Item: StackAdapt
Rating: 5
Author: Tegan Jenner

Overall Satisfaction with StackAdapt

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use StackAdapt as our DSP, most commonly for running programmatic display, audio (podcasts and commercials), and connected TV (including on specialty channels like Hulu, Disney+, etc.). They are currently the only CTV and programmatic audio vendor that we use, and we use them as a managed service. We have a StackAdapt rep who sets up and maintains the campaigns for us, and we pull our own reporting on performance via an API connection.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Affordable placements & ad delivery.
Managed service means saved time for our agency.
Reasonable service fee to use them for managed media services.

Cons

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.

Return on Investment

Thanks for utilizing managed service, using StackAdapt has allowed us to offer CTV and audio buys while only adding a minimal amount of work to our own workloads.
StackAdapt's placement has been good for awareness campaigns, as they allow for affordable, large-scale advertising to broad audiences.
Their platform is usually not part of our strategy when we focus on action/purchase/conversion because driving action from these placements is pretty rare.

Alternatives Considered

Basis DSP

Even though we find the StackAdapt UI clunky and not intuitive, it's a huge step up from the Basis UI. We previously used Basis and ran all the media ourselves, and there were spend thresholds we had to hit with Basis that often made it a constraining platform to use. StackAdapt is more flexible in its fee/cost structure and in the fact that it offers managed service. So, while their UI isn't the best, our agency's interaction with it is minimal since we aren't setting up and adjusting the campaigns ourselves.

Key Insights

Do you think StackAdapt delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with StackAdapt's feature set?

Yes

Did StackAdapt live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of StackAdapt go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy StackAdapt again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Mintel, Improvado, Looker Studio, Asana, Harvest, Expensify

Likelihood to Recommend

If you want to get into CTV, programmatic audio, or programmatic display but aren't confident enough to run the campaigns independently, StackAdapt could be a good solution. If you're more satisfied with your media-buying abilities, you could probably avoid the managed service option with StackAdapt and run the ads independently through their UI.

Comments

Please log in to join the conversation

Not the best, but it gets the job done.