Criteo vs. Google Ads

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Criteo
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Criteo Commerce Growth (formerly Criteo Marketing Solutions) helps users to achieve customer acquisition and retention objectives with simple yet powerful automated advertising for the open internet. It features an open commerce dataset to target continuously refreshed, high-intent audiences. The user's first-party datais enriched with commerce data from 22k advertisers & thousands of publishers to up-level how to engage existing customers. The solution enables users to…
$1
per month
Google Ads
Score 8.2 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.N/A
Pricing
CriteoGoogle Ads
Editions & Modules
Basic
$1
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
CriteoGoogle Ads
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPricing is based on a CPC model and is dependent on traffic generated to a site
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
CriteoGoogle Ads
Considered Both Products
Criteo
Chose Criteo
Criteo Dynamic Retargeting brings different value and possibilities compared to the others. It is a great addition to Google Ads, if you are not doing well with Display Campaigns and/or if you cannot use Dynamic Remarketing on Google cause your products are not "physical". …
Chose Criteo
We use Google Ads for classic ads but for the display ads, we selected Criteo Dynamic Retargeting. First of all because it's french ! ;) And because we think Criteo is the best tool for retargeting as it invented this technology ! We like the way we are accompanied by the …
Chose Criteo
Marketing Solutions by Criteo is the best at re-targeting, and you can expect more results than Google Ads. The ads would be placed on more decent websites than on Taboola for sure.
Chose Criteo
Marketing Solutions by Criteo sometimes deliveries a higher revenue volume than other partners, but we usually run more than one retargeting partner at the same time, as we can have different inventories in which ads are displayed.
Chose Criteo
Returns at the same cost.
Chose Criteo
Criteo is dynamic in nature and easy to set up and run the campaign. They have a dedicated account manager who can help as and when required. Though we have used Google Display Network earlier, ROI is great in Criteo.
Chose Criteo
We've run dynamic retargeting on Google and Facebook, but Criteo offers the strongest and most brand-safe reach across the web, along with better technical support and a much stronger direct return on ad spend.
Chose Criteo
We work with several products to carry out good retargeting. Criteo Dynamic Retargeting is more suitable to generate a direct link to our products.
Chose Criteo
Criteo can be seen as the European market leader in retargeting but other competitors like Google or Sociomantic offer similar tools and placements. It makes sense to try out different campaigns and see what works best for you. Criteo performed very well on several campaigns we …
Chose Criteo
The Performance with Criteo is more stable and more reach is achieved
Chose Criteo
Consistently performing on display network campaigns focused on retargeting.
Chose Criteo
We don't exclusively use Criteo but use this platform along with a range of other digital marketing platforms.
Chose Criteo
I prefer AdRoll when it comes to retargeting. We selected Criteo due to the client requesting we test it out. Criteo is much harder to manage and to date has provided less than stellar ROAS.

Criteo, however, is much better than using the Google Display Network on AdWords. …
Google Ads

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
CriteoGoogle Ads
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

Serpstat
Serpstat
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies

No answers on this topic

WordStream Advisor
WordStream Advisor
Score 7.0 out of 10
Enterprises

No answers on this topic

Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
CriteoGoogle Ads
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(58 ratings)
7.1
(115 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.5
(21 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(12 ratings)
7.3
(7 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.6
(12 ratings)
8.9
(8 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
CriteoGoogle Ads
Likelihood to Recommend
Criteo
Marketing Solutions by Criteo has a great track record that speaks highly of its reputation, we users of this program are happy with the performance and impact it generates in the cloud, in order to connect with new customers, added to this, This software offers us the appropriate tools to professionally manage all these processes and have total control of electronic commerce. Our case has been the protagonist in the increase in sales, that is why we are always willing to recommend this incredible program.
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Google
Clients who are selling products such as dresses, clothes, jewelry, beauty products, etc., generally work well. Also, in some cases, it doesn't fetch a good ROAS for very small business owners. If a client is already doing well in SEO, the probability for it to perform well over Google Ads is always enhanced, and if it doesn't have a good organic reach, Google Ads also suffers.
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Pros
Criteo
  • You are able to access to their data pool, to build audiences with just an email list (encrypted and hashed)
  • Easy to use platform and easy way to analyze data from the dashboard. Everyone could manage the dashboard easily enough to surf through the data and understand the performance. Also you have the help of your account manager.
  • The powerful algorithm drives good results for your company, without too much effort. And they are continuously improving with new features (design types, campaigns, platform, mobile / app products ...)
  • Support for testing all of the integration of the events to check if data is well received. Google Chrome extension, testing mode inside the dashboard with error detection and also the help of your account manager + technical stuff.
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Google
  • Keyword Research - Google Ads has a handy built in tool that helps determine important keywords to target both for Ads & SEO
  • Intuitive Analytics Dashboad - Google Ads makes it fairly simple to see and analyze important metrics on how your ads are running week after week
  • Intuitive Setup - Google Ads makes it easy to figure out how to run ads with little to no training (although training is highly recommended to run effective ads), as their interface is clean and easy to figure out (unlike competing products).
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Cons
Criteo
  • I think if they had a free trial option, we would be able to better evaluate our need before signing up.
  • I wish there were more targeting features other than retargeting. Would love to target based on interests.
  • Video features are limited. Would love to see new products here.
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Google
  • If you don't know what you're doing, it will be a costly mistake. You need to target ads, and it is difficult the first time to do that.
  • There isn't a feature to run an add for a couple set date spans, just hours you want to run them or a single date span.
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Likelihood to Renew
Criteo
Criteo is the only remarketing firm worth using for a retailer, in my opinion.
Read full review
Google
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.
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Usability
Criteo
Criteo's platform is very easy to use from a marketing standpoint if you understand key terms. The frontend is very user-friendly and I personally had no issues. I enjoy being able to see key results and metrics being tracked from the dashboard. It is also easy to filter things as desired to break down data.
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Google
I suspect that Google Ads is not for the novice user. I told my 'Ad Specialist' that I was not the best on computers and apprehensive about my ability to maneuver the website. He told me on more than one occasion that "I work for you...I'm your sherpa...call me any time or send me an email"!
The sales and service representatives for Google Ads are very well trained, though not much integrity. Despite that I told my Google Ad Specialist that my website was incomplete the ad was published live anyway! Beware that the 'talk' is good, but it ain't cheap!
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Support Rating
Criteo
I think Marketing Solutions by Criteo offers a very robust solution for an ad tech platform and their support team is very knowledgeable about their product. I would like to see, though, more webinars and training about the technology behind the product to give us more tools to talk to our customers with more information and better visuals.
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Google
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
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Online Training
Criteo
No answers on this topic
Google
Daily use with advanced account structures. Familiarity with reporting/api and complex setups.
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Alternatives Considered
Criteo
Criteo Dynamic Retargeting brings different value and possibilities compared to the others. It is a great addition to Google Ads, if you are not doing well with Display Campaigns and/or if you cannot use Dynamic Remarketing on Google cause your products are not "physical". Compared to other Retargeting solutions, its CPC based model and Post click attribution make all the difference. Finally, the account support is great plus it will help you in all aspects or difficulties.
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Google
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.
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Return on Investment
Criteo
  • More Impressions/Exposure - We wanted additional branding, and Criteo provided plenty of exposure to a relevant audience for us.
  • Benchmark for CPA - We tested several different retargeting providers, and Criteo provided a benchmark amount we should pay per CPA, when compared to other providers.
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Google
  • 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.
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ScreenShots

Criteo Screenshots

Screenshot of CriteoDynamic Retargeting banner