Kevel vs. PubMatic

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).

Incentivized

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.

• 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.

Incentivized

• User interface could be faster to load.

Incentivized

• 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.

We have already cancelled.

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.

Incentivized

We regret using PubMatic and are happy with our choice to move forward onto a better company.

• 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.

Incentivized

• Increased problem areas
• Decreased productivity.