Outbrain vs. StackAdapt

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Outbrain
Score 5.0 out of 10
N/A
Outbrain, 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
StackAdapt
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
StackAdapt, headquartered in Toronto offers their native advertising specialized DSP, supporting programmatic advertising with audience discovery, B2B targeting, and engagement analytics among other features.N/A
Pricing
OutbrainStackAdapt
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
OutbrainStackAdapt
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
OutbrainStackAdapt
Considered Both Products
Outbrain
Chose 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
StackAdapt
Chose StackAdapt
In terms of Native advertising, StackAdapt blows Outbrain and Taboola out of the water. The ability to drive impressions is similar between all three, but we have seen a large improvement in the quality of these impressions from StackAdapt. Clicks, engagement, and sales are all …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
OutbrainStackAdapt
Small Businesses
Amazon Advertising Sponsored Products
Amazon Advertising Sponsored Products
Score 7.6 out of 10
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Amazon Advertising Sponsored Products
Amazon Advertising Sponsored Products
Score 7.6 out of 10
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Score 6.9 out of 10
Enterprises
AdSense
AdSense
Score 8.7 out of 10
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
OutbrainStackAdapt
Likelihood to Recommend
1.5
(17 ratings)
8.3
(24 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
7.8
(5 ratings)
7.9
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
7.5
(6 ratings)
9.5
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
OutbrainStackAdapt
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.
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StackAdapt
Campaigns for Brand Awareness: StackAdapt works effectively in campaigns for brand awareness where expanding brand visibility and reaching a large audience are the main objectives. Advertisers can target particular demographics, hobbies, and behaviors with its sophisticated targeting features, making sure that the correct audience groups receive brand messaging.
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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.
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StackAdapt
  • Audience targeting - there are so many options for both B2C and B2B audiences, from browsing behavior audiences to account-based marketing audiences to CRM lists. There's a way to find your ideal audience no matter their industry.
  • Pixel setup and management are pretty easy. It uses a universal pixel that you can easily place on your site. We use Google Tag Manager for this. Then, you can create any number of conversion events and easily implement them, also with Google Tag Manager, so we can trust we're getting good tracking.
  • It seems many display ad platforms lack optimization tools, but StackAdapt makes it easy to adjust, add, or remove audiences, pause certain website categories, exclude batches of websites, pause individual ads, and really fine-tune the targeting as you see what works and what doesn't.
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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.
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StackAdapt
  • There has been occasional slopping maintenance of the campaigns, and we have to follow up with questions about spending spikes or significant changes in delivery CPMs.
  • Account rep knowledge can sometimes be lacking. When we question our reps about performance, we sometimes get confusing or nonsensical answers.
  • The reporting UI is definitely clunky and unintuitive.
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Likelihood to Renew
Outbrain
No answers on this topic
StackAdapt
The platform is easy to use and understand whether it is being used as self-serve or a managed service. The audience targeting is solid, and array of placements is versatile. With these, the level of engagement for video content is usually great
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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.
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StackAdapt
Simple, streamlined interface. I would rate it higher if there was a proper agency portal (like an MCC "My Client Center") that allows you to control multiple client accounts from a unified login.
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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."
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StackAdapt
Support has been exceptional. Our dedicated team is always available and ready to answer any questions that may arise. We receive updates from them on a regular basis and they go above and beyond providing assistance when needed. The team is absolutely one of the bright spots in our relationship with StackAdapt
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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
Read full review
StackAdapt
StackAdapt is significantly less expensive than The Trade Desk. StackAdapt doesn't have campaign minimums, unlike The Trade Desk, meaning you can experiment with a lower ad spend to gain client confidence before investing at a larger level. Plus they don't lock you into an annual contract or anything long term. It feels very similar to The Trade Desk but without the high contract.
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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.
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StackAdapt
  • Excellent traffic from our ads. Traffic exceeded our forecast.
  • Excellent management of our budget. We did not spend near as much as we budgeted for the response we received through our test.
  • The lead conversion was not expected to be high due to the type of content we deployed, but we received zero conversions, well below anticipated when compared to other ads for the same content.
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ScreenShots