Announcing the Top Rated Ad Serving & Retargeting Platforms for 2019

TrustRadius Top Rated

Today, we awarded the 2019 TrustRadius Top Rated badges for Ad Serving & Retargeting Platforms. The TrustRadius Top Rated awards are the most trusted in the industry because they are an unbiased reflection of customer sentiment, based solely on user feedback and satisfaction scores. Top Rated awards are the voice of the market and are not influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s company size, popularity, or status as a TrustRadius customer.

Ad Serving & Retargeting Platforms

Ad serving & retargeting software is designed to help marketing teams expose customers and prospects to promotional content both on their own digital channels and on other sites. While ad serving solutions typically focus on displaying rich ad content to all site visitors, retargeting software uses visitor behavioral and intent data, collected onsite and offsite, to focus on more specific audience segments. Some ad serving & retargeting products allow marketers to use targeted promotional content on multiple different channels (e.g. websites, social media platforms, blogs, news sites, etc). Common ad serving & retargeting software features include ad campaign creation and deployment, multiple formats to display ads, sequenced ad targeting, integrations with ad exchanges, ad analytics and reporting, ad conversion tracking, ad attribution reporting, and cross-channel ad management.

Here are the winners:

Google Ads

Google Ads (formerly AdWords) is a pay-per-click advertising platform that promises to help marketers generate more leads and boost their brand’s reputation. It allows companies to purchase ad space that will appear on the Google search engine results page (SERP) for specific keyword searches or on other third-party websites. Marketers have the ability to decide whether to promote advertisements at the local or global level and can choose from three potential campaign types: search campaigns where advertisements appear on Google SERPs, display campaigns where advertisements will appear on the websites your customers visit, and video campaigns that display short video ads before YouTube videos start. Reviewers note that Google Ads is great for targeting specific audience segments and produces robust and easily digestible reports.  

“[Google Ads] utilizes audience lists very well. These are lists that are created either with cookies, first-party data (from the business) or by using Google’s own created topics. Audience lists are a strength mainly because it allows the business to target users who are more relevant to them, this, firstly, reduces spend on less relevant users and also increases revenue and conversions, which can really help a business grow.”

– Verified User | Executive in Marketing | Marketing and Advertising Company

[easy-tweet tweet=”Google Ads: utilizes audience lists very well.” user=”trustradius” template=”qlite”]

Facebook for Business

Facebook for Business is an advertising platform that enables marketers to promote their products or services with specific user segments and engage with customers on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It includes features such as multiple ad formats to choose from (e.g. image, video, Facebook and Instagram ‘stories’, Facebook messenger ads, slideshows), the ability to target specific audience segments based off of ‘look-alike’ user searches and user data (e.g. demographic, location, behavioral), ability to import a list of contacts to target from the user’s CRM, and ad performance analytics. A large portion (43%) of Facebook for Business users on TrustRadius are from small businesses.  Reviewers appreciate the ability to manage different types of ad campaigns (e.g. on Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp) through one centralized dashboard.

“We run multiple advertising accounts for different reasons and Facebook for Business allows us to centralize all campaigns and planning, as well as limit access to specific members of a team, which is helpful. For advertising purposes, this is a valuable way to manage.”

– Nathan Sichilongo | Regional Manager | Dotcom Zambia

[easy-tweet tweet=”Facebook for Business: For advertising purposes, this is a valuable way to manage” user=”trustradius” template=”qlite”]

AdRoll

AdRoll is an advertising platform focused on eCommerce companies that allows users to display ads across multiple channels and provides users with customer insights. It includes features such as audience targeting tools based on shopper behavior, multi-channel ad campaign management (e.g. social media platforms, email, websites), ad displays on customers’ most visited sites, dynamic and personalized ads, ad retargeting, and ad performance reporting. A large portion (39%) of AdRoll users on TrustRadius are from midsize businesses. According to reviewers, the ability to manage ad campaigns across channels from one platform and conduct ad retargeting across websites and social media platforms are two of AdRoll’s strengths.

“AdRoll is great for those who have a strong creative department and want the ability to retarget users who land on their site. AdRoll is also great for prospecting as you can upload your database and AdRoll will prospect lookalikes. For folks who want to track users on social (Facebook and Instagram), AdRoll does wonders. You also have the ability to email prospects which is another great way to build a unique database.”

– Stefanie Cash | Digital Marketing Manager | Caradonna Adventures

LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

Ideal for B2B marketing, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions is an advertising platform that allows marketers to tap into LinkedIn’s social networks for prospecting, lead generation, and advertising. Features include audience segmentation tools based on demographic, geographic, and behavioral information; ability to design mobile and desktop friendly ads on LinkedIn, display personalized ads, lead generation forms, conversion tracking, website retargeting, and multiple different ad formats to choose from (e.g. text, image, video, carousel). A large portion of LinkedIn Marketing Solution users (42%) on TrustRadius are from midsize businesses. Reviewers highlight that LinkedIn Marketing Solutions is well suited for running B2B ads because it gives users the ability to target based on characteristics such as job type, company, location, industry, etc.

“[LinkedIn Marketing Solutions] Targets the exact right audience for your B2B messaging: you don’t have to guess based on likes or any other periphery data to determine whether you’re reaching the right audience – you can hit by job title, years of experience, job function, seniority, and other great ways to ensure precision delivery to the correct audience.”

– Jarad Matula | Social Media Strategist / Community Manager | Bulldog Solutions

[easy-tweet tweet=”LinkedIn Marketing Solutions: Targets the exact right audience for your B2B messaging” user=”trustradius” template=”qlite”]

Criteo Dynamic Retargeting

Criteo Dynamic Retargeting is a marketing and advertising platform ideal for B2C companies. It enables marketers to retarget customers with personalized on websites, inside mobile applications, and on Facebook. It includes features such as multiple ad formats (e.g. text, image, video), dynamic and personalized ads, product recommendations within ads, mobile app optimization, ability to conduct retargeting on Facebook, and an ad gallery. The majority of Criteo Dynamic Retargeting users (58%) on TrustRadius are from midsize businesses. Reviewers highlight Criteo’s ability to attract low-funnel customers who are close to making a purchase, even when they venture offsite.

“Criteo enables us to retarget our customers who shopped online and catch those abandoned cart customers. It’s useful for us because in car rental, often customers will get a quote on our website but then leave to look elsewhere and it’s effective to have Criteo ads following them page to page afterward to show them we’re the lowest price they’ll find.”

– Yazmin Collister | Marketing Communications Manager | Easirent

[easy-tweet tweet=”Criteo enables us to retarget our customers who shopped online” user=”trustradius” template=”qlite”]

Congratulations to the winners of the Top Rated Ad Serving & Retargeting Platforms Award!

Top Rated Criteria

Products included in the 2019 Top Rated Ad Serving & Retargeting Platforms list must have been in the top tier of their category TrustMap as of January 15th, 2019. To qualify for the Ad Serving & Retargeting Platforms Top Rated Award, products must have at least 10 reviews written within the past year, a TRScore of at least 7.5 out of 10, and must receive at least 1.5% of the traffic in their category.  Every reviewer is verified and every review is vetted before publication. Products are plotted on the TrustMap based on end-user data, including users’ likelihood to recommend scores as well as buyer research patterns. To learn more about TrustMaps and Top Rated methodology, check out this page.