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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Adobe Experience Manager

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AAdobe Experience Manager is a combined web content management system and digital asset management system. The combined applications of Adobe Experience Manager Sites and Adobe Experience Manager Assets is offered by the vendor as an end-to-end solution for managing and delivering marketing content.N/A

    Google Ads

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/AGoogle Ads (formerly AdWords) is Google's pay-per-click online advertising program. With Google Ads users set their budget and choose where their ads appear in search listings, and on partner websites. Google Ads uses cost-per-click (CPC) bidding.

    $500

    in Ads credit in the first 60 days

    Pricing
    Adobe Experience ManagerGoogle Ads
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Offer A
    $500
    in Ads credit in the first 60 days
    Offer B
    $1500
    in Ads credit in the first 60 days
    Offer C
    $3000
    in Ads credit in the first 60 days
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Adobe Experience ManagerGoogle Ads
    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 Experience ManagerGoogle Ads
    Considered Both Products
    Adobe
    No answer on this topic
    Google
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    180 Answers
    81%
    Would buy again
    42 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    145 Answers
    76%
    Delivers good value for the price
    37 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    184 Answers
    79%
    Happy with the feature set
    41 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    90%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    113 Answers
    69%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    34 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    87%
    Implementation went as expected
    125 Answers
    70%
    Implementation went as expected
    35 Answers
    Features
    Adobe Experience ManagerGoogle Ads
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Adobe Experience Manager and Google Ads
    Feature
    Adobe Experience Manager
    8.4
    38 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Google Ads
    -
    Ratings
    Role-based user permissions8.438 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Adobe Experience Manager and Google Ads
    Feature
    Adobe Experience Manager
    8.0
    33 Ratings
    0% above category average
    Google Ads
    -
    Ratings
    API7.829 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language8.129 Ratings00 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Adobe Experience Manager and Google Ads
    Feature
    Adobe Experience Manager
    7.5
    38 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Google Ads
    -
    Ratings
    WYSIWYG editor7.433 Ratings00 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness6.734 Ratings00 Ratings
    Admin section7.034 Ratings00 Ratings
    Page templates7.637 Ratings00 Ratings
    Library of website themes7.326 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design7.835 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publishing workflow8.135 Ratings00 Ratings
    Form generator7.629 Ratings00 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Adobe Experience Manager and Google Ads
    Feature
    Adobe Experience Manager
    7.3
    37 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Google Ads
    -
    Ratings
    Content taxonomy7.731 Ratings00 Ratings
    SEO support7.133 Ratings00 Ratings
    Bulk management7.236 Ratings00 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions7.534 Ratings00 Ratings
    Community / comment management7.130 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad Campaigns
    Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Adobe Experience Manager and Google Ads
    Feature
    Adobe Experience Manager
    -
    Ratings
    Google Ads
    7.2
    11 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Ad campaign creation00 Ratings7.911 Ratings
    Ad deployment00 Ratings7.510 Ratings
    Display advertising00 Ratings7.410 Ratings
    Ad display and retargeting segmentation00 Ratings7.511 Ratings
    Sequence targeting00 Ratings6.810 Ratings
    Contextual advertising00 Ratings7.210 Ratings
    Social advertising00 Ratings6.35 Ratings
    Ad Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Adobe Experience Manager and Google Ads
    Feature
    Adobe Experience Manager
    -
    Ratings
    Google Ads
    7.3
    11 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Ad dashboards00 Ratings7.511 Ratings
    Ad performance reports00 Ratings7.911 Ratings
    Ad conversion tracking00 Ratings7.311 Ratings
    Ad attribution reporting00 Ratings7.211 Ratings
    Ad forecasting and optimization00 Ratings6.911 Ratings
    Ad Auctions
    Comparison of Ad Auctions features of Adobe Experience Manager and Google Ads
    Feature
    Adobe Experience Manager
    -
    Ratings
    Google Ads
    7.9
    10 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Ad bidding00 Ratings7.910 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Adobe Experience ManagerGoogle Ads
    Small Businesses
    Yext
    Score6.8 out of 10
    WordStream
    Score6.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Score8.9 out of 10
    WordStream
    Score6.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Progress Sitefinity
    Score7.9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Adobe Experience ManagerGoogle Ads
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.6
    (220 ratings)
    8.7
    (126 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    9.6
    (21 ratings)
    Usability
    8.1
    (181 ratings)
    7.7
    (17 ratings)
    Availability
    8.6
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    8.0
    (5 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.2
    (11 ratings)
    9.0
    (8 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    5.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    9.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Professional Services
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Adobe Experience ManagerGoogle Ads
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Adobe
    I'll answer the second one because I mean, the first one I don't have an issue with. The second scenario is we oftentimes have the need to spin off very small campaign style sites or sites that generate leads but are unbranded and that sort of thing. So that's hard to do in AEM because you have to then create another organization within AEM to do that. And we're talking about sites that are maybe five to 10 pages in size. So we've been investigating Edge, but then that's a different workflow, so we'd have to train people on that. So it would be nice if there was something within the AEM structure that could allow you to do something very similar to Edge, where you make some small micro sites that are not necessarily branded, that you could still host within the platform and not have to retrain everybody on a completely different platform.
    Incentivized
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    Google
    Google Ads is a useful advertising tool to build brand exposure and generate lead volumes for your chosen product. Whilst it can be costly at times due to competitor bidding strategies and requires constant monitoring to ensure campaigns perform as expected, it typically provides the desired quality and quantity of leads for custom budgets.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Adobe
    • It allows us to scale so that we can make a change on a global footer. And it applies to all of the different property websites. It allows us to set up components and compartmentalize things in a way. The big thing is that it's scalable. And then it also ties into Adobe Analytics and other Adobe products. So we are a complete Adobe shop. Every Adobe product that we can use, we use. I don't think we do it for marketing so much, but for doing target testing and analytics, data scientists are using the same product and so it all speaks.
    Incentivized
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    Google
    • Automated targeting via Smart Shopping campaign. It's one of the best campaign types in Google Ads. In the beginning, you may see lower revenue and ROAS, but once you give some meaningful time to your campaign, it is most likely to perform well.
    • Smart bidding strategies: Google Ads has developed some really great bidding strategies such as maximizing conversion and maximizing conversion with ROAS settings. Based on one's requirement and their goal with revenue and target ROAS, they can choose the appropriate bidding strategy.
    • Reporting: A business owner and advertising must know about their audiences, how their campaigns have been performing, what's working and what's not, and for that reason, powerful, effective reporting is needed, and Google Ads provides rich details reporting that covers almost every aspect of a business.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Adobe
    • There are some glitches in permissions inheritance that require us to toggle a save on permissions in groups that inherit from a group that was recently updated.
    • Large packages require stopping the workflow launcher OSGi components or many workflows will slow down the server.
    • Locked pages are hard to find unless I use /siteadmin... I often hear that the CQ tools will go away, but if we lose that, some small things might be harder to do, like finding locked pages.
    Incentivized
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    Google
    • If you don't know what you're doing, it will be a costly mistake. You need to target ads, and it is difficult the first time to do that.
    • There isn't a feature to run an add for a couple set date spans, just hours you want to run them or a single date span.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Adobe
    We had and still have a fantastic experience using Adobe CQ. Lots of flexibility, great integration with other Adobe products we already use and a powerful technology make it a great fit for our corporate environment. Also as the community grows, it makes it easier to network with other developers and users to get new ideas on how to continue to get the best out of the software.
    Read full review
    Google
    I think Google Ads is good for getting your company out there and becoming more visible to potential customers in general. However, for specific product launches, social media advertising might be a better fit. Also, our user base is younger so social media is a better channel for our target audience.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Adobe
    Adobe Experience Manager overall is fairly easy to use and caters to a wide range of users when it comes to their technical abilities. It has the flexibility to enable UI/UX designers to pop in and easily design new content with drop in components. It also has sufficient capabilities for those who are more technically inclined and want to dig more into custom code or solutions
    Incentivized
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    Google
    This is more of a subjective rating, because I think it can be increased with how much our ad spend is. The more of an ad spend, the more visibility we can get, and therefore all features can climb. With an overall larger presence the usability is that where we can get messages out quick, and that's the main thing we try to do with our campaigns.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Adobe
    Being part of Adobe Suite means you are already notified when the tool has any outages. However, I have never faced unplanned outages. Whenever you face any issue with the site, it is clearly stated if there were any planned outages and how quickly you will be back to normal. So, I will say that even the outages are planned and managed in a great way like their other services.
    Incentivized
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    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Adobe
    With respect to performance, Adobe experience manager is one of the best in the CMS space. We didn't observe frequent slowness on platform, however the systems which are accessing experience manager should be of good specifications without which slowness would be observed. Adobe experience manager works well in integration with other solutions, unless the destination application is designed to trigger frequent calls to AEM.
    Incentivized
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    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Adobe
    Adobe Experience Manager, in all its capacity, is a great alternative to any other CMS you are using. It helps in rapid development and makes life easier for maintaining the website for multi-language sites. Technical know-how is eliminated at content authoring. Better documentation in terms of live examples with videos would be appreciated.
    Incentivized
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    Google
    We have not yet had an account rep who hasn't tried to bully me or other employees to raise our budgets. At the same time, several years ago, one attempted to help refine our ads and ended up changing the ads to be something we were not affiliated with
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    Adobe
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    Daily use with advanced account structures. Familiarity with reporting/api and complex setups.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Adobe
    Depending on your individual needs, It is really quite simple to create an authoring experience for a website that looks really good. I have been part of many implementations and many teams and have seen many projects that were super successful and others that were not implemented well. AEM has room for a lot of flexibility in the implementation process compared to other CMS like SharePoint
    Read full review
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Adobe
    SSO is one fits all, so we don't have to have a separate SSO for each application of Adobe The integration with Analytics works perfectly and bring directly value really quickly Target remains more complicated to set up, but can also bring a lot of value once integrated with the rest of the Adobe platform The fact that the solution is Cloud services is also a big advantage for maintenance
    Incentivized
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    Google
    Our agency invests heavily in Google Ads (particularly paid search advertising) on behalf of our clients relative to competitors like Microsoft and Yahoo because Google is the top search engine in the world. Google collects the most search data which enables the company to improve its AI to drive better performance for agencies and brands. As such, our paid search and app install campaigns always start with Google. If a client has a large budget, we will allocate media dollars to other search engines, but in some cases, the entire search budget goes to Google because we see the best returns.
    Incentivized
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    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Adobe
    Instead of being directly involved in the tool purchase, I am involved in analysis or what we can use to maximize the tool. Small organizations may find it expensive. However, if the team or organization focuses more on your ROI or the features you will get, then it will definitely be worth it. Pricing is based on a number of factors, including team size or the use of the tool. The user can select the pricing option that best fits their needs based on the number of form submissions they make or the number of pages they wish to publish on their global/multisite sites.
    Incentivized
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    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Professional Services
    Adobe
    The professional services team within adobe is one of the best in terms of technical and solutioning knowledge. However, considering the billing charges of adobe professional services team, it is always recommended to involve them during platform initial setup or when a complex solution is to be built with platform customizations.
    Incentivized
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    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Adobe
    • too soon to tell on increased conversion rates based on external marketing factors in play but having increased visibility into customer engagement trends will most likely lead to improvement of our conversion rates.
    • There have been productivity gains from the perspective of actually migrating all of our externally managed sites to the same in-house Adobe Experience Manager platform and then being able to utilize those universal components.
    Incentivized
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    Google
    • Google Ads is often one of our highest ROI channels, especially when you factor in branded ads.
    • Depending on the stage your business is in, search ads can be really powerful from an ROI perspective, providing an investment with a very high spend cap.
    • If you do not manage the campaigns well though, you can quickly spend a lot of money on nothing. So make sure someone is keeping an eye on your account.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    Adobe Experience Manager Screenshots

    Screenshot of AEM Forms - Creates an adaptive formScreenshot of AEM Forms - themes libraryScreenshot of AEM Forms - where to create a templateScreenshot of AEM Forms - the interactive communications editorScreenshot of Adobe Experience Manager Sites - document-based authoring enables marketers to create and publish content with familiar tools.Screenshot of Adobe Experience Manager Sites - Universal Editor, an advanced visual editor, empowers marketers to edit and publish content.