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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Basis DSP

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ABasis 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

    LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/ALinkedIn Marketing Solutions is a recently (2015) expanded marketing platform for reaching audiences through the popular Linkedin work-oriented social network that includes modules like the Lead Accelerator (supporting segmentation features to improve conversion), Sponsored Updates, LinkedIn Onsite Display, LinkedIn Network Display, and Sponsored InMail. While still at its core a social marketing engine, Linkedin Marketing Solutions now presents a more comprehensive B2B advertising platform. The…N/A
    Pricing
    Basis DSPLinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Basis DSPLinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    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
    Basis DSPLinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    Considered Both Products
    Basis Global Technologies (formerly Centro)
    No answer on this topic
    LinkedIn
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    92%
    Would buy again
    12 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    11 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    5 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    9 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Basis DSPLinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    Small Businesses
    Infillion DSP (MediaMath)
    Score7.4 out of 10
    X Ads
    Score4.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    StackAdapt
    Score7.2 out of 10
    X Ads
    Score4.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Yahoo DSP
    Score8 out of 10
    X Ads
    Score4.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Basis DSPLinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (14 ratings)
    9.9
    (48 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (9 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.6
    (6 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Basis DSPLinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Basis Global Technologies (formerly Centro)
    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.
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    LinkedIn
    Although it offered great features, we didn't really see a lot of traffic or results from the ads we placed. Working in hospitality, we had to strategically time and place our ads around holiday seasons and it can be difficult to predict a marketing campaign. Depending on your market, LinkedIn may not be the best avenue to advertise with.
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    Pros
    Basis Global Technologies (formerly Centro)
    • 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.
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    LinkedIn
    • Targeting - they have done a great job of allowing you speak to ideal audiences
    • Support - dedicated customer service and account advising is always accessible and very responsive
    • Curation of professional audiences - one of the biggest advantages to the platform is that its users are for the most part are professional
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    Cons
    Basis Global Technologies (formerly Centro)
    • 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.
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    LinkedIn
    • The Campaign Manager is not good. It seems like the Campaign Manager (where you create and manage your self-serve ad campaigns) is buggy and doesn't have a good flow. Contrast with FB Ad Manager of the Google Adwords/Ads interface, which has a much more simple process to create and edits campaigns, ad groups, ads, keywords, audiences, budgets, etc. LinkedIn Campaign Manager seems to actively work against you trying to make changes to your campaigns.
    • LinkedIn Campaign Manager offers three options: sponsored content, InMail, and text ads. LinkedIn used to offer other ad services that you couldn't access unless you had a "managed ad account" run by LinkedIn Staff with a dedicated monthly ad spend. It seems most of those "hidden" features have disappeared, though you still have to contract with LinkedIn to offer dynamic ads. It would be better if LinkedIn empowered marketers to create the ads they want. (Perhaps with a dedicated acct. manager like how Google Ads works.)
    • This is silly, but it isn't easy to navigate to Campaign Manager. I have a bookmark for Campaign Manager because if you want to click there through LinkedIn, it takes 2 or 3 different screens to get to Campaign Manager. In my opinion, when you click the "Work" dropdown from the LinkedIn header (by your profile picture) you should have a link to Campaign Manager.
    • LinkedIn, in recent months, has made substantial changes to the Ads platform and Campaign Manager. Though these changes work to address some of the above issues, LinkedIn still has quite a ways to go before their platform is on par with their competition.
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    Usability
    Basis Global Technologies (formerly Centro)
    It's pretty basic, nothing is hidden and nothing ever moves so you can count on finding what you are looking for each day
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    LinkedIn
    in terms of promoted content reporting and usability, the platform is not as flexible or easy to use compared to more established social platforms like Facebook. However, it does offer plug-ins to Google Data Studio which makes pulling and manipulating data easier. My main usability gripe comes when looking at organic performance of a company page. There isn't an easy way to export organic performance data.
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    Support Rating
    Basis Global Technologies (formerly Centro)
    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.
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    LinkedIn
    So, everything what I just said previously adds up to the value of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. Definitely recommending it to a friend. It has its things to improve but its nothing major or nothing to worry about. So I give a 9 because it still has that, some user interface glitches that can be improved but do not damage the experience that you have with it.
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    Implementation Rating
    Basis Global Technologies (formerly Centro)
    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.
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    LinkedIn
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Basis Global Technologies (formerly Centro)
    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.
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    LinkedIn
    If you want more precision in B2B targeting, then LinkedIn is without question the better alternative. However, as I established before, I've rarely seen LinkedIn campaigns be successful for anything other than brand awareness/thought leadership. And that's almost 100% what Twitter is for. Twitter campaigns almost always have a cheaper CPC AND CPM than LinkedIn and accomplish the same thing, so I would say go with Twitter. At times LinkedIn campaigns are just so you can tell someone at a higher level that you did precise targeting to the exact audience they wanted and check that box, because it's easier for them to understand how you'd do well on LinkedIn, and more difficult to tell that story on Twitter. But I honestly prefer Twitter and its platform for B2B awareness campaigns. Heretic, I know, but it's how I feel after several years of experience with both. Facebook is bottom of the barrel for B2B in my mind, so I'm not really going to discuss it. I would take LinkedIn over Facebook for many reasons, but Facebook is an option too, but more for SMB and just covering all bases, not as a primary choice for B2B marketing.
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    Return on Investment
    Basis Global Technologies (formerly Centro)
    • 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.
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    LinkedIn
    • We have seen a marked increase in inbound agent calls since we began LinkedIn marketing.
    • LinkedIn marketing is an excellent way to put your content in front of people that are actually going to read it, this has led to a major increase in our content being consumed and acted on.
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