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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Google Ads

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/AGoogle 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.

    $500

    in Ads credit in the first 60 days

    Litmus from Validity

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/ALitmus, from Validity, is an email marketing solution used to create error-free emails in less time. It is also used to build email campaigns, personalize and test them thoroughly, monitor deliverability, and analyze email performance.N/A
    Pricing
    Google AdsLitmus from Validity
    Editions & Modules
    Offer A
    $500
    in Ads credit in the first 60 days
    Offer B
    $1500
    in Ads credit in the first 60 days
    Offer C
    $3000
    in Ads credit in the first 60 days
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Google AdsLitmus from Validity
    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 AdsLitmus from Validity
    Considered Both Products
    Google
    No answer on this topic
    Validity
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    81%
    Would buy again
    42 Answers
    99%
    Would buy again
    292 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    76%
    Delivers good value for the price
    37 Answers
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    212 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    79%
    Happy with the feature set
    41 Answers
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    294 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    69%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    34 Answers
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    173 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    70%
    Implementation went as expected
    35 Answers
    98%
    Implementation went as expected
    174 Answers
    Features
    Google AdsLitmus from Validity
    Ad Campaigns
    Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Google Ads and Litmus from Validity
    Feature
    Google Ads
    7.3
    11 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Litmus from Validity
    -
    Ratings
    Ad campaign creation7.911 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad deployment7.510 Ratings00 Ratings
    Display advertising7.410 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad display and retargeting segmentation7.511 Ratings00 Ratings
    Sequence targeting6.910 Ratings00 Ratings
    Contextual advertising7.210 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social advertising6.35 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Google Ads and Litmus from Validity
    Feature
    Google Ads
    7.3
    11 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Litmus from Validity
    -
    Ratings
    Ad dashboards7.511 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad performance reports7.911 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad conversion tracking7.311 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad attribution reporting7.211 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad forecasting and optimization6.911 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad Auctions
    Comparison of Ad Auctions features of Google Ads and Litmus from Validity
    Feature
    Google Ads
    7.9
    10 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Litmus from Validity
    -
    Ratings
    Ad bidding7.910 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Google Ads and Litmus from Validity
    Feature
    Google Ads
    -
    Ratings
    Litmus from Validity
    6.8
    376 Ratings
    16% below category average
    WYSIWYG email editor00 Ratings9.158 Ratings
    Dynamic content00 Ratings8.659 Ratings
    Ability to test dynamic content00 Ratings8.1238 Ratings
    Landing pages00 Ratings2.64 Ratings
    A/B testing00 Ratings6.511 Ratings
    Mobile optimization00 Ratings9.4351 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting00 Ratings8.5272 Ratings
    List management00 Ratings7.08 Ratings
    Triggered drip sequences00 Ratings1.02 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Google Ads and Litmus from Validity
    Feature
    Google Ads
    -
    Ratings
    Litmus from Validity
    7.1
    255 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Dashboards00 Ratings7.229 Ratings
    Standard reports00 Ratings7.5252 Ratings
    Custom reports00 Ratings6.6180 Ratings
    Pre-Send Testing
    Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Google Ads and Litmus from Validity
    Feature
    Google Ads
    -
    Ratings
    Litmus from Validity
    8.5
    356 Ratings
    4% above category average
    URL Validation00 Ratings9.3268 Ratings
    Link Tracking00 Ratings9.2233 Ratings
    Image Validation00 Ratings7.65 Ratings
    Inbox Display00 Ratings8.56 Ratings
    Email Accessibility Tools00 Ratings6.73 Ratings
    Spelling and Grammar Check00 Ratings7.31 Ratings
    Spam Testing00 Ratings9.5267 Ratings
    Email Previews00 Ratings9.6353 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Google AdsLitmus from Validity
    Small Businesses
    WordStream
    Score6.9 out of 10
    Mad Mimi
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    WordStream
    Score6.9 out of 10
    Campaign Monitor by Marigold
    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Emma by Marigold
    Score8.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Google AdsLitmus from Validity
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (126 ratings)
    9.2
    (428 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.6
    (21 ratings)
    9.0
    (32 ratings)
    Usability
    7.7
    (17 ratings)
    8.0
    (22 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.6
    (8 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.3
    (8 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (8 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.5
    (2 ratings)
    Online Training
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    4.5
    (3 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    2.2
    (13 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    3.9
    (7 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    3.9
    (8 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    3.6
    (5 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    5.5
    (4 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Google AdsLitmus from Validity
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Google
    Google Ads is a useful advertising tool to build brand exposure and generate lead volumes for your chosen product. Whilst it can be costly at times due to competitor bidding strategies and requires constant monitoring to ensure campaigns perform as expected, it typically provides the desired quality and quantity of leads for custom budgets.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Validity
    Proofing your emails is necessary. This is a tool that allows you to see how your email not only renders on multiple devices but how it performs. Some email building platforms will tell you their drag and drop templates are ready to go, however they stop short of analyzing accessibility, checking links, load speed among other things. I've also experienced drag and drop template issues as new email clients are released. Litmus provides peace of mind that you did your due diligence on crafting your email. While Litmus does provide some reporting you will not see every typical analytic an email report offers. However, you can use your Litmus data to enhance your email reports which in turn creates a robust view of email performance.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Google
    • Automated targeting via Smart Shopping campaign. It's one of the best campaign types in Google Ads. In the beginning, you may see lower revenue and ROAS, but once you give some meaningful time to your campaign, it is most likely to perform well.
    • Smart bidding strategies: Google Ads has developed some really great bidding strategies such as maximizing conversion and maximizing conversion with ROAS settings. Based on one's requirement and their goal with revenue and target ROAS, they can choose the appropriate bidding strategy.
    • Reporting: A business owner and advertising must know about their audiences, how their campaigns have been performing, what's working and what's not, and for that reason, powerful, effective reporting is needed, and Google Ads provides rich details reporting that covers almost every aspect of a business.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Validity
    • We haven’t explored the personalization features in depth yet, aside from using the Add-to-Calendar option, but we're excited to dig in further. Tools like live polls offer an easy way to boost engagement in our product marketing emails, and we see a lot of potential in using these templates to enhance personalization moving forward.
    • Litmus’ continuing education resources have been really helpful. I recently read an article on email deliverability that offered practical insights my team can apply moving forward. I especially appreciate how Litmus uses real examples and stats from the brands they work with—it makes the content feel actionable and relevant.
    • Online Training.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Validity
    • I've not seen many limitations but I have noticed that sometimes emails sent from our CRM take too long to land in Litmus, or sometimes don't land at all.
    • As a beginner it was quite difficult for me to make my way around the platform - I thought "Create new" CTA was actually creating something new, maybe "Import from CRM" would have been more understandable. There were a few others but I remember this one.
    • In the Emails section, whenever I hover over an email, I want to be able to copy the subject line instead of getting the different CTAs appear intrusively (Summary, Builder, Previews & QA, Proof, Analytics, Monitor) - maybe these could appear on the bottom of the textbox, instead of them being imposed on top?
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Validity
    It's one the best tools that we've found for this type of tool but we would like some additional features like spell check so if there's a platform that features that with everything else Litmus has, then we'd potentially look to move over to that platform instead. However, we are overall pretty help with the platform
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Google
    This is more of a subjective rating, because I think it can be increased with how much our ad spend is. The more of an ad spend, the more visibility we can get, and therefore all features can climb. With an overall larger presence the usability is that where we can get messages out quick, and that's the main thing we try to do with our campaigns.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Validity
    Litmus has integrations that make the software an integrated part of my work every day. Being able to test right within my email builder is just brilliant. Daily I also use the web interface to review analytics and spam testing. Overall it is one of the pieces of software I use daily without any complaints or issues.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Validity
    We have never had a problem with Litmus being unavailable so I would say their availability is fantastic. There might have been one time years ago that the site was down briefly but it also might have been a server issue on my end. Either way, Litmus was back up and running in a very short time
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Validity
    As with all technology, there are inevitably use-cases where you are unable to get to your original goal without some good old-fashioned experimenting. Some situations will (and are) more urgent which complicates an effective integration of a new process or a new team using an existing process but the "issues" are regularly resolved by re-starting the process specific to when Litmus is introduced to a project. If it doesn't come out the way you're anticipating, run it again and verify there is an issue before declaring all is lost
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Validity
    Absolutely fantastic support. It runs circles around the competition. They regularly reach out and chat, even if it's just to see if there's any issues we need to discuss. They clearly want the business and don't forget you once you sign the contract which is an issue with other similar services.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Validity
    It was very informative one on one session for me. I was able to use Litmus without any issues.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Google
    Daily use with advanced account structures. Familiarity with reporting/api and complex setups.
    Read full review
    Validity
    It has all the required information.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Validity
    I didn’t really personally participate much in the implementation of Litmus, but from what I observed during the process, it was a smooth process with minimal disruptions. The team was able to get up and running quickly, and the platform’s user-friendly interface made onboarding fairly easy for everyone involved from the start.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Validity
    This is not applicable to my role as I have used Litmus to test emails since I have started. Because of the ease of use, timeliness, consistent quality, and affordability that Litmus offers, I haven't found the need to look at similar products or organizations. If all of these features continue to stay strong, I don't plan on changing providers
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Validity
    With our enterprise account, scalability is not an issue. I have not yet seen or heard of significant issues with user access, API connections for integrations etc. This includes down time for "Scheduled Maintenance" as some providers call them, Litmus has the technology backing to support a global team with a 24-hour workday across regions
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Validity
    • Litmus saves our team so much time by making the QA and email review process so much easier, streamlined, and efficient.
    • We often send out campaigns out to thousands of members, and Litmus gives us the assurance and peace of mind that everything is working as it should before it gets sent out.
    • Decreases the number of email review cycles we go through.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Litmus from Validity Screenshots

    Screenshot of Litmus Personalize Essentials, with live polls to give subscribers a voice and drive email engagement.Screenshot of Litmus Email Guardian, featuring 24/7 link monitoring to safeguard emails.Screenshot of Litmus' integrated insights reports, that can automatically combine metrics from Salesforce Marketing Cloud with subscriber engagement insights from Litmus.Screenshot of campaign preview, available in 100+ popular email clientsScreenshot of Litmus' inbox previewing and feedback tools, that help users to spot and fix issues early.