Constant Contact vs. Google Ads

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Constant Contact
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
Constant Contact is a full-featured email marketing solution with capabilities such as social media integration, drag-and-drop editing, and real-time reporting. It is a bulk email tool designed for SMB customers. Since 2019, Constant Contact also offers marketing automation features, a website and landing page builder, and other tools to support midsize businesses.
$12
per month
Google Ads
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Google Ads (formerly AdWords) is Google's pay-per-click online advertising program. With Google Ads users set their budget and choose where their ads appear in search listings, and on partner websites. Google Ads uses cost-per-click (CPC) bidding.
$500
in Ads credit in the first 60 days
Pricing
Constant ContactGoogle Ads
Editions & Modules
Lite
Starting at $12.00
per month
Standard
Starting at $35.00
per month
Premium
Starting at $80.00
per month
Offer A
$500
in Ads credit in the first 60 days
Offer B
$1500
in Ads credit in the first 60 days
Offer C
$3000
in Ads credit in the first 60 days
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Constant ContactGoogle Ads
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsThe SMS Marketing tool can be added to any Standard or Premium Constant Contact account. SMS is only available in the US for Standard and Premium paid plans. SMS can be added when logged in to an account after purchase. Plans start at $10/month for up to 500 messages.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Constant ContactGoogle Ads
Features
Constant ContactGoogle Ads
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Constant Contact
8.0
Ratings
1% above category average
Google Ads
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG email editor8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic content7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Landing pages7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing7.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization8.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
List management8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences7.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Constant Contact
8.0
Ratings
4% above category average
Google Ads
-
Ratings
Dashboards8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-Send Testing
Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Product A and Product B
Constant Contact
8.1
Ratings
1% above category average
Google Ads
-
Ratings
URL Validation8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Link Tracking7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Image Validation8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Inbox Display8.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Email Accessibility Tools7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Spelling and Grammar Check8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Spam Testing6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Email Previews9.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Campaigns
Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Product A and Product B
Constant Contact
-
Ratings
Google Ads
3.8
Ratings
5% below category average
Ad campaign creation00 Ratings2.40 Ratings
Ad deployment00 Ratings2.40 Ratings
Display advertising00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Ad display and retargeting segmentation00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Sequence targeting00 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Contextual advertising00 Ratings2.20 Ratings
Social advertising00 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Ad Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Constant Contact
-
Ratings
Google Ads
6.3
Ratings
19% above category average
Ad dashboards00 Ratings2.40 Ratings
Ad performance reports00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Ad conversion tracking00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Ad attribution reporting00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Ad forecasting and optimization00 Ratings2.40 Ratings
Ad Auctions
Comparison of Ad Auctions features of Product A and Product B
Constant Contact
-
Ratings
Google Ads
7.0
Ratings
3% above category average
Ad bidding00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Constant ContactGoogle Ads
Small Businesses
VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse
Score 10.0 out of 10
Serpstat
Serpstat
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse
Score 10.0 out of 10
WordStream
WordStream
Score 6.9 out of 10
Enterprises
Emma by Marigold
Emma by Marigold
Score 9.4 out of 10
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Constant ContactGoogle Ads
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(0 ratings)
5.7
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(0 ratings)
9.6
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Constant ContactGoogle Ads
Likelihood to Recommend
Constant Contact is great when trying to target specific market segments. We typically like to segment our master list by region, but also have product segments, as well. They do provide pre-made segments to start you off too. We don't usually use their email builder, we find others to be more flexible, intuitive, and have more variety. We do prefer emailing from Constant Contact, however.
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Clients who are selling products such as dresses, clothes, jewelry, beauty products, etc., generally work well. Also, in some cases, it doesn't fetch a good ROAS for very small business owners. If a client is already doing well in SEO, the probability for it to perform well over Google Ads is always enhanced, and if it doesn't have a good organic reach, Google Ads also suffers.
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Pros
  • Constant Contact allows the users to send unlimited emails and just pay per list size.
  • The software does welcome emails pretty well and allows you to set up all sorts of automation.
  • The branded templates and starter templates are very useful and look good.
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  • Keyword Research - Google Ads has a handy built in tool that helps determine important keywords to target both for Ads & SEO
  • Intuitive Analytics Dashboad - Google Ads makes it fairly simple to see and analyze important metrics on how your ads are running week after week
  • Intuitive Setup - Google Ads makes it easy to figure out how to run ads with little to no training (although training is highly recommended to run effective ads), as their interface is clean and easy to figure out (unlike competing products).
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Cons
  • Sometimes some software provides outdated and useless features and functions, but this email marketing tool gives advanced kinds of functionalities with modern features.
  • I like the ease of use of this platform also appreciate its professional customer support team.
  • I am no longer desperate after getting this tool at my work.
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  • Google's heavy dependence on AI makes many of the campaign behavior inscrutable and, often, it performs poorly as a result.
  • Their responsive ads, for example, which are heavily recommended by them, often perform significantly worse than normal text ads.
  • Their support, while relatively quick, becomes useless if you need any deep insight/help.
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Likelihood to Renew
There is no doubt that we are going to renew Constant Contact. We have not just invested a lot of time in learning and creating a great looking product but we have developed a strong database of information that allows us to track how we are doing for each newsletter. This supports our goals of creating products that residents desire and are excited to receive.
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As of today Google AdWords leads approximately 90% of paid searches globally. There is practically is no other network that can offer such a relevant and engaging audience at the price. The PPC model is also unique in that no media dollars are wasted, since PPC models ensure brand interaction versus traditional media which has heavy ad avoidance and clutter but still charges a hefty amount for ads.
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Usability
There is always room for improvement. I don't know how they test their systems, but they should invite not-so computer savvy people to test it. If I, as an expert have problems, they need to think like the technophobe. Since I've used Constant Contact in the past as part of my former employment, I have not viewed any of the tutorials and just jumped in to work on my client's newsletter. With that said, I found some areas easy and some a bit cumbersome
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This is more of a subjective rating, because I think it can be increased with how much our ad spend is. The more of an ad spend, the more visibility we can get, and therefore all features can climb. With an overall larger presence the usability is that where we can get messages out quick, and that's the main thing we try to do with our campaigns.
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Reliability and Availability
No major problems in sending out the email campaigns and accessing the analytics
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No answers on this topic
Performance
The system seemed quite slow sometimes. Specifically, there was sometimes a delay in sends if it was during a high traffic period. There were time-outs when uploading new code for an email, and a lag in reporting analytics which was sometimes as long as 72 hours
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
I think the overall support for Constant Contact has always been incredible; I have nothing negative to say. Our customer support representative was attentive, easy to understand, and very knowledgeable. I never felt like I wasn't a priority of his and my issues, while very small, were fixed in a very short time frame.
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We have not yet had an account rep who hasn't tried to bully me or other employees to raise our budgets. At the same time, several years ago, one attempted to help refine our ads and ended up changing the ads to be something we were not affiliated with
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Online Training
No answers on this topic
Daily use with advanced account structures. Familiarity with reporting/api and complex setups.
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Implementation Rating
Implementation is very easy for someone who wants to send out the “batch and blast” type newsletters. If you want to use their templates with no customizations, the product works fine. However, the more customizations you get into involving link color, etc, that’s where things can get tricky for someone who may not be familiar with coding
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
We selected Constant Contact due to pricing constraints. However, if the pricing were to increase, we may look at alternative products that offer more features. We are looking for a product that will allow us to stand out from other organizations like ours that are appealing to the same customers—a product that will set our company apart from the others.
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Google Ads remains at the top advertising channel within our business for both lead volume and revenue generation, whilst maintaining a reasonable cost per lead (CPL). Both Meta Ads and Microsoft Ads have a much lower CPL, those channels don't contribute as much revenue and lead generation.
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Scalability
Very reliable in sending email campaigns and controlling the recipients so that no contact is sent the same email more than once, even if they are on a resent list
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • I can't report hard numbers, however, being able to execute sales and marketing campaigns led to a noticeable increase in brand awareness in our industry.
  • We were able to offer white-labeled email communication services to clients, which is not something that other administrators typically offer. This helped us win and retain business.
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  • Once we got the hang of it and had everything setup, it was a great monthly expense that we could count on ROI from. Either by obtaining new customers or literally staying above our competition in search rankings.
  • We also started consulting on ads for customers and helping them set things up, which created a new revenue stream for us.
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ScreenShots

Constant Contact Screenshots

Screenshot of the AI Content Generator that can be used to create content for emails, social posts, or SMS.Screenshot of Curate Advanced Automation workflows to make sure your marketing is always on - even when you're not.Screenshot of Edit one of our hundreds of pre-built email templates or start from scratch with our simple to use drag-and-drop email editor.Screenshot of Plan and post your social media messaging across platforms with our Social Posting tool.Screenshot of Reach your customers wherever they are with SMS Marketing.Screenshot of Integrate with powerful  tools to grow more using Constant Contact.