AdRoll vs. Kevel vs. Intuit Mailchimp

I used AdRoll at my previous agency and liked it. So much so, I am in the process of getting my new agency on board with using AdRoll. The primary reason is that it can be very advantageous for a small agency that doesn't meet many of the programmatic minimum ad buys to use. For many of our clients, re-targeting is also very important. I have found that I can get those types of campaigns up and running much quicker than using a platform directly. Overall, AdRoll is really easy to use and can be a great, low-barrier option for smaller agencies.

Incentivized

For ad serving, implementing client-side header bidding with prebid was actually easier with Kevel than it is with Google Ad Manager in most cases, particularly for display advertising. I found though that with more complex integrations (like video), there were more solutions and code snippets available with other larger ad servers (Google).

Incentivized

It allows you to reach out to our customer base and discuss updates, sales, education, and much more. I am grateful to have reached out to them and to have gained brand loyalty in the process. It helps us truly connect, not just sell. I can segment my audiences and decide who I want to send communications to.

Incentivized

• 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.

• More personable team that can address customizations needed to the product.
• Easy to use interface.
• Frequent product updates with notifications via email.
• Well documented API.

Incentivized

• Mailchimp allows you to manage your mailing list really well. You can subscribe people, unsubscribe people manage the mailing list directly into segments, and what not.
• Mailchimp has features where you can create campaigns based on your mailing lists and send out newsletters to your subscribers based on a multitude of parameters that you can setup. Such as send email daily, weekly, monthly and they also have event based mails that you can send out.
• Mailchimp also has a feature where you can design your emails. The look and aesthetics are very important when sending emails to your subscribers and all those needs are addressed here.

Incentivized

• 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

Incentivized

• User interface could be faster to load.

Incentivized

• The pricing tiers do scale quickly so if you have a free newsletter it may get expensive
• The pricing is based on total emails so if you have users who you only email rarely it might not make sense to use Intuit Mailchimp
• Customer support can be a bit lacking at times and their docs aren't always the best

Here are the questions we asked when we were going to renew (note: adroll does not have annual contract and you can cancel at anytime)

• what new products/ updates were released in the last 6 months?
• did I find these new products/updates helpful
• was I informed of these products in a timely fashion?
• did my Account Manage and Ad opps rep make suggestions on how I could make my campaigns more efficient and effective?

We love the product. One thing we haven't mentioned yet is the human element. Recently, MailChimp re-structured their plans/pricing based on the feedback they had received. They listened to a pain their users were experiencing, then strategized a solution, and implemented it fairly. The updated pricing strategy was intended to save subscribers money, and they did a great job of communicating it to their users. I would be surprised if anyone reacted negatively to the change.

Honestly, AdRoll is like every other ad management system. In fact, all ad management systems are pretty much identical with a few proprietary tweaks. Creating a campaign is done in one seamless screen with everything you need right there. The ability to add creative and even order AdRoll to create ads for you is also easy. The monitoring of a live campaign is easy as you can see all the necessary information from the main screen. Super easy to use and reliable deliverability

Incentivized

It's very easy to use - I could quickly explain how to use Mailchimp to someone not in marketing and feel confident they'd be able to use basic skills to figure it out. Plus, we use it beyond just email marketing now for subscriber welcomes, forms, and nurture sequences.

Incentivized

I have, in the 4+ years that I've used Mailchimp, never seen an issue that restricted the use of their software/tools. I don't know of a single time when they're system crashed or went down. I could be wrong, but I honestly haven't experienced any issues with outages, errors or unplanned downtime

Incentivized

I haven't noticed any slow speeds from Mailchimp or their tools. I think the landing pages load quickly and look nice. The email reports and editing operates smoothly and doesn't take time to load. Additionally, when I use Mailchimp in conjunction with Zapier + Hubspot I don't notice any drag between any of these tools

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Any time we needed their help or support they responded promptly, friendly, and straightforwardly. It's a great feature to have multi-language support as we are a diverse team, and anyone can reach out to receive help. We've always solved our inquires

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

I am little satisfied with the MailChimp implementation process, since although it has been a bit complicated and we have had various complications that tried to affect our performance, with a little general effort, we take full advantage and currently It is out main marketing and advertising campaign platform.

Incentivized

Adroll is slightly better than Criteo, in my opinion. Criteo, only does web ads right now, which is frustrating if you are also running social campaigns. Adroll continues to be a one stop shop for all advertising campaigns and is extremely convenient in that regard. Criteo works off of a PPC type of structure and Adroll charges per impression. Criteo would be more beneficial with that model.

Incentivized

Kevel was an easier initial implementation for header bidding with prebid. The team worked alongside us to make sure everything was operating as intended. We ultimately switched to Ads Manager to access AdX demand and other features that were not possible with Kevel (for instance, EBDA). There are benefits to both but I appreciated the attention we got from Kevel support when we were first working through the implementation. We are still using Kevel for many things, just not as our primary display advertising ad server.

Incentivized

I used Intuit Mailchimp, and I would say other software I used is equally good and competes with Intuit Mailchimp. Well, Intuit Mailchimp's reporting is better, and ActiveCampaign has more affordable pricing, so in the end, it all comes to what you need. What we needed was available in cheaper price in other software as well. But I would definitely say Intuit Mailchimp has its own advantages too.

Incentivized

Mailchimp over the years I've used it has grown in leaps and bounds. They have added so many additional features than were previously available. They are truly an all-in-one marketing platform now. If you're a small operation and just want to add email to your marketing efforts, they're there for you. If you're a larger operation and want to start sending postcard advertisements, they can do that. If you'd good with that and want to kick up your marketing by going social, you can do that on their platform. They are truly able to be as small as you need, but also get quite large in whatever it is you'd like to do through their system.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Kevel enabled us to get up and running with client side header bidding when our team was still small and the technology was still new. This improved our ability to monetize our inventory.

Incentivized

• One of my retail web store clients was sending out email specials and notices about once a month. After clicking the send button, we would watch Google Analytics and the current site users would light up immediately. Often, the current site visitors would pop up to 20, 30 or more after the email was sent. On a normal day, seeing 1 or 2 online users would be OK.
• Pretty much in all cases, we could see an uptick in positive activity after sending out a Intuit Mailchimp email to a list.

Incentivized