Google Marketing Platform vs. OpenX

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google Marketing Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Google Marketing Platform (a combination of former DoubleClick advertiser tools and Google Analytics 360 Suite) is a set of tools for marketers to manage their advertising campaigns. DoubleClick was acquired by Google in 2008. It focuses on uploading ads and reporting their performance and also provides forecasting tools to help predict future campaign needs. Bid optimization tools help manage pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns across search engines (e.g. Bing, Google, Yahoo!).N/A
OpenX
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
OpenX is an ad serving platform. It is sold option as a hosted solution for can be purchased as an installed application. It allows for easy inventory management , geo-targeting of ads by country, and provides statistics for each ad placement.N/A
Pricing
Google Marketing PlatformOpenX
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google Marketing PlatformOpenX
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
Google Marketing PlatformOpenX
Considered Both Products
Google Marketing Platform
Chose Google Marketing Platform
I prefer Google Marketing Platform. Clients see the value in a Google branded platform, and it integrates well with most of our other platforms, dashboards, etc.
Chose Google Marketing Platform
We evaluated multiple other tools such as Atlax, OpenX, AdRoll, and PointRoll. We picked up Double Click for multiple reason - 1. Creative Control and Creative Insights 2. Centralized Management of Campaigns and 3. Data Ownership. Double Click stood on par with other products …
OpenX
Chose OpenX
The ad sales and ad operations team had been utilizing DoubleClick/DART previous to the migration to OpenX. One of the driving factors for the migration to OpenX was to lower costs associated with utilizing a third party such as the DoubleClick/DART system. The ease of use for …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Google Marketing PlatformOpenX
Ad Network Integration
Comparison of Ad Network Integration features of Product A and Product B
Google Marketing Platform
9.5
28 Ratings
25% above category average
OpenX
6.6
3 Ratings
11% below category average
Data Transfer10.023 Ratings6.53 Ratings
DSP integration9.026 Ratings6.83 Ratings
Ad Campaigns
Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Product A and Product B
Google Marketing Platform
7.9
32 Ratings
1% above category average
OpenX
7.0
5 Ratings
11% below category average
Ad campaign creation8.432 Ratings6.85 Ratings
Ad deployment8.432 Ratings6.65 Ratings
Display advertising8.029 Ratings7.35 Ratings
Ad display and retargeting segmentation7.730 Ratings6.55 Ratings
Sequence targeting7.023 Ratings7.54 Ratings
Ad Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Google Marketing Platform
7.2
32 Ratings
8% below category average
OpenX
6.6
5 Ratings
16% below category average
Ad dashboards6.730 Ratings5.95 Ratings
Ad performance reports7.332 Ratings6.05 Ratings
Ad conversion tracking7.331 Ratings6.15 Ratings
Ad attribution reporting7.030 Ratings7.04 Ratings
Cross-channel ad management7.325 Ratings7.25 Ratings
Ad forecasting and optimization7.524 Ratings7.64 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Google Marketing PlatformOpenX
Small Businesses
Google Ad Manager
Google Ad Manager
Score 8.6 out of 10
Google Ad Manager
Google Ad Manager
Score 8.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Score 8.0 out of 10
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Score 8.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.8 out of 10
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Google Marketing PlatformOpenX
Likelihood to Recommend
7.4
(44 ratings)
7.3
(15 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(13 ratings)
7.0
(10 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(2 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(4 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
6.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google Marketing PlatformOpenX
Likelihood to Recommend
Google
I feel pretty neutral about Google Marketing Platform. For the longest time, my company wasn't using it because each of the features (Data Studio, Analytics, etc.) could be accessed separately. In fact, most of the time, I don't even go into Google Marketing Platform because it's easier to directly navigate to the individual platforms. There are very few features about GMP that can only be accessed from the GMP UI. The Integrations Center is probably the main feature I utilize from the GMP UI, which allows me to see a summary of the integrations I have in place across all my client properties and accounts.
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OpenX
What are the best ways to integrate it with salesforce.com? What are the best ways to target our users with this tool? To segment the users? How can I integrate my ads with your adexchange-what sizes are you looking for in terms of banners, skyscrapers and so on. In this way I can plan my in house ad and those for the exchange to be the same size, to avoid duplication of work.
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Pros
Google
  • Bringing together data from multiple channels and engines and allows you to visualize the data in an easy to use platform. This saves time from using multiple logins for the different platforms.
  • Auto bidding tools save time from manual bidding, as it allows you to set the specific terms around what levels you want to cap your CPCs at. You then let DoubleClick adjust your bids to gain the most conversions from the cheapest CPCs. This frees up time to do other in-depth analysis and strategy.
  • DoubleClick also has the ability to track conversions and clicks on any page using their floodlight tags. This is good for tracking certain actions on yours or a client's site and is especially good if they do not use any other tools, such as Google Analytics or Adobe, to track conversions and user actions on site. You can also use these in conjunction with the auto bidding tools.
Read full review
OpenX
  • OpenX is a system that was designed to scale as is evident in some key design decisions found throughout the platform. The multi-server setup that was chosen at Mail.com allowed for a distributed server architecture which separated the front end web delivery nodes from the backend MySQL Database master which replicated data back to each front end delivery node mysql slave. This eased the ability to horizontally scale as needed due to the ingenious separation of the ad impressions data tables on the delivery nodes which were being collected locally on each ad impression and then processed periodically back to to the master database which replicated the aggregated statistics back to the delivery nodes. The ability to load balance across the front end web delivery nodes, add caching at many different layers, utilize a CDN for the static ad images, implement PHP accelerators, and hit memcached instead of the MySQL master made the OpenX platform a service that was very resilient to failures.
  • The ability to optimize the platform is also something that OpenX does very well. This is evident in many of the config key parameters available. In addition to OpenX specific tunable's, optimizations can be made at many different levels in which the system sits. These include hardware and operating system level optimizations, tcp and networking stack optimizations, web server/php-cgi configurations, and database (MySQL InnoDB) tunable's. There are many different optimization knobs that can be tuned to help scale the application for the best performance possible
  • The documentation was simple, to the point, and well written which led to an easy initial implementation and roll out of a multi-server setup. The installation and upgrade procedures were straight forward even for the complexities of the multi-server setup. I also found the OpenX team to be accessible and even got a chance to meet some of the team at their Up Close and Personal events at Cal Tech in Pasadena. Core developers were on hand to answer technical questions and also made themselves available to us via email and irq channels.
  • The open nature of the OpenX platform allows for flexibility in the choice of web serving platform to use (Apache, nginx, Lighttpd) and also the database management systems (MySQL, PostGreSQL)
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Cons
Google
  • The process for on-boarding new users can be difficult if they do not already have a Gmail or Gmail-linked account.
  • Difficult to troubleshoot technical issues (with the platform, with tags, etc.) because of the lack of customer support. Unclear if the agency has a dedicated team or individual to assist, and often have to deal with out-sourced support teams.
Read full review
OpenX
  • Propagation could be improved; ad units that need to go live immediately could take up to 45 minutes to propagate.
  • Over-complexity can be confusing. There are multiple tiers before assigning ad units per order and it seems unnecessary.
  • Real-time reporting or a status dashboard would be great.
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Likelihood to Renew
Google
Due to its adapting behavior with industry ad formats and seamless integration with publishers and DSP's, I don't see myself moving away from DCM. As we see the display advertising is getting more programatic and automated due to the rise of DSP and concept of RTB, Double Click has evolved with new advanced best practices
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OpenX
I no longer work at the company where I was using OpenX, but if I were then I'd certainly stay aboard. Frankly, there are a lot of sunk costs involved with building all of the infrastructure we had put in place, the system was working very well even if reporting was a hassle, and our team was trained on it. Also, I'm not aware of another product that does everything else we'd need it to.
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Usability
Google
The Doubleclick interface is easy and simple to get a hang of. The options are slightly limited compared to other DSPs. But, for a simple campaign, this is a great DSP to move forward with. They have a ton of data and can plug into a lot of different partners
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OpenX
I was given the system to use as part of setting up a whole new site from scratch in less than 2 months, with a large number of specialty hub pages to run ads on and lots of content I needed to run disease specific ads on. The system was easy for me to learn on the fly in a very compressed time frame. I would have loved more chance to really dig in under the hood to see all that it could do, but given how fast I had to work, I got everything up and running and looking great. And I did it ahead of my launch deadline too. My only reservation might be for people who are not as patient as I am in picking things up, or as hands on. Customer service was great if I needed them, and a quick start guide with the essentials would be ideal for those people.
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Support Rating
Google
They do not have strong support team. It is tough to get answer when I need it. They always refer you to an online guide and not an actual person. If so, the person is based out of an offshore team in India and does not know the specific client goals .
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OpenX
They went above and beyond without ever asking for additional money and we met our launch date and immediately started to meet and even surpass our business goals. Nothing was too much trouble, which really stood out compared to other companies I had and was at that time also working with. Customer service can really make or break any business; if i expect my staff to give good customer service, I expect to get it too, and Open X gave it.
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Implementation Rating
Google
I would highly recommend asking clients to provide 3PAS tags or use an internal 3PAS
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OpenX
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Google
Marin takes a lot more time for everything, mainly for the campaigns setup. This also leads to many mistakes, which impact the performance. I've used Marin on a couple of previous clients and we've had many problems with it, mainly with correct conversion tracking and account optimizations. Besides, Marin is behind all the new features available on AdWords, which makes the tracking also not very flexible.
Read full review
OpenX
OpenX is less focused than MoPub and it has a bigger reach as it is not limited to the mobile app. Unlike MoPub that focuses on performance, OpenX comes from the branding world and is pushing into CTV and other areas of the industry more catered to traditional media agencies and not pure ad tech players.
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Return on Investment
Google
  • DS3 has improved ROI considerably due to its ability to make the work of a team of digital marketers to go further and improving internal efficiency.
  • There is a notable improvement in account performance for those integrated with DoubleClick as opposed to not, with better tracking, new bid strategy options, and a more responsive interface.
  • The additional fee on top of media spend is a considerable expense for a large advertiser, but the necessity of a product/solution such as this means that there is always likely to be some comparative cost.
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OpenX
  • OpenX made it easy to manage online advertising. At the time I used the product I was the lead developer in charge of implementing the solution but quickly was put into the role of managing the traffic and training other users. It was really easy for a technical user to become a traffic manager. Getting other users trained and up to speed was very efficient.
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ScreenShots