TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Outbrain

    Score5 out of 10
    N/AOutbrain, headquartered in New York with offices globally, is an internationally known native advertising platform for curating and publishing content across a variety of channels and media spaces, containing editorial controls, analytics for judging impact, and related features.N/A

    Smaato

    Score7 out of 10
    N/ASmaato is a supply-side publisher platform (SSP) from the Verve Group since the 2021 acquisition.N/A
    Pricing
    OutbrainSmaato
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    OutbrainSmaato
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    OutbrainSmaato
    Considered Both Products
    Outbrain
    No answer on this topic
    Verve Group
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    88%
    Would buy again
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    86%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    88%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    83%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    86%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Best Alternatives
    OutbrainSmaato
    Small Businesses
    Amazon Advertising Sponsored Products
    Score5.5 out of 10
    AdRoll
    Score3.7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Amazon Advertising Sponsored Products
    Score5.5 out of 10
    Criteo Commerce Growth
    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    AdSense
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Criteo Commerce Growth
    Score8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    OutbrainSmaato
    Likelihood to Recommend
    1.5
    (17 ratings)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    7.8
    (5 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.5
    (6 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    OutbrainSmaato
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Outbrain
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Verve Group
    Smaato is very well suited for user acquisition and retargeting companies. Their overlap in terms of audiences and publishers with other exchanges is very limited, which makes it a great alternative when you need to scale a campaign and want to maintain your frequency cap. They work very well in branding campaigns as well as performance campaigns.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Outbrain
    • 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.
    Incentivized
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    Verve Group
    • Fill - the ad requests we send to Smaato have seen a great requests-to-impression ration.
    • Revenue - We've seen a lift in overall revenue thanks to the high CPM bids we get from Smaato.
    • Payments are always on time and they have a responsive financial team that is helpful in answering any questions.
    • Customer service - They are very fast to respond to any issues. The set up was streamlined thanks to their professional customer service.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Outbrain
    • 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.
    Incentivized
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    Verve Group
    • Inventory can be a bit pricey in competitive markets like the US.
    • Reporting dashboard is limited, needs work.
    • They don't offer a lof of transparency about margins over media cost.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Outbrain
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Verve Group
    Smaato has a UI where you can control your line items on the traffic you want to receive. That is a key unique selling point that other SSPs don't offer. Most of the items that you will need like reporting can be done on a self serve manner and that is a big plus, specifically for changes that need to happen really fast and you don't need to deal with account managers that may take some time to answer emails.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Outbrain
    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."
    Incentivized
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    Verve Group
    Smaato's account management team is very professional. They are quite fast in terms of customer support, which is very helpful. One item that stands out is that they are willing to understand what you need for each campaign and what is the best way to move forward. They don't just jump quickly into trying to upsell more of Smaato's products (audiences, data) like other SSPs do.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Outbrain
    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
    Incentivized
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    Verve Group
    With over 20 demand partners in our stack, Smaato is in the top 5
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Outbrain
    • 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.
    Incentivized
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    Verve Group
    • Increased overall revenue
    • Strong demand pool
    • Easy reporting
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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