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Microsoft Advertising vs. Sizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft Advertising

    Score7.7 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads) contains Microsoft's advertising solutions. Advertising formats include search (Microsoft Search ads), Display and Native ads, Retail Media, and Video and Connected TV (CTV) ads. Services include Performance Max, the company's conversion optimization AI assistant and guide.N/A

    Sizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)

    Score10 out of 10
    N/ASizmek Ad Suite, from Amazon Advertising since being acquired, was a multichannel ad server used to create, distribute, customize, measure, and optimize campaigns. It was rebranded to Amazon Ad Server, but later discontinued in 2024.N/A
    Pricing
    Microsoft AdvertisingSizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft AdvertisingSizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)
    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
    Microsoft AdvertisingSizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    68%
    Would buy again
    21 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    70%
    Delivers good value for the price
    21 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    65%
    Happy with the feature set
    20 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    59%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    17 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    67%
    Implementation went as expected
    20 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Microsoft AdvertisingSizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)
    Ad Campaigns
    Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Microsoft Advertising and Sizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    6.5
    6 Ratings
    0% above category average
    Sizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)
    7.0
    9 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Ad campaign creation8.06 Ratings8.09 Ratings
    Ad deployment8.36 Ratings7.09 Ratings
    Display advertising6.46 Ratings8.09 Ratings
    Ad display and retargeting segmentation6.46 Ratings6.54 Ratings
    Sequence targeting5.85 Ratings5.73 Ratings
    Contextual advertising5.56 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social advertising4.85 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Microsoft Advertising and Sizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    6.6
    8 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Sizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)
    7.8
    9 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Ad dashboards6.28 Ratings6.09 Ratings
    Ad performance reports6.97 Ratings7.09 Ratings
    Ad conversion tracking7.36 Ratings8.09 Ratings
    Ad attribution reporting7.06 Ratings9.09 Ratings
    Ad forecasting and optimization5.85 Ratings8.06 Ratings
    Cross-channel ad management00 Ratings8.98 Ratings
    Ad Auctions
    Comparison of Ad Auctions features of Microsoft Advertising and Sizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    7.3
    7 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Sizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Ad bidding7.37 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad Network Integration
    Comparison of Ad Network Integration features of Microsoft Advertising and Sizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    -
    Ratings
    Sizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)
    4.4
    5 Ratings
    50% below category average
    Data Transfer00 Ratings7.74 Ratings
    DSP integration00 Ratings1.05 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft AdvertisingSizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)
    Small Businesses
    WordStream
    Score6.9 out of 10
    AdRoll
    Score3.7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    WordStream
    Score6.9 out of 10
    Criteo Commerce Growth
    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Criteo Commerce Growth
    Score8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft AdvertisingSizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.4
    (70 ratings)
    8.0
    (9 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    7.9
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.1
    (11 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft AdvertisingSizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    Despite using our account for advertising with every other social media company, Microsoft flagged ours as fraudulent. After dealing with them for weeks, we finally got to a manager, who said that they didn’t know anything, couldn’t provide any information, and was unable to do anything about it. It seems odd, but it would flagger account every time we try to upload the campaigns from Google directly into their ad manager. I would suggest if you try and use their platform, don’t tell them you’re using Google cause they seem to have a thing against it. Once your account is flagged, they have no reasonable way of resolving it, nor they are able to offer any support. You’re better off to just try a different way. Ultimately, just don’t use Microsoft advertising if you can possibly avoid it. Hopefully soon DuckDuckGo will have their own advertising platform and we can eliminate Microsoft given the terrible time we have working with this one of many, social media platforms.
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    I've use Sizmek as media analytics and reporting tool. Unless a site doesn't work properly with Google DoubleClick, I rarely recommend Sizmek over DoubleClick. It can do everything DoubleClick does, but with almost twice the hassle. One Area that makes it easier to track is that ads are given individual tracking ID's that creative can look up and search by when indexing and testing to make sure all ads are working and input.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Microsoft
    • Familiar interface, offers editor for bulk changes, adding negative keywords is much easier than in Google Ads
    • Nice reporting tools within the interface, detailed reports can be made fairly easily
    • Had very nice tools to help import/export ads directly from Google Ads, which saves a ton of time
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Easy Dashboard Navigation - Search bar allows user to quickly locate details about any campaign
    • Insightful Analytics Tools - Platform provides users customizable graphs to leverage for reporting presentations
    • Extensive Reporting Metrics - Ability to pull ad performance reports on all aspects of campaign
    • Simple Creative Hosting - Easy upload and path location details for creative files
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Microsoft
    • Bing's ad platform could definitely use some improvements - it hasn't been updated in a long time, and it feels very outdated.
    • We feel that the optimization algorithms don't always perform as well for Bing Ads as they do in Google Ads (optimize for conversions, etc.).
    • It would be great to have even more integrations with LinkedIn audience targeting offered - right now, you can just make some bid optimizations in a couple of areas; we'd really like to get more robust options there, and maybe even things like cross-platform tracking.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Sizmek's trading desk was a total miss when I tested it a few years ago.
    • I briefly used Abakus and did not find it intuitive, accurate or helpful. It has a long way to go before it can compete with the likes of VisualIQ.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Microsoft
    We have had good success with it over all of our clients. We continually recommend bing to reach "the rest of the searchers".
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Microsoft
    It's very easy to use overall. It has an import from Google Ads to make things simpler. Overall, I would say you can get up and running very quickly. It's similar to other platforms, so if you have used them, it's intuitive.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Microsoft
    Our Bing Ads reps are very good and attentive. They've offered good recommendations and are quick to resolve unexpected issues and problems. Occasionally they have roped in technical support folks that have been friendly and helpful too. The general helpline for Bing Ads is also very good, especially when compared to Google's customer support.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Microsoft
    Obviously Google is a huge competitor. Typically Google is top of the game for many advertising solutions including search. Microsoft ads has a lower scale and reach compared to Google. However, Microsoft ads audience does not overlap much with Googles, providing incremental reach. Although Microsoft ads lags a bit behind in adapting the new updates that Google comes out with, their customer service is very good and they are likely to go out of their way to adapt their platform to your needs whereas their competitor does not
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    For me the main point here is the support, all the adservers offer more or less the same functionality and capabilities. The real advantage you will gain using Sizmek will be their customer support team and their open approach with other vendors.
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Microsoft
    • We've had a very hard time spending our budgets on Bing which has caused us a lot of extra work on our end. We've essentially had to move that money back to Google or other platforms.
    • It does have an easy import from Google so you're not doubling efforts.
    • The CPCs tend to be less expensive than Google - which is always good for business owners.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Sizmek has had a positive impact on ROI because it delivers the reports our clients want and need
    • Sizmek has had a postive impact on employee morale due to ease of use
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots