Kevel vs. LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Kevel
Score 8.2 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Kevel's (formerly Adzerk) APIs is designed to make it easy for engineers and PMs to build their own server-side, fully-customized ad server. E-retailers and user communities can use Kevel to build ad servers to promote anything from native ads to internal content to sponsored listings (where vendors and sellers pay for their organic listing to be promoted in search and browsing results). According to the vendor, engineers reliably see a significant reduction in dev time using Kevel’s APIs…N/A
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
LinkedIn 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
KevelLinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
KevelLinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPricing is customized based on feature needs, support needs, and monthly request volume.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
KevelLinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Features
KevelLinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Ad Network Integration
Comparison of Ad Network Integration features of Product A and Product B
Kevel
10.0
Ratings
30% above category average
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
-
Ratings
DSP integration10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Campaigns
Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Product A and Product B
Kevel
10.0
Ratings
25% above category average
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
-
Ratings
Ad campaign creation10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad deployment10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Display advertising10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad display and retargeting segmentation10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Kevel
9.2
Ratings
17% above category average
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
-
Ratings
Ad dashboards9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad performance reports9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad conversion tracking10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad attribution reporting9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Cross-channel ad management9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
KevelLinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Small Businesses
Google Ad Manager
Google Ad Manager
Score 8.5 out of 10
WordStream
WordStream
Score 6.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Score 9.0 out of 10
WordStream
WordStream
Score 6.9 out of 10
Enterprises
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Score 9.0 out of 10
Sprinklr Marketing
Sprinklr Marketing
Score 8.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
KevelLinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.8
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
KevelLinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Likelihood to Recommend
For ad serving, implementing client-side header bidding with prebid was actually easier with Kevel than it is with Google Ad Manager in most cases, particularly for display advertising. I found though that with more complex integrations (like video), there were more solutions and code snippets available with other larger ad servers (Google).
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LinkedIn has a much higher CPC than most commonly used platforms resulting in a much higher CPL/CPA. For businesses that don't have big CPC budgets, it would be difficult to be able to run tests without breaking the bank. Unless they get it right out of the gate, they may not find success with their efforts. On the opposite side of that, if a business can afford higher acquisition costs, this platform is likely worth exploring. They offer precise targeting with audiences full of professionals so often the leads are really high quality if you get it right.
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Pros
  • More personable team that can address customizations needed to the product.
  • Easy to use interface.
  • Frequent product updates with notifications via email.
  • Well documented API.
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  • Targets the exact right audience for your B2B messaging: you don't have to guess based on likes or any other periphery data to determine whether you're reaching the right audience - you can hit by job title, years of experience, job function, seniority, and other great ways to ensure precision delivery to the correct audience.
  • Offers a helpful variety of ad units that are great for different types of campaigns to make sure you're reaching your audience in the right format for the ask.
  • Self-service platform now for all ad units, enabling you to take control of your LInkedIn marketing with a hands-on approach.
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Cons
  • User interface could be faster to load.
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  • LinkedIn has a relatively limited audience size when compared to other social media platforms.
  • There is a large group of LinkedIn users that create an account and never return, but messages still hit their inboxes.
  • LinkedIn targeting by job title can be limiting, as they set a hard limit on targeted titles per campaign.
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Usability
No answers on this topic
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.
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Support Rating
No answers on this topic
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.
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Alternatives Considered
Kevel was an easier initial implementation for header bidding with prebid. The team worked alongside us to make sure everything was operating as intended. We ultimately switched to Ads Manager to access AdX demand and other features that were not possible with Kevel (for instance, EBDA). There are benefits to both but I appreciated the attention we got from Kevel support when we were first working through the implementation. We are still using Kevel for many things, just not as our primary display advertising ad server.
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LinkedIn offered a different way to market and that was through direct messaging on the platform. Those direct messages result in a push notification and an email (depending on the user's settings), so we knew that was a more creative and attention-getting spend. It made more sense for our professional clientele as well.
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Return on Investment
  • Kevel enabled us to get up and running with client side header bidding when our team was still small and the technology was still new. This improved our ability to monetize our inventory.
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  • As an agency, LinkedIn gives us one more way to demonstrate worth: we're managing the LinkedIn page of many of our clients, and this is demonstratively an improvement from before.
  • Also as an agency, LinkedIn ads allow us to offer an additional way to get leads in the door. When we've struck out on other ad programs, we usually try LinkedIn Ads before moving on to a higher investment channel (such as list rental).
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ScreenShots

Kevel Screenshots

Screenshot of Adzerk homepageScreenshot of Decision API JSON exampleScreenshot of Management API example