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Google Campaign Manager 360 vs. LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Google Campaign Manager 360

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AReplacing DoubleClick, Google Campaign Manager 360 is a web-based ad management system for advertisers and agencies, used to manage digital campaigns across websites and mobile. This includes features for ad serving, targeting, verification, and reporting.N/A

    LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

    Score9.1 out of 10
    N/ALinkedIn Marketing Solutions is a recently (2015) expanded marketing platform for reaching audiences through the popular Linkedin work-oriented social network that includes modules like the Lead Accelerator (supporting segmentation features to improve conversion), Sponsored Updates, LinkedIn Onsite Display, LinkedIn Network Display, and Sponsored InMail. While still at its core a social marketing engine, Linkedin Marketing Solutions now presents a more comprehensive B2B advertising platform. The…N/A
    Pricing
    Google Campaign Manager 360LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Google Campaign Manager 360LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Google Campaign Manager 360LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    Considered Both Products
    Google
    No answer on this topic
    LinkedIn
    Chose LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    LinkedIn made it easier because it allows peer to peer connection, which means that you will always have someone new to contact, someone new to reach and someone new to offer your product or service. In our case, which is recruitment, it is far different from Google that …
    Incentivized
    Chose LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    LinkedIn marketing solutions is great for its narrow targeting options. Being able to target professionals at scale is ideal for certain clients' business needs. The reach of Facebook and Twitter is not matched by LinkedIn and the Google and Bing scale is also larger than …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    92%
    Would buy again
    12 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    11 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    9 Answers
    Features
    Google Campaign Manager 360LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    Ad Network Integration
    Comparison of Ad Network Integration features of Google Campaign Manager 360 and LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    Feature
    Google Campaign Manager 360
    9.0
    29 Ratings
    20% above category average
    LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    -
    Ratings
    Data Transfer9.024 Ratings00 Ratings
    DSP integration9.026 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad Campaigns
    Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Google Campaign Manager 360 and LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    Feature
    Google Campaign Manager 360
    8.8
    33 Ratings
    13% above category average
    LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    -
    Ratings
    Ad campaign creation8.033 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad deployment10.033 Ratings00 Ratings
    Display advertising10.030 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad display and retargeting segmentation9.031 Ratings00 Ratings
    Sequence targeting7.023 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Google Campaign Manager 360 and LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    Feature
    Google Campaign Manager 360
    9.2
    33 Ratings
    17% above category average
    LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    -
    Ratings
    Ad dashboards10.031 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad performance reports9.033 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad conversion tracking9.032 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad attribution reporting9.031 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cross-channel ad management9.026 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad forecasting and optimization9.025 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Google Campaign Manager 360LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    Small Businesses
    AdRoll
    Score3.7 out of 10
    X Ads
    Score5.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Magnite
    Score9 out of 10
    X Ads
    Score5.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Adobe Advertising Cloud
    Score8.6 out of 10
    X Ads
    Score5.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Google Campaign Manager 360LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (45 ratings)
    9.9
    (48 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (13 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (9 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    8.6
    (6 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    6.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Google Campaign Manager 360LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Google
    I feel pretty neutral about Google Marketing Platform. For the longest time, my company wasn't using it because each of the features (Data Studio, Analytics, etc.) could be accessed separately. In fact, most of the time, I don't even go into Google Marketing Platform because it's easier to directly navigate to the individual platforms. There are very few features about GMP that can only be accessed from the GMP UI. The Integrations Center is probably the main feature I utilize from the GMP UI, which allows me to see a summary of the integrations I have in place across all my client properties and accounts.
    Incentivized
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    LinkedIn
    Although it offered great features, we didn't really see a lot of traffic or results from the ads we placed. Working in hospitality, we had to strategically time and place our ads around holiday seasons and it can be difficult to predict a marketing campaign. Depending on your market, LinkedIn may not be the best avenue to advertise with.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Google
    • Bringing together data from multiple channels and engines and allows you to visualize the data in an easy to use platform. This saves time from using multiple logins for the different platforms.
    • Auto bidding tools save time from manual bidding, as it allows you to set the specific terms around what levels you want to cap your CPCs at. You then let DoubleClick adjust your bids to gain the most conversions from the cheapest CPCs. This frees up time to do other in-depth analysis and strategy.
    • DoubleClick also has the ability to track conversions and clicks on any page using their floodlight tags. This is good for tracking certain actions on yours or a client's site and is especially good if they do not use any other tools, such as Google Analytics or Adobe, to track conversions and user actions on site. You can also use these in conjunction with the auto bidding tools.
    Incentivized
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    LinkedIn
    • Targeting - they have done a great job of allowing you speak to ideal audiences
    • Support - dedicated customer service and account advising is always accessible and very responsive
    • Curation of professional audiences - one of the biggest advantages to the platform is that its users are for the most part are professional
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Google
    • The process for on-boarding new users can be difficult if they do not already have a Gmail or Gmail-linked account.
    • Difficult to troubleshoot technical issues (with the platform, with tags, etc.) because of the lack of customer support. Unclear if the agency has a dedicated team or individual to assist, and often have to deal with out-sourced support teams.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    LinkedIn
    • The Campaign Manager is not good. It seems like the Campaign Manager (where you create and manage your self-serve ad campaigns) is buggy and doesn't have a good flow. Contrast with FB Ad Manager of the Google Adwords/Ads interface, which has a much more simple process to create and edits campaigns, ad groups, ads, keywords, audiences, budgets, etc. LinkedIn Campaign Manager seems to actively work against you trying to make changes to your campaigns.
    • LinkedIn Campaign Manager offers three options: sponsored content, InMail, and text ads. LinkedIn used to offer other ad services that you couldn't access unless you had a "managed ad account" run by LinkedIn Staff with a dedicated monthly ad spend. It seems most of those "hidden" features have disappeared, though you still have to contract with LinkedIn to offer dynamic ads. It would be better if LinkedIn empowered marketers to create the ads they want. (Perhaps with a dedicated acct. manager like how Google Ads works.)
    • This is silly, but it isn't easy to navigate to Campaign Manager. I have a bookmark for Campaign Manager because if you want to click there through LinkedIn, it takes 2 or 3 different screens to get to Campaign Manager. In my opinion, when you click the "Work" dropdown from the LinkedIn header (by your profile picture) you should have a link to Campaign Manager.
    • LinkedIn, in recent months, has made substantial changes to the Ads platform and Campaign Manager. Though these changes work to address some of the above issues, LinkedIn still has quite a ways to go before their platform is on par with their competition.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Google
    Due to its adapting behavior with industry ad formats and seamless integration with publishers and DSP's, I don't see myself moving away from DCM. As we see the display advertising is getting more programatic and automated due to the rise of DSP and concept of RTB, Double Click has evolved with new advanced best practices
    Read full review
    LinkedIn
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Google
    The Doubleclick interface is easy and simple to get a hang of. The options are slightly limited compared to other DSPs. But, for a simple campaign, this is a great DSP to move forward with. They have a ton of data and can plug into a lot of different partners
    Incentivized
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    LinkedIn
    in terms of promoted content reporting and usability, the platform is not as flexible or easy to use compared to more established social platforms like Facebook. However, it does offer plug-ins to Google Data Studio which makes pulling and manipulating data easier. My main usability gripe comes when looking at organic performance of a company page. There isn't an easy way to export organic performance data.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Google
    They do not have strong support team. It is tough to get answer when I need it. They always refer you to an online guide and not an actual person. If so, the person is based out of an offshore team in India and does not know the specific client goals .
    Incentivized
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    LinkedIn
    So, everything what I just said previously adds up to the value of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. Definitely recommending it to a friend. It has its things to improve but its nothing major or nothing to worry about. So I give a 9 because it still has that, some user interface glitches that can be improved but do not damage the experience that you have with it.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Google
    I would highly recommend asking clients to provide 3PAS tags or use an internal 3PAS
    Incentivized
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    LinkedIn
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Google
    Marin takes a lot more time for everything, mainly for the campaigns setup. This also leads to many mistakes, which impact the performance. I've used Marin on a couple of previous clients and we've had many problems with it, mainly with correct conversion tracking and account optimizations. Besides, Marin is behind all the new features available on AdWords, which makes the tracking also not very flexible.
    Incentivized
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    LinkedIn
    If you want more precision in B2B targeting, then LinkedIn is without question the better alternative. However, as I established before, I've rarely seen LinkedIn campaigns be successful for anything other than brand awareness/thought leadership. And that's almost 100% what Twitter is for. Twitter campaigns almost always have a cheaper CPC AND CPM than LinkedIn and accomplish the same thing, so I would say go with Twitter. At times LinkedIn campaigns are just so you can tell someone at a higher level that you did precise targeting to the exact audience they wanted and check that box, because it's easier for them to understand how you'd do well on LinkedIn, and more difficult to tell that story on Twitter. But I honestly prefer Twitter and its platform for B2B awareness campaigns. Heretic, I know, but it's how I feel after several years of experience with both. Facebook is bottom of the barrel for B2B in my mind, so I'm not really going to discuss it. I would take LinkedIn over Facebook for many reasons, but Facebook is an option too, but more for SMB and just covering all bases, not as a primary choice for B2B marketing.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Google
    • DS3 has improved ROI considerably due to its ability to make the work of a team of digital marketers to go further and improving internal efficiency.
    • There is a notable improvement in account performance for those integrated with DoubleClick as opposed to not, with better tracking, new bid strategy options, and a more responsive interface.
    • The additional fee on top of media spend is a considerable expense for a large advertiser, but the necessity of a product/solution such as this means that there is always likely to be some comparative cost.
    Incentivized
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    LinkedIn
    • We have seen a marked increase in inbound agent calls since we began LinkedIn marketing.
    • LinkedIn marketing is an excellent way to put your content in front of people that are actually going to read it, this has led to a major increase in our content being consumed and acted on.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots