TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Smaato

    Score7 out of 10
    N/ASmaato is a supply-side publisher platform (SSP) from the Verve Group since the 2021 acquisition.N/A

    Taboola

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/ATaboola is a native advertising platform from the company of the same name in New York for publishing "recommended" content in a variety of popularly visited news sites and spaces. Taboola is partnered with many publishers (the Atlantic, Tribune, MailOnline, Business Insider, etc.).

    $10

    Starting Price Per Day

    Pricing
    SmaatoTaboola
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Campaigns
    $10.00
    Starting Price Per Day
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SmaatoTaboola
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SmaatoTaboola
    Considered Both Products
    Verve Group
    No answer on this topic
    Taboola
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    60%
    Would buy again
    3 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    60%
    Delivers good value for the price
    3 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    60%
    Happy with the feature set
    3 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    60%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    3 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    80%
    Implementation went as expected
    4 Answers
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    SmaatoTaboola
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    Criteo Commerce Growth
    Score8 out of 10
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    Enterprises
    Criteo Commerce Growth
    Score8 out of 10
    AdSense
    Score8.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SmaatoTaboola
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.0
    (10 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    2.9
    (5 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SmaatoTaboola
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
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    Taboola
    If you want to have your company advertised on news websites across the United States then Taboola is perfect. If you're looking for clicks and impressions but not so much interested in traffic that is highly engaged and converting often then I'd suggest Taboola as an option to run traffic, too. This is the perfect platform for grey-hat offers and similar ideas. I wouldn't suggest it for running ads on your website due to some strict conditions and the fact that it might not necessarily play nice with traffic coming from Facebook.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    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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    Taboola
    • A good value on clicks -- they have visitors for all CPCs!
    • Worldwide reach and relatability -- so many providers use Taboola. It's very easy to reach your audience wherever.
    • High quality -- their policies ensure that only enjoyable, modest content is provided.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    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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    Taboola
    • I would like to see an easier way to exclude irrelevant sites that our ads received impressions or clicks on.
    • Being able to bid on specific sites only.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    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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    Taboola
    It was pretty straightforward getting an account set up and having an account rep assigned. Compared to some other platforms Taboola is actually rather intuitive when it comes to navigating the user interface. Pixel implementation was easy and we didn't have any discrepancies tracking conversions. Also the ability to target LALs was very useful and semi-straightforward to upload.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    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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    Taboola
    We have a point of contact in Taboola and he has been really great in supporting our campaign. He helped us set up the initial campaign, answered our questions related to the campaign and even agreed when I asked for a lower CPC. Also, while he tried to encourage us to spend more, he never pushed us to the point that it gets annoying.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Verve Group
    With over 20 demand partners in our stack, Smaato is in the top 5
    Incentivized
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    Taboola
    Outbrain doesn't charge a fee for automatic credit card billing. Often Outbrain CPC for the same content is cheaper but not always. The Outbrain UX is not as good as Taboola but recent changes had made them better than they used to be. In Outbrain you can not change images or titles once they are submitted. You also can not clone campaigns which you can do with Taboola
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Verve Group
    • Increased overall revenue
    • Strong demand pool
    • Easy reporting
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Taboola
    • Taboola campaigns have had positive effects on top of funnel activities and engagement metrics though the traffic is not always as qualified as one would like. You will need to carefully tailor your campaign to squeeze out the most relevant traffic.
    Read full review
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