Google Marketing Platform vs. The Trade Desk

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google Marketing Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Google Marketing Platform (a combination of former DoubleClick advertiser tools and Google Analytics 360 Suite) is a set of tools for marketers to manage their advertising campaigns. DoubleClick was acquired by Google in 2008. It focuses on uploading ads and reporting their performance and also provides forecasting tools to help predict future campaign needs. Bid optimization tools help manage pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns across search engines (e.g. Bing, Google, Yahoo!).N/A
The Trade Desk
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
The Trade Desk is the eponymous flagship product from the company headquartered in Ventura California, a demand-side / data management hybrid platform (DSP / DMP).N/A
Pricing
Google Marketing PlatformThe Trade Desk
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google Marketing PlatformThe Trade Desk
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
Google Marketing PlatformThe Trade Desk
Considered Both Products
Google Marketing Platform
Chose Google Marketing Platform
I feel that both MediaMath and TradeDesk, while not as pretty or user intuitive as DoubleClick just out perform Bid Manager in terms of performance, driving low CPA's and overall better support.
Chose Google Marketing Platform
Trade Desk has more partner integrations and is not biased towards Google products. They allow bid factoring and generally have more ways to allow you to optimize a campaign. Having said that, Doubleclick allows for a much smoother set up process and it is a huge benefit to …
The Trade Desk
Chose The Trade Desk
TradeDesk is more extensive like DBM compared to DX. Offers an easier building process with templates and being able to duplicate and share libraries at the partner level.

I find TradeDesk clears at higher CPMs than the other platforms. Also tends to perform well for in-view …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Google Marketing PlatformThe Trade Desk
Ad Network Integration
Comparison of Ad Network Integration features of Product A and Product B
Google Marketing Platform
9.5
28 Ratings
25% above category average
The Trade Desk
-
Ratings
Data Transfer10.023 Ratings00 Ratings
DSP integration9.026 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Campaigns
Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Product A and Product B
Google Marketing Platform
7.9
32 Ratings
1% above category average
The Trade Desk
-
Ratings
Ad campaign creation8.432 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad deployment8.432 Ratings00 Ratings
Display advertising8.029 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad display and retargeting segmentation7.730 Ratings00 Ratings
Sequence targeting7.023 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Google Marketing Platform
7.2
32 Ratings
8% below category average
The Trade Desk
-
Ratings
Ad dashboards6.730 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad performance reports7.332 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad conversion tracking7.331 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad attribution reporting7.030 Ratings00 Ratings
Cross-channel ad management7.325 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad forecasting and optimization7.524 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Google Marketing PlatformThe Trade Desk
Small Businesses
Google Ad Manager
Google Ad Manager
Score 8.6 out of 10
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Score 8.0 out of 10
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.8 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.8 out of 10
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Google Marketing PlatformThe Trade Desk
Likelihood to Recommend
7.4
(44 ratings)
7.1
(7 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(13 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(2 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(4 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
6.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google Marketing PlatformThe Trade Desk
Likelihood to Recommend
Google
I feel pretty neutral about Google Marketing Platform. For the longest time, my company wasn't using it because each of the features (Data Studio, Analytics, etc.) could be accessed separately. In fact, most of the time, I don't even go into Google Marketing Platform because it's easier to directly navigate to the individual platforms. There are very few features about GMP that can only be accessed from the GMP UI. The Integrations Center is probably the main feature I utilize from the GMP UI, which allows me to see a summary of the integrations I have in place across all my client properties and accounts.
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The Trade Desk
After extensive research of DSP and DMP platforms in the market, our agency made the wise decision to license TTD's platform and develop a long-term partnership. TTD continues to innovate and offer cutting-edge media buying solutions, access to more audience data segments, and access to new and emerging media channels like CTV/OTT and digital-out-of-home. We couldn't be happier with TTD's technology and is one of the most advanced agency users of TTD is a key differentiator for our agency.
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Pros
Google
  • Bringing together data from multiple channels and engines and allows you to visualize the data in an easy to use platform. This saves time from using multiple logins for the different platforms.
  • Auto bidding tools save time from manual bidding, as it allows you to set the specific terms around what levels you want to cap your CPCs at. You then let DoubleClick adjust your bids to gain the most conversions from the cheapest CPCs. This frees up time to do other in-depth analysis and strategy.
  • DoubleClick also has the ability to track conversions and clicks on any page using their floodlight tags. This is good for tracking certain actions on yours or a client's site and is especially good if they do not use any other tools, such as Google Analytics or Adobe, to track conversions and user actions on site. You can also use these in conjunction with the auto bidding tools.
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The Trade Desk
  • User engagement - Cookie matching provides better engagement and effectiveness
  • Reporting of campaigns - Great reporting on display advertising & platforms
  • Dashboard reporting - Scalable to global deployment & campaigns
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Cons
Google
  • The process for on-boarding new users can be difficult if they do not already have a Gmail or Gmail-linked account.
  • Difficult to troubleshoot technical issues (with the platform, with tags, etc.) because of the lack of customer support. Unclear if the agency has a dedicated team or individual to assist, and often have to deal with out-sourced support teams.
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The Trade Desk
  • Reporting platform leaves a lot to be desired. Requires a lot of trial/error to pull exactly what you need to drive optimizations/learnings.
  • The "stop"/"continue bidding" feature for sitelists, devices, player sizes, etc is awful. When you set something up specifically, you should not have the AUTOMATIC option to serve beyond those parameters.
  • Trafficking video (VAST/VPAID) tags requires a manual insertion of a click URL. Completely redundant ask and is not provided by advertisers as that URL lives within the ad tag. Should not require multiple actions traffic a video tag.
  • Creative approval process (manual) doesn't seem necessary and is not a part of peers' platforms. There is no "pause/deactivate" feature for creative, you remove them or adjust the end date.
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Likelihood to Renew
Google
Due to its adapting behavior with industry ad formats and seamless integration with publishers and DSP's, I don't see myself moving away from DCM. As we see the display advertising is getting more programatic and automated due to the rise of DSP and concept of RTB, Double Click has evolved with new advanced best practices
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The Trade Desk
No answers on this topic
Usability
Google
The Doubleclick interface is easy and simple to get a hang of. The options are slightly limited compared to other DSPs. But, for a simple campaign, this is a great DSP to move forward with. They have a ton of data and can plug into a lot of different partners
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The Trade Desk
It's very intuitive. We had some training materials, but found that users were able to navigate through the software without needing many resources. Our only suggestion would be to add hover-over capability in the browser, so users can see a pop-up message further explaining what each button does.
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Support Rating
Google
They do not have strong support team. It is tough to get answer when I need it. They always refer you to an online guide and not an actual person. If so, the person is based out of an offshore team in India and does not know the specific client goals .
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The Trade Desk
We noted no issues with our limited interaction with support. The software operated just as expected and we found that we were able to navigate needs on our own. We understand that The Trade Desk offers excellent support, so we believe it will be a good resource to us in the future.
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Implementation Rating
Google
I would highly recommend asking clients to provide 3PAS tags or use an internal 3PAS
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The Trade Desk
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Google
Marin takes a lot more time for everything, mainly for the campaigns setup. This also leads to many mistakes, which impact the performance. I've used Marin on a couple of previous clients and we've had many problems with it, mainly with correct conversion tracking and account optimizations. Besides, Marin is behind all the new features available on AdWords, which makes the tracking also not very flexible.
Read full review
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk is a much better product than AppNexus. Even though both products showed promise awhile back, AppNexus stopped innovating and The Trade Desk became specialists on data, cross site tracking and CTV inventory thus having a better and more unique product that actually adds value to your advertising efforts.
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Return on Investment
Google
  • DS3 has improved ROI considerably due to its ability to make the work of a team of digital marketers to go further and improving internal efficiency.
  • There is a notable improvement in account performance for those integrated with DoubleClick as opposed to not, with better tracking, new bid strategy options, and a more responsive interface.
  • The additional fee on top of media spend is a considerable expense for a large advertiser, but the necessity of a product/solution such as this means that there is always likely to be some comparative cost.
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The Trade Desk
  • The good thing about having an agency account is The Trade Desk lets you add your markups to the client billing.
  • We had a very positive response from clients regarding their perceived ROI on their ad spend through The Trade Desk.
  • We did not have many national clients, mostly local dealerships, so it was difficult for them to allocate a lot of funds to display advertising, even though the ROI yield was acceptable.
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ScreenShots