Google Ads vs. PubMatic

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google Ads
Score 8.3 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.
$500
in Ads credit in the first 60 days
PubMatic
Score 5.0 out of 10
N/A
PubMatic is an ad serving and retargeting solution. This platform is designed to serve as a control panel that provides users with a single view into their advertiser relationships across every screen, channel and format. The vendor says through workflow automation, real-time analytics and yield management, they are able to enable users to make smarter, faster decisions that drive revenue and streamline operations.N/A
Pricing
Google AdsPubMatic
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 AdsPubMatic
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 AdsPubMatic
Features
Google AdsPubMatic
Ad Campaigns
Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Product A and Product B
Google Ads
6.1
9 Ratings
13% above category average
PubMatic
-
Ratings
Ad campaign creation7.39 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad deployment7.18 Ratings00 Ratings
Display advertising7.38 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad display and retargeting segmentation7.19 Ratings00 Ratings
Sequence targeting5.88 Ratings00 Ratings
Contextual advertising6.28 Ratings00 Ratings
Social advertising2.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Google Ads
7.1
9 Ratings
23% above category average
PubMatic
-
Ratings
Ad dashboards6.89 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad performance reports8.19 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad conversion tracking7.39 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad attribution reporting7.29 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad forecasting and optimization6.29 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Auctions
Comparison of Ad Auctions features of Product A and Product B
Google Ads
7.9
8 Ratings
9% above category average
PubMatic
-
Ratings
Ad bidding7.98 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Google AdsPubMatic
Small Businesses
WordStream
WordStream
Score 6.9 out of 10
Google Ad Manager
Google Ad Manager
Score 8.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
WordStream
WordStream
Score 6.9 out of 10
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Score 9.0 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 AdsPubMatic
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(124 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.6
(21 ratings)
1.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
7.0
(15 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
1.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google AdsPubMatic
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.
Read full review
PubMatic
Do not go with PubMatic -- every aspect of their company needs to improve and be tested on a higher scale for companies and organizations to be happy with their work. They need to listen to what clients are telling them to be able to improve their day to day functions.
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.
Read full review
PubMatic
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
PubMatic
  • Communication is key and PubMatic really needs to improve the way they speak to clients and their response time on emails and the time lapse between communication. Turn around time needs to improve. Simple requests like forecasting should not take weeks to turn around.
  • Understanding their product before making it available to a huge organization. Don't use companies as guinea pigs when the product isn't even working. Understand what your client expects from you from the very beginning.
  • Don't place blame where blame isn't warranted.
  • Knowing the terminology you're speaking about well before you have a conference call.
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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.
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PubMatic
We have already cancelled.
Read full review
Usability
Google
Its a complex tool and they make it easy to use, you get get up and running very quickly, but its the more advanced features and understanding all the small details to optimise your campaigns in Google Ads. I would recommend using a Google Ads Rep or using an external agency is you are starting out.
Read full review
PubMatic
No answers on this topic
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
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PubMatic
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Google
Daily use with advanced account structures. Familiarity with reporting/api and complex setups.
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PubMatic
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
PubMatic
We regret using PubMatic and are happy with our choice to move forward onto a better company.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
PubMatic
  • Increased problem areas
  • Decreased productivity.
Read full review
ScreenShots