AdRoll vs. Google Ad Manager

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
AdRoll
Score 3.7 out of 10
N/A
AdRoll provides a platform, performance, and services to meet companys' marketing goals while streamlining marketing operation. Solutions technologies for brand awareness, retargeting, and abandoned cart recovery. And the AdRoll Cross-Channel Performance Dashboard displays campaigns holistically so users can analyze performance, run reports, gather insights.
$40
per month
Google Ad Manager
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Google Ad Manager is a platform for publishers that combines the former DoubleClick for Publishers and DoubleClick Ad Exchange products.N/A
Pricing
AdRollGoogle Ad Manager
Editions & Modules
Essentials
$12
per month
Growth
$25
per month
Starter
Free
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AdRollGoogle Ad Manager
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AdRollGoogle Ad Manager
Considered Both Products
AdRoll
Chose AdRoll
AdRoll helped me bypass google $50k lifetime spend to upload an email list to retarget my email list. And also helped combine stats from FB and Google and its partner in one place. But if you want more functionality or are heavy in ads, you might need to go directly to FB and …
Chose AdRoll
Google Ads is our primary channel of advertising but we ran tests of our Dynamic Google retargeting vs Adroll and Adroll outperformed the Google retargeting. AdRoll was an easier process to get set up and start converting. We also found that the support from AdRoll outperformed …
Google Ad Manager
Chose Google Ad Manager
These are great programs, but when you stack up against Google, they cover a marginal amount of space. You want to use a program that covers a wide area, and currently, the ones listed don't quite have the same reach as the others. I would recommend them to people with high …
Features
AdRollGoogle Ad Manager
Ad Network Integration
Comparison of Ad Network Integration features of Product A and Product B
AdRoll
6.8
21 Ratings
8% below category average
Google Ad Manager
7.5
26 Ratings
2% above category average
Data Transfer6.721 Ratings7.526 Ratings
DSP integration6.815 Ratings7.521 Ratings
Ad Campaigns
Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Product A and Product B
AdRoll
4.2
44 Ratings
61% below category average
Google Ad Manager
7.5
37 Ratings
5% below category average
Ad campaign creation1.143 Ratings8.537 Ratings
Ad deployment8.044 Ratings7.937 Ratings
Display advertising4.041 Ratings7.136 Ratings
Ad display and retargeting segmentation4.044 Ratings7.135 Ratings
Sequence targeting4.026 Ratings6.826 Ratings
Ad Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
AdRoll
1.7
44 Ratings
128% below category average
Google Ad Manager
7.0
36 Ratings
10% below category average
Ad dashboards1.144 Ratings7.334 Ratings
Ad performance reports1.144 Ratings7.436 Ratings
Ad conversion tracking3.042 Ratings7.035 Ratings
Ad attribution reporting1.138 Ratings6.632 Ratings
Cross-channel ad management3.031 Ratings7.027 Ratings
Ad forecasting and optimization1.128 Ratings7.031 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AdRollGoogle Ad Manager
Small Businesses
Criteo Commerce Growth
Criteo Commerce Growth
Score 8.0 out of 10
Criteo Commerce Growth
Criteo Commerce Growth
Score 8.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Score 9.0 out of 10
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Criteo Commerce Growth
Criteo Commerce Growth
Score 8.0 out of 10
Criteo Commerce Growth
Criteo Commerce Growth
Score 8.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AdRollGoogle Ad Manager
Likelihood to Recommend
1.1
(49 ratings)
8.5
(36 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.0
(6 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(6 ratings)
8.4
(4 ratings)
Support Rating
1.0
(6 ratings)
7.0
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
AdRollGoogle Ad Manager
Likelihood to Recommend
NextRoll
Adroll is perfect for companies and situations in which you are trying to retarget customers with specific products. Their platform is perfect for dynamic content on their web and social ads. Also, if you are running multiple campaigns at once then the Adroll platform is perfect when organizing many different campaigns at once. If you are just running one or two social campaigns I feel it is easier to go directly to the source and you can probably leave Adroll out of the mix
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Google
Google Ads Manager is great if you need major visibility on a large ad network rather than targeting one specific website, app or platform. Let's be real here if you have any business that is done online (sell products, generate leads, etc) you pretty much have to be on Google. I've tried other advertising solutions including competitor search engines, sponsored content solutions, social media advertising, and none really compare to the traffic you can get that is keyword-driven, meaning a user is actually demonstrating interest in whatever you sell or offer.
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Pros
NextRoll
  • A customer service rep can help us out with any campaign questions, any time during the work week.
  • The platform has a very transparent platform that provides great detail about analytics of the ads.
  • The platform shows what digital advertising mediums are working the best for your website, not just the ads that you run through them.
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Google
  • Interface. You can understand how to build the ads very easily. When you first begin, and throughout the process, there are little help icons which explain what you need to understand.
  • Pricing. By this, I mean the ability to change it at any time. You can select a variable rate, or you can preset it. Either way, you can change how much you spend every second if you'd like. This makes it easier to control your budget if you need to make emergency purchases and don't have much space in your budget.
  • Always growing. They are always announcing something new. Always growing and always trying to update.
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Cons
NextRoll
  • Improved level of support during the technical setup process would really improve the onboarding process
  • Consistent, proactive account management is key with organizations like AdRoll. A dedicated rep goes such a long way.
  • More granular reporting would help with back-end optimization and client recommendations
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Google
  • Bumper Machine - While this is still in beta, there is a lot of room for improvement for the machine to pick proper clips. I'm sure that will come in time though.
  • Inclusion of a Home Page Button - This is a simple request, truly, but one that bothers me everyday. I have a campaign home button, but it's not accessible unless you go back to the beginning of the platform. If the 'home' button was static, I'd be able to go to my preferred view with one click instead of having to loop around, as there isn't a trustworthy 'back button' option either.
  • Display - This is a big one. I have a love/hate relationship with display campaigns and algorithms. I have seen where they can perform [strongly] but also be massive budget bleeds with little ROI. It's not very industry specific either so I'm hoping to gain more consistency and trust with the future of the display algorithm.
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Likelihood to Renew
NextRoll
We like AdRoll as it's filling a hole in our advertising right now, but it's not our favorite platform for running our online ads. Google and Facebook especially are our favorites, as we can do much more with them than we can with AdRoll, hence the 7 out of 10 rating.
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Google
I think it's useful for our team and we rely on it to improve our business. It is within our budget also. Although we still will need an approval from the upper-level management team, I don't see any problem with that
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Usability
NextRoll
Once tags are given and things are set up, it is fairly easy to utilize the reporting dashboard and check in on your ongoing campaigns. Metrics are simple to follow and can be toggled for specific dates or other qualifiers
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Google
While most of Google Ad Manager is user-friendly, certain parts of the ad creation process could use some improvements. Specifically, the way you insert keywords can be clunky and time-consuming, and I would like to see better and more keyword suggestions when designing a campaign.
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Support Rating
NextRoll
We don't use AdRoll support much, but when we have it's been fine, in line with other advertising platforms where it takes a few days maximum to resolve an issue that you have with them. In general though, the platform is very self sufficient and we do not have to use their support much, which is a good thing.
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Google
I could say a lot about this topic. As an agency, we get a new [representative] to talk to almost every quarter to go over select accounts and the campaigns within. Most of the time, these [educated representatives], don't provide any new feedback, or I just simply [disagree] with their approach. This is not all the time however. I have learned a lot from a rare few, [individuals] that have given me new strategies and access to betas early on. The other side of support, is the [overseas support platform]. [It] is usually not very helpful, but you can [emphasize] issues and they can research [them]. The Google Tag Implementation team is pristine though. When you need them, you need to set an appointment, which is usually 2 weeks out; they are so over-my-head intelligent, I've never had a bad experience with them and whenever I needed them for a fix, they solved it [within] the first call.
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Implementation Rating
NextRoll
Implementation was easy, as all we needed to do was use Google Tag Manager's built in AdRoll tag type and input our client ID and we were up and running. If you're not using Google Tag Manager, I imagine the implementation would be relatively easy as well, as all that's needed is a basic pixel.
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Google
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
NextRoll
AdRoll is better than Taboola in that the ad creation process. I like how the ads have better retargeting than Taboola. Also, I can make the ads look more elegant and fit our brand more than Taboola. Adroll's analytics are also better than Taboola in my experience. Lastly, Tabool is relatively the same price as Taboola.
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Google
As I've said in prior comments, I like how the Google Ad Manager makes better use of the Google data and results compared to the others. Yes, I've tried them - I used to evaluate software for a former company. They will all do the job I didn't like their usage as much as I preferred the Google information - and I said even that had flaws - so you have to realize that nothing is completely perfect so far.
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Return on Investment
NextRoll
  • Mixed - while the tool provides an invaluable productivity gain the actual ROI it provides is less certain. We found if used in combination with other revenue analytics it was useful to determine the impact it had on revenue from returning visitors. If data is used on its own the impact on revenue is less quantifiable.
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Google
  • I was able to work well with my budgets - mainly because of the reports.
  • I saw a great spike in the way my ad traffic increased.
  • It was a very easy way to work with Google Ad Manager than connecting other platforms with less compatibility - Less investment.
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ScreenShots