Basis from Basis Global Technologies (formerly Centro) is a programmatic ad buying platform supporting digital advertising buying and placement across varying channels. Since the acquisition of SiteScout the platform also contains technology from the SiteScout AdServer.
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
Google Ads
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Google 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.
Basis is able to reach ad exchanges that these platforms can not. Basis serves as a one-stop shop whereas these platforms require 3rd party integrations.
It allows me to find exactly the information I am looking for in one place. It allows me to share that data with others both internally and externally. There is a mobile version and though it isn't as good, it helps for when I am out of the office or traveling.
I find the Google products easier to use, and with the ease of use it is quicker to get my message out in front of my customer. I think with the other platforms we have also tried (Meta) that the approval process is so much longer that if you want to get something out NOW when …
Google Ads is bar none the leader in the space of the paid search industry. you will not find higher volume or budget or revenue delivery in any other vehicle in the space. Google Ads has great automation opportunities as well for those who like to spend less time in the weeds.
I would recommend Basis [DSP] for specific clients. Boutique agencies that do not require very complex programmatic solutions are the best fit. It is not very well suited for very big clients that want to run multicountries campaigns with objectives that are very much performance focused. Their dashboard is very good and the platform is easy to use so new entrants to programmatic will find it very useful.
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
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.
Basis DSP does a great job of keeping their clients informed of new and upcoming features on their platform. They regularly host webinars to help keep their clients informed of what's up and coming and how to use new features.
Client relations with Basis is incredible. They're available on a regular, consistent basis. In addition, they check in throughout the on boarding process and beyond to help their clients understand they system.
The analytics tracking capabilities built into Basis DSP is fantastic. They provide many different options on how to pull and organize reports for clients.
The additional training offered through Centro Institute is fantastic, especially for beginners. Going to Chicago and training at the headquarters for a couple of days has helped with my company's success in building a programmatic advertising clientele list and building successful campaigns.
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.
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.
More detail on how and when the exchanges review submitted ad tags would help us set better expectations for our clients and client success teams during launch. Often a delay in ad approvals can result in lagging campaign metrics that must be made up later, often at the cost of performance.
More predictive tools / the ability to stop a campaign from bidding when a certain impression threshold is reached (in addition to the dayparting and budget rules that are currently in place and used for every campaign).
For some reports, such a geolocation reports, being able to visualize it on a map of some kind would make the data export more meaningful and less manual for our operations and client success teams seeking to explain to clients where their campaign was exposed.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
We have a dedicated account rep. She makes it seem like we are her only client, she is very responsive, helps each time we have a question and understands our campaign goals. Anytime we need support, our rep is available either email or call and if she is not going to be available, she will let us know ahead of time to provide back up and inform them of our current campaigns so they can better assist us.
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.
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
There are a ton of tactics and strategy to implement in the DSP platform. There isn't really a selection of the different types of campaigns or tactics to choose from, you just have to learn as you go. Once you figure out the strategy and goal of the campaign it is very easy to implement the tactic and to achieve its goals.
Advangelist, StackAdapt, Simplifi, Trade Desk, Media Math - overall most of the other platforms we reviewed were perfectly fine and can get the job done quite well. We have mostly stuck with basis because of the relationship that we have, the fact that they have continued to provide stellar support, and have a platform that delivers on everything they promise.
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.
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.
Affordable display option - The SiteScout platform runs comparable to other self-serve display platforms, and offers a very large network from which to choose.
More visibility for our brand - We've used SiteScout as an awareness tactic, and received millions of impressions at a reasonable cost.
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.
