Google Ad Manager vs. Kevel

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google Ad Manager
Score 8.6 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
Kevel
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Kevel's (formerly Adzerk) APIs is designed to make it easy for engineers and PMs to build their own server-side, fully-customized ad server. E-retailers and user communities can use Kevel to build ad servers to promote anything from native ads to internal content to sponsored listings (where vendors and sellers pay for their organic listing to be promoted in search and browsing results). According to the vendor, engineers reliably see a significant reduction in dev time using Kevel’s APIs…N/A
Pricing
Google Ad ManagerKevel
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google Ad ManagerKevel
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPricing is customized based on feature needs, support needs, and monthly request volume.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Google Ad ManagerKevel
Considered Both Products
Google Ad Manager
Chose Google Ad Manager
Google Ad Manager is one of the only free to use ad management services out there. While there are several alternatives such as OpenX and Adzerk, Google Ad Manager provides the best bang for your buck (considering you don't spend any money on the actual product itself). …
Chose Google Ad Manager
We've used a few other way less robust ad servers, and Google Ad Manager is definitely the top tier ad server you can have as a publisher. There isn't much competition in this space for a large publisher that would make us feel comfortable switching to another ad server. We've …
Chose Google Ad Manager
In my current position at this company, we've only ever used Ad Manager due to management's comfort with Google's application suite. I've used other software such as Adzerk, AOL's One, and OpenX in previous roles. I like Ad Manager because it's incredibly intuitive if you've …
Kevel
Chose Kevel
Kevel was an easier initial implementation for header bidding with prebid. The team worked alongside us to make sure everything was operating as intended. We ultimately switched to Ads Manager to access AdX demand and other features that were not possible with Kevel (for …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Google Ad ManagerKevel
Ad Network Integration
Comparison of Ad Network Integration features of Product A and Product B
Google Ad Manager
7.6
24 Ratings
3% above category average
Kevel
10.0
1 Ratings
30% above category average
Data Transfer7.524 Ratings00 Ratings
DSP integration7.719 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Ad Campaigns
Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Product A and Product B
Google Ad Manager
8.7
33 Ratings
11% above category average
Kevel
10.0
1 Ratings
25% above category average
Ad campaign creation8.733 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Ad deployment8.433 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Display advertising8.632 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Ad display and retargeting segmentation8.731 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Sequence targeting8.924 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Google Ad Manager
8.3
33 Ratings
7% above category average
Kevel
9.2
1 Ratings
17% above category average
Ad dashboards8.931 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Ad performance reports8.433 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Ad conversion tracking8.932 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Ad attribution reporting7.829 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Cross-channel ad management8.226 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Ad forecasting and optimization7.729 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Google Ad ManagerKevel
Small Businesses
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.9 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 8.1 out of 10
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Score 8.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.9 out of 10
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Google Ad ManagerKevel
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(33 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google Ad ManagerKevel
Likelihood to Recommend
Google
Google Ads Manager is great if you need major visibility on a large ad network rather than targeting one specific website, app or platform. Let's be real here if you have any business that is done online (sell products, generate leads, etc) you pretty much have to be on Google. I've tried other advertising solutions including competitor search engines, sponsored content solutions, social media advertising, and none really compare to the traffic you can get that is keyword-driven, meaning a user is actually demonstrating interest in whatever you sell or offer.
Read full review
Kevel
For ad serving, implementing client-side header bidding with prebid was actually easier with Kevel than it is with Google Ad Manager in most cases, particularly for display advertising. I found though that with more complex integrations (like video), there were more solutions and code snippets available with other larger ad servers (Google).
Read full review
Pros
Google
  • Interface. You can understand how to build the ads very easily. When you first begin, and throughout the process, there are little help icons which explain what you need to understand.
  • Pricing. By this, I mean the ability to change it at any time. You can select a variable rate, or you can preset it. Either way, you can change how much you spend every second if you'd like. This makes it easier to control your budget if you need to make emergency purchases and don't have much space in your budget.
  • Always growing. They are always announcing something new. Always growing and always trying to update.
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Kevel
  • More personable team that can address customizations needed to the product.
  • Easy to use interface.
  • Frequent product updates with notifications via email.
  • Well documented API.
Read full review
Cons
Google
  • Bumper Machine - While this is still in beta, there is a lot of room for improvement for the machine to pick proper clips. I'm sure that will come in time though.
  • Inclusion of a Home Page Button - This is a simple request, truly, but one that bothers me everyday. I have a campaign home button, but it's not accessible unless you go back to the beginning of the platform. If the 'home' button was static, I'd be able to go to my preferred view with one click instead of having to loop around, as there isn't a trustworthy 'back button' option either.
  • Display - This is a big one. I have a love/hate relationship with display campaigns and algorithms. I have seen where they can perform [strongly] but also be massive budget bleeds with little ROI. It's not very industry specific either so I'm hoping to gain more consistency and trust with the future of the display algorithm.
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Kevel
  • User interface could be faster to load.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
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
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Kevel
No answers on this topic
Usability
Google
Love the product and how the GUI is as it is user friendly. When working with the product it is better to have some knowledge of what ad's you want to deploy where so that it is easier to use and move forward.
Read full review
Kevel
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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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Kevel
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Google
The main advantage of Google Ad Manager over The Trade Desk is based on the fact that Google Ad Manager has better data to identify a user on any device as it has more data and the user is signed in over Google Ad Manager´s set of properties. That is why results on Google Ad Manager´s platform are better as The Trade Desk needs to develop a unified id solution that is more complex and less performing that Google Ad Manager's data.
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Kevel
Kevel was an easier initial implementation for header bidding with prebid. The team worked alongside us to make sure everything was operating as intended. We ultimately switched to Ads Manager to access AdX demand and other features that were not possible with Kevel (for instance, EBDA). There are benefits to both but I appreciated the attention we got from Kevel support when we were first working through the implementation. We are still using Kevel for many things, just not as our primary display advertising ad server.
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Return on Investment
Google
  • It had a massively positive impact for us, allowing us to generate revenue from ad space on our website.
  • Being able to custom quote ad space on our site, instead of relying on AdSense allowed us to increase our monthly ad revenue as well.
  • Providing reliable data to advertisers regarding impressions and CTRs helped create repeat-customers.
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Kevel
  • Kevel enabled us to get up and running with client side header bidding when our team was still small and the technology was still new. This improved our ability to monetize our inventory.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Kevel Screenshots

Screenshot of Adzerk homepageScreenshot of Decision API JSON exampleScreenshot of Management API example