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Outbrain

Outbrain

Overview

What is Outbrain?

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.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Outbrain is a versatile platform that serves a variety of use cases for users across different industries. For the paid media team at …
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Pricing

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What is Outbrain?

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.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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What is Taboola?

Taboola 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.).

What is Choozle?

Choozle, headquartered in Denver, provides a digital advertising software platform that leverages consumer data to power programmatic advertising campaigns across display, video, mobile and other mediums.

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Product Demos

Outbrain Thumbnail Widget - Demo Video

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Outbrain Amplify - Explainer Video

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Product Details

What is Outbrain?

Outbrain Video

What Is Outbrain?

Outbrain Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Reviewers rate Usability highest, with a score of 7.8.

The most common users of Outbrain are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(37)

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!

Outbrain is a versatile platform that serves a variety of use cases for users across different industries. For the paid media team at AdRizer, Outbrain is a valuable tool for driving website traffic at an affordable cost. The straightforward guidelines and minimal disapprovals make it a preferred choice over larger social platforms. Working with the dedicated account manager ensures a seamless process, even providing white-glove commitment by answering emails after hours.

For e-commerce stores looking to expand their ad reach, Outbrain comes highly recommended for testing and promoting products on new ad stacks. It has been successful for reviewers who have found it to be an effective campaign-specific media tactic. Additionally, Outbrain functions as a brand awareness tool for credit unions, reaching potential members and generating interest in their offerings.

Outbrain's ability to amplify content extends beyond marketing campaigns. It has been used by Berlin Magazine online newspaper to market their articles, though they have faced challenges with customer support. However, the tool is trusted and well-known in general. Nonprofits have also leveraged Outbrain to significantly increase overall traffic and capture email addresses.

Furthermore, Outbrain plays a crucial role in content distribution and audience engagement strategies. Bloggers have utilized Outbrain to increase impressions and exposure for their content. It helps promote global and local content, finding new channels to identify targeted audiences and increase brand awareness. By customizing content based on relevance, Outbrain allows users to effectively capture audiences and drive engagement.

Overall, Outbrain offers diverse use cases across industries, whether it be driving traffic, amplifying content, or increasing brand awareness. Despite some challenges with customer support or code problems reported by users, the platform's benefits are recognized by its extensive user base.

User-Friendly Interface: Several users have found Outbrain's user interface to be easy and simple to use, allowing for quick campaign creation. They appreciate the straightforward navigation within the platform, resulting in a smooth overall experience. With minimal learning curve involved, users can easily navigate through the clean and intuitive dashboard.

Cost Savings: Some users have noted that Outbrain's CPCs are comparatively lower when compared to other Social Native platforms. This has led to potential cost savings for these users, making Outbrain an affordable option for their advertising needs.

Quality Traffic Generation: Despite initial concerns about native ads being spammy, many users have been pleasantly surprised by the decent quality of traffic generated through Outbrain's platform. They appreciate that Outbrain's comprehensive distribution network allows them to reach outlets frequented by their target audience but would otherwise be difficult to target. This additional reach helps increase visibility in the marketplace and provides valuable exposure to their content.

Limited ad customization: Some users have expressed dissatisfaction with the limited customization options for ad formats in Outbrain, stating that it restricts their ability to have more control over how their ads appear.

Billing setup complexity: Several reviewers have mentioned that setting up billing for multiple accounts can be a cumbersome process, resulting in inconvenience and complexity.

Vague targeting options: A number of users have found the targeting options in Outbrain to be vague and unclear, making it difficult to accurately determine their target audience. This lack of clarity has been reported to impact the effectiveness of ad campaigns.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-17 of 17)
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Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Overall we have been profitable by running CBS bidding after weeks of semi-automatic learning and funnel building
  • If targeting ROAS you may see extremely high days as well as extremely low. The algorithm will work to achieve your goal on a daily basis as well as monthly.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • No free trial version/licenses - you have to go all in from the very first moment you choose Outbrain.
  • Main ROI depends on how you calculate your reach and impact - Outbrain gives you data on lead conversion but is that long-term conversion or not? - Outbrain isn't able to tell that in short term.
Vincent Misiewicz | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • In terms of overhead/labor, it is minimal, so looking at a perspective of how much time it takes to set up and manage, it's pretty efficient.
  • For clients focusing on awareness, the large volume of impressions and clicks they can get with relatively little investment is strong.
  • If the budget is fairly limited, I wouldn't expect anywhere near the conversion rate you'd see with a social, search, or even display campaign.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Outbrain delivers, but that's it. It does its job based on your budget and CPC, but not more than that. I can say that this is a bit disappointing since another platform that we used, Taboola, delivers more than its worth.
  • The users that we get from Outbrain did not translate into quality clicks and session. They only clicked the links on Outbrain and never went further than that. I get that we can tweak the blacklist and whitelist feature to have a better audience, but well, who has the time for that.
  • On the bright side, their customer service is actually quite helpful. We were just a bit hesitant and reluctant to continue using Outbrain due to the dashboard's complexities, low-quality clicks that came, and the fact that we could negotiate a better deal with another platform.
Score 4 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • More Impressions - We were able to increase the number of impressions we get from display advertising by adding this new space, which is in addition to the typical skyscraper ads we've done.
  • More Visibility - We've been working on ideas to improve branding, and Outbrain did provide an additional space to advertise in.
March 28, 2017

Outbrain Review

Eamonn Kelly | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Content was seen by more eyes than traditional marketing would have allowed.
  • Key actions were performed by visitors, however, not to the standard or quality we had anticipated.
  • Difficult to determine ROI on content promotion.
Reet Das | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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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