TrustRadius Insights
Marin Software has proven to be a valuable tool for agencies and businesses across various industries. For example, both ethology and a …
Overview
What is Marin Software?
Marin Software is a cloud-based cross-channel advertising campaign management platform which integrates many tools and functions, and it is the name of the company in San Francisco that issues the software. Marin touts cross-display (including mobile-optimized) advertisement retargeting, social marketing…
Recent Reviews
Pricing
N/A
Unavailable
What is Marin Software?
Marin Software is a cloud-based cross-channel advertising campaign management platform which integrates many tools and functions, and it is the name of the company in San Francisco that issues the software. Marin touts cross-display (including mobile-optimized) advertisement retargeting, social…
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Would you like us to let the vendor know that you want pricing?
17 people also want pricing
Alternatives Pricing
What is Skai?
Skai (formerly Kenshoo) is a cross-channel advertising solution for search marketing, social media and online advertising. The product aims to give advertisers and agencies the control and automation needed to make better investment decisions across search marketing and online advertising.
What is Maropost Marketing Cloud?
Maropost, headquartered in Toronto with offices in New York, London, and Delhi, offers an enterprise level email marketing and automation platform for email-centric campaigns and total customer lifecycle management via an automated workflow. It features social networking "listening" to keep track…
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Marin Software?
Marin Software Competitors
Marin Software Technical Details
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Marin Software is a cloud-based cross-channel advertising campaign management platform which integrates many tools and functions, and it is the name of the company in San Francisco that issues the software. Marin touts cross-display (including mobile-optimized) advertisement retargeting, social marketing management, and many other tools to manage complex marketing and paid-advertising (PPC) efforts.
A free trial of this extensive platform is available. Marin Software maintains a client list with many familiar entitities, like GAP, Macy's, Comcast, Symantec, and many agencies as well.
StitcherAds and SunnyReports are common alternatives for Marin Software.
Reviewers rate Usability and Support Rating highest, with a score of 10.
The most common users of Marin Software are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(64)
Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
Marin Software has proven to be a valuable tool for agencies and businesses across various industries. For example, both ethology and a smaller agency have utilized Marin Software for client bid management, reporting, and account optimizations. These features have enabled them to save time and tailor campaigns to meet the specific needs of their clients. Vistaprint and MediaCom have also benefited from Marin Software's optimization capabilities, campaign management tools, and reporting functionalities for their search campaigns. Clients often choose Marin Software to maintain control over their data and benefit from lower fees compared to other platforms. The software's ability to manage campaigns, keywords, ads, bidding, ad positions, destinations, and budgets across departments provides convenience and efficiency. Additionally, Marin Software streamlines the management of SEM campaigns across multiple accounts with its automation features. Users appreciate the flexibility of the bid rules and reporting functionality within Marin Software, as it allows them to easily manipulate the platform to suit their specific needs. This has not only helped them save time but also reduced the reliance on multiple interfaces for bulk uploading and optimizations.
Easy-to-use Interface: Users have consistently praised Marin Software for its easy-to-use and intuitive user interface, with multiple reviewers stating that it allows them to quickly and efficiently perform tasks. The simplicity and efficiency of the interface were highlighted as advantageous features. Flexible Reporting Capabilities: Numerous reviewers have commended Marin Software's reporting capabilities for their flexibility, providing an in-depth analysis of the account at various levels. This feature was specifically mentioned by several users who appreciated the ability to customize views, create custom columns, and set dimensions and labels for filtering campaigns on a daily basis. Effective Conversion Tracking: Many users have highlighted Marin Software's ability to track conversions effectively as a strength. This feature was seen as a valuable tool for improving campaign performance and cost savings. Several users praised the system's bidding strategies based on position, conversions, or revenue as helpful tools in achieving better results.
Long Support Ticket Delays: Users have experienced long delays in getting their support tickets addressed, with some users mentioning that Marin's customer support could be more responsive and that account representatives and upper management were not always helpful in dealing with business-impacting issues.
Missing Data After Updates: Random missing data occurs after updates, causing frustration for some users who found errors in the system without clear explanations of what went wrong during uploads.
Difficulties in Pulling Reports: Pulling reports in the user interface can be difficult, especially when dealing with large reports or making changes to the user interface. Some users have experienced slow load times and updates, leading to delays in accessing important information.
Users have made several recommendations based on their experiences with Marin software. The most common recommendations are to improve the pricing structure of the software to lower fees. Users suggest using the software for businesses that do not have a large client with a huge eCommerce business. They also recommend that the software work on building out its social reporting and streamlining reporting and automation processes.
Furthermore, users find the user experience (UX) of Marin software to be bulky, cluttered, and frustrating to navigate at times. However, they value the smart sync capabilities of the software, which saves time and helps manage Google and Bing accounts effectively.
Overall, users recommend trying the software as it is an easy-to-use tool that brings everything together in one place. They suggest considering the size and complexity of the account being managed before using the software. Users also recommend utilizing the support and resources provided by Marin, such as scheduled reporting and custom support.
For smaller companies with lower spend requirements, users find Marin software great. They suggest using the chat feature or calling for urgent issues. They also recommend regularly speaking to the account manager and arranging calls with the Centre of Excellence Team to improve PPC account management.
Users suggest considering if the software is suitable for mid to large-sized businesses with developed SEM programs. They also recommend utilizing the dimensions options for tagging and organization of initiatives and accounts. While evaluating platforms, users think Marin should be considered as it continues to improve its offerings.
To solve frustrations and save time, users recommend giving Marin software a try. It is recommended for managing a large number of accounts or accounts that require conversion tracking, attribution modeling, or remarketing.
Users find Marin's customer support great and appreciate its easy-to-use interface for accessing campaign information quickly. They suggest voicing concerns to representatives and their superiors to find solutions to problems.
Moreover, users think Marin is a powerful tool for managing search advertising and recommend it for those who need a more sophisticated tool. They suggest watching the tutorial and training videos for better understanding.
In conclusion, users have provided valuable recommendations to improve Marin software's pricing structure, reporting capabilities, user experience, and support services.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-12 of 12)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
August 12, 2021
Marin Software is expensive and intuitive
I use Marin Software to manage and automate bidding for search marketing keywords and queries on Google and Bing. This is generally how I’ve always used it in the past and in other agencies. Marin software has always approached bidding with an easy-to-use interface, and smart algorithms dictate the process.
- Clean user interface
- Great support and sales
- Algorithms suit more typical accounts
- Not as customizable as other platforms
- Show the secret sauce in the bidding
- Does not easily integrate with other marketing platforms
May 17, 2016
Marin Saves Time and Money
Marin is being used by our search team to assist with bidding and reporting. We will soon use Marin to buy FaceBook and Instagram display ads.
- Budgeting. Marin allows you to easily see budget and manage budget across engines. It is easy to shift budget from google and bing in real time.
- Bidding. We have found the bidding tool extremely successful across our clients to lower cost per conversions and save money.
- Marin's customer support could be more responsive.
October 27, 2015
Marin is Good Not Great
Paid search primarily uses Marin Software as a bid management tool for SEM campaigns.
- Easy to learn and use user interface.
- Very easy to make ad copy changes.
- Changes all across the board can be made quickly.
- Account representatives and upper management aren't always the most helpful when dealing with business effecting issues.
- Some small minor changes require a bulk sheet when they can easily be done in the interface if Marin had that ability.
- Doesn't seem like there is any progression by the Marin team to make updates to the tool.
Marin is our company's bid management software. It is used across departments and we strive to integrate Marin tracking into any new platform or product pitched to us. We use it to upload all our campaigns, keywords, ads, manage our bidding, determine our ad positions, set our destinations, and manage our budget. When it's time for reporting, whether ad hoc or monthly, we use Marin numbers as a rule.
- Marin is a self-serve platform. You can tailor your campaigns per your preference/convenience/needs. You can customize your view, see % changes, create custom columns depending on your Key Performance Indicators, and set any sort of dimensions and labels that will help you filter for your campaigns on a daily basis.
- Bidding and changes to destination URLs can be done through mass edits within the UI, without having to upload bulk-sheets. You push any changes from Marin to the Engines, and can also pull in your changes from Bing/AdWords engines by syncing your campaigns as well. The system will not publish anything you do not manually post until Midnight PST. You can copy paste straight from your excel bulksheet into the uploading tool (or upload the document through unicode text).
- The Administrative log keeps track of all changes, and keeps users (through their logins) accountable for any edits. This way, you can filter for your name, and find the edits that you made, just to double check your work, or to make sure you are publishing the correct changes. There is a keyword- group- and campaign-level history/settings log, where you can see the name of the user who created, edited, published, paused, activated, deleted, etc. any item.
- You can set up alerts that will help you manage accounts: anything from active campaigns with 0 ad copy, to finding keywords in low ad positions.
- If you push duplicate keywords, the system will reject them, keeping our accounts from getting clouded due to human error. There is no need to download existing keywords or groups and use their keyword or group IDs to make any edits--instead, editing is a breeze because the system detects the new changes automatically. The only need for IDs is when making edits to creative.
- The Marin (corporate) reps we deal with on a daily basis are atrociously condescending, difficult to deal with, and need to work on their transparency. We encounter attitude when requesting logins for new team members! However, the help desk is staffed by the friendliest professionals willing to help.
- While the filtering options (filter by account, campaign name, group name, keyword name, destination URL, dimension, strategy, model, etc) are very extensive, you cannot filter for 'either/or'. For example, if I want to filter down to a specific group of campaigns in the same account that contain "A", but do not contain "B", I cannot make this filter in the same area. I would have to find the common denominator between those campaigns on say, the "strategy level", and exclude the ones I do not want on a "model" level.
- Just like any other platform where corporate paid search accounts are managed, sometimes it takes a while to pull reports. However, I've worked across a few other search management platforms, and Marin speeds are tolerable.
April 29, 2015
Marin Software review
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I used Marin while I was with Vistaprint . We used Marin software mainly for optimization and campaign management of Search campaigns.
- Both the client services and professional services teams were very helpful. Excellent support from account executives, analytics and professional services teams. During the initial integration, the professional services team worked all odd hours to accommodate integration with various countries. They also worked with us to accept all the customization that we requested for the data we were passing to them.
- Bidding algorithm is robust and the analytics team built us customized bidding monitoring tools . The bidding tool improved our efficiency quite a lot in all countries where the teams utilized the tool completely for bidding.
- Campaign management tools also vastly decreased the time that the team spent on campaign management. The account executives provided timely inputs on new tools and areas where we could automate further.
- While this is no reflection on the tool itself, it requires users to have a good understanding of the way the bidding algorithm works . Users cannot expect to be completely hands off in bidding but can expect good support from the client services team
December 09, 2014
Marin Software - Money Well Spent
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Marin Software is being used by the Paid Search department. It is used for two of the largest pay per click clients to manage daily tasks such as bid adjustments and negative keywords. It is also used more in depth to track conversions for the clients and for reporting uses, such as monthly and quarterly.
- Marin Software provides an in depth analysis of the account across all levels. Users can determine where search metrics came from based on device level, campaign level, keyword level and more. This is a strength for Marin Software because it allows users to find all the data it needs on an easy to use user interface.
- Marin Software successfully tracks conversions for the account. If the tracking codes are implemented correctly the user can find all the data they need from any conversion point they want. This is a strength for Marin Software because this is a solution that a lot of other paid search software don't offer.
- Marin Software allows the user to set up alerts based on activity in the account. For example, if the user wants a notification every time revenue drops they can set that up in the user interface. This is a strength for Marin Software because this solution allows the user to be on top of their account at all times.
- Marin Software could better implement the tracking code notifications so that the user knows they were implemented correctly. However, the user should be double checking on their work so this is a minor need for improvement.
- Marin Software could better implement pulling reports in the user interface. Sometimes it is hard to pull dates using the reporting tool.
- Marin Software could create more consistency between the tabs.
May 30, 2014
Marin is an Excellent Bid Management Tool.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Marin Software was being used by the Marketing department to manage digital media advertising, including bid management, tracking and account management. It addressed the target cost per acquisition problem with statistical significance.
- Ease of use - simple interface, user friendly.
- Data integrity
- Bidding tool
- Data/account aggregation
- Software integration with backend CRM took a bit too long, but it worked in the end.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Marin Software was being used across the whole organization for tracking and reporting in one place. It allowed account managers to be more efficient in management of paid search and allowed our client facing business strategists to find the information they need. This product filled the gap between the doers and the talkers.
- Quick, detailed, reoccurring reporting saved our strategists tons of time every week.
- It provided more more detailed reporting capabilities allowing more in depth analysis and insights.
- Allowing us to manage various platforms in one interface improved our performance and efficiency significantly.
- More customization to the reporting output such as allowing multiple logos and changing headers of reports
- More simplified bid rules - it gets very complicated and intimidating
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Marin Software is being used by Vistaprint to manage paid search bids across a wide portfolio of products. We have millions of keywords and it would be impossible to manage all of the bids manually. Marin also makes many account maintenance & optimization functions (adding new keywords, ad copy testing, etc.) easier.
- Adding keywords
- Running ad copy tests
- Managing bids across a large portfolio of products
- Some elements of the interface are confusing.
May 09, 2014
Natalia's Review
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Marin software was being used to effectively manage pay per click accounts for several clients. It was only being used by the SEM department. It addressed the problem of achieving desired metrics in a manageable way.
- One platform to manage Google, Yahoo, MSN, Facebook pay per click accounts
- Ability to automate PPC optimization
- Advanced reporting and access for clients dashboards
- Easier optimization concepts
- Ability to connect to second tier search engines
- Ability to easily find link between SEO and SEM efforts
May 01, 2014
Marin Software in Review
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Marin Software is being used exclusively by our Search team. The Search team has a number of different accounts, which utilize Marin's software in a number of different ways. However, across all of the accounts Marin helps with many of the Search processes such as automated bidding, appending tracking to URL's, ad scheduling, and making bulk changes to multiple vendors as once.
- The overall layout of Marin is very user friendly. For Search professionals, there is a similar feel between Marin and the major Search vendors' user interfaces. This allows for a seamless transition onto Marin.
- Marin's help section is very useful. They have a comprehensive list of articles that can help users with the more common issues that may arise. Additionally, they are reachable by email or by phone, and in my experience with Marin, their customer representatives are friendly and knowledgeable.
- Marin's filters are very user friendly. The platform makes it very easy to view only the information that you are looking for.
- Marin only syncs data from publishers once a day. I have found that this could lead to the previous days data not being published within Marin until a few hours after I've been at my desk. For up-to-the-minute data, I still need to go into the UI.
- Marin can take some time to pull in larger changes made to the UI on the Publisher side. Dealing with Enhanced Campaigns was a bit tough, since we had to wait for Marin to update its system before we could switch over the campaigns on our end.
- When working with very large accounts, Marin can start to get a bit slow. I work on an account with over a million keywords (which is understandably a lot), but the slower load times and reporting can still become frustrating.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Marin is currently being leveraged across my teams for several clients. We utilize Marin for much of the heavy lifting in launching, managing, optimizing and reporting on paid search accounts across engines. Through Marin we're able to spend less time creating tactical paperwork and more time building strategic and effective search campaigns.
- Marin does a great job providing an aggregated dashboard for paid search. Through their portal we're able to identify what's working well for our campaigns, weed out elements that are sub par and fine tune each aspect of the account.
- Marin also takes the heavy lifting out of managing paid search campaigns. Through their tool we're able to bulk upload, schedule, create, augment and optimize. By being able to make changes across many campaigns at one time, my team spends less time navigating different engine UIs and more time optimizing and bringing strategic insights and optimizations to our clients.
- Through customized views, Marin makes it easy for our teams and clients to see just the right amount of data to answer their question without having to export and manipulate data to arrive at the answer. By creating dimensions for each account we're able to segment performance even further, making optimizations even simpler.
- The onboarding process with Marin can be a bit clunky. The request to launch a new account is vetted by the Agency Lead which is then queued for the Professional Services team. By potentially getting a new PS team for each onboard, you're potentially working with people not familiar with your business. Once the onboarding is complete, the account is transitioned to the Engagement team. With different teams touching the account at various phases, it creates a disconnect in the transition and often leaves our team explaining the situation on multiple occasions.
- Custom metrics can be hard to come by in Marin. There are some "custom" features hard-coded into the tool that are generally available, but several that are not, such as converting seconds into hours and minutes.
- Data tying the date/time stamp of the click to the conversion is a custom report that has to be requested specifically by the team but is something, from a conversion path standpoint, that should be standard in the user interface, regardless of integration type or complexity of account.