Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
AdStage
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
The AdStage Platform is a self-serve cross-network online advertising platform with full management and analytics for campaigns across search, social, display, and mobile ad networks like Google AdWords, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn Ads. It's an all-in-one marketing platform, complete with a suite of first- and third-party apps built on the AdStage API, for advertisers of all sizes.N/A
AppNexus
Score 5.0 out of 10
N/A
AppNexus AppNexus offers online auction infrastructure and technology for data management, optimization, financial clearing and support for directly negotiated advertising campaigns. It integrates with advertising sources including Google's DoubleClick, Microsoft's AdECN, and aggregators.[3]N/A
Google Ad Manager
Score 8.2 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
AdStageAppNexusGoogle Ad Manager
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AdStageAppNexusGoogle Ad Manager
Free Trial
YesNoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AdStageAppNexusGoogle Ad Manager
Considered Multiple Products
AdStage

No answer on this topic

AppNexus

No answer on this topic

Google Ad Manager
Chose Google Ad Manager
The UI is better against all other options in the market. Even the opportunity that you have to integrate new inventory from your own is easier when doing it by yourself; we always had to go back to the support teams on all other products in order to do so. Also, the robust …
Features
AdStageAppNexusGoogle Ad Manager
Ad Network Integration
Comparison of Ad Network Integration features of Product A and Product B
AdStage
6.5
3 Ratings
12% below category average
AppNexus
8.5
8 Ratings
15% above category average
Google Ad Manager
7.8
28 Ratings
6% above category average
Data Transfer7.03 Ratings8.06 Ratings7.528 Ratings
DSP integration6.02 Ratings9.08 Ratings8.022 Ratings
Ad Campaigns
Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Product A and Product B
AdStage
7.2
3 Ratings
9% below category average
AppNexus
8.0
8 Ratings
2% above category average
Google Ad Manager
7.4
40 Ratings
6% below category average
Ad campaign creation8.02 Ratings8.08 Ratings7.840 Ratings
Ad deployment7.02 Ratings9.07 Ratings7.140 Ratings
Display advertising8.02 Ratings7.07 Ratings7.639 Ratings
Ad display and retargeting segmentation7.02 Ratings8.07 Ratings7.238 Ratings
Sequence targeting6.03 Ratings8.07 Ratings7.328 Ratings
Ad Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
AdStage
8.7
4 Ratings
11% above category average
AppNexus
8.2
9 Ratings
6% above category average
Google Ad Manager
6.7
39 Ratings
15% below category average
Ad dashboards9.04 Ratings9.09 Ratings6.537 Ratings
Ad performance reports8.04 Ratings7.09 Ratings7.439 Ratings
Ad conversion tracking9.04 Ratings8.08 Ratings6.638 Ratings
Ad attribution reporting9.03 Ratings8.08 Ratings6.834 Ratings
Cross-channel ad management9.04 Ratings9.08 Ratings7.029 Ratings
Ad forecasting and optimization8.03 Ratings8.08 Ratings5.934 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AdStageAppNexusGoogle Ad Manager
Small Businesses
Criteo Commerce Growth
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Score 8.0 out of 10
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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
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
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User Ratings
AdStageAppNexusGoogle Ad Manager
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(4 ratings)
8.0
(16 ratings)
8.6
(36 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(1 ratings)
4.0
(6 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(2 ratings)
8.3
(4 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
7.0
(2 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
2.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
4.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
AdStageAppNexusGoogle Ad Manager
Likelihood to Recommend
AdStage
AdStage is great if you're an agency or an in-house marketer managing a lot of ad budget, a lot of campaigns, or a large number of clients and you want to get the day-to-day tasks cleared to focus on higher-brain-stem tasks. Bid and budget management are replaced by rules. Holiday sales are replaced with flighting. All of your team members can log in, access their accounts, set up their reports and have them send to clients without having to lift a finger.
Read full review
AppNexus
Appnexus is specifically well suited for CTV campaigns. They have the full technology stack to help you scale campaigns in any format, whether you need a lot of volume in traditional formats like banners and interstitials or if you need high-impact formats like video and other alternatives. Appnexus has a very strong set of unique publishers which makes it a great DSP for branding campaigns.
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Google
I like that I can see several clients in one place, which can be convenient. However, the UX could be a lot better as outlined previously. In other words, the benefits of combining clients into the Ad Manager don't seem to be much more beneficial than logging into each client's ad account separately
Read full review
Pros
AdStage
  • Easily pulling together API access for multiple channels into one area for in-depth reporting
  • Automation. They helped a bunch with features that LinkedIn didn't have.
  • The team. They were always super responsive and on the ball with any questions or concerns we had. The customer service was great.
  • General reporting and tieing data together.
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AppNexus
  • As per my experience they have strong support personnel. Solving the issues as and when required.
  • We can solve certain issues like campaign performance, inventory optimization and more with the help of AppNexus wiki. We get all the required information in the Wiki itself.
  • They have given the right platform to both buyers and sellers to workout and meet their digital marketing needs and goals.
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Google
  • The obvious is the data - Google Ads Manager gives me essential and even critical data about which jobs and industries are hot right now and what is driving the most response.
  • Google Ad Manager gives us more control over the search engine results page as we get more visibility and real estate on our branded search terms and job/industry-specific search terms.
  • Google Ad Manager gives us the chance to compete with major national players in job recruitment, Monster, Indeed, LinkedIn, etc.
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Cons
AdStage
  • More reporting options
  • More export options
  • Saved templates per user or oganization
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AppNexus
  • The platform is incredibly complex and requires a great deal of understanding of how the platform works that caught us by surprise.
  • The wiki is not enough and when we resorted to reaching out to AppNexus it was a nuisance of having several emails going back and forth.
  • No phone support is offered which would have made several things easier than exchanging confusing emails.
  • Video inventory is still not implemented.
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Google
  • Support. Not that they don't call or offer help, it's that our account people are bullies. I tell them I don't have time, so I am insulted and told that I need to get in front of the laptop otherwise I have "failed the company." I have never had a situation where I wasn't bullied by our Ad reps. They don't respect or value our time, which can make their calls frustrating.
  • Too quick on support. They don't take the time to understand the product. We are a preschool which shares a name with a popular motorcycle. An Ad rep insisted he knew the company so well that he could help me within five minutes. After being interrupted frequently, I just let him continue to tell me how I "could increase awareness of our aerodynamic seat design by creating ads with those keywords..."
  • Better management of trademark keywords and program awareness. We switched over to a new site, the domain changed for about ten seconds. All of our ads were unapproved and put on pause. The email stated it would be fixed very quickly, but I had to go in for the last 3 days to reactivate each one individually.
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Likelihood to Renew
AdStage
AdStage has been great and the only reason we wouldn't renew is if we decided to build this all out internally for API access. But, customer services is great, the product is great and I'd definitely recommend it.
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AppNexus
I love almost everything about AppNexus because I feel like the user data is easy to track because of the identifiers, you can see which adverts got clicked and which were ignored. We can track the location of the ad on the page fold and this makes it so much easier for future campaigns. The only thing I don't like is that the data is only kept for a year, and I'd like it for a longer period of time
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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
Read full review
Usability
AdStage
No answers on this topic
AppNexus
Because I think the interface is kind of confusing at the beginning and it confuses you a lot.
Read full review
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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Reliability and Availability
AdStage
No answers on this topic
AppNexus
I've never had any problems with appnexus - the software is always available
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Google
No answers on this topic
Performance
AdStage
No answers on this topic
AppNexus
Yes, everything works great in that sense
Read full review
Google
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
AdStage
AdStage had great support. They got back to me quickly every time, they always had or found an answer for what I was looking for, they took my feedback well, and they were knowledgeable with the platform and any issues I had. I have worked with a lot of other companies that are slow and AdStage definitely isn't one of them.
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AppNexus
Because the support team does give you support, they take 24hrs to get back to you but once they open a ticket they focus on resolving the issue for you. My only problem is that you don't have a specific account representative assigned to you.
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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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Online Training
AdStage
No answers on this topic
AppNexus
Online training are not user friendly and not easy to understand
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Google
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
AdStage
AdStage has by far the best UI and custom functionality of any of the platforms we demoed
Read full review
AppNexus
The TTD platform seems to have better CTV/OLV inventory, so that is typically preferred over AppNexus (APN). Usually, if clients have an internal desk, they will use TTD, which can often lead to us bidding against them, which is also another benefit of running campaigns within AppNexus (APN). Google DSP is typically used to increase the scale for display and build larger re-messaging pools.
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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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Scalability
AdStage
No answers on this topic
AppNexus
Because it's a great DSP but not the best
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Google
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
AdStage
  • In terms of hours saved, it's hard to pin down, but we definitely spend more time on the meaningful, strategic, or artistic tasks now than we used to.
  • AdStage is also a great tool to roll out during the sales process because our clients love to hear that we're making decisions automatically with data and automation rather than just hiring more junior people to push buttons.
  • During black Friday this year our team all setup campaigns to flight, meaning they weren't sitting around the turkey with their laptops out. That's an ROI in company culture that's hard to measure, but extremely valuable.
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AppNexus
  • The 1 USD audit fee makes it very hard to A/B test creatives and improve performance, hurting ROI.
  • We have been able to reach some users that we weren't able to get before, increasing spending, which is good for ROI.
  • We can run campaigns on TV, which is a big boost for the business, and very ROI positive.
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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

AdStage Screenshots

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