Adobe Analytics vs. Google Marketing Platform

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe Analytics
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Adobe acquired Omniture in 2009 and re-branded the platform as SiteCatalyst. It is now part of Adobe Marketing Cloud along with other products such as social marketing, test and targeting, and tag management. SiteCatalyst is one of the leading vendors in the web analytics category and is particularly strong in combining web analytics with other digital marketing capabilities like audience management and data management. Adobe Analytics also includes predictive marketing capabilities that help…N/A
Google Marketing Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Google Marketing Platform (a combination of former DoubleClick advertiser tools and Google Analytics 360 Suite) is a set of tools for marketers to manage their advertising campaigns. DoubleClick was acquired by Google in 2008. It focuses on uploading ads and reporting their performance and also provides forecasting tools to help predict future campaign needs. Bid optimization tools help manage pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns across search engines (e.g. Bing, Google, Yahoo!).N/A
Pricing
Adobe AnalyticsGoogle Marketing Platform
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe AnalyticsGoogle Marketing Platform
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe AnalyticsGoogle Marketing Platform
Considered Both Products
Adobe Analytics
Chose Adobe Analytics
Not all the platforms above are a direct competitor to Adobe Analytics, as some of them are advertising platforms and not analytics only. Saying that, I think Adobe Analytics is most probably the best out of them all and this is due to Marin having a slightly "older" look and Go…
Chose Adobe Analytics
Adobe analytics has been selected as a platform to be used across a huge company, which tracks the performance of a hundreds of thousands pages with different type of content. It's believed to be the most accurate tool and the support on the side of the platform has been always …
Chose Adobe Analytics
Adobe Analytics is a great tool and I have found Google Analytics to also provide good data. Adobe Analytics sitecatalyst website is not as user friendly as the Google Analytics website interface, in my opinion. However, I think that actual QA verification of Adobe Analytics on …
Google Marketing Platform
Chose Google Marketing Platform
DoubleClick is the best tool to use for data management since it is fast, easy to use and provides everything needed for optimizing towards better performance.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Adobe AnalyticsGoogle Marketing Platform
Web Analytics
Comparison of Web Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Analytics
9.0
4 Ratings
15% above category average
Google Marketing Platform
-
Ratings
Lead Conversion Tracking9.24 Ratings00 Ratings
Bounce Rate Measurement9.14 Ratings00 Ratings
Device and Browser Reporting9.34 Ratings00 Ratings
Pageview Tracking8.84 Ratings00 Ratings
Event Tracking9.24 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting in real-time8.44 Ratings00 Ratings
Referral Source Tracking9.14 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Dashboards8.84 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Network Integration
Comparison of Ad Network Integration features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Analytics
-
Ratings
Google Marketing Platform
9.5
28 Ratings
25% above category average
Data Transfer00 Ratings10.023 Ratings
DSP integration00 Ratings9.026 Ratings
Ad Campaigns
Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Analytics
-
Ratings
Google Marketing Platform
7.9
32 Ratings
1% above category average
Ad campaign creation00 Ratings8.432 Ratings
Ad deployment00 Ratings8.432 Ratings
Display advertising00 Ratings8.029 Ratings
Ad display and retargeting segmentation00 Ratings7.730 Ratings
Sequence targeting00 Ratings7.023 Ratings
Ad Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Analytics
-
Ratings
Google Marketing Platform
7.2
32 Ratings
7% below category average
Ad dashboards00 Ratings6.730 Ratings
Ad performance reports00 Ratings7.332 Ratings
Ad conversion tracking00 Ratings7.331 Ratings
Ad attribution reporting00 Ratings7.030 Ratings
Cross-channel ad management00 Ratings7.325 Ratings
Ad forecasting and optimization00 Ratings7.524 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Adobe AnalyticsGoogle Marketing Platform
Small Businesses
StatCounter
StatCounter
Score 9.0 out of 10
Google Ad Manager
Google Ad Manager
Score 8.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Siteimprove
Siteimprove
Score 8.7 out of 10
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Score 8.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Contentsquare
Contentsquare
Score 8.6 out of 10
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe AnalyticsGoogle Marketing Platform
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(178 ratings)
7.4
(44 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(42 ratings)
8.0
(13 ratings)
Usability
6.7
(33 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
Availability
8.3
(12 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.9
(11 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
3.9
(41 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
In-Person Training
1.4
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.0
(5 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(10 ratings)
6.0
(2 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
7.3
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.9
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
7.7
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe AnalyticsGoogle Marketing Platform
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
Adobe Analytics is better than some other tools as it feels better set up for actual "analysis", rather than simply "reporting". The power of Workspace allows you to drag 'n' drop at ease which makes you are far more in control of your own analysis/discovery/exploration. However, regards the final reports and dashboards' look 'n' feel the Workspace PDF output is lacking visually compared to other products like Google's Looker. To engage with less technical end users sometimes Looker feels the better, more polished option.
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Google
I feel pretty neutral about Google Marketing Platform. For the longest time, my company wasn't using it because each of the features (Data Studio, Analytics, etc.) could be accessed separately. In fact, most of the time, I don't even go into Google Marketing Platform because it's easier to directly navigate to the individual platforms. There are very few features about GMP that can only be accessed from the GMP UI. The Integrations Center is probably the main feature I utilize from the GMP UI, which allows me to see a summary of the integrations I have in place across all my client properties and accounts.
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Pros
Adobe
  • They've been really an industry standard tool in analytics for a long, long time. They've got the trusted brand and the reputation, a wonderful community behind it. It is always nice, having that level of support where you can meet other practitioners. It's a great benefit because I can meet other people who have already pushed the tool a lot farther than I have. And it's a great place to get ideas in that way. We came from a world where we were running on a homegrown system that we'd use to do click tracking. You get some advantages on that of the customization, but losing out on community of support was one of the big reasons why we decided to move beyond that and implement Adobe Analytics instead.
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Google
  • Bringing together data from multiple channels and engines and allows you to visualize the data in an easy to use platform. This saves time from using multiple logins for the different platforms.
  • Auto bidding tools save time from manual bidding, as it allows you to set the specific terms around what levels you want to cap your CPCs at. You then let DoubleClick adjust your bids to gain the most conversions from the cheapest CPCs. This frees up time to do other in-depth analysis and strategy.
  • DoubleClick also has the ability to track conversions and clicks on any page using their floodlight tags. This is good for tracking certain actions on yours or a client's site and is especially good if they do not use any other tools, such as Google Analytics or Adobe, to track conversions and user actions on site. You can also use these in conjunction with the auto bidding tools.
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Cons
Adobe
  • Most of the problems that Adobe Analytics as of now is having, it is getting addressed in a newer tool called Web Desk DK from implementation. They are already addressing that issue with the new tool and also the time data with the customer general analytics. So there is something not in workspace analysis and this is what they're addressing in customer general analytics. Which is good.
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Google
  • The process for on-boarding new users can be difficult if they do not already have a Gmail or Gmail-linked account.
  • Difficult to troubleshoot technical issues (with the platform, with tags, etc.) because of the lack of customer support. Unclear if the agency has a dedicated team or individual to assist, and often have to deal with out-sourced support teams.
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Likelihood to Renew
Adobe
We've found multiple uses for Adobe Analytics in our organization. Each department analyzes the data they need and creates actionables based off of that data. For E-Commerce, we're constantly using data to analyze user engagement, website performance and evaluate ROI.
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Google
Due to its adapting behavior with industry ad formats and seamless integration with publishers and DSP's, I don't see myself moving away from DCM. As we see the display advertising is getting more programatic and automated due to the rise of DSP and concept of RTB, Double Click has evolved with new advanced best practices
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Usability
Adobe
Sometimes the processing times are very long. I have had reports or dashboards time out multiple times during presentations. It could be improved. It is understandable since there is a huge data set that the tool is processing before showing anything, however for a company that large they should invest in optimizing processing times.
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Google
The Doubleclick interface is easy and simple to get a hang of. The options are slightly limited compared to other DSPs. But, for a simple campaign, this is a great DSP to move forward with. They have a ton of data and can plug into a lot of different partners
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Reliability and Availability
Adobe
I do not ever recall a time when Adobe Analytics was unavailable to me to use in the 8 or so years I have been an end user of the product. My most-used day-to-day analytics tool Parse.ly however, generally has a multiple hours planned offline maintenance every two to four weeks, and sometimes has issues collecting realtime analytics that last anywhere between 15 minutes to an hour, and happen anywhere between 1 to 5 times a month.
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Google
No answers on this topic
Performance
Adobe
Again, no issues here. Performance within the day updates hourly. other reports are updated overnight and available to access by the next morning. Pages load quickly, the site navigates easily and the UX is quite straightforward to get command over. On this front, I give Adobe kudos for building a great experience to work within
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Google
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Adobe
I barely see any communication from Adobe Analytics. The content on the web is also not that great or easy to read. I would recommend a better communication about the product and the new addons information to come to its user by a better mean.
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Google
They do not have strong support team. It is tough to get answer when I need it. They always refer you to an online guide and not an actual person. If so, the person is based out of an offshore team in India and does not know the specific client goals .
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In-Person Training
Adobe
It was a one-day training several years ago that cost the organization several thousand dollars. There were only about 10 people in the training class. Adobe tried to cram so much information into that one-day class that none of our users felt like they really learned anything helpful from the experience. Follow-up training is too expensive
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Google
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Adobe
The online training for Adobe SiteCatalyst consists of short product videos. These are ok, but only go so far. For a while Adobe charged a fee for this, but recently made these available for free. There are many great blog posts that help users learn how to apply the product as well.
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Google
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Adobe
One of the benefits and obstacles to successfully using Adobe Analytics is a great / more accurate implementation, make sure your analytics group is intimate with the details of the implementation and that the requirements are driven by the business.
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Google
I would highly recommend asking clients to provide 3PAS tags or use an internal 3PAS
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Alternatives Considered
Adobe
I think Adobe's been around longer as a product but Tealium, from when I did research, it has auto-tagging. So one of my biggest pet peeves is when I'm rolling out new features, and whether it's an app or a website, is that I have to go speak with our metrics team or tagging team and we have to come up with these different strategies. Okay, how are we gonna tag it? What are we going to name it? It just seems like a lot of wasted time in my opinion. I want to track everything. I want to know every single thing these people are doing. We shouldn't have to have this conversation if we tag this, you might not have time to tag this right away for MVP. It's like that to me right now. That shouldn't even be a conversation. I should be able to release a feature, I should be able to just automatically go pull reports on that. And just figure out exactly what they were doing.
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Google
Marin takes a lot more time for everything, mainly for the campaigns setup. This also leads to many mistakes, which impact the performance. I've used Marin on a couple of previous clients and we've had many problems with it, mainly with correct conversion tracking and account optimizations. Besides, Marin is behind all the new features available on AdWords, which makes the tracking also not very flexible.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Adobe
Adobe Analytics is relatively affordable compared to other tools, given it provides a range of flexible variables to use that I have not found in any other tools so far. It is worth investing in if your company is medium or large-sized and brings a steady flow of revenue. For small companies, it can be overpriced.
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Google
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Adobe
My organization uses Adobe Analytics across a multitude of brand portfolios. Each brand has multiple websites, mobile apps and some even have connected TV apps/channels on Roku and similar devices. Adobe can handle the multitude of properties that have simple, small(ish) websites and the larger brand properties that include web, mobile and connected TVs/OTT devices.
Each of those larger brands has multiple categories and channels to keep track of. We can see the data by channel/device or aggregate all the data together. This gives our executive teams the full picture and the departmental teams the view they need to see their own performance.
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Google
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
Adobe
The professional services team is one of the best teams for complex adobe analytics implementations, especially for clients having multiple website and mobile applications. However, the cost of professional services is a bit high which makes few clients opt out of it, but for large scale implementations they are very helpful
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Google
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Adobe
  • I like to think it's positive. It's a very steep learning curve, so we do face a lot of challenges with adoption inside of the companies. My team and I evangelize this and also who's in charge of data and advanced analytics, but it's very hard to leverage that with typical business analysis people. These are people who live their life in Excel and SQL and Power BI. They just use this very occasionally and by only looking at that sort of aggregate data, they miss out on behavior and what actually happens in execution. And because it's such a steep learning curve, we do have a challenge pushing it in there.
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Google
  • DS3 has improved ROI considerably due to its ability to make the work of a team of digital marketers to go further and improving internal efficiency.
  • There is a notable improvement in account performance for those integrated with DoubleClick as opposed to not, with better tracking, new bid strategy options, and a more responsive interface.
  • The additional fee on top of media spend is a considerable expense for a large advertiser, but the necessity of a product/solution such as this means that there is always likely to be some comparative cost.
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ScreenShots