Brand Networks Platform vs. Sizmek Ad Suite

If you have a multiple social channel strategy, the Brand Networks Platform does a good job of comparing and summarizing the cross-platform performance of all the social campaigns. They also have really good optimization technology, so if you have a beginner media buyer who doesn't have a lot of time to devote to (or knowledge about) optimizing campaigns, the BN tool would be helpful.

It helped us to publish advertisers in bulk and derived insights were capable enough to make business decisions. It is not good when it comes to create or perform complex reporting.

• Sleek design -- very attractive UI
• Constantly innovating and updating the platform
• Their support desk is very good. Very responsive and can usually update my issue within 1-2 business days.

• Uploading multiple ads in bulk
• It's pretty easy to use from an ad serving standpoint, with functionality being intuitive, a lot of great reporting features.
• The creative showcase is a good place for learning and finding resources for when it comes to HTML5 builds

• API data issues. There are somewhat frequent breakdowns in continuous data being pulled from the social platforms
• The campaign creation flow is a little clunky and has a couple bugs. Users often forgo using the platform to set up new campaigns, and use the native platforms instead
• Because it's in continual development, there are lots of little bugs that slip through the cracks

• Sizmek's trading desk was a total miss when I tested it a few years ago.
• I briefly used Abakus and did not find it intuitive, accurate or helpful. It has a long way to go before it can compete with the likes of VisualIQ.

Facebook for Business has far fewer bugs and errors. Brand Networks has made some major changes over the 3 years that I have been using the platform, but because they are constantly changing and overhauling their platform, there are naturally more bugs in the system -- and this can interfere with the user experience.

For me the main point here is the support, all the adservers offer more or less the same functionality and capabilities. The real advantage you will gain using Sizmek will be their customer support team and their open approach with other vendors.

• If you can create the report you need through automation, you can have those automatically sent to your email or a client's email. That saves time.
• If optimization works correctly, you get even more efficient costs against you given campaign objective.
• However, when features are broken, or there is a bug and I can't pull the performance data I need immediately, it detracts from my productivity

• Sizmek has had a positive impact on ROI because it delivers the reports our clients want and need
• Sizmek has had a postive impact on employee morale due to ease of use