Honestly, Canva is adequate for most SMB ad creatives once you learn the basics of layering, masking, and typography. avoid cracked Adobe on a personal MacBook - that's a malware vector waiting to bite you, and it's not worth the risk when your campaign data lives on that machine.
for layouts and brand consistency, pair Canva with Figma. For video assets, CapCut or DaVinci Resolve will get you 90% of what you need for static or short-form video. If you absolutely must have a free Photoshop equivalent, Photopea handles PSDs well enough.
the real lever for account performance isn't the software - it's whether the creative matches search intent, holds attention in the first three seconds, and maintains consistent branding across ad sets. I've seen campaigns with mediocre designs outperform polished ones purely because the hook aligned with the query. Focus on that, not on tool prestige.
