Likelihood to Recommend If your client or organization is running a high volume awareness campaign, Outbrain would be a platform to diversify your mix with. Pretty low maintenance and easy to set up, you can get ads running in a few minutes. If your primary goal is conversions, there are probably better channels you can use where the targeting is a little more transparent and would likely see a higher avg conversion rate.
Read full review If you are in an industry where content drives pipeline through engagement and education, Pathfactory is an invaluable tool to help people consume more of what you are producing and offers additional entry and interaction points on your website. It also creates very specific and personalized paths through your assets.
Read full review Pros Website network: Outbrain provides high-quality websites in its network so that you can get a quality audience. Affordable pricing: The CPC offered by Outbrain is relatively cheaper than other alternatives. Content dashboard: The dashboard allows you to edit the content before publishing it on Outbrain's platform. Read full review Create Visually appealing performance report Give more in-depth information about performance metrics than most alternatives Ability to track performance over time and compare this performance across time periods Provide and send auto-run reports to top level management based on predefined criteria and timeframes Read full review Cons Customer Service - Speaking to a human is nearly impossible, there is no "chat" function, and no phone number immediately available. Ultimately, I've had to email a generic CS contact and wait several days before heading back. High Number of Guidelines - The number of guidelines one must meet before using Outbrain is much higher than any other ad platform I've used. Most of them are highly specific and not necessarily items that a website would have out-of-the-box. Read full review Evolving into a more sales-focused UX. While the tool is great for marketing, there are some areas to improve the functionality of PathFactory for Sales in regards to navigating and sending out content as a salesperson. GA goal reporting. I can't speak to this specifically, but I know our web team has run into some issues creating GA goals when we lead to a PathFactory track. Evolved reporting. Reporting is great, but for some use cases, we have had to ask for custom reports that the team is always happy to create! But it would be great if this was self-serve. Read full review Likelihood to Renew We have seen a lot of value from our team's use of Path Factory. We also like working with this vendor as they actually take our feedback and implement it on their roadmap. A great vendor with a great product
Read full review Usability The use case is very obvious, brand awareness and low cost conversions because of its reach in billions. The platform is easy to use, well sorted and defined with good click optimized algorithms and brands can use it without hesitation. If monitored well and optimized accordingly, this can prove to be one of the best advertising channels.
Read full review Overall, I think the tool is fairly easy to use to get a basic content uploaded to create a track and even the more complicated features become easier once you become familiarised with the process
Read full review Reliability and Availability I think there was only one time where we had issues reaching our account manager, otherwise PathFactory was always willing to hop on the phone to talk through strategy, to work through issues, and help build custom solutions to fit our needs. Customer service is a big selling point of PathFactory.
Read full review Performance The analytics and reports feature is fairly new and have proved very popular with many areas of our business and is growing in popularity. The metrics that are attainable are very insightful and provides a clear picture on the performance of the track.
Read full review Support Rating We had an account manager assigned to us, but they really didn't offer too much help outside of the financial side of things. We used the self-serve platform with mild suggestions every few weeks from our reps amounting to "spend a bit more here."
Read full review We meet weekly with Jennifer and I can't say enough about her. When issues have happened or we need help, she jumps on it quickly. If she doesn't know the answer, she pulls in Reggie or another on her team that can help. She goes above and beyond and has been very supportive, even when we had a lot of hard questions to answer from higher-ups. All this is on top of just being an awesome person.
Read full review In-Person Training I was able to browse around the tool quite easily once some basic training was given. I learnt much from using those method and only needed further help when wanting to learn about Reports, External codes and adding forms.
Read full review Online Training The customer service, from technical through to customer success, is one of the biggest reasons I'd recommend PathFactory. This is true of their training. It can be as bespoke as you like, at least in my experience, and the team is always willing (where possible) to incorporate your suggestions.
Read full review Implementation Rating The PathFactory team was very helpful when implementing the product. They gave us a lot of recommendations on best moving forward. As a note to new users, when implementing I would make sure that you create with your team a system to make sure that the platform is scalable. My team was able to do this through creating a foldering structure, naming conventions for tracks and assets, and ensuring tagging is used on all content uploads. I would also make sure when implementing that you have an understanding of how your team will track success and that your brand team is involved to make sure that there is consistency in the look and feel of the tracks
Read full review Alternatives Considered Here at AdRizer my personal ad sources primarily revolve around Google Ads & Outbrain.
Taboola is extremely similar to Outbrain minus the fact that strategies are dictated on the account level unlike by campaign with Outbrain
Read full review I wasn't involved in the purchase decision, but I am glad we chose them! Their team is helpful and knows how to help you accomplish what you're trying to do. If there's a feature you see isn't working right or that you need their technical team will listen and make actual changes.
Read full review Scalability Pathfactory is growing in popularity amongst individuals from different parts of the organisation and it would be difficult to forecast how scalable this can become
Read full review Return on Investment None. My perspective is that further testing is needed as well as additional tracking capabilities applied to be able to assess value. However, it's a CPC model and relatively inexpensive in regards to additional reach, especially if it's packaged in with an Earned media push into the marketplace. Reet Das Vice President, Global Digital Marketing
Read full review We saw ROI within the first 9 months of using PathFactory. Our onboarding team saw quicker adoption of our product while using PathFactory to engage them during the onboarding process. We've been able to more accurately understand our content needs and what works best when prospecting for specific segments. (eg. SMB, mid-market, and enterprise) Read full review ScreenShots