing color picker tool.”

5.  PosterMyWall

PosterMyWall is a speed and simplicity powerhouse. If you need to create an ad quickly without compromising on quality, it is the perfect tool for you. You can create posters, flyers or social posts with its intuitive, straightforward interface. Its vast library of online ad templates has hundreds of ready-made templates that you can use to create the perfect ad without even signing up. It offers simple customization to create fast, no-fuss ad designs.

With its AI text-to-Image generator, you can transform your ideas into visuals instantly. Just a simple prompt and this stunning tool will create a high-quality visual designed to your description. PosterMyWall also offers AI Background Remover, allowing you to create cleaner ad visuals by instantly removing image backgrounds.

PosterMyWall Premium starts at $9.95/month and Premium Plus at $29.95/month. Former offers unlimited high-quality image downloads and basic video downloads, custom fonts, premium templates, and no watermarks. Latter unlocks the full potential of the platform with no limits for Brand Kits, custom email IDs for sending campaigns and more.

PosterMyWall is best for speed, simplicity and output quality. One user commented, “PosterMyWall is AMAZING! I can be as creative as I want with animation…make all my material look professional.” Another said, “I can crank out posters and flyers like a true graphic designer… even the most BASIC user looks like a PRO.” Users love PosterMyWall’s ease of use, quick output, and the ability to produce quality work fast even with very little design experience.

Conclusion

While Canva, VistaCreate, Adobe Express and Piktochart are great tools with their own niches, PosterMyWall edges when it comes to delivering stunning ads quickly and efficiently. Its drag-and-drop interface, rich template library and advanced AI features make it the best tool for designing high-quality visuals.