Google Ads vs. Smaato

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.

Incentivized

Strong Google Exchange Bidding partner when comparing to other companies in EB.

Incentivized

• 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).

Incentivized

• Fill - the ad requests we send to Smaato have seen a great requests-to-impression ration.
• Revenue - We've seen a lift in overall revenue thanks to the high CPM bids we get from Smaato.
• Payments are always on time and they have a responsive financial team that is helpful in answering any questions.
• Customer service - They are very fast to respond to any issues. The set up was streamlined thanks to their professional customer service.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Inventory can be a bit pricey in competitive markets like the US.
• Reporting dashboard is limited, needs work.
• They don't offer a lof of transparency about margins over media cost.

Incentivized

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.

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.

Incentivized

Smaato has a UI where you can control your line items on the traffic you want to receive. That is a key unique selling point that other SSPs don't offer. Most of the items that you will need like reporting can be done on a self serve manner and that is a big plus, specifically for changes that need to happen really fast and you don't need to deal with account managers that may take some time to answer emails.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

Smaato's account management team is very professional. They are quite fast in terms of customer support, which is very helpful. One item that stands out is that they are willing to understand what you need for each campaign and what is the best way to move forward. They don't just jump quickly into trying to upsell more of Smaato's products (audiences, data) like other SSPs do.

Incentivized

Daily use with advanced account structures. Familiarity with reporting/api and complex setups.

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.

Incentivized

Smaato has better anti-fraud controls than most exchanges. Even if the inventory ends up being a bit pricey, I am more comfortable running campaigns on Smaato because I know there won't be any issues with the clients claiming refunds for invalid traffic. I believe that as the industry matures, other SSPs will follow suit and prices will increase along with the board.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• We have seen prices a bit high, thus reducing profitability
• However, the vast reach has allowed us to get more budgets and fulfill them so the net effect is positive.
• We have been able to run campaigns that targeted the same user on mobile and desktop by running with Smaato and that has allowed us to get more budgets from specific clients.

Incentivized